Majda

Kabardian Amman, Jordan

Kabardian is a Circassian language of the Caucasus region, specifically what is today the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic. The majority of Circassians were forced into exile for resisting Russian conquest in the mid-19th century and migrated to Turkey, the Middle East, and eventually the United States. Consequently, the future of Kabardian, as well as other Circassian languages, hangs in large part on an international diaspora where it competes with languages such as Turkish, Arabic, Russian and English.

Kabardian is famous among linguists for its extremely rich inventory of consonants and small number of vowels (by one analysis, no vowels at all!). It is also well known for its extremely complex word structure, which contains affixes that refer to subtle differences in types of motion and location as well as different relations between the participants of an action.

Majdalin Habjawqua Hilmi (1930-2017) was born in Amman, Jordan, home to a large segment of the Circassian diaspora, and immigrated to New York with her family in 1971, where she worked as a language teacher. She fought tirelessly for the continuation of Circassian language, culture and identity both among the diaspora and the Circassian homeland. She taught herself how to read and write in the language and served as the principal consultant for linguist John Colarusso, who wrote the most comprehensive descriptive grammar of the language to date. Every week, while she was already in her mid-80s, she would walk from her home to ELA’s office to help advance the documentation of her language and record a large collection of phrases for language learners.