Circassian is a pair of closely related Northwest Caucasian languages — Adyghe (West Circassian) and Kabardian (East Circassian) — that share a common polysynthetic grammatical structure with an ergative verb-final clause structure and rich verb morphology. Both varieties have remarkably simple nouns, marking only for number, case, and definiteness, while the verb is the most complex part of the language: it is highly agglutinative and polysynthetic, inflecting with prefixes and suffixes for several persons (polypersonality), number, tense, mood, causative, and a large array of preverbs. Notions such as "can", "must", and "if", expressed as separate words in most European languages, are typically expressed with verbal affixes in Circassian.
This article describes the grammar of both varieties together, noting differences between Adyghe and Kabardian where they occur.
Ergative–absolutive alignment
Unlike the majority of the world's languages, which follow nominative–accusative alignment, Circassian follows ergative–absolutive alignment. In a nominative–accusative language such as English, the single argument of an intransitive verb ("she" in "she walks") behaves grammatically like the agent of a transitive verb ("she" in "she finds it"). In an ergative–absolutive language, the subject of an intransitive verb instead behaves like the object of a transitive verb, and differently from the agent of a transitive verb.
The distinction between syntactic cases is crucial for understanding who is doing the action and to whom. Nouns take the following case roles depending on the verb's transitivity: Absolutive case: Marked with the suffix -р /-r/. It indicates the subject of an intransitive verb or the direct object of a transitive verb — the participant that is changed (created, altered, moved, or ended) by the verb. Ergative case: Marked with the suffix -м /-m/. It indicates the subject (agent) of a transitive verb — the participant that causes the change. Oblique case: Also marked with the suffix -м /-m/. It marks the target of the action in bivalent intransitive verbs, the indirect object (dative) in ditransitive verbs, and a locative argument in transitive verbs with prepositional prefixes. Its state is not changed by the verb.
The following basic example demonstrates this ergative–absolutive case marking system (the Adyghe and Kabardian forms are identical here):
Sentence: Word: Gloss: The table-ABS breaks The man-ERG the table-ABS breaks Function: S VERBintrans A O VERBtrans Translation: "The table breaks." "The man breaks the table."
Here "table" carries the absolutive mark -р /-r/ while "man" carries the ergative mark -м /-m/. The verb "break" appears in an intransitive form () and a transitive form (). The example uses SOV (subject–object–verb) order, but Circassian allows any word order.
It is important to distinguish intransitive from transitive verbs, because the case of the subject and object nouns, as well as the verb's person-marking prefixes, depend on it. A mistake here can drastically change the meaning of a sentence by switching the roles of subject and object. The following pair illustrates this: the verb "to see" (Adyghe , Kabardian ) is transitive while "to look at" (Adyghe , Kabardian ) is intransitive, so although the word for "boy" carries the same -м suffix in both, the sentences differ in meaning:
Ady "The boy is seeing the girl." (transitive) Kbd Ady "The girl is looking at the boy." (intransitive) Kbd
Nouns
Circassian nouns inflect for number, case, and definiteness. The plural suffix is -хэ (Adyghe "house" → "houses"), though plural meaning is often carried by the verb instead. Collective nouns act as a plurale tantum — they take no plural suffix but trigger plural agreement elsewhere — for example Adyghe / Kabardian "village" and Adyghe / Kabardian "family". A definite noun carries a case marker, while an indefinite one is usually unmarked (Adyghe "a boy" vs. "the boy"; Kabardian vs. ).
As an ergative–absolutive language, Circassian declines nouns in four cases. The two varieties pattern alike; the table gives Adyghe forms first, then Kabardian:
Case Suffix Ady example Kbd example Absolutive -р "the boy" "the boy" Ergative–Oblique -м "the boy's / to the boy" "the boy's / to the boy" Instrumental–directional -(м)кӀэ "with the pencil" "with the pencil" Adverbial Ady -эу, Kbd -у(э) "as a boy" "as a boy"
The ergative–oblique case marks the transitive subject, the possessor, the indirect object, and location. The instrumental–directional marks means or direction, and the adverbial turns the noun into a modifier.
The third-person pronouns double as demonstratives and use suppletive forms rather than the regular suffixes: / (absolutive) and Adyghe / , Kabardian / (ergative–oblique).
When a noun is followed by an adjective, the case suffix attaches to the adjective rather than the noun (Adyghe , Kabardian "the pretty girl"). Possession is marked on the possessed noun differently in the two varieties — in Adyghe by a prefix ( "his/her boy"), in Kabardian by a separate possessive word () — and adjectives can become abstract nouns with -агъэ ( "pretty" → "beauty"). New nouns are also formed by compounding and by productive suffixes such as "place" ( "school") and / "agent" (Adyghe , Kabardian "student"). Circassian is a pro-drop language, so subject and object pronouns are often omitted because the verb marks person and number.
