Ubykh language explained

Ubykh
Nativename:	tuex̂ıbze
Pronunciation:	pronounced as //tʷɜxɨbzɜ//
States:	Circassia
Region:	Sochi
Ethnicity:	Ubykh
Extinct:	7 October 1992, with the death of Tevfik Esenç
Familycolor:	Caucasian
Fam1:	Northwest Caucasian
Script:	Unwritten, but provisional orthographies have been developed
Iso3:	uby
Glotto:	ubyk1235
Glottorefname:	Ubykh
Map:	Caucasic languages.svg
Map2:	Lang Status 01-EX.svg
Mapcaption2:	^[1]
Notice:	IPA

Ubykh is an extinct Northwest Caucasian language once spoken by the Ubykh people, a subgroup of Circassians who originally inhabited the eastern coast of the Black Sea before being deported en masse to the Ottoman Empire in the Circassian genocide.^[2]

The Ubykh language is ergative and polysynthetic, with a high degree of agglutination, with polypersonal verbal agreement and a very large number of distinct consonants but only two phonemically distinct vowels. With around eighty consonants, it has one of the largest inventories of consonants in the world,^[3] and the largest number for any language without clicks.

The name Ubykh is derived from Adyghe; Adygei: Убых (pronounced as //wɨbɨx//), from Adyghe; Adygei: Убыхыбзэ, its name in the Adyghe language. It is known in linguistic literature by many names: variants of Ubykh, such as Ubikh, French: Oubykh (French); and its Germanised variant German: Päkhy (from Ubykh pronounced as //tʷɜχɨ//).

Major features

Ubykh is distinguished by the following features, some of which are shared with other Northwest Caucasian languages:

• It is ergative, making no syntactic distinction between the subject of an intransitive sentence and the direct object of a transitive sentence. Split ergativity plays only a small part, if at all.
• It is highly agglutinating and polysynthetic, using mainly monosyllabic or bisyllabic roots, but with single morphological words sometimes reaching nine or more syllables in length: pronounced as //ɜχʲɜzbɜtɕʼɜʁɜwdɨtʷɐjlɜfɜqʼɜjtʼmɜdɜχ// ('if only you had not been able to make him take [it] all out from under me again for them'). Affixes rarely fuse in any way.
• It has a simple nominal system, contrasting just three noun cases, and not always marking grammatical number in the direct case.
• Its system of verbal agreement is quite complex. English verbs must agree only with the subject; Ubykh verbs must agree with the subject, the direct object and the indirect object, and benefactive objects must also be marked in the verb.
• It is phonologically complex as well, with 84 distinct consonants (four of which, however, appear only in loan words). It has three phonemic vowels [ɐ ɜ ɨ] which correspond to Dumézil's [aa a ə] respectively and this is evident in the minimal triplet of /ɐsʃɨn/ ('I milk X'), /ɐsʃɜn/ ('I reap X'), and /ɐsʃɐn/ ('I milk them; I reap them').

Phonology

See main article: Ubykh phonology. Ubykh has 84 phonemic consonants, a record high amongst languages without click consonants, but only 3 phonemic vowels. Four of these consonants are found only in loanwords and onomatopoeiae. There are nine basic places of articulation for the consonants and extensive use of secondary articulation, such that Ubykh has 20 different uvular phonemes. Ubykh distinguishes three types of postalveolar consonants: apical, laminal, and laminal closed. Regarding the vowels, since there are only three phonemic vowels, there is a great deal of allophony.

Grammar

See main article: Ubykh grammar.

Morphosyntax

Ubykh is agglutinative and polysynthetic: pronounced as //ʃɨkʲʼɐjɨfɜnɜmɨt// ('we will not be able to go back'), pronounced as //ɐwqʼɜqʼɜjtʼbɜ// ('if you had said it'). It is often extremely concise in its word forms.

The boundaries between nouns and verbs is somewhat blurred. Any noun can be used as the root of a stative verb (pronounced as //mɨzɨ// 'child', pronounced as //sɨmɨzɨjtʼ// 'I was a child'), and many verb roots can become nouns simply by the use of noun affixes (pronounced as //qʼɜ// 'to say', pronounced as //sɨqʼɜ// 'what I say').^{[4] [5]}

Nouns

The noun system in Ubykh is quite simple. It has three main noun cases (the oblique-ergative case may be two homophonous cases with differing function, thus presenting four cases in total):

• direct or absolutive case, marked with the bare root; this indicates the subject of an intransitive sentence and the direct object of a transitive sentence (e.g. pronounced as //tɨt// 'a man')
• oblique-ergative case, marked in -pronounced as //n//; this indicates either the subject of a transitive sentence, targets of preverbs, or indirect objects which do not take any other suffixes (pronounced as //mɨzɨn// '(to) a child')
• locative case, marked in -pronounced as //ʁɜ//, which is the equivalent of English in, on or at.

There are X other cases that exist in Ubykh too:

• instrumental case (-pronounced as //ɜwn(ɨ)//) was also treated as a case in Dumézil (1975).
• instrumental-comitative case (-pronounced as //ɐlɜ//).
• Another pair of postpositions, -pronounced as //lɐq// ('to[wards]') and -pronounced as //ʁɐfɜ// ('for'), have been noted as synthetic datives (e.g. pronounced as //ɜχʲɨlɐq ɜstʷɜdɜw// 'I will send it to the prince'), but their status as cases is also best discounted.

