The Republic of Adygea is part of the Russian Federation and is its first subject (01 region). The Adyghe language acquired its written language recently, although it is spoken by about 300 thousand people, mainly living in the North Caucasus. Previously, the people used only the oral form of expression of the language. Below we consider the history of the Adyghe alphabet, how many letters are in it and what phonetics. We will also find out what the state of the language being studied is today.
History of the Adyghe alphabet
The language of the nationality belongs to the Abkhaz-Adyghe group, the relationship of which can be traced by linguists with the ancient Hattian. The writing of this people did not have its own alphabetic basis before they began to write down their thoughts and traditions - the Circassians used only oral speech. Under the influence of the Turks, the Adyghe tried to write their language using Arabic script, but it was difficult.
Later, already inAt the beginning of the 20th century, there were attempts to write the language based on the Latin alphabet, but in 1938, with the approval of the USSR, it was decided to create the alphabet of the Adyghe language in Cyrillic.
The first alphabet from Russian letters was compiled by the scientist L. Ya. Lyulye, however, his alphabet could not convey the complex phonetics of the Russian language, since the scientist was not its native speaker.
The modern Adyghe alphabet in Cyrillic came into existence thanks to two outstanding scientists - N. F. Yakovlev and D. A. Ashkhamaf. The basis of the literary language is the Temirgoev dialect. By the way, the language spoken by individual tribes of the Circassians is poorly understood by native speakers of the literary language. In other words, there are still separate villages in the republic with their own special structures and words.
Phonetics of the Adyghe language
The difficulty of pronunciation has already been mentioned above. Indeed, the Adyghe language is very hissing. It captures many shades of pronunciation - the hardness and softness of the letters.
In order to express the rich phonetics of the Adyghe language, a large number of sounds, and hence letters, are needed. For them, the emphasis on the hardness of pronunciation is important. There are sounds that have no analogues in Russian.
Many sounds are pronounced transglotally, drawn out, or, conversely, quickly and abruptly.
In total there are 7 vowels and 57 consonants in the Adyghe language. The peculiarity of vowel sounds is that the letters "a", "e", "s", "o", y form the sounds "I a", "I e", "I s", "I o","I y".
"l" is a sign that is not a separate letter, but serves to express the pronunciation of exhalation. If this sign is in front of a vowel, then first you need to throw out the air, and then pronounce the usual "a", "e", "y", "o", "s". The presence or absence of this sign affects the meaning of the word.
Letters of the Adyghe alphabet
It is precisely because of the incredible complexity and uniqueness of the phonetics of letters in the language that there are more letters than in the Russian alphabet, and reading them is possible only with a native speaker, since only an Adyghe can read them correctly. In other words, the letters are Russian, but they are read and pronounced in Adyghe.
How many letters are there in the Adyghe alphabet? Yes, only 66 letters. Many of them are similar to Russian, but here you can find letters consisting of two or three letters.
For example, there are monosyllabic letters (these are all letters of the Russian alphabet). There are also disyllabic ones: "gu", "g", "j", "dz", "zh", "zh", "ku", "k", "to I", "l", "l I", "p I", "t I", "xb", "xx", "tsu", "c I", "ch", "h I", "sh", "sh I", "I y". And three-syllable ones: "gu", "dzu", "zhu", "kuu", "to I y", "n I y", "t I y", "huy", "shyu", "sh I y".
Alphabetthe Adyghe language turned out to be cumbersome, difficult for the perception of a Russian person. The difficulty arises from the lack of independent writing and its own language system. It is a young language that continues to develop under the influence of Russian.
Modern Adyghe language
The language is similar to the Kabardian-Circassian language, as the Kabardians and Circassians perfectly understand the Adyghe and vice versa.
Today, four dialects are spoken in the republic: Shapsug, Bzhedug, Abadzekh, Temirgoev. The latter, as mentioned above, is a literary language. The works of Dag writers of the 20th century are written on it, legends and life of ancient tribes, folk tales are described.
The remaining three dialects refer to the language of the ancestors of the Shapsug, Abadzekh and Bzhedug tribes. These are the most numerous and influential tribes living in the territory of the North Caucasus. And now, behind the scenes, there is a division of the Circassians into these families. Almost everyone knows what family their relatives belong to.
Now it is natural to mix these families, but some still retain their individuality and special dialect.
The people of Adygea protect their tongue
The people of the Circassians love their native language. In the republic, it is the second state after Russian, news programs are conducted on it, and literature is published. The authorities are trying to preserve the identity of their people and follow traditions. All Adyghes know Russian, but they study the Adyghe language in schools and institutes.
Thus, we found out thatThis language is very difficult to learn. In many ways, difficulties arise in the study of pronunciation, since the sounds of the Adyghe language do not coincide with Russian ones. The presence of a huge number of letters (twice as many as in Russian) complicates learning. Everyone who lives in the Republic of Adygea knows how to write the Adyghe alphabet in cursive, since the letters are from Cyrillic, that is, the letter is identical to Russian.
