Back to index

Adverbs

Avar Adverbs (Наречия)

Version: 1.0
Last Updated: May 26, 2026

This section is part of our living public grammar of Avar and is regularly updated to reflect the latest linguistic research, database enhancements, and morphological analyses.

Adverbs in Avar denote a characteristic of an action (manner, time, place) or the degree of another characteristic. The vast majority of adverbs are indeclinable, though a highly specific subset inflects for grammatical class.

Avar adverbs are notable for their extreme derivational productivity—they can be formed from nearly every other part of speech through specialized suffixes or the fossilization of case endings.

1. Syntactic Functions & Valency

Adverbs typically precede the word they modify. They combine with:

  • Verbs & Participles: лъикӀ хӀалтӀе (work well).
  • Adjectives & Other Adverbs: цӀакъ берцинаб (very beautiful), цӀакъ лъикӀго (very well).

While primarily acting as circumstantial modifiers, they can also function as:

  • Substantivized Subjects/Objects: Дида лъала дур жакъа-метер. ("I know your 'today-tomorrow' / procrastination").
  • Predicates: Досда доб ретӀел жеги цӀиго бугоан. ("That clothes on him were still new").
2. Class-Marked Adverbs

Most adverbs are frozen forms. However, a closed class of three spatial adverbs must agree with the absolutive noun in the clause:

Base Meaning Class I (-в) Class II (-й) Class III (-б) Plural (-р)
"like this/here" аскӀов аскӀой аскӀоб аскӀор
"in front" цеве цее цебе цере
"inside" жанив жаний жаниб жанир

Example: Вас (I) аскӀов вачӀана. (The boy came like this.) vs Чу (III) аскӀоб бачӀана. (The horse came like this.)

3. Productive Derivation Patterns

Adverbs are heavily derived from other parts of speech using specific suffixes.

3.1 From Demonstrative Pronouns
  • Suffix -дин: Adds a meaning of "like this/that", preserving spatial deixis.
    • гьаб (this, near me) → гьадин (in this way).
    • доб (that, far) → додин (in that way).
3.2 From Adjectives
  • Suffix -са / -иса: Forms dimensional/spatial adverbs.
    • гӀебаб (wide) → гӀебса (crosswise / in width).
    • квегӀаб (left) → квегӀиса (from the left).
3.3 From Verbs (Participles & Converbs)
  • Purpose (-духъ): Attached to participles. Drops the final class marker.
    • холаре(б) (not spoiling) → холаредухъ ("so as not to spoil").
  • State (-хъе): Attached to past converbs.
    • вегун (lying down) → вегухъе ("in a lying state").
3.4 From Numerals
  • Frequency (-цӀул): кӀицӀул (twice), лъабцӀул (thrice).
  • Ordinality (-абизе): кӀиабизе (secondly).
3.5 From Nouns
  • Manner (-д): квачӀ (paw) → квачӀид ("on tiptoes/hind legs").
  • Similes (-го on Locative II): бацӀихъе (LOC II) + -го → бацӀихъего ("like a wolf").
  • Privative (-къ on Archaic Genitive): Denotes absence. чед (bread) → чадикъ ("without bread / poor").
  • Temporal (-дал on Nominative): их (spring) → ихдал ("in spring").
3.6 The -са / -иса Suffix (Direction & Localization)

This non-productive suffix derives adverbs from almost any base:

  • From Adjectives: квегӀаб (left) → квегӀиса ("from the left").
  • From Converbs: бегун (turning) → бегуниса ("inside out").
  • From Nouns: хьибил (flank) → хьибилса ("sideways").
3.7 Zero-Derivation (Conversion)
  • Converbs to Adverbs: Converbs can lose their verbal force and become manner adverbs without morphological change. кӀутӀун (having knocked → "quickly").
  • Adjectives to Adverbs: Full-form adjectives can function as quantity adverbs. дагьаб (small → "little"), гӀемераб (plentiful → "much").
4. Fossilized Case Forms (Застывшие формы)

A massive source of Avar adverbs are noun case forms that have "fossilized" (frozen), losing their nominal object semantics and becoming pure adverbs of manner, time, or cause.

  • Ergative (Manner/Cause):
    • хӀал (force) → хӀалица ("with difficulty" / "forcibly").
  • Locative I (Manner):
    • жигар (zeal) → жигаралда ("zealously").
  • Locative II & Allative (Time/Manner):
    • сордо (night) → сардилъ (LOC II: "at night").
    • ракӀ (heart) → рекӀехъе (LOC II ALL: "by heart" / "naizust").
    • ццин (anger) → ццидакье (LOC II ALL: "angrily").
5. Emphatic & Compound Adverbs
5.1 The Emphatic Clitic -го

Simple adverbs frequently attach the enclitic -го to intensify their spatial or temporal extent.

  • сон (yesterday) → сонго ("as early as yesterday").
  • цебе (before) → цебего ("long ago").
5.2 Compound Adverbs
  • Reduplication: Iterative/distributive meaning.
    • къаси-къаси (in the evenings).
  • Antonymic Pairs: Totality/extremes.
    • къаси-къад (day and night).
  • Numeral Distributives: Requires -ккун.
    • цо-цоккун (one by one), кӀи-кӀиккун (two by two).
6. Interaction with Verbs (Analytical & Preverbs)

Adverbs play a critical role in Avar verbal morphology, compensating for the language's limited number of simple verbal roots.

  • Analytical Verbs: Spatial adverbs frequently combine with verbs to create a single semantic predicate.
    • тӀад къазе (on + put → "to entrust").
    • нахъе босизе (back + take → "to take back").
  • Preverbs: Historically, many directional adverbs fused directly with verbal roots to create lexicalized verbal units.
    • тӀад (above) → тӀочине (to sweep from above).