Nouns do not distinguish grammatical gender. The definite article is pronounced as //ɐ// (e.g. pronounced as //ɐtɨt// 'the man'). There is no indefinite article directly equivalent to the English a or an, but pronounced as //zɜ//-(root)-pronounced as //ɡʷɜrɜ// (literally 'one'-(root)-'certain') translates French un : e.g. pronounced as //zɜnɜjnʃʷɡʷɜrɜ// ('a certain young man').

Number is only marked on the noun in the ergative case, with -pronounced as //nɜ//. The number marking of the absolutive argument is either by suppletive verb roots (e.g. pronounced as //ɐkʷɨn blɜs// 'he is in the car' vs. pronounced as //ɐkʷɨn blɜʒʷɜ// 'they are in the car') or by verb suffixes: pronounced as //ɐkʲʼɜn// ('he goes'), pronounced as //ɐkʲʼɐn// ('they go'). The second person plural prefix pronounced as //ɕʷ//- triggers this plural suffix regardless of whether that prefix represents the ergative, the absolutive, or an oblique argument:

• Absolutive: pronounced as //ɕʷɜstʷɐn// ('I give you all to him')
• Oblique: pronounced as //sɨɕʷɨntʷɐn// ('he gives me to you all')
• Ergative: pronounced as //ɐsɨɕʷtʷɐn// ('you all give it/them to me')

Note that, in this last sentence, the plurality of it (pronounced as //ɐ//-) is obscured; the meaning can be either 'You all give it to me' or 'You all give them to me'.

Adjectives, in most cases, are simply suffixed to the noun: pronounced as //tʃɨbʒɨjɜ// ('pepper') with pronounced as //pɬɨ// ('red') becomes pronounced as //tʃɨbʒɨjɜpɬɨ// ('red pepper'). Adjectives do not decline.

Postpositions are rare; most locative semantic functions, as well as some non-local ones, are provided with preverbal elements: pronounced as //ɐsχʲɜwtxqʼɜ// ('you wrote it for me'). However, there are a few postpositions: pronounced as //sɨʁʷɜ sɨɡʲɐtɕʼ// ('like me'), pronounced as //ɐχʲɨlɐq// ('near the prince').

Pronouns

Free pronouns in all North-West Caucasian languages lack an ergative-absolutive distinction.

!!1st Person!2nd Person!3rd Person

Singular	Standard	pronounced as //s(ɨ)ʁʷɜ//	pronounced as //(w(ɨ))ʁʷɜ//(joc. pronounced as //χɜʁʷɜ//)	pronounced as //ɐʁʷɜ//
	AB	pronounced as //(s)χɜ//
Plural	Standard	pronounced as //ʃɨʁʷɜɬɜ//	pronounced as //ɕʷɨʁʷɜɬɜ//	pronounced as //ɐʁʷɜɬɜ//
	Tevfik Esenç	pronounced as //ʃɜɬɜ//	pronounced as //ɕʷɜɬɜ//
	Osman Güngür	pronounced as //ʃɨʁʷɜ//	pronounced as //ɕʷɨʁʷɜ//

Possession

1st Person! colspan="2"

2nd Person	3rd Person
		Normal	Jocular
Singular	pronounced as //sɨ//-	pronounced as //wɨ//-	pronounced as //χɜ//-	pronounced as //ʁɜ//-
Plural	pronounced as //ʃɨ//-	pronounced as //ɕʷɨ//-		pronounced as //ɐʁɜ//-

Possessed nouns have their plurality marked with the affix pronounced as //-ɜw-//.

Verbs

A pastpresentfuture distinction of verb tense exists (the suffixes -pronounced as //qʼɜ// and -pronounced as //ɜwt// represent past and future) and an imperfective aspect suffix is also found (-pronounced as //jtʼ//, which can combine with tense suffixes). Dynamic and stative verbs are contrasted, as in Arabic, and verbs have several nominal forms. Morphological causatives are not uncommon. The conjunctions pronounced as //ɡʲɨ// ('and') and pronounced as //ɡʲɨlɜ// ('but') are usually given with verb suffixes, but there is also a free particle corresponding to each:

• -pronounced as //ɡʲɨ// 'and' (free particle pronounced as //ve//, borrowed from Arabic);
• -pronounced as //ɡʲɨlɜ// 'but' (free particle pronounced as //ɜʁʷɜ//)

Pronominal benefactives are also part of the verbal complex, marked with the preverb pronounced as //χʲɜ//-, but a benefactive cannot normally appear on a verb that has three agreement prefixes already.

Gender only appears as part of the second person paradigm, and then only at the speaker's discretion. The feminine second person index is pronounced as //χɜ//-, which behaves like other pronominal prefixes: pronounced as //wɨsχʲɜntʷɨn// ('he gives [it] to you [normal; gender-neutral] for me'), but compare pronounced as //χɜsχʲɜntʷɨn// 'he gives [it] to you [feminine] for me').

Agreement

Oblique 1 markers are limited to marking the agreement of a noun before a relational preverb and Oblique 2 markers are used for not only marking agreement with local and directional preverbs but also the simple oblique, or dative, arguments.

