Adyghe verbs
In Adyghe, like all Northwest Caucasian languages, the verb is the most inflected part of speech.
Verbs are typically head final and are conjugated for tense, person, number, etc.
Some of Circassian verbs can be morphologically simple, some of them consist only of one morpheme, like: кӏо "go", штэ "take".
However, generally, Circassian verbs are characterized as structurally and semantically difficult entities.
Morphological structure of a Circassian verb includes affixes (prefixes, suffixes) which are specific to the language.
Verbal affixes express meaning of subject, direct or indirect object, adverbial, singular or plural form, negative form, mood, direction, mutuality, compatibility and reflexivity, which, as a result, creates a complex verb, that consists of many morphemes and semantically expresses a sentence.
For example: уакъыдэсэгъэгущыӏэжьы "I am forcing you to talk to them again" consists of the following morphemes: у-а-къы-дэ-сэ-гъэ-гущыӏэ-жьы, with the following meanings: "you (у) with them (а) from there (къы) together (дэ) I (сэ) am forcing (гъэ) to speak (гущыӏэн) again (жьы)".
"The present tense in Adyghe has no additional suffixes, but in dynamic verbs, the pronoun prefix's vowels change form ы to э or е, for instance, сышхыгъ "I ate" becomes сэшхы "I eat" (сы → сэ), ылъэгъугъ "(s)he saw" becomes елъэгъу "(s)he sees" (ы → е).
Examples : Сиунэsiwnamy houseсыщэшхэsəɕaʃxaI eat inСиунэ сыщэшхэsiwna səɕaʃxa{my house} {I eat in}"I eat in my house"мыеməjaan appleсэщэфыsaɕafəI am buyingмые сэщэфыməja saɕafə{an apple} {I am buying}"I am buying an apple"The future tense is normally indicated by the suffix ~(э)щт /~(a)ɕt/ (close to future simple).
Examples : еджапӏэмеджапӏэ-мjad͡ʒaːpʼamschool.ERGсыкӏощтыгъ,сы-кӏо-щтыгъ,səkʷʼaɕtəʁI was goingауауaːwbutкъызещхымкъызещхымqəzajɕxəmwhen it started to rainкъэзгъэзэжьыгъкъэ-з-гъэзэ-жь-ыгъqazʁazaʑəʁI returnedеджапӏэм сыкӏощтыгъ, ау къызещхым къэзгъэзэжьыгъеджапӏэ-м сы-кӏо-щтыгъ, ау къызещхым къэ-з-гъэзэ-жь-ыгъjad͡ʒaːpʼam səkʷʼaɕtəʁ aːw qəzajɕxəm qazʁazaʑəʁschool.ERG {I was going} but {when it started to rain} {I returned}"I was going to school, but when it started raining I returned"This suffix can also be used to express an action that someone used to do in the past.
Examples : сэсэ[saIтхылъымтхылъы-мtxəɬəmbook.ERGседжэгъэщтс-еджэ-гъэщтsajd͡ʒaʁaɕtI will have read itнеущынеущыnajɕə]tomorrowсэ тхылъым седжэгъэщт неущысэ тхылъы-м с-еджэ-гъэщт неущы[sa txəɬəm sajd͡ʒaʁaɕt najɕə]I book.ERG {I will have read it} tomorrow"I will have read the book by tomorrow".чэщымчэщы-м[t͡ʃaɕəmnight.ERGкӏалэркӏалэ-рt͡ʃʼaːɮarboy.ABSсиунэси-унэsəjwənamy houseкъэкӏуагъэщткъэкӏу-агъэщтqakʷaːʁaɕt](s)he will have cameчэщым кӏалэр сиунэ къэкӏуагъэщтчэщы-м кӏалэ-р си-унэ къэкӏу-агъэщт[t͡ʃaɕəm t͡ʃʼaːɮar səjwəna qakʷaːʁaɕt]night.ERG boy.ABS {my house} {(s)he will have came}"the boy will have came to my house by night".In Circassian the verb being transitive or intransitive is of major importance in accounting for the contrast between the two cases ergative and absolutive.
The division into transitive and intransitive verbs is an important distinction because each group functions a bit differently in some grammatical aspects of the language.
Examples of transitive verbs with a direct object: Examples of transitive verbs with two objects: The absolutive case in Adyghe serves to mark the noun that its state changes by the verb (i.e. created, altered, moved or ended), for instance, in the English sentence "The man is dying", the man's state is changing (ending) by dying, so the man will get the absolutive case mark in Adyghe.
There are some exceptional transitive verbs that are trivalent by default without any increasing valency prefixes such as етын "to give".
For example, a verb by its set of morphemes can express subject's and object's person, place, time, manner of action, negative, and other types of grammatical categories.
Examples: This verbal suffix can also be used to designates continuum, meaning, an action that was paused in the past and is being continued.
Examples: The verbal suffix ~шъу (~ʃʷə) designates the ability to perform the indicated action.
Examples: The imperative mood of the second person singular has no additional affixes: When addressing to several people, The prefix шъу- /ʃʷə-/ is added: In Adyghe, the positional prefixes are expressing being in different positions and places and can also express the direction of the verb.
They can indicate the direction from different points of view by adding the fitting prefixes or changing the right vowels.
For example: The Cislocative prefix (marked as къы~ /q~/) is a type of verbal deixis that designates orientation towards the deictic center (origo), in the simplest case towards the speaker.
