Proto-Circassian language

Proto-Circassian (or Proto-Adyghe–Kabardian) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Adyghean and Kabardian languages.

In bisyllabic roots, two possible places of accent are reconstructed, with the following development of structures in descendant languages:

In other words, Adyghe retains the distinction between *a and *ǝ in the 2nd syllable, if it was originally stressed; the 2nd syllable vowel is dropped in originally unstressed syllables. Kabardian retains the distinction uniformly, by dropping *ǝ but not *a. Both groups retain the quality distinction in the first syllable, and additionally display a long vowel in roots of the original shape *CaCa (regardless of stress).

The consonant system is reconstructed with a four-way phonation contrast in stops and affricates, and a two-way contrast in fricatives.

Proto-Circassian plain voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate чь [t͡ɕ] also become чъ [t͡ʂ] in the Temirgoy and Bzhedug dialect, ш [ʃ] in the Abzakh dialect but ж [ʒ] in the Kabardian dialect.

In the Proto-Circassian language there exist a palatalized voiced velar stop [ɡʲ] ⟨гь⟩, a palatalized aspirated voiceless velar stop [kʰʲ], a palatalized voiceless velar stop [kʲ] ⟨кь⟩ and a palatalized velar ejective [kʲʼ] ⟨кӏь⟩. The consonants гь [ɡʲ], кь [kʲ] and кӏь [kʲʼ] survive in the Shapsug dialect (e.g. Kfar Kama dialect), in the Besleney dialect and in the Uzunyayla dialect. In other Circassian dialects they were merged with the palato-alveolar consonants дж [d͡ʒ], ч [t͡ʃ] and кӏ [t͡ʃʼ] respectively. Proto-Circassain unaspirated кь [kʲ] become гь [ɡʲ] in Besleney dialect and Uzunyayla dialect and it become дж [d͡ʒ] in the other Kabardian dialects (кь [kʲ] → гь [ɡʲ] → дж [d͡ʒ]).

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