	Absolutive	Oblique (1 and 2)	Ergative
First Person	sg.	pronounced as //s(ɨ)/-/	pronounced as //s(ɨ)/-/ ~ pronounced as //z//	pronounced as //s(ɨ)/-/ ~ pronounced as //z//
	pl.	pronounced as //ʃ(ɨ)/-/	pronounced as //ʃ(ɨ)/-/ ~ pronounced as //ʒ/-/	pronounced as //ʃ(ɨ)/-/ ~ pronounced as //ʒ/-/
Second Person	sg.	pronounced as //wɨ/-/	pronounced as //w(ɨ)/-/	pronounced as //w(ɨ)/-/
	pl.	pronounced as //ɕʷ(ɨ)/-/	pronounced as //ɕʷ(ɨ)/-/ ~ pronounced as //ʑʷ(ɨ)/- /	pronounced as //ɕʷ(ɨ)/-/ ~ pronounced as //ʑʷ(ɨ)/- /
	sg. (joc., arc.)	pronounced as //χɜ/-/	pronounced as //χɜ/-/	pronounced as //χɜ/-/
Third Person	sg.	pronounced as //ɐ/-, /jɨ/-, /ɨ/-, /Ø/-/	pronounced as //Ø/-/	pronounced as /n(ɨ)/- /Ø/-/
	pl.	pronounced as //ɐ/-, /jɨ/-, /Ø/-/	pronounced as //ɐ/-/	pronounced as //ɐ/-, /nɐ/-/

The second-person pronounced as //χɜ/-/ is an archaic pronoun used to indicate that the person being referred to is a female, or heckling the speaker in some way.

Dynamic verb conjugation

Dynamic Ubykh verbs are split up in two groups: Group I which contain the simple tenses and Group II which contain derived counterpart tenses. Only the Karaclar dialect uses the progressive tense and the plural is unknown.

The singular-plural distinction is used when the subject, the ergative, is singular or plural.

Square brackets indicate elided vowels; parenthesis indicate optional parts of the stem; and the colon indicates the boundary of a morpheme.

!Singular!Plural

Simple Past	-pronounced as //qʼɜ//	-pronounced as //qʼɜ-n(ɜ)//|-!Mirative Past|-pronounced as //jtʼ//|-pronounced as //jɬ(ɜ)//

|-!Present|-pronounced as //n//|-pronounced as //ɐ-n//|-!Future I|-pronounced as //ɜw//|-pronounced as //n[ɜ]-ɜw//|-!Future II|-pronounced as //ɜwːt//|-pronounced as //n[ɜ]-ɜwːt//|-!(Progressive)|-pronounced as //ɜwɨːn//|?|}

!Singular!Plural

Pluperfect	-pronounced as //qʼɜːjtʼ//|-pronounced as //qʼɜːjɬ(ɜ)//

~ -/qʼɜːnɜːjtʼ/|-!Imperfect|-pronounced as //nɜːtjʼ//|-pronounced as //ɐ-nɜːjɬ(ɜ)//|-!Conditional I|-pronounced as //ɜwɨːjtʼ//|-pronounced as //n[ɜ]-ɜwɨːjɬ(ɜ)//|-!Conditional II|-pronounced as //ɜwːtʷːqʼɜ//|-pronounced as //(n[ɜ]-)ɜwːtʷːqʼɜ(-n)//|}

= Simple past

=The verbs in the simple past tense are conjugated with -pronounced as //qʼɜ// in the singular and -pronounced as //qʼɜ-n(ɜ)// in the plural.

Examples:

• pronounced as //qʼɜ// - to say → pronounced as //ɐ-qʼɜ-qʼɜ// (s)he said
• pronounced as //fɨ// - to eat → pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-qʼɜ// (s)he ate
• pronounced as //tɕʼɜ// - to know → pronounced as //ɐ-tɕʼɜ-qʼɜ// (s)he knew
• pronounced as //kʲʼɜ// - to go → pronounced as //ɐ-kʲʼɜ-qʼɜ// (s)he went

Plurality	Person	Ubykh	Meaning
Singular	First-person	pronounced as //s(ɨ)-fɨ-qʼɜ//	I ate
	Second-person	pronounced as //wɨ-fɨ-qʼɜ//	you ate
	Third-person	pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-qʼɜ//	(s)he ate
Plural	First-person	pronounced as //ʃ(ɨ)-fɨ-qʼɜ-n(ɜ)//	we ate
	Second-person	pronounced as //ɕʷ(ɨ)-fɨ-qʼɜ-n(ɜ)//	you (all) ate
	Third-person	pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-qʼɜ-n(ɜ)//	they ate

= Mirative past

=The verbs in the mirative past tense are conjugated with -pronounced as //jtʼ// in the singular and -pronounced as //jɬ(ɜ)// in the plural.

Examples:

• pronounced as //qʼɜ// - to say → pronounced as //ɐ-qʼɜ-jtʼ// (s)he said apparently
• pronounced as //fɨ// - to eat → pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-jtʼ// (s)he ate apparently
• pronounced as //tɕʼɜ// - to know → pronounced as //ɐ-tɕʼɜ-jtʼ// (s)he knew apparently
• pronounced as //kʲʼɜ// - to go → pronounced as //ɐ-kʲʼɜ-jtʼ// (s)he went apparently

Plurality	Person	Ubykh	Meaning
Singular	First-person	pronounced as //s(ɨ)-fɨ-jtʼ//	I ate apparently
	Second-person	pronounced as //wɨ-fɨ-jtʼ//	you ate apparently
	Third-person	pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-jtʼ//	(s)he ate apparently
Plural	First-person	pronounced as //ʃ(ɨ)-fɨ-jɬ(ɜ)//	we ate apparently
	Second-person	pronounced as //ɕʷ(ɨ)-fɨ-jɬ(ɜ)//	you (all) ate apparently
	Third-person	pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-jɬ(ɜ)//	they ate apparently

= Present

=The verbs in the present tense are conjugated with -pronounced as //n// in the singular and -pronounced as //ɐ-n// in the plural.

