Ubykh was a polysynthetic language with a high degree of agglutination that had an ergative-absolutive alignment.
Nouns
Plurality Ubykh nouns do not mark plurality and the only case that displays plurality is the relational suffix -. Otherwise plurality is shown either by suppletive verb roots (e.g. 'he is in the car' vs. 'they are in the car') or by verb suffixes: ('he goes'), ('they go').
Definiteness The definite article is (e.g. 'the man'). There is no indefinite article directly equivalent to the English a or an, but -(root)- (literally 'one'-(root)-'certain') translates French un : e.g. ('a certain young man').
Cases There are two core cases and four non-core cases in Ubykh. The core cases are: relational, absolutive; the non-core cases are: adverbial, locative, instrumental, and instrumental-comitative.
+Ubykh casessingularpluralrelational - -absolutive -adverbial -locative -instrumental -instrumental-comitative -
Relational case This case displays ergative, genitive, and dative functions. It is marked with - in the singular and - in the plural and is the only case that has a distinction in plurality.
Absolutive case Marked with the bare root; this indicates the subject of an intransitive sentence and the direct object of a transitive sentence (e.g. 'a man').
Adverbial case This is marked with - and has the primary function of marking essive and translative functions of nouns.
Locative case Marked in -, which is the equivalent of English in, on or at.
Instrumental case Marked with - and was also treated as a case in Dumézil (1975). This is similar to "by means of" in English.
Instrumental-Comitative case Marked with - and broadly means "with".
Other suffixes There is also a pair of suffixes that have been noted to be synthetic datives but are not cases in their own right: - ('to[wards]') and - ('for') e.g. 'I will send it to the prince'.
Adjectives In Ubykh, adjectives do not decline in any way and are suffixed to the noun that they modify: ('pepper') with ('red') becomes ('red pepper').
Pronouns Free pronouns in all North-West Caucasian languages lack an ergative-absolutive distinction. +Free personal pronouns1st Person2nd Person3rd PersonNormalJocularSingularStandardAli BilaşPluralStandardTevfik EsençOsman Güngür The "standard" pronouns are displayed along with variations that particular speakers used due to rapid speech. All speakers condemned Tevfik Esenç's usage of and he even accepted the correction but all recordings of Tevfik contain regardless.
Possessive
+Possessive pronouns1st Person2nd Person3rd PersonNormalJocularSingular----Plural---
Possessed nouns have their plurality marked with the affix .
Verbs
Verb Template The Ubykh verb template is quite complex with 26 slots for the verb.
Interrogative / subordinative prefixes absolutive agreement marker or a prefixed interrogative pronoun Oblique-1 marker agreeing with slot 4 Relational preverb Incorporated noun or Oblique-2 marker Local preverb - or - Generic preverb Orientational preverb - Ergative preverb marker Negation in the dynamic and imperfect tenses or polite imperative Causative stem Intensifying suffix Habitual aspect Iterative aspect Exhaustive aspect Excessive aspect Continual aspect Potential aspect Plural marker Tense Plural marker for dynamic past, conditional II, and stative present. Negation in all tenses except for dynamic present Affect marker Mood or converb markers Conjunctive elements
Agreement Oblique 1 markers are limited to marking the agreement of a noun before a relational preverb and Oblique 2 markers are used for not only marking agreement with local and directional preverbs but also the simple oblique, or dative, arguments. +Pronominal Agreement MarkersAbsolutiveOblique (1 and 2)ErgativeFirst Personsg. ~ ~ pl. ~ ~ Second Personsg.pl. ~ ~ sg. (joc., arc.)Third Personsg.pl. The second-person is an archaic pronoun used to indicate that the person being referred to is a female, or heckling the speaker in some way. It became extinct before the death of the language due to all of the last speakers being male.
The third person agreement markers have a fair amount of variation due to the rules it must follow. +absolutive markersMarkerRuleExampleNo other third person object is present in the sentence. "(s)he said" – "I see it"Appears when the following marker is also third person singular. "X hits Y"This is a rare allophone of and usually appears when the marker carries stress. "X digs Y"This appears when the following marker is third person plural. "we give X to them" The plural markers exist in the same rules as the singular rules with the exception that singular can be deleted but plural cannot.
Dynamic verb conjugation Dynamic Ubykh verbs are split up in two groups: Group I which contain the simple tenses and Group II which contain derived counterpart tenses. Only the Karaclar dialect uses the progressive tense and the plural is unknown.
The singular-plural distinction is used when the subject, the ergative, is singular or plural.
Square brackets indicate elided vowels; parentheses indicate optional parts of the stem; and the colon indicates the boundary of a morpheme. +verb conjugationGroup ISingularPluralSimple past --Mirative past--Present--Future I--Future II--(Progressive)-?Group IIPluperfect-- ~ -/qʼɜ:nɜ:jtʼ/Imperfect--Conditional I--Conditional II--
Simple past The verbs in the simple past tense are conjugated with - in the singular and - in the plural.
Examples:
– to say → (s)he said – to eat → (s)he ate – to know → (s)he knew – to go → (s)he went
PluralityPersonUbykhMeaningSingularFirst-personI ateSecond-personyou ateThird-person(s)he atePluralFirst-personwe ateSecond-personyou (all) ateThird-personthey ate
Mirative past The verbs in the mirative past tense are conjugated with - in the singular and - in the plural.
Examples:
– to say → (s)he said apparently – to eat → (s)he ate apparently – to know → (s)he knew apparently – to go → (s)he went apparently
PluralityPersonUbykhMeaningSingularFirst-personI ate apparentlySecond-personyou ate apparentlyThird-person(s)he ate apparentlyPluralFirst-personwe ate apparentlySecond-personyou (all) ate apparentlyThird-personthey ate apparently
Present The verbs in the present tense are conjugated with - in the singular and - in the plural.
Examples:
– to say → (s)he says – to eat → (s)he eats – to know → (s)he knows – to go → (s)he goes
PluralityPersonUbykhMeaningSingularFirst-personI eatSecond-personyou eatThird-person(s)he eatsPluralFirst-personwe eatSecond-personyou (all) eatThird-personthey eat
Future I The verbs in the future I tense are conjugated with - in the singular and - in the plural. It conveys a sense of certainty, immediacy, obligation, or intentionality.
Examples:
– to say → (s)he certainly will say – to eat → (s)he certainly will eat – to know → (s)he certainly will know – to go → (s)he certainly will go
PluralityPersonUbykhMeaningSingularFirst-personI certainly will eatSecond-personyou certainly will eatThird-person(s)he certainly will eatPluralFirst-personwe certainly will eatSecond-personyou (all) certainly will eatThird-personthey certainly will eat
Future II The verbs in the future II tense are conjugated with - in the singular and - in the plural. It conveys a generic sense of the future as well as an exhortative sense such as: (let's go!).
Examples:
– to say → (s)he will say – to eat → (s)he will eat – to know → (s)he will know – to go → (s)he will go
PluralityPersonUbykhMeaningSingularFirst-personI will eatSecond-personyou will eatThird-person(s)he will eatPluralFirst-personwe will eatSecond-personyou (all) will eatThird-personthey will eat
Pluperfect The verbs in the pluperfect tense are conjugated with - in the singular and - in the plural. It conveys [TODO]
Examples:
– to say → (s)he had said – to eat → (s)he had eaten – to know → (s)he had known – to go → (s)he had gone
PluralityPersonUbykhMeaningSingularFirst-personI had eatenSecond-personyou had eatenThird-person(s)he had eatenPluralFirst-personwe had eatenSecond-personyou (all) had eatenThird-personthey had eaten
Imperfect The verbs in the imperfect tense are conjugated with - in the singular and either - in the plural. It conveys a sense of
Examples:
– to say → (s)he was saying, (s)he used to say – to eat → (s)he was eating, (s)he used to eatk – to know → (s)he was knowing, (s)he used to know – to go → (s)he was going, (s)he used to go
PluralityPersonUbykhMeaningSingularFirst-personI was eating, I used to eatSecond-personyou were eating, you used to eatThird-person(s)he was eating, (s)he used to eatPluralFirst-personwe were eating, we used to eatSecond-personyou (all) were eating, you (all) used to eatThird-personthey were eating, they used to eat
Conditional I The verbs in the conditional I tense are conjugated with - in the singular and - in the plural. It conveys a sense of uncertainty but also a kind of future-in-the-past if the situation had been reversed.
Examples:
– to say → (s)he would have said – to eat → (s)he would have eaten – to know → (s)he would have known – to go → (s)he would have gone
PluralityPersonUbykhMeaningSingularFirst-personI would have eatenSecond-personyou would have eatenThird-person(s)he would have eatenPluralFirst-personwe would have eatenSecond-personyou (all) would have eatenThird-personthey would have eaten
Conditional II The verbs in the conditional II tense are conjugated with - in the singular and - in the plural. It conveys a sense of certainty and intention but also a kind of future-in-the-past if the situation had been reversed.
Examples:
– to say → (s)he was going to say – to eat → (s)he was going to eat – to know → (s)he was going to know – to go → (s)he was going to go
PluralityPersonUbykhMeaningSingularFirst-personI was going to eatSecond-personyou were going to eatThird-person(s)he was going to eatPluralFirst-personwe were going to eatSecond-personyou (all) were going to eatThird-personthey were going to eat
Static verb conjugation In all dialects and speakers, only two static tenses exist: present and past. +SingularPluralPresent--Past--
Aspect There are five basic aspects that exist besides the aspects that exist within the Ubykh tense system. They are: habitual, iterative, exhaustive, excessive, and potential.
A few meanings covered in English by adverbs or auxiliary verbs are given in Ubykh by verb suffixes.
A speaker may combine one of these aspects with another to convey more complex aspects in conjunction with the tenses. +AspectSuffixExample with ('to eat')Example with ('to drink')UbykhEnglishUbykhEnglishhabitual-I eat it all the timeI drink it all the timeiterative-I eat it againI drink it againexhaustive-I am eating it all upI am drinking it all upexcessive-I eat it too muchI drink it too muchpotential-I can eat itI can drink it +example of Ubykh verbal aspectssimplehabitualiterativeexhaustiveexcessivepotentialSingularFirst-personSecond-personThird-personPluralFirst-personSecond-personThird-person
Mood There are eleven distinct moods in Ubykh: indicative; direct, polite, and emphatic imperative; potential and frustrative optative; irrealis and realis conditional; binary and complex interrogative.
Indicative There is no marker for the indicative mood.
Imperative moods There are two forms of the imperative: a formal, more polite imperative and a direct, curt imperative.
Direct The direct imperative is usually the omission of the singular tense marker:Versus in the plural:
Polite This is formed by adding a - suffix to the verb root. This, however, is sometimes omitted.
Emphatic This is formed by adding - to the end of an imperative verb.
Optative moods There are two forms of optative present: potential and frustrative optative.
Potential