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Abaza (абаза бызшва, abaza byzshwa; ) is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken by Abazins in Russia. The language has gone through several different orthographies based primarily on Latin and Cyrillic letters. Its consonant-to-vowel ratio is remarkably high; making it quite similar to many other languages from the same parent chain. The language evolved in popularity in the mid to late 1800s, but has become an endangered language.
Abaza is spoken by approximately 35,000 people in Russia, where it is written in a Cyrillic script, as well as another 10,000 in Turkey, where the Latin script is used. It consists of two dialects, the Ashkherewa dialect and the T'ap'anta dialect, which is the literary standard. The language also consists of five subdialects known as Psyzh-Krasnovostok, Abazakt, Apsua, Kubin-Elburgan and Kuvin.
Abaza, like its relatives in the family of Northwest Caucasian languages, is a highly agglutinative language. For example, the verb in the English sentence "He couldn't make them give it back to her" contains four arguments (a term used in valency grammar): he, them, it, to her. Abaza marks arguments morphologically, and incorporates all four arguments as Pronoun on the verb.Dixon, R.M.W. (2000). "A Typology of Causatives: Form, Syntax, and Meaning". In Dixon, R.M.W. & Aikhenvald, Alexendra Y. Changing Valency: Case Studies in Transitivity. Cambridge University Press. p 57
It has a large consonantal inventory (63 phonemes) coupled with a minimal vowel inventory (two vowels). It is very closely related to Abkhaz language, but it preserves a few phonemes which Abkhaz lacks, such as a voiced pharyngeal fricative. Work on Abaza has been carried out by W. S. Allen, Brian O'Herin, and John Colarusso.
Abaza speakers along the Greater and Lesser Laba, Urup, and Greater and Lesser Zelenchuk rivers are from a wave of migrants in the 17th to 18th centuries who represent the Abaza speakers of today. The end of the Great Caucasian War in 1864 provided Russia with power and control of the local regions and contributed to the decrease in the popularity of pre-existing local languages prior to the war.
The Abaza language was not a written language until the Latin alphabet was adopted in 1932–1933 to write it. The Cyrillic script was later utilized to write the language in 1938. A small amount of books, pamphlets, and a newspaper were published in the Abaza language afterwards.
The vowels may have a in front of it. The vowels and are allophones of and (respectively) before palatalized consonants, while the vowels and are allophones of and (respectively) before labialized consonants. The vowels , , , and can also occur as variants of the sequences //, //, // and //.
| A a | B ʙ | C c | Ç ç | D d | E e | F f | ꟻ |
| G g | Ɡ | H ɦ | Ɥ ɥ | I i | J j | ||
| K k | Ⱪ ⱪ | L l | L̦ l̦ | M m | N n | O o | P p |
| Q q | Ꝗ ꝗ | Ƣ ƣ | R r | S s | Ş ş | ||
| T t | Ț ț | U u | V v | X x | X x | y | |
| Z z | Z̧ z̧ | Ƶ ƶ | Ʒ ʒ | /tɕʼʷ/ | /tɕʷ/ | ||
| Ь ь | I ı |
| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Гв гв | Гъ гъ | Гъв гъв | Гъь гъь |
| Гь гь | Гӏ гӏ | Гӏв гӏв | Д д | Дж дж | Джв джв | Джь джь | Дз дз |
| Е е | Ё ё | Ж ж | Жв жв | Жь жь | З з | И и | Short I |
| К к | Кв кв | Къ къ | Къв къв | Къь къь | Кь кь | Кӏ кӏ | Кӏв кӏв |
| Кӏь кӏь | Л л | Ль ль | Лӏ лӏ | М м | Н н | О о | П п |
| Пӏ пӏ | Р р | С с | Т т | Тл тл | Тш тш | Тӏ тӏ | У у |
| Ф ф | Фӏ фӏ | Х х | Хв хв | Хъ хъ | Хъв хъв | Хь хь | Хӏ хӏ |
| Хӏв хӏв | Ц ц | Цӏ цӏ | Ч ч | Чв чв | Чӏ чӏ | Чӏв чӏв | Ш ш |
| Шв шв | Шӏ шӏ | Shcha | Hard sign | Yery | Э э | Ю ю | Я я |
The digraphs Лӏ and Фӏ are dialectal, and are therefore absent from the literary language and the official alphabet.
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