Examples:

• pronounced as //qʼɜ// - to say → pronounced as //ɐ-qʼɜ-n// (s)he says
• pronounced as //fɨ// - to eat → pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-n// (s)he eats
• pronounced as //tɕʼɜ// - to know → pronounced as //ɐ-tɕʼɜ-n// (s)he knows
• pronounced as //kʲʼɜ// - to go → pronounced as //ɐ-kʲʼɜ-n// (s)he goes

Plurality	Person	Ubykh	Meaning
Singular	First-person	pronounced as //s(ɨ)-fɨ-n//	I eat
	Second-person	pronounced as //wɨ-fɨ-n//	you eat
	Third-person	pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-n//	(s)he eats
Plural	First-person	pronounced as //ʃ(ɨ)-f-ɐ-n//	we eat
	Second-person	pronounced as //ɕʷ(ɨ)-f-ɐ-n//	you (all) eat
	Third-person	pronounced as //ɐ-f-ɐ-n//	they eat

= Future I

=The verbs in the present tense are conjugated with -pronounced as //ɜw// in the singular and -pronounced as //n[ɜ]-ɜw// in the plural. It conveys a sense of certainty, immediacy, obligation, or intentionality.

Examples:

• pronounced as //qʼɜ// - to say → pronounced as //ɐ-qʼ-ɜw// (s)he certainly will say
• pronounced as //fɨ// - to eat → pronounced as //ɐ-f-ɜw// (s)he certainly will eat
• pronounced as //tɕʼɜ// - to know → pronounced as //ɐ-tɕʼ-ɜw// (s)he certainly will know
• pronounced as //kʲʼɜ// - to go → pronounced as //ɐ-kʲʼ-ɜw// (s)he certainly will go

Plurality	Person	Ubykh	Meaning
Singular	First-person	pronounced as //s(ɨ)-fɨ-n[ɜ]-ɜw//	I certainly will eat
	Second-person	pronounced as //wɨ-fɨ-n[ɜ]-ɜw//	you certainly will eat
	Third-person	pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-n[ɜ]-ɜw//	(s)he certainly will eat
Plural	First-person	pronounced as //ʃ(ɨ)-fɨ-n[ɜ]-ɜw//	we certainly will eat
	Second-person	pronounced as //ɕʷ(ɨ)-fɨ-n[ɜ]-ɜw//	you (all) certainly will eat
	Third-person	pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-n[ɜ]-ɜw//	they certainly will eat

= Future II

=The verbs in the present tense are conjugated with -pronounced as //ɜwːt// in the singular and -pronounced as //n[ɜ]-ɜwːt// in the plural. It conveys a generic sense of the future as well as an exhortative sense such as: pronounced as //ʃɨ-kʲʼɜ-n[ɜ]-ɜw// (let's go!).

Examples:

• pronounced as //qʼɜ// - to say → pronounced as //ɐ-qʼ-ɜwːt// (s)he will say
• pronounced as //fɨ// - to eat → pronounced as //ɐ-f-ɜwːt// (s)he will eat
• pronounced as //tɕʼɜ// - to know → pronounced as //ɐ-tɕʼ-ɜwːt// (s)he will know
• pronounced as //kʲʼɜ// - to go → pronounced as //ɐ-kʲʼ-ɜwːt// (s)he will go

Plurality	Person	Ubykh	Meaning
Singular	First-person	pronounced as //s(ɨ)-f-ɜwːt//	I will eat
	Second-person	pronounced as //wɨ-f-ɜwːt//	you will eat
	Third-person	pronounced as //ɐ-f-ɜwːt//	(s)he will eat
Plural	First-person	pronounced as //ʃ(ɨ)-fɨ-n[ɜ]-ɜwːt//	we will eat
	Second-person	pronounced as //ɕʷ(ɨ)-fɨ-n[ɜ]-ɜwːt//	you (all) will eat
	Third-person	pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-n[ɜ]-ɜwːt//	they will eat

Static verb conjugation

In all dialects and speakers, only two static tenses exist: present and past.

!!Singular!Plural

Present	-pronounced as //Ø//|-pronounced as //n(ɜ)//

|-!Past|-pronounced as //jtʼ//|-pronounced as //jɬ(ɜ)//|}

Aspect

There are five basic aspects that exist besides the aspects that exist within the Ubykh tense system. They are: habitual, iterative, exhaustive, excessive, and potential.

A speaker may combine one of these aspects with another to convey more complex aspects in conjunction with the tenses.

-pronounced as //ɡʲɜ//|-!iterative|-pronounced as //ɐj(ɨ)//

|-!exhaustive|-pronounced as //lɜ//|-!excessive|-pronounced as //tɕʷɜ//|-!potential|-pronounced as //fɜ//|}

A few meanings covered in English by adverbs or auxiliary verbs are given in Ubykh by verb suffixes:

• pronounced as //ɐsfɨfɜn// ('I can eat it') - pronounced as //ɐzdʑʷɜfɜn// ('I can drink it')
• pronounced as //ɐsfɨɡʲɜn// ('I eat it all the time') - pronounced as //ɐzdʑʷɜɡʲɜn// ('I drink it all the time')
• pronounced as //ɐsfɨlɜn// ('I am eating it all up') - pronounced as //ɐzdʑʷɜlɜn// ('I am drinking it all up')
• pronounced as //ɐsfɨtɕʷɜn// ('I eat it too much') - pronounced as //ɐzdʑʷɜtɕʷɜn// ('I drink it too much')
• pronounced as //ɐsfɐjɨn// ('I eat it again') - pronounced as //ɐzdʑʷɐjɨn// ('I drink it again')

