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