The current state of the baksan dialect of the kabardino-cherkess language

The article examines the current state of the Baksan dialect in comparison with the literary Kabardian-Cherkessian language. It is based on the monographic studies of Adyghe scholars who studied the dialects and vernaculars of the Kabardian-Cherkessian language in the 1960s. The article uses descriptive, comparative-historical, and contrastive linguistic methods. The field material covering the spoken language of the residents of Baksan and the villages of Baksanenok, Islamey, Dugulubgey, and Kishpek in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic was subjected to a comprehensive analysis. A comparative analysis of K.T. Mamreshev's research and the current state of the Baksan dialect revealed phonetic and lexical differences from the literary Kabardian-Circassian language. It was established that in the Baksan dialect, the copula suffix -s was preserved in the speech of all ages and both sexes, instead of -sh; the negative suffix -Iym was preserved instead of -kym. A linguistic analysis of the spoken language of the studied linguistic area has shown that the affrication of the back-tongue consonants gʼ, kʼ, and chIʼ into j, ch, and kI has not yet been completed in the modern Baksan dialect. The analysis also revealed a small layer of vocabulary that differs from the literary language. It is concluded that there are minor deviations from the literary norm of the Kabardian-Cherkessian language in the phonetic and lexical systems of the modern Baksan dialect.