Circassian language

Circassian language

Northwestern Caucasian language, with major eastern and western dialect groups. Until the 1860s Circassian-speaking groups inhabited the entire northwestern Caucasus region, including the Black Sea coast. After the Russian conquest of the northwestern Caucasus in 1864, most Circassian-speakers immigrated to the Ottoman Empire and were eventually settled in present-day Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Israel. Only scattered enclaves of Western Circassian-speakers stayed in Russia. A greater number of Eastern Circassians remained; most now live in Russia's northern Caucasus republics. Russian Circassian-speakers now number about 550,000; the number outside Russia is indeterminable, because many ethnic Circassians have switched to the dominant languages of their new countries.