Ubykh is a North Caucasian language (Abkhazo-Adygan branch) formerly spoken in Circassia, in the northwest Caucasus. The recording here was made in 1989 by J.C. Catford of the last living speaker of the language, Tevfik Esenɕ.

Ubykh is well-known for its large consonantal inventory (80 segments by some analyses). This inventory includes 12 sibilant fricatives, which exhibit a rare four-way system contrasting voiced and voiceless "hissing" dentialveolar [s]; "hissing-hushing" [ŝ], with features both of alveolar and postalveolar sibilants; apical postalveolar [ʂ]; and laminal postalveolar [ɕ]. In addition, the "hissing-hushing" and laminal postalveolar sibilants may occur with a secondary, labialized articultion.

The sound [ŝ] resembles [ʂ] and [ɕ] in that it has a postalveolar articulation. Like alveolar [s], however, the characteristic sublingual cavity associated with [ʂ] and [ɕ] is absent in [ŝ].