Kaskian language

Kaskian
Kaška
Region Northeastern Anatolia
Ethnicity Kaskians
Era Bronze Age
unclassified
Language codes
ISO 639-3 zsk
Linguist list
 zsk
Glottolog None

Kaskian (Kaskean) was a non-Indo-European language of the Kaskians of northeastern Bronze Age Anatolia, in the mountains along the Black Sea coast.

It is sometimes suspected that Kaskian was related to the pre-Hittite Hattic language, based on toponyms and personal names. There may also be connections to the Northwest Caucasian languages; the name Kaskian[1] may be cognate with an old name for Circassia,[2] 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,[3] suggesting the Kaskians proper and Abeshla might have been the ancestors of the Circassians and other Caucasian peoples.[4] It has also been conjectured that Kaskian might belong to the Zan family of languages, and have affinities to Megrelian or Laz.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Hittite Kaškaš, Assyrian Kaška, Egyptian Kškš
  2. ↑ Arabic kašak, Old Georgian kaški, Old Armenian gašk, Old Russian kasogi, Ossetic kæsæg, Byzantine Greek Κασαχία Kasakhía
  3. ↑ Abkhaz Аҧсуа Apswa, Old Georgian apsil-, apšil-, Old Armenian apšeł-k, Greek Αψίλαι apsílai, Latin Absilae
  4. ↑ George Hewitt, 1998. The Abkhazians, p 49
  5. ↑ Singer, Itamar (2007). "Who were the Kaška?". Phasis (Ivane Javakhishvili Tblisi State University) 10 (II): 178. Retrieved 15 July 2015.


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