Adjectives §

The main thing you should know about Kaitag adjectives is their positioning and predicate role.

When adjectives preced the main word, they can and usually are given in short, pure form:

• ** ҡяр** "a sweet pear"
• итӏин жуже "a red flower"

When adjectives serve as the head of sentence or clause, they must have suffix that turns them into nouns.

• Ьеж жуже ччаккоце це. "the flower is beautiful."
• Ьеяр бицците це. "The pear are tasty."

The same positional logic applies to the three verbal participles (-ив, -иж, -ан) that can act as adjectives:

• Убал хурег барив. "Mother prepared a meal."
• убал барив хурег "the meal prepared by mother"
• Рирси рулчӏан. "The girl studies."
• рулчӏан рирси "a studying girl"

Similarly, some nouns can act as adjectives when placed in preceeding positions:

• баьадур мургул "a heroic man"
• мургул баьадур де "the man was a hero"
• авдал уршбе "stupid guys"
• уршбе авдалте де "the guys were idiots"

Agreement §

The adjective must agree with class and number.

For singular, the suffix is -це when adjective ends with a vowel and is -ил when it ends with a consonant. For plurals the suffix is always -те.

• бяъ буҡуце це "the wall is yellow"
• бяъ шинишил це "the wall is green"
• бяъруме шиниште це "the walls are green"

Some adjectives have class slot that must obey the general class-person agreemet rules:

• буцӏар бар "hot day"
• дуцӏар бирме "hot days"
• Ьештти дул чидаживте аччу "These are not the ones that I've seen (i.e. seen by me)."

Conjugation §

The marked ejectives are effectively nouns and can receive cases. The oblique case for -це is -чи-, and for -те it's the usual -та-:

• шинишилла баьа "the price of the green one"
• шиништала баьа "the price of the green ones"
• никӏочий беччив "gave it to the little one"
• никӏотай беччив "gave it to the little ones"

Adverbs §

Any adjective can be turned into adverb by suffix -ле, shortened to -л after vowels. The adverbs usually come before verbs or copulas

• ччаккол баривде "you did it beautifully"
• ттура гунал де "[it was] warm outside"
• ҡяр музил це "the pear is [tasting] strongly sweet"

The preterit verbal participles also can be turned into adverbs, in which case they act as perfective forms. They have special reduced forms — -ив → -ил, -ур → -ул, -ун → -ун — and their stress always moves to the start of the word.

• убал хурег барил це "mother has prepared meal"
• атта цағил де "father had arrived"