The largest and easternmost of the languages spoken by ethnic Circassians (or Adyghe), Kabardian (sometimes called Beslenei or East Circassian) originated in and still has hundreds of thousands of speakers in what is today the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic within the Russian Federation, centered on its capital of Nalchik. Particularly since the 19th century, as a result of bitter conflicts with Russian troops, large number of Circassians fled into diaspora communities, principally in Turkey (where the Kabardian language is probably strongest, with a few hundred thousand speakers) as well as Jordan, Syria, Israel, and the United States.
Affiliation
Kabardian is classified by linguists as being a Northwest Caucasian language, in the Circassian branch. To a considerable extent, it is mutually intelligible with Adyghe (or West Circassian), and ideas differ about the relative status of those two varieties, though other Circassian varieties such as Abaza, Abkhaz, and Ubykh are somewhat more distantly related. Some linguists have spoken of a Circassian dialect continuum which once linked these varieties geographically.
Endangerment
Kabardian is still a vigorous language spoken by people of all ages, particularly in the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic, where it has an official status and is apparently a language of education, as well as in Turkey, where a large and active diaspora population exists. Still, the longterm future of the language is difficult to gauge given the pressures of assimilation wherever Circassians live–in Jordan and Syria, where community circumstances are difficult, the language is said to be particularly under threat. There are many different dialects of Kabardian–eight are mentioned by the Ethnologue database–and the situation is complicated by the emergent differences in Kabardian speech in the diaspora, Turkey for instance, and the close ties between Kabardian and varieties of Adyghe. Despite a written tradition using the Arabic script and a Latin-based orthography which has existed since 1923, Kabardian today makes use of a Cyrillic writing system, although many are not literate in the language.
There is a long history of academic work on Kabardian, but many varieties await detailed treatment. Much of the research is in Russian, but more recently there have also been studies of Kabardian as it is spoken in different parts of the Circassian diaspora, including Ayla Applebaum’s documentation work in Turkey. Aert Kuipers was an early researcher on the language who wrote on the language in English, advancing the controversial (now generally debunked) theory that Kabardian, like some other Northwest Caucasian languages, may be “vowelless”. Circassian activist Amjad Jaimoukha has contributed important work on the Kabardian lexicon, and John Colarusso’s 1992 grammar represents a critical landmark.
Of the estimated 5,000 Circassians living in the United States, the largest single group lives in New Jersey, primarily in the town of Wayne. Kabardian is probably the most widely spoken variety among the older people here and some younger ones, although Bzedukh, Abaza, and Shapsug are also represented. The Circassian diaspora, originating from the north Caucasus in what is now Russia, has its major American center in and around Paterson, New Jersey, with the headquarters of the important Circassian Benevolent Association, founded in 1952, located today in the town of Wayne. Circassian languages represented in the New Jersey diaspora community include Abaza, Adyghe, Bzedukh, Kabardian, and Shapsug. A large initial influx of Circassian refugees fleeing Russian repression settled in the area beginning in the 1920s, finding jobs at nearby factors, and the community has grown to number in the thousands as more Circassians have arrived from other diaspora outposts including Syria and Jordan.
Dialect Comparison
Below you will find comparative wordlists for Kabardian and Adyghe:
| Bzhedukh | Kabardian |
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