! colspan="2"

1st person	2nd person		3rd person
simple	pronounced as //s(ɨ)-fɨ-n//	pronounced as //ʃ(ɨ)-f-ɐ-n//	pronounced as //wɨ-fɨ-n//	pronounced as //ɕʷ(ɨ)-f-ɐ-n//	pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-n//	pronounced as //ɐ-f-ɐ-n//
habitual	pronounced as //s(ɨ)-fɨ-ɡʲɜ-n//	pronounced as //ʃ(ɨ)-f-ɡʲ[ɜ]-ɐ-n//	pronounced as //wɨ-fɨ-ɡʲɜ-n//	pronounced as //ɕʷ(ɨ)-fɨ-ɡʲ[ɜ]-ɐ-n//	pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-ɡʲɜ-n//	pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-ɡʲ[ɜ]-ɐ-n//
iterative	pronounced as //s(ɨ)-f-ɐj(ɨ)-n//	pronounced as //ʃ(ɨ)-f-ɐj(ɨ)-ɐ-n//	pronounced as //wɨ-f-ɐj(ɨ)-n//	pronounced as //ɕʷ(ɨ)-f-ɐj(ɨ)-ɐ-n//	pronounced as //ɐ-f-ɐj(ɨ)-n//	pronounced as //ɐ-f-ɐj(ɨ)-ɐ-n//
exhaustive	pronounced as //s(ɨ)-fɨ-lɜ-n//	pronounced as //ʃ(ɨ)-fɨ-l[ɜ]-ɐ-n//	pronounced as //wɨ-fɨ-lɜ-n//	pronounced as //ɕʷ(ɨ)-fɨ-l[ɜ]-ɐ-n//	pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-lɜ-n//	pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-l[ɜ]-ɐ-n//
excessive	pronounced as //s(ɨ)-fɨ-tɕʷɜ-n//	pronounced as //ʃ(ɨ)-fɨ-tɕʷ[ɜ]-ɐ-n//	pronounced as //wɨ-fɨ-tɕʷɜ-n//	pronounced as //ɕʷ(ɨ)-fɨ-tɕʷ[ɜ]-ɐ-n//	pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-tɕʷɜ-n//	pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-tɕʷ[ɜ]-ɐ-n//
potential	pronounced as //s(ɨ)-fɨ-fɜ-n//	pronounced as //ʃ(ɨ)-fɨ-f[ɜ]-ɐ-n//	pronounced as //wɨ-fɨ-fɜ-n//	pronounced as //ɕʷ(ɨ)-fɨ-f[ɜ]-ɐ-n//	pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-fɜ-n//	pronounced as //ɐ-fɨ-f[ɜ]-ɐ-n//

Questions

Questions may be marked grammatically, using verb suffixes or prefixes:

• Yesno questions with -pronounced as //ɕ//: pronounced as //wɜnɜ ɐwbjɜqʼɜɕ//? ('did you see that?')
• Complex questions with -pronounced as //j//: pronounced as //sɐkʲʼɜ wɨpʼtsʼɜj//? ('what is your name?')

Other types of questions, involving the pronouns 'where' and 'what', may also be marked only in the verbal complex: pronounced as //mɐwkʲʼɜnɨj// ('where are you going?'), pronounced as //sɐwqʼɜqʼɜjtʼɨj// ('what had you said?').

Preverbs and determinants

Many local, prepositional, and other functions are provided by preverbal elements providing a large series of applicatives, and here Ubykh shows remarkable complexity. Two main types of preverbal elements exist: determinants and preverbs. The number of preverbs is limited, and mainly show location and direction. The number of determinants is also limited, but the class is more open; some determinant prefixes include pronounced as //tʃɜ//- ('with regard to a horse') and pronounced as //ɬɜ//- ('with regard to the foot or base of an object').

For simple locations, there are a number of possibilities that can be encoded with preverbs, including (but not limited to):

• above and touching
• above and not touching
• below and touching
• below and not touching
• at the side of
• through a space
• through solid matter
• on a flat horizontal surface
• on a non-horizontal or vertical surface
• in a homogeneous mass
• towards
• in an upward direction
• in a downward direction
• into a tubular space
• into an enclosed space

There is also a separate directional preverb meaning 'towards the speaker': pronounced as //j//-, which occupies a separate slot in the verbal complex. However, preverbs can have meanings that would take up entire phrases in English. The preverb pronounced as //jtɕʷʼɐ//- signifies 'on the earth' or 'in the earth', for instance: pronounced as //ʁɜdjɜ ɐjtɕʷʼɐnɐɬqʼɜ// ('they buried his body'; literally, "they put his body in the earth"). Even more narrowly, the preverb pronounced as //fɐ//- signifies that an action is done out of, into or with regard to a fire: pronounced as //ɐmdʒɜn zɜtʃɨtʃɜqʲɜ fɐstχʷɨn// ('I take a brand out of the fire').

Orthography

Writing systems for the Ubykh language have been proposed,^[6] but there has never been a standard written form. However, Fenwick gives a guide for their "practical Ubykh orthography", intended to be typeable on a Turkish computer keyboard, which is shown below:

Practical Ubykh Orthography!IPA!Orthography!IPA!Orthography!IPA!Orthography!IPA!Orthography

pronounced as /[ɐ]/	a	pronounced as /[z]/	z	pronounced as /[tʃʼ]/	ç'	pronounced as /[qʼ]/	q'
pronounced as /[ɜ]/	e	pronounced as /[s]/	s	pronounced as /[ʒ]/	j	pronounced as /[ʁ]/	ğ
pronounced as /[ɨ]/	ı	pronounced as /[r]/	r	pronounced as /[ʃ]/	ş	pronounced as /[χ]/	x
pronounced as /[b]/	b	pronounced as /[n]/	n	pronounced as /[ʒʷ]/	ju	pronounced as /[qʲ]/	qi
pronounced as /[p]/	p	pronounced as /[l]/	l	pronounced as /[ʃʷ]/	şu	pronounced as /[qʲʼ]/	q'i
pronounced as /[pʼ]/	p'	pronounced as /[ɬ]/	lh	pronounced as /[ɖʐ]/	cr	pronounced as /[ʁʲ]/	ği
pronounced as /[v]/	v	pronounced as /[ɬʼ]/	l'h	pronounced as /[ʈʂ]/	çr	pronounced as /[χʲ]/	xi
pronounced as /[f]/	f	pronounced as /[dʷ]/	du	pronounced as /[ʈʂʼ]/	ç'r	pronounced as /[qʷ]/	qu
pronounced as /[w]/	w	pronounced as /[tʷ]/	tu	pronounced as /[j]/	y	pronounced as /[qʷʼ]/	q'u
pronounced as /[m]/	m	pronounced as /[tʷʼ]/	t'u	pronounced as /[ɡ]/	g	pronounced as /[ʁʷ]/	ğu
pronounced as /[bˤ]/	bh	pronounced as /[dʑ]/	ci	pronounced as /[k]/	k	pronounced as /[χʷ]/	xu
pronounced as /[pˤ]/	ph	pronounced as /[tɕ]/	çi	pronounced as /[kʼ]/	k'	pronounced as /[qˤ]/	qh
pronounced as /[pˤʼ]/	p'h	pronounced as /[tɕʼ]/	ç'i	pronounced as /[ɣ]/	ĝ	pronounced as /[qˤʼ]/	q'h
pronounced as /[vˤ]/	vh	pronounced as /[ʑ]/	ji	pronounced as /[x]/	x̂	pronounced as /[ʁˤ]/	ğh
pronounced as /[wˤ]/	wh	pronounced as /[ɕ]/	şi	pronounced as /[ɡʲ]/	gi	pronounced as /[χˤ]/	xh
pronounced as /[mˤ]/	mh	pronounced as /[dʑʷ]/	cü	pronounced as /[kʲ]/	ki	pronounced as /[qʷˤ]/	qö
pronounced as /[d]/	d	pronounced as /[tɕʷ]/	çü	pronounced as /[kʲʼ]/	k'i	pronounced as /[qʷˤʼ]/	q'ö
pronounced as /[t]/	t	pronounced as /[tɕʷʼ]/	ç'ü	pronounced as /[ɡʷ]/	gu	pronounced as /[ʁʷˤ]/	ğö
pronounced as /[tʼ]/	t'	pronounced as /[ʑʷ]/	jü	pronounced as /[kʷ]/	ku	pronounced as /[χʷˤ]/	xö
pronounced as /[dz]/	dz	pronounced as /[ɕʷ]/	şü	pronounced as /[kʷʼ]/	k'u	pronounced as /[h]/	h
pronounced as /[ts]/	ts	pronounced as /[dʒ]/	c	pronounced as /[xʷ]/	x̂u	pronounced as /[ʐ]/	jr
pronounced as /[tsʼ]/	ts'	pronounced as /[tʃ]/	ç	pronounced as /[q]/	q	pronounced as /[ʂ]/	şr

Lexicon

Native vocabulary

Ubykh syllables have a strong tendency to be CV, although VC and CVC also exist. Consonant clusters are not as large as in Abzhywa Abkhaz or in Georgian, rarely being larger than two terms. Three-term clusters exist in two words - pronounced as //ndʁɜ// ('sun') and pronounced as //pstɜ// ('to swell up'), but the latter is a loan from Adyghe, and the former more often pronounced pronounced as //nədʁa// when it appears alone.Compounding plays a large part in Ubykh and, indeed, in all Northwest Caucasian semantics. There is no verb equivalent to English to love, for instance; one says "You loved him" as ^{(translation needed)} ('You saw him well').

Reduplication occurs in some roots, often those with onomatopoeic values (pronounced as //χˤɜχˤɜ//, 'to curry[comb]' from pronounced as //χˤɜ// 'to scrape'; pronounced as //kʼɨrkʼɨr//, 'to cluck like a chicken' [a loan from Adyghe]); and pronounced as //wɜrqwɜrq//, 'to croak like a frog').

Roots and affixes can be as small as one phoneme. The word pronounced as //wɜntʷɐn//, 'they give you to him', for instance, contains six phonemes, each a separate morpheme:

• pronounced as //w// - 2nd singular absolutive
• pronounced as //ɜ// - 3rd singular dative
• pronounced as //n// - 3rd ergative
• pronounced as //tʷ// - to give
• pronounced as //ɐ// - ergative plural
• pronounced as //n// - present tense

However, some words may be as long as seven syllables (although these are usually compounds): pronounced as //ʂɨqʷʼɜwɨɕɜɬɐdɨtʃɜ// ('staircase').

