Editing Northwest Caucasian languages (section)

==Classification==
[[File:Northwest Caucasian Family Tree.JPG|thumb|upright=1.5|right|Northwest Caucasian family tree]]
{{Pie chart|label1=[[Kabardian language|Kabardian]]|label2=[[Adyghe language|Adyghe]]|label3=[[Abkhaz language|Abkhaz]]|label4=[[Abaza language|Abaza]]|label5=[[Ubykh language|Ubykh]]|color1=white|color2=yellow|color3=blue|color4=red|color5=black|value1=67.0|value2=23.5|value3=7.6|value4=1.9|value5=0|caption=Percentage of total Northwest Caucasian speakers, by language}}
{{See also|Proto-Northwest Caucasian language}}

There are five recognized languages in the Northwest Caucasian family: [[Abkhaz language|Abkhaz]], [[Abaza language|Abaza]], [[Kabardian language|Kabardian]] or East Circassian, [[Adyghe language|Adyghe]] or West Circassian, and [[Ubykh language|Ubykh]].<ref name=EB/><ref>Chirikba, Viacheslav (1996); p. 452</ref> They are classified as follows:

{{tree list}}
* '''Northwest Caucasian family'''
** [[Abazgi languages|Abkhaz–Abaza]] (Abazgi)
*** [[Abaza language|Abaza]] (49,800 speakers)
*** [[Abkhaz language|Abkhaz]] (190,110 speakers)
** [[Circassian language|Circassian]]
*** [[Adyghe language|Adyghe]] (590,000)
*** [[Kabardian language|Kabardian]] (1,685,000)
** [[Ubykh language|Ubykh]] †
{{tree list/end}}

===Circassian dialect continuum===
{{See also|Circassian language|Proto-Circassian language}}
[[Circassian language|Circassian]] (Cherkess) is a cover term for the series of dialects that include the literary languages of Adyghe and Kabardian.

====Adyghe====
[[Adyghe language|Adyghe]] is one of the more widely spoken Northwest Caucasian languages. It has 500,000 speakers spread throughout [[Russia]] and the [[Middle East]]: 280,000 in [[Turkey]]; 125,000 in Russia, where it is official in the [[Republic of Adygea]]; 45,000 in [[Jordan]], 25,000 in [[Syria]], 20,000 in [[Iraq]], and 4,000 in [[Israel]]. There is even a small community in the [[United States]]. Four main dialects are recognised: [[Temirgoy]], [[Abadzekh]], [[Shapsugh]] and [[Bzhedugh]], as well as many minor ones such as [[Hakuchi Adyghe|Hakuchi]] spoken by the last speakers of Ubykh in Turkey. Adyghe has many consonants: between 50 and 60 consonants in the various Adyghe dialects but it has only three phonemic vowels. Its consonants and consonant clusters are less complex than the Abkhaz–Abaza dialects.
[[File:WIKITONGUES- Yinal speaking Adyghe and Kabardian.webm|thumb|Yinal speaking Adyghe and Kabardian.]]

====Kabardian====
[[Kabardian language|Kabardian]] has just over one million speakers: 550,000 in [[Turkey]] and 450,000 in [[Russia]], where it is an official language of the republics of [[Kabardino-Balkaria]] and [[Karachay–Cherkessia]]. Kabardian has the fewest consonants of any North-Western Caucasian language, with 48, including some rather unusual [[ejective consonant|ejective]] [[fricative consonant|fricative]]s and a small number of vowels. Kabardian itself has several dialects, including Terek, the literary standard, and Besleney, which is intelligible with both Terek and [[Adyghe language|Adyghe]]. Unlike the Adyghe, Kabardian lost many of the consonants that existed in the [[Proto-Circassian language]], for example, the consonants {{IPA|/ʃʷʼ, ʐʷ, ʂʷ, ʐ, ʂ, tsʷ, dzʷ/}} became {{IPA|/fʼ, v, f, ʑ, ɕ, f, v/}}.

===Abkhaz–Abaza (Abazgi) dialect continuum===
{{See also|Abazgi|Proto-Abazgi language}}

====Abkhaz====
[[Abkhaz language|Abkhaz]] has 100,000 speakers in [[Abkhazia]] (a ''de facto'' independent republic, but a ''de jure'' autonomous entity within [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]), where it is the official language, and an unknown number of speakers in [[Turkey]].  It has been a literary language from the beginning of the 20th century. Abkhaz and Abaza may be said to be dialects of the same language, but each preserves phonemes which the other has lost. Abkhaz is characterised by unusual consonant clusters and one of the world's smallest vowel inventories: It has only two distinctive vowels, an open vowel /a/ and a mid vowel /ə/. Next to [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]] or [[labialization|labialized]] consonants, /a/ is realized as [e] or [o], and /ə/ as [i] or [u]. There are three major [[dialect]]s: [[Abzhuy]] and [[Bzyb dialect|Bzyp]] in [[Abkhazia]] and [[Sadz]] in Turkey.

====Abaza====
[[Abaza language|Abaza]] has some 45,000 speakers, 35,000 in [[Russia]] and 10,000 in [[Turkey]]. It is a literary language, but nowhere official. It shares with Abkhaz the distinction of having just two phonemic vowels. Abaza is phonologically more complex than Abkhaz, and is characterised by large consonant clusters, similar to those that can be found in [[Georgian language|Georgian]]. There are two major dialects, [[Tapant]] and [[Ashkhar]]. Some are partially intelligible with Abkhaz.

===Ubykh===
[[Ubykh language|Ubykh]] forms a third branch, with parallels to both Adyghe and Abkhaz. The population switched to speaking Adyghe, and Ubykh became extinct on 7 October 1992, with the death of [[Tevfik Esenç]]. A dialectal division within Ubykh was suspected by [[Georges Dumézil]], but the divergent form he described in 1965 was never investigated further. With eighty-one consonants, Ubykh had perhaps the largest inventory in the world aside from the [[Kx'a languages|Kx'a]] and [[Tuu languages|Tuu]] families of southern Africa with their extensive system of [[click consonant|click]]s. There are [[pharyngealisation|pharyngealised consonant]]s and a four-way place contrast among [[sibilant]]s. It was the only Northwest Caucasian language never to have a literary form.