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The Kabardian language is closely related to the Adyghe language (see Adyghe people), both members of the Northwest Caucasian language family, mainly spoken in Kabardino-Balkar Republic and Karachay-Cherkess Republic of Russia (the native territories) and in Turkey and the Middle East (the residence of the extensive post-war diaspora). It has 47 or 48 consonant phonemes of which 22 or 23 are fricatives, depending upon whether one counts [h] as phonemic, but this is contrasted with just two phonemic vowels. It is one of very few languages to possess a clear phonemic distinction between ejective affricates and ejective fricatives.

The Kabardian language has two major dialects, Kabardian and Besleney. Some linguists argue that Kabardian is only a dialect of an overarching Adyghe or Circassian language that consists of all of the dialects of Adyghe and Kabardian together, and the Kabardians themselves most often refer to their language using the Kabardian term Adighabze ("Adyghe language"). Several linguists, including Georges Dumézil, have used the terms eastern Circassian (Kabardian) and western Circassian (Adyghe) in order to avoid this confusion, but both "Circassian" and "Kabardian" may still be found in linguistic literature. There are several key phonetic and lexical differences that create a reasonably well-defined separation between the eastern and western Circassian dialects, but the degree to which the two are mutually intelligible has not yet been determined. The matter is also complicated somewhat by the existence of Besleney, which is usually considered a dialect of Kabardian, but which also shares a large number of features with certain dialects of Adyghe.

Kabardian is written in a form of the Cyrillic alphabet, and like all Northwest Caucasian languages, has an extremely complex verbal system. Kabardian is ergative.

Since 2004, the Turkish state broadcasting corporation TRT has maintained a half-an-hour programme a week in the Terek dialect of Kabardian.

• Kabardian
  • West Kabardian
    • Kuban
    • Kuban-Zelenchuk (Cherkess)
  • Central Kabardian
    • Baksan (basis for the literary language)
    • Malka
  • Eastern Kabardian
    • Terek
    • Mozdok
• Besleney

Gordon, Matthew and Applebaum, Ayla. Phonetic structures of Turkish Kabardian, 2006, Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36(2), 159-186

• Atlas of Caucasian Languages, Guide: North Caucasian
• Ethnologue: Kabardian
• Kabardian (къэбэрдеибзэ) alphabet

Kabardian language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

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