Slang and idioms

As with all other languages, Ubykh is replete with idioms. The word pronounced as //ntʷɜ// ('door'), for instance, is an idiom meaning either "magistrate", "court", or "government." However, idiomatic constructions are even more common in Ubykh than in most other languages; the representation of abstract ideas with series of concrete elements is a characteristic of the Northwest Caucasian family. As mentioned above, the phrase meaning "You loved him" translates literally as 'You saw him well'; similarly, "she pleased you" is literally 'she cut your heart'. The term pronounced as //wɨrɨs// ('Russian'), an Arabic loan, has come to be a slang term meaning "infidel", "non-Muslim" or "enemy" (see History below).

Foreign loans

The majority of loanwords in Ubykh are derived from either Adyghe or Arabic, with smaller numbers from Persian, Abkhaz, and the South Caucasian languages. Towards the end of Ubykh's life, a large influx of Adyghe words was noted; Vogt (1963) notes a few hundred examples. The phonemes pronounced as //ɡ/ /k/ /kʼ// were borrowed from Arabic and Adyghe. pronounced as //ɬʼ// also appears to come from Adyghe, although it seems to have arrived earlier on. It is possible, too, that pronounced as //ɣ// is a loan from Adyghe, since most of the few words with this phoneme are obvious Adyghe loans: pronounced as //pɐɣɜ// ('proud'), pronounced as //ɣɜ// ('testis').

Many loanwords have Ubykh equivalents, but were dwindling in usage under the influence of Arabic, Circassian, and Russian equivalents:

• pronounced as //bɨrwɨ// ('to make a hole in, to perforate' from Iranic languages) = pronounced as //pɕɐtχʷ//
• pronounced as //tʃɐj// ('tea' from Chinese) = pronounced as //bzɨpɕɨ//
• pronounced as //wɨrɨs// ('enemy' from Persian) = pronounced as //bˤɜqˤʼɜ//

Some words, usually much older ones, are borrowed from less influential stock: Colarusso (1994) sees pronounced as //χˤʷɜ// ('pig') as a borrowing from a proto-Semitic *huka, and pronounced as //ɜɡʲɜrɨ// ('slave') from an Iranian root; however, Chirikba (1986) regards the latter as being of Abkhaz origin (← Abkhaz agər-wa 'lower cast of peasants; slave', literally 'Megrelian').

Evolution

In the scheme of Northwest Caucasian evolution, despite its parallels with Adyghe and Abkhaz, Ubykh forms a separate third branch of the family. It has fossilised palatal class markers where all other Northwest Caucasian languages preserve traces of an original labial class: the Ubykh word for 'heart', pronounced as //ɡʲɨ//, corresponds to the reflex pronounced as //ɡʷə// in Abkhaz, Abaza, Adyghe, and Kabardian. Ubykh also possesses groups of pharyngealised consonants. All other NWC languages possess true pharyngeal consonants, but Ubykh is the only language to use pharyngealisation as a feature of secondary articulation.

With regard to the other languages of the family, Ubykh is closer to Adyghe and Kabardian but shares many features with Abkhaz due to geographic influence; many later Ubykh speakers were bilingual in Ubykh and Adyghe.

Dialects

While not many dialects of Ubykh existed, one divergent dialect of Ubykh has been noted (in Dumézil 1965:266-269). Grammatically, it is similar to standard Ubykh (i.e. Tevfik Esenç's dialect), but has a very different sound system, which had collapsed into just 62-odd phonemes:

• pronounced as //dʷ/ /tʷ/ /tʷʼ// have collapsed into pronounced as //b/ /p/ /pʼ//.
• pronounced as //ɕʷ/ /ʑʷ// are indistinguishable from pronounced as //ʃʷ/ /ʒʷ//.
• pronounced as //ɣ// seems to have disappeared.
• Pharyngealisation is no longer distinctive, having been replaced in many cases by geminate consonants.
• Palatalisation of the uvular consonants is no longer phonemic.

History

Ubykh was spoken in the eastern coast of the Black Sea around Sochi until 1864, when the Ubykhs were driven out of the region by the Russians. They eventually came to settle in Turkey, founding the villages of Hacı Osman, Kırkpınar, Masukiye and Hacı Yakup. Arabic and Circassian eventually became the preferred languages for everyday communication, and many words from these languages entered Ubykh in that period.

The Ubykh language died out on 7 October 1992, when its last fluent speaker, Tevfik Esenç, died.^[2] Before his death, thousands of pages of material and many audio recordings had been collected and collated by a number of linguists, including Georges Charachidzé, Georges Dumézil, Hans Vogt, George Hewitt and A. Sumru Özsoy, with the help of some of its last speakers, particularly Tevfik Esenç and Huseyin Kozan.^[2] Ubykh was never written by its speech community, but a few phrases were transcribed by Evliya Çelebi in his Seyahatname and a substantial portion of the oral literature, along with some cycles of the Nart saga, was transcribed. Tevfik Esenç also eventually learned to write Ubykh in the transcription that Dumézil devised.

Julius von Mészáros, a Hungarian linguist, visited Turkey in 1930 and took down some notes on Ubykh. His work Die Päkhy-Sprache was extensive and accurate to the extent allowed by his transcription system (which could not represent all the phonemes of Ubykh) and marked the foundation of Ubykh linguistics.

The Frenchman Georges Dumézil also visited Turkey in 1930 to record some Ubykh and would eventually become the most celebrated Ubykh linguist. He published a collection of Ubykh folktales in the late 1950s, and the language soon attracted the attention of linguists for its small number of phonemic vowels. Hans Vogt, a Norwegian, produced a monumental dictionary that, in spite of its many errors (later corrected by Dumézil), is still one of the masterpieces and essential tools of Ubykh linguistics.

Later in the 1960s and into the early 1970s, Dumézil published a series of papers on Ubykh etymology in particular and Northwest Caucasian etymology in general. Dumézil's book Le Verbe Oubykh (1975), a comprehensive account of the verbal and nominal morphology of the language, is another cornerstone of Ubykh linguistics.

Since the 1980s, Ubykh linguistics has slowed drastically with the most recent treatise being Fenwick's A Grammar of Ubykh (2011), who was also working on a dictionary.^[7] The Ubykh themselves have shown interest in relearning their language.

The Abkhaz writer Bagrat Shinkuba's historical novel Bagrat Shinkuba. The Last of the Departed treats the fate of the Ubykh people.

People who have published literature on Ubykh include

• Brian George Hewitt
• Georges Dumézil
• Hans Vogt
• John Colarusso
• Tevfik Esenç
• Viacheslav Chirikba

Notable characteristics

Ubykh had been cited in the Guinness Book of Records (1996 ed.) as the language with the most consonant phonemes, but since 2017 the !Xóõ language (a member of the Tuu languages) has been considered by the book to have broken that record, with 130 consonants.^[8] Ubykh has 20 uvular and 29 pure fricative phonemes, more than any other known language.

Samples

All examples from Dumézil 1968 and retranscribed by Fenwick.

Free English translation

Once, a sheep and a goat went into the field to go grazing. Where they went to graze, they came upon a gully, and the sheep, who was in front, jumped over it. When the sheep jumped, its tail flew up. The goat, who had been following behind it, began to laugh.

"What are you laughing for?" the sheep asked the goat. "I saw your arse, that's what I'm laughing about," said the goat. The sheep turned to the goat and said, "your arse is out in the open every day without you knowing it. And you laugh because you saw mine once."

• Notes

Notes

Fenwick lists a plural form for pronounced as //tʷ// ('to give') but it is never used in the grammar even when a plural form is expected.

See also

• North Caucasian languages

Bibliography

• Chirikba, V. (1986). Abxazskie leksicheskie zaimstvovanija v ubyxskom jazyke (Abkhaz Lexical Loans in Ubykh). Problemy leksiki i grammatiki jazykov narodov Karachaevo-Cherkesii: Sbornik nauchnyx trudov (Lexical and Grammatical Problems of the Karachay-Cherkessian National Languages: A Scientific Compilation). Cherkessk, 112–124.
• Chirikba, V. (1996). Common West Caucasian. The Reconstruction of its Phonological System and Parts of its Lexicon and Morphology. Leiden: CNWS Publications.
• Colarusso, J. (1994). Proto-Northwest Caucasian (Or How To Crack a Very Hard Nut). Journal of Indo-European Studies 22, 1-17.
• Fenwick, R. (2011). A Grammar of Ubykh. Munich: Lincom Europa.
• Dumézil, G. (1957). Contes et Légendes des Oubykhs (Tales and Legends of the Ubykhs). Paris: L'Institut d'ethnologie.
• Dumézil, G. (1959). Trois récits oubykhs (Three Ubykh narratives). Baden: Anthropos, vol. 54.
• Dumézil, G. (1961). Etudes oubykhs (Ubykh Studies). Paris: Librairie A. Maisonneuve.
• Dumézil, G. (1965). Documents anatoliens sur les langues et les traditions du Caucase (Anatolian Documents on the Languages and Traditions of the Caucasus), III: Nouvelles études oubykhs (New Ubykh Studies). Paris: Librairie A. Maisonneuve.
• Dumézil, G. (1968). Eating Fish Makes You Clever. Annotated recording available via http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/archivage/tools/show_text.php?id=crdo-UBY_POISSON_SOUND .
• Dumézil, G. (1975). Le verbe oubykh: études descriptives et comparatives (The Ubykh Verb: Descriptive and Comparative Studies). Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.
• Hewitt, B. G. (2005). North-West Caucasian. Lingua. 115, 91-145.
• Mészáros, J. von. (1930). Die Päkhy-Sprache (The Ubykh Language). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Vogt, H. (1963). Dictionnaire de la langue oubykh (Dictionary of the Ubykh Language). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

External links

• Two proposals for a practical orthography for Ubykh
• YouTube: Tevfik Esenç narrating the story of the two travellers and the fish in Ubykh
• A number of narrations by Tevfik Esenç, WAV format
• Ubykh word list and recordings
• Gülcan Altan - Setenay (in Ubykh)
• Song in Ubykh - Ҳаҟоуп ҳара

Notes and References

1. Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger . UNESCO . 3rd . 2010 . 31.
2. Book: E. F. K. . Koerner . First Person Singular III: Autobiographies by North American Scholars in the Language Sciences . 1 January 1998 . John Benjamins Publishing . 978-90-272-4576-2 . 33 .
3. Book: Charles . King . The Ghost of Freedom . 2008 . 15.
4. Dumézil, G. 1975 Le verbe oubykh: études descriptives et comparatives (The Ubykh Verb: Descriptive and Comparative Studies). Paris: Imprimerie Nationale
5. Hewitt, B. G. 2005 North-West Caucasian. Lingua 115: 91-145.
6. Book: Fenwick, R. S. H.. A Grammar of Ubykh. 2011. Lincom Europa. Munich.
7. Fenwick . Rhona S. H. . Ubykh Dictionary Draft - M . zenodo.org . 2018 . 10.5281/zenodo.1189012 . 30 July 2022.
8. Web site: Language with most consonants. 2021-07-29. Guinness World Records. en-GB.