Intransitive and transitive subjects In intransitive verbs the subject is in the absolutive case, indicating that it is changing (created, altered, moved, or ended):
Ady "The boy is going." Kbd
The verb "to hit" (Adyghe , Kabardian /jawan/) describes the motion of hitting rather than the impact, so the wall is treated as an oblique target rather than a changed object:
Ady "The man is hitting the wall." ( "the man is hitting at the wall.") Kbd
In transitive verbs the subject is in the ergative case, indicating that it causes change to the object, which is in the absolutive:
Ady "The boy destroyed the wall." Kbd
When a transitive verb carries a prepositional prefix, the object it changes stands in the absolutive while the locative target of the preposition takes the oblique. Here the rock moves (absolutive) and the wall is the oblique target:
Ady "The man is throwing the rock at the wall." Kbd
Possession The two varieties mark possession quite differently. Adyghe distinguishes two categories: inalienable (organic) possession — for things that cannot be separated from the possessor (body parts, kin, intrinsic positions) — and alienable (proprietary) possession — for transferable property, objects, and concepts. Each is marked by a prefix attached directly to the noun.Yakovlev, N., and Ashkhamaf, D. (1941). [Grammar of the Adyghe Literary Language]. Moscow/Leningrad: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, p. 383. Kabardian does not make this distinction. It marks all possession with a single set of possessive words that stand as separate words before the noun: "my", "your", "his/her", "our", "your (pl.)", "their".
Inalienable possession (Adyghe) This category exists only in Adyghe. It is marked by a prefix attached directly to the noun stem and strictly includes: Body parts: e.g. head, heart, leg, soul. Kinship terms: e.g. mother, brother, daughter. Name: "his/her name". Part–whole and spatial relations: positional words treated as "body parts" of an object, e.g. "its underside", "its inside", "its back", "its front (nose)", "its half".
Person Prefix Example 1st sg с-, сы- "my head", "my heart" 2nd sg п-, у- "your leg", "your eye", "your hand" 3rd sg ы- "his brother", "his daughter", "his son" 1st pl т-, ты- "our eyes", "our heads", "our toes/nails" 2nd pl шъу- "your legs", "your hair" 3rd pl а- "their hearts", "their legs"
Kabardian, lacking this category, expresses the same meanings with its ordinary possessive words written separately, e.g. "my head", "its underside".
Alienable possession Alienable possession covers separable items such as property, animals, concepts, and material objects. In Adyghe it is marked by a prefix — differing from the inalienable prefixes by an added vowel /-i-/ — attached to the noun; Kabardian places its possessive word as a separate word before the noun:
Person Adyghe (prefixed) Kabardian (separate word) English 1st sg "my book" 2nd sg "your book" 3rd sg "his/her book" 1st pl "our home" 2nd pl "your (pl.) home" 3rd pl "their home"
The following examples show possession in context — Adyghe with a joined prefix, Kabardian with a separate word:
Ady "Come to my house." Kbd Ady "We are going to the city with our car." Kbd
Pronouns
Circassian pronouns fall into the following groups: personal, demonstrative, possessive, interrogative, determinative/reflexive, and indefinite.
Personal pronouns Strictly speaking, dedicated personal pronouns exist only for the first and second persons; the third person is expressed with demonstrative pronouns (see below).
1st person: Circassian "I"; Adyghe / Kabardian "we". 2nd person: Adyghe / Kabardian "you" (sg.); Adyghe / Kabardian "you" (pl.).
Unlike nouns, the 1st- and 2nd-person pronouns do not distinguish the absolutive from the ergative: the two cases merge into a common form.
Case Language First person Second person Singular (I) Plural (we) Singular (you) Plural (you) Absolutive / Ergative Ady Kbd Instrumental Ady Kbd Adverbial Ady Kbd
Examples of usage:
Ady "I read / I am studying." (subject) Kbd Ady "You are reading the book." (transitive subject) Kbd Ady "We are going to school." (intransitive subject) Kbd Ady "You (plural) are working." (plural subject) Kbd Ady "This job is hard for me." (instrumental — beneficiary) Kbd Ady "This food is expensive for us." (instrumental — beneficiary) Kbd Ady "I read the book." (transitive subject) Kbd
Demonstrative pronouns Demonstrative pronouns point to objects and also function as third-person pronouns. They are distinguished by distance and visibility: Proximal (this): Circassian — close to the speaker. Distal, visible (that): Circassian — visible at a known distance. Neutral / invisible (that): Circassian — far away or invisible (Adyghe also uses it for abstract referents).
Adyghe additionally has an emphatic demonstrative for an invisible referent already established in the conversation, and an interrogative form "which".
Unlike personal pronouns, demonstratives do distinguish cases. The absolutive and adverbial forms are shared by both languages (shown as Circassian); the two differ in the ergative–oblique and instrumental, where Adyghe uses the stem and Kabardian the stem.
+ Demonstrative pronouns Number Case Language Demonstrative (this/these) (that/those, visible) (that/those, neutral) Singular Absolutive Circassian Ergative / Oblique Ady Kbd Instrumental Ady Kbd Adverbial Circassian Plural Absolutive Ady — Kbd Ergative / Oblique Ady — Kbd Instrumental Ady — Kbd Adverbial Ady — Kbd
Adyghe forms the demonstrative plural regularly with the -хэ- suffix; the source attests the absolutive ( "these", "those/they") and the ergative–oblique (, ).
Examples:
Ady "This house (close) is more beautiful than that house (far) which is being built." Kbd Ady "Show me that book you bought." Kbd Ady "This person/animal eats bread." (ergative) Kbd Ady "The boy is coming from this way." (instrumental) Kbd
As determiners, the demonstrative stems precede the noun:
Ady Kbd English "this table" "that girl (visible)" "that boy (invisible) says" — "that girl (mentioned before) — has no Kabardian counterpart" — "which table? — the interrogative stem has no Kabardian counterpart"
Derived demonstrative adverbs The demonstrative stems combine with various suffixes to form adverbs and pronouns of location, area, similarity, manner, time, and pointing. The Adyghe system is the fullest, distinguishing all five stems: