Besleney Kabardian dialect

The Besleney Kabardian dialect (Adyghe: Беслъэнеибзэ, Besłæneibzæ [bejsɬanejəbza]) is one of the East Circassian dialects and usually considered a dialect of Kabardian. However, because the Besleney tribe lived at the center of Circassia, the Besleney dialect also shares a large number of features with dialects of Western Circassian.

Like some other Kabardian dialects, the Besleney dialect has a palatalized voiced velar stop [ɡʲ] ⟨гь⟩, a palatalized voiceless velar stop [kʲ] ⟨кь⟩ and a palatalized velar ejective [kʲʼ] ⟨кӏь⟩ that were merged with дж [d͡ʒ], ч [t͡ʃ] and кӏ [t͡ʃʼ] in most Circassian dialects.^[1]

• Besleney гь [ɡʲ] became дж [d͡ʒ] in other dialects:

• Besleney кь [kʲ] became ч [t͡ʃ] in other dialects:

• Besleney кӏь [kʲʼ] became кӏ [t͡ʃʼ] in other dialects:

The palato-alveolar affricate consonants дж [d͡ʒ], ч [t͡ʃ] and кӏ [t͡ʃʼ] and the retroflex affricate consonants чъ [ʈʂ] and чӏ [ʈʂʼ] became palato-alveolar дж [d͡ʒ], дж [d͡ʒ], кӏ [t͡ʃʼ], дж [d͡ʒ] and кӏ [t͡ʃʼ] in Besleney while in Kabardian they became alveolo-palatal ж [ʒ], ж [ʒ], щӏ [ɕʼ], ж [ʒ] and щӏ [ɕʼ].^[2][3]

• Western ч [t͡ʃ] became дж [d͡ʒ] in Besleney and ж [ʒ] in Kabardian :

• Western кӏ [t͡ʃʼ] survived in Besleney and became щӏ [ɕʼ] in Kabardian :

• Western чъ [ʈʂ] became дж [d͡ʒ] in Besleney and ж [ʒ] in Kabardian :

• Besleney чъ [t͡ʂ] ↔ ш [ʃ] in other dialects:

• Hakuchi Adyghe dialect
• Shapsug Adyghe dialect
• Bzhedug Adyghe Dialect
• Abzakh Adyghe dialect

• UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive - Recording Details for Kabardian Beslenei dialect