Kaskian language

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

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

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 Abešla 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?" (PDF). Phasis. Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. 10 (II): 178. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
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