Editing Northwest Caucasian languages (section)

===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/}}.