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.