The Abzakh dialect (; ) is one of the Adyghe language dialects. The Abzakh dialect is spoken by the Abzakh which are one of the largest Circassian population in the diaspora outside Republic of Adygea alongside Shapsugs.
Historically, Proto-Circassian possessed a distinct series of stops and affricates. This inventory included palatalized velars and a contrast between retroflex and postalveolar affricates:
Postalveolar affricates:
Retroflex affricates:
Palatalized velars:
The evolution from Proto-Circassian to Modern Abzakh is defined by two distinct chronological phases:
The following sections detail how these shifts occurred and provide comparative examples.
The first major shift occurred in the Abzakh and Kabardian dialects, where the original affricate postalveolar consonants and affricate retroflex consonants underwent spirantization, becoming fricatives.
One exception was that the original postalveolar ejective affricate [tÃÂü] did not just become a fricative; in Abzakh, it often debuccalized to a palatalized glottal stop (or simply ).
The shifts were:
The following table demonstrates specific examples of this spirantization in Abzakh:
The following table details the timeline of this evolution specifically within Abzakh, showing how words shifted from Proto-Circassian, to an intermediate Proto-Abzakh stage, and finally to Modern Abzakh.
Later on, after the original affricates had become fricatives or glottal stops, a gap was left in the postalveolar position. In the majority of Circassian dialects (including standard Adyghe and Kabardian), the historical velar consonants shifted forward to fill this gap.
The velars , and became the new palato-alveolar consonants , and respectively.
The following table demonstrates how these words are distinct in archaic dialects (like Shapsug) but have merged or shifted in Standard Adyghe and Kabardian.
The Voiceless velar fricative [] becomes the aspirated Voiceless velar plosive [] (like English c in car, cup, cop, or curse) after the Voiceless postalveolar fricative []. In this environment, the velar fricative undergoes hardening to become a plosive. This change only occurred in some Abzakh sub-dialects and in Bzhedug dialects. This should not be confused with the palatalized (like English c in camera, cannon, or cow).
In the Khakurinokhabl sub-dialect of Abzakh, the instrumental case has the suffix -üÃÂõ (-mÃÂòa) or -ÃÂõ (-ÃÂòa) unlike other dialects that has the suffix -üúÃÂà(-mtáÃÂa) or -úÃÂà(-táÃÂa).
In the Standard Adyghe, The prefix ÷ÃÂúÃÂÃÂ- means backward. In the Abzakh dialect, it is ÷ÃÂÃÂõ-.
In the Standard Adyghe, The prefix ÃÂÃÂÃÂ- means under (toward under). In the Abzakh dialect, it is ÃÂõ-.