[4] It is spoken mainly in parts of the North Caucasus republics of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia (Eastern Circassia), and in Turkey, Jordan and Syria (the extensive post-war diaspora).

There are several key phonetic and lexical differences that create a reasonably well-defined separation between the eastern and the western Circassian dialects, but the degree to which the two are mutually intelligible has not yet been determined.

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

[5] The series of labialized alveolar sibilant affricates and fricatives that exist in Adyghe /ʃʷʼ/ /ʒʷ/ /ʃʷ/ /t͡sʷ/ became labiodental consonants /fʼ/ /v/ /f/ /v/ in Kabardian, for example the Kabardian words мафӏэ [maːfʼa] "fire", зэвы [zavə] "narrow", фыз [fəz] "wife" and вакъэ [vaːqa] "shoe" are pronounced as машӏо [maːʃʷʼa], зэжъу [zaʒʷə], шъуз /ʃʷəz/ and цуакъэ [t͡sʷaːqa] in Adyghe.

In the Beslenei dialect, there exists an alveolar lateral ejective affricate [t͡ɬʼ] which corresponds to [ɬʼ] in literary Kabardian.

[19] In 1830, in collaboration with Russian philologist and orientalist, Gratsilevsky [ru], Nogma developed a Cyrillic-based script for Kabardian.

In 1881, the poet Bekmurza Pachev [ru] compiled a standardized Perso-Arabic script for Kabardian consisting of 39 letters.

[19] In 1908, Nuri Tsagov compiled another iteration of the Perso-Arabic alphabet, better suited for all consonant and vowel phonemes of Kabardian.

This version of the alphabet was widely accepted, with many authors utilizing it to publish books and literature, including a primer.

The alphabet gained official status in education and later also inspired the standardization of Arabic-based orthography for Adyghe language by Akhmetov Bekukh.

[19] In line with the general linguistic policy of the Soviet Union at the time, the existing Perso-Arabic script was replaced with a newly developed Kabardian Latin alphabet in 1924.

The alphabet consisted of а b w d g ꜧ е ӡ z ž ⱬ i j k ⱪ q qh l lh m n o p ph r s š ş t th v f fh x х̌ ɦ c ç ch y h u è ù â ỳ.

The alphabet consisted of the following letters: A a, B b, V v, D d, E e, G g, Gu gu, Z z, Ž ž, Z̧ z̧, Ӡ ӡ, Ꜧ ꜧ, Ꜧu ꜧu, I i, J j, K k, Ku ku, Ⱪ ⱪ, Ⱪu ⱪu, Q q, Qu qu, Qh qh, Qhu qhu, L l, , Lh lh, M m, N n, O o, P p, Ph ph, R r, S s, Š š, Ş ş, T t, Th th, U u, F f, Fh fh, X x, Xu xu, X̌ x̌, X̌u x̌u, ɦ, C c, Ç ç, Ch ch, Y y, H h, ', Ù ù, Je je, Jo jo, Ju ju, Ja ja.

They consisted of the following: А а, 'А 'а, Б б, В в, Г г, Гъ гъ, Д д, Е е, Ж ж, Жь жь, З з, И и, Й й, К к, К' к', Л л, Ль ль, Л' л', М м, Н н, О о, П п, П' п', Р р, С с, Т т, Т' т', У у, 'У 'у, Ф ф, Ф' ф', Х х, Хь хь, Хъ хъ, Ц ц, Ц' ц', Ч ч, Ш ш, Щ щ, Щ' щ', Ъ ъ, Ы ы, Ь ь, Э э, Ю ю, Я я.

Some groups have advocated for use of Latin or Arabic in line with the language of the larger society in which Circassian communities reside.

This divergence goes back to the early 20th century, when in 1909, Muhammad Pchegatlukov developed a new and independent Arabic-based writing system in the Ottoman Empire.

In the 2000s, the Konya-based Adyghe Language Teaching Association (ADDER) has compiled a Latin alphabet for Kabardian.

[20] The alphabet consists of the following letters:A a, B b, C c, Ç ç, Ć ć, D d, E e, É é, F f, Ḟ ḟ, G g, Ǵ ǵ, Ğ ğ, H h, Ḣ ḣ, I ı, İ i, J j, Ĵ ĵ, K k, Ḱ ḱ, Ǩ ǩ, L l, Ĺ ĺ, M m, N n, O o, Ö ö, P p, Ṕ ṕ, Q q, R r, S s, Ś ś, Š š, Ş ş, Ṩ ṩ, T t, Ṫ ṫ, U u, Ü ü, W w, V v, X x, Y y, Z z, Ź ź, ' [21][22]

Therefore, before 1924, the Arabic-based scripts developed for Western and Eastern (Kabardian) Circassian, also took roots among the diaspora communities.

In the 2000s in Turkey, the Konya-based Adyghe Language Teaching Association (ADDER) has compiled a Latin alphabet for Kabardian.