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Index / Languages /
Circassian
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1) Calculated for the total population of North Africa and the Middle East, approx. 460,000,000.
2) Middle East and Russia together.
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Northwest Caucasian language or languages originating, spoken primarily in Turkey and Russia by 1.6 million. There are about 1 million Circassian speakers in the Middle East, 870,000 of these in Turkey (all are 2009 estimates).
There are mainly two forms of Circassian, Adyghe and Kabardian. There has been fairly little research into Circassian, and from main sources, there are no finite descriptions of similarities and differences between the two. Confusion over distinctions have motived some scholars to handle them merely as dialects of Circassian. In these cases, Kabardian is called Eastern Circassian, while Adyghe is called Western Circassian. There is a middle too, Besleney, which is defined as a dialect of Kabardian, but has many similarities with Adyghe.
There are phonetic and lexical differences, but the question remains unanswered: Are the two languages inherently intelligible with each other.
Just to add up to the confusion, Kabardian speakers may actually refer to their own tongue as Adighabze, meaning "Adyghe language".
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By: Tore Kjeilen
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