Kabardian
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Fact corner
- Language: Kabardian
- Alternate names: Beslenei, Upper Circassian, East Circassian, Kabardino-Cherkes, Kabardo-Cherkes
- SIL-code: Ethnologue:kbd
- Language family: North Caucasian, West Caucasian, Circassian
- Number of speakers: 1,012,000
- Script: Cyrillic script
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Introduction
The Kabardian language is closely related to the Adyghe language, both members of the Northwest Caucasian language family, mainly spoken in Kabardino-Balkar Republic and Karachay-Cherkess Republic of Russia (the native territories) and in Turkey and the Middle East (the residence of the extensive post-war diaspora).
It has 47 or 48 consonant phonemes of which 22 or 23 are fricatives, depending upon whether one counts [h] as phonemic, but this is contrasted with just two phonemic vowels. It is one of very few languages to possess a clear phonemic distinction between ejective affricates and ejective fricatives.
The verb
Like all Northwest Caucasian languages, Kabardian has an extremely complex verbal system.
Samples
- къэкIуащ, qek'wasch he came
- дылэжьащ, dilezchasch we worked
- уеджащ, weijasch you (singular) studied