Kaskian
Kaška
RegionNortheastern Anatolia
Colchis[1]
EthnicityKaskians
EraBronze Age
unclassified
Language codes
ISO 639-3zsk
zsk
GlottologNone

Kaskian (Kaskean) was the language of the Kaskians (Kaska) of northeastern Bronze Age Anatolia in the mountains along the Black Sea coast. The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture lists the Kaskians as non–Indo-European.[2] There are a number of theories regarding the language family to which it belonged.

It is sometimes suspected that Kaskian was related to the pre-Hittite Hattic language, based on toponyms and personal names; the Hattic moon god was named Kasku. Conversely, the Kaskian language may have been an Indo-European language, perhaps related to Thraco-Phrygian.[3] There may also be connections to the Northwest Caucasian languages; the name Kaskian[4] may be cognate with an old name for Circassia,[5] and the name of one of the tribes in the Kaskian confederation, the Abešla, may be cognate with the endonym of the Abkhaz people and some Circassian people,[6] suggesting the Kaskians proper and Abešla might have been the ancestors of the Circassians and other Caucasian peoples.[7] It has been conjectured that Kaskian might belong to the Zan family of languages, and have affinities to Megrelian or Laz.[8]

In 2023, D. Sasseville presented an unknown language preserved on several tablet fragments from the archives of Hattusa and argued on methodological grounds that it is the Kaskean language.[9]

References

  1. ^ Joachim Menant (1874), Annales des rois d'Assyrie (Paris) p.161
  2. ^ Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture p.29 (1997) https://archive.org/details/EncyclopediaOfIndoEuropeanCulture/page/n63/mode/2up?q=Kaskians
  3. ^ Fred Woudhuizen. The Saga of the Argonauts: A Reflex of Thraco-Phrygian Maritime Encroachment on the Southern Pontic Littoral Dutch Archaeological and Historical Society. 2012. https://www.academia.edu/7174237/The_Saga_of_the_Argonauts_A_Reflex_of_Thraco_Phrygian_Maritime_Encroachment_on_the_Southern_Pontic_Littoral
  4. ^ Hittite Kaškaš, Assyrian Kaška, Egyptian Kškš
  5. ^ Arabic kašak, Old Georgian kaški, Old Armenian gašk, Old Russian kasogi, Ossetic kæsæg, Byzantine Greek Κασαχία Kasakhía
  6. ^ Abkhaz Аҧсуа Apswa, Old Georgian apsil-, apšil-, Old Armenian apšeł-k, Greek Αψίλαι apsílai, Latin Absilae
  7. ^ George Hewitt, 1998. The Abkhazians, p 49
  8. ^ Singer, Itamar (2007). "Who were the Kaška?" (PDF). Phasis. Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. 10 (II): 178. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  9. ^ Sasseville, David. "Kaskean. A new recorded language in the archives of Ḫattuša?".
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