Standard Ubykh Phonology

Below is an International Phonetic Alphabet representation of the Standard Ubykh consonant inventory.

1. Note the large number of basic series; Ubykh has basic consonants at nine places of articulation.
2. The glottal stop [ʔ] is also noted, but only as an allophone of /qʼ/.
3. The three postalveolar series have traditionally been called "postalveolar", "alveolo-palatal", and "retroflex", respectively, and have been transcribed with their associated symbols.
4. The laminal and apical postalveolar series are more accurately transcribed as /ʃ̻/ and /ʃ̺/, respectively.
5. There is no standard IPA notation for the laminal-closed postalveolar series. They are transcribed ⟨ŝ⟩, ⟨ẑ⟩, ⟨t͡ŝ⟩, etc. by Catford, or sometimes as ⟨ʆ⟩, ⟨ʓ⟩, ⟨t͜ʆ⟩, etc.
6. The velar stops /k/ /ɡ/ /kʼ/ and the labiodental fricative /v/ are only found in Turkish and Circassian loanwords.
7. Out of the labials, the fricatives /v/ /vˤ/ /f/ are labiodental, the others bilabial.
8. /tʷ, dʷ, tʷʼ/ were in free variation with [t͡p, d͡b, t͡pʼ].^[2][3]

All but four of the 84 consonants are found in native vocabulary. The plain velars /k/ /ɡ/ /kʼ/ and the voiced labiodental fricative /v/ are found mainly in loans and onomatopoeia: /ɡaarɡa/ ('crow') from Turkish karga), /kawar/ ('slat, batten') from Laz k'avari 'roofing shingle'), /makʼəf/ ('estate, legacy') from Turkish vakıf), /vər/ ('the sound of glass breaking'). As well, the pharyngealised labial consonants /pˤ/ /pˤʼ/ are almost exclusively noted in words where they are associated with another pharyngealised consonant (for instance, /qˤʼaapˤʼa/ 'handful'), but are occasionally found outside this context (for example, the verb root /tʼaapˤʼ/ 'to explode, to burst'). Finally, /h/ is mainly found in interjections and loans, with /hənda/ ('now') the only real native word to contain the phoneme. The frequency of consonants in Ubykh is quite variable; the phoneme /n/ alone accounts for over 12% of all consonants encountered in connected text, due to the presence of the phoneme in the ergative and oblique singular and plural case suffixes, the third person singular and plural ergative verbal agreement prefix, the adverbial derivative suffix, the present and imperfect tense suffixes, and in suffixes denoting several non-finite verb forms.

Very few allophones of consonants are noted, mainly because a small acoustic difference can be phonemic when so many consonants are involved. However, the alveolopalatal labialised fricatives /ɕʷ ʑʷ/ were sometimes realised as alveolar labialised fricatives [sʷ zʷ], and the uvular ejective stop /qʼ/ was often pronounced as a glottal stop [ʔ] in the past tense suffix -/qʼa/, due to the influence of the Kabardian and Adyghe languages.

The consonant /pˤ/ has not been attested word-initially, and /pˤʼ/ is found initially only in the personal name /pˤʼapˤʼəʒʷ/, but every other consonant can begin a word. Restrictions on word-final consonants have not yet been investigated; however, Ubykh has a slight preference for open syllables (CV) over closed ones (VC or CVC). The pharyngealised consonants /mˤ/ and /wˤ/ have not been noted word-finally, but this is probably a statistical anomaly due to the rarity of these consonants, each being attested only in a handful of words.

The alveolar trill /r/ is not common in native Ubykh vocabulary, appearing mostly in loan words. However, the phoneme carries a phonaesthetic concept of rolling or a repeated action in a few verbs, notably /bəqˤʼəda/ ~ /bəqˤʼərda/ ('to roll around') and /χˤʷəχˤʷəda/ ~ /χˤʷəχˤʷərda/ ('to slither').

Karacalar Ubykh Phonology

A divergent dialect of Ubykh spoken by Osman Güngör, an inhabitant of Karacalar in Balıkesir province^[4] was investigated by Georges Dumézil in the 1960s.^[5] Below is an International Phonetic Alphabet representation of the Karacalar Ubykh consonant inventory.

Güngör's speech differed phonologically from Standard Ubykh in a number of ways:

• the labialised alveolar stops /dʷ/ /tʷ/ /tʷʼ/ have merged into the corresponding bilabial stops /b/ /p/ /pʼ/.
• The labialised alveolopalatal fricatives /ɕʷ/ /ʑʷ/ have merged with their postalveolar counterparts /ʃʷ/ /ʒʷ/.
• /ɣ/ seems to have disappeared.
• Pharyngealisation is no longer distinctive, surviving only on the lexemes /abˤa/ ('to be ill') and /qˤʷə/ ('to bark'), and being replaced in many instances by gemination (standard /wˤa/ ('dog') → Karacalar /wːa/), and in at least one instance by ejectivisation (standard /tsaqˤapˤə/ ('roasted maize') → Karacalar /tsaqʼapʼə/).
• Palatalisation of the uvular consonants is no longer phonemic, also being replaced in many instances by gemination (standard /qʲa/ ('to cough') → Karacalar /qːa/).
• The voiced retroflex affricate /ɖʐ/ has, at least in some cases, merged with /dʒ/.