Circassian , also known as
Cherkess , is a
dialect continuum of the North Caucasus. There are two Circassian languages as defined by their literary standards,
Adyghe (, West Circassian), with half a million speakers, and
Kabardian (, East Circassian), with a million. The spoken languages, however, merge, with geographically intermediate dialects intelligible to both standards. The earliest extant written records of the Circassian language are in the
Arabic script, recorded by the Turkish traveller
Evliya Çelebi in the 17th century.