Kalašma language

Kalašma
Kalasmaic
Native toKalašma
RegionAnatolia
Era13th century BCE
Hittite cuneiform
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)

The Kalašma language, or Kalasmaic, is an extinct Anatolian language spoken in the late Bronze Age polity of Kalašma, which lay on the northwest fringe of the Hittite Empire, likely in or around what is now the Turkish province of Bolu.[1]

Discovery

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The first (and thus far only) Kalasmaic text was discovered in 2023, by researchers at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. The text, written on a clay tablet (indexed KBo 71.145