Editing Ubykh language (section)

==Major features==
Ubykh is distinguished by the following features, some of which are shared with other Northwest Caucasian languages:

* It is [[ergative–absolutive language|ergative]], making no syntactic distinction between the [[subject (grammar)|subject]] of an [[intransitive verb|intransitive]] sentence and the [[direct object]] of a [[transitive verb|transitive]] sentence. [[Split ergativity]] plays only a small part, if at all.
* It is highly [[Agglutination|agglutinating]] and [[Polysynthetic language|polysynthetic]], using mainly monosyllabic or bisyllabic roots, but with single [[morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] words sometimes reaching nine or more syllables in length: {{IPA|/ɜχʲɜzbɜtɕʼɜʁɜwdɨtʷɐjlɜfɜqʼɜjtʼmɜdɜχ/}} ('if only you had not been able to make him take [it] all out from under me again for them'). [[Affix]]es rarely fuse in any way.
* It has a simple [[noun|nominal]] system, contrasting just three [[noun case]]s, and not always marking [[grammatical number]] in the direct case.
* Its system of [[Grammatical conjugation#Verbal agreement|verbal agreement]] is quite complex. English verbs must agree only with the subject; Ubykh verbs must agree with the subject, the direct object and the [[indirect object]], and [[benefactive]] objects must also be marked in the verb.
* It is [[phonology|phonologically]] complex as well, with 84 distinct [[consonant]]s (four of which, however, appear only in [[loan word]]s). It has three phonemic vowels [{{IPA link|ɐ}} {{IPA link|ɜ}} {{IPA link|ɨ}}] which correspond to Dumézil's [aa a ə] respectively and this is evident in the minimal triplet of {{IPA|/ɐsʃɨn/}} ('I milk X'), {{IPA|/ɐsʃɜn/}} ('I reap X'), and {{IPA|/ɐsʃɐn/}} ('I milk them; I reap them').{{sfn|Fenwick|2011|p=25}}