Adyghe (адыгэбзэ adygebze, adəgăbză) is one of the two official languages of the Federal Republic of Adygea in the Russian Federation, the other being Russian. It is spoken by the various tribes of the Adyghe nation: Shapsugh, Bzedugh, Abzekh, Kemirgoy, Hakuchi, and some others. The language referred to by its speakers as Adygebze or Adəgăbză, and alternatively spelled in English as Adygean, Adygeyan or Adygei. It is also known as Circassian. Motto: Anthem: Today Over Macedonia (Macedonian: Денес Над Македонија, Denes Nad Makedonija) Capital Skopje Largest city Skopje Official language(s) Macedonian1 Government President Prime Minister Parliamentary republic Branko Crvenkovski Vlado Bučkovski Independence Declared From Yugoslavia September 8, 1991 Area  â€¢ Total  â€¢ Water (%)   25,333 km² (146th) 1. ... The Republic of Adygea (Russian: ; Adyghe: Адыгэ Республик) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic) enclaved within Krasnodar Krai. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... The term Caucasian languages is loosely used to refer to a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than 7 million people in the Caucasus region of Eastern Europe, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. ... North Caucasian languages is a blanket term for two distinct, but possibly related, phyla of languages spoken in the north Caucasus and in Turkey. ... The Northwest Caucasian languages, also called Pontic or Abkhaz-Adyg/Circassian, are a group of languages spoken in Caucasian Russia, Turkey, Jordan, Kabardino-Balkaria (an autonomous republic in Russia) and Abkhazia ( de facto independent formally an autonomous republic in Georgia). ... The Northwest Caucasian languages, also called Pontic or Abkhaz-Adyg/Circassian, are a group of languages spoken in Caucasian Russia, Turkey, Jordan, Kabardino-Balkaria (an autonomous republic in Russia) and Abkhazia (an autonomous republic in Georgia). ... The Republic of Adygea (Russian: ; Adyghe: Адыгэ Республик) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic) enclaved within Krasnodar Krai. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code Twenty-two of the languages have two three-letter codes: a code for bibliographic use (ISO 639-2/B) a code for terminological use (ISO 639-2/T). ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone = sound/voice) is the study of sounds (voice). ... Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... The Republic of Adygea (Russian: ; Adyghe: Адыгэ Республик) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic) enclaved within Krasnodar Krai. ... The Kabardian language is a Russia, Jordan and Turkey. ...

There are apparently around 125,000 speakers of the language in Russia, almost all of them mother-tongue speakers. In the whole world, some 300,000 speak the language. The largest Adyghe-speaking community lives in Turkey.

Adyghe belongs to the family of Northwest Caucasian languages. Kabardian is a very close relative, treated by some as a dialect of Adyghe or of an overarching Circassian language. The Ubykh, Abkhaz, and Abaza languages are also close relatives thereof. The Northwest Caucasian languages, also called Pontic or Abkhaz-Adyg/Circassian, are a group of languages spoken in Caucasian Russia, Turkey, Jordan, Kabardino-Balkaria (an autonomous republic in Russia) and Abkhazia ( de facto independent formally an autonomous republic in Georgia). ... The Kabardian language is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken in Russia, Jordan and Turkey. ... The Kabardian language is a Russia, Jordan and Turkey. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Abkhaz is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken in Georgia and Turkey. ... The Abaza language (Абаза Бызшва/Abaza Byzšwa) is a language of the Caucasus mountains in the Russian autonomous republic of Turkey, where the Roman alphabet is used. ...

The language was standardized after the October Revolution. Since 1938, Adyghe has used the Cyrillic alphabet. Before that, an Arabic-based alphabet was used together with the Latin. The October Revolution, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was the second phase of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the first having been instigated by the events around the February Revolution. ... 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used to write six natural Slavic languages (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ...

Phonology

Adyghe exhibits a large number of consonants: between fifty and sixty consonants in the various Adyghe dialects. All dialects possess a contrast between plain and labialised glottal stops; a very unusual minimal contrast, and possibly unique to the Abdzakh dialect of Adyghe, is a three-way contrast between plain, labialised and palatalised glottal stops (although palatalised glottal stop is also found in Hausa). Hausa is the Chadic language with the largest number of speakers, spoken as a first language by about 24 million people, and as a second language by about 15 million more. ...

Grammar

Adyghe, like all Northwest Caucasian languages, has a basic subject-object-verb typology, and is characterized by an ergative construction of the sentence. SOV is an acronym for several terms: SOV is used in linguistic typology, and stands for Subject Object Verb. ... An ergative-absolutive language (or simply ergative) is one that treats the subject of transitive verbs distinctly from the subject of intransitive verbs and the object of transitive verbs. ...

See also

• Hakuchi Adyghe

Hakuchi Adyghe is a subdialect of the Shapsugh dialect of Adyghe spoken in Turkey. ...

External links

• Adyghe Sample at Language Museum
• Ethnologue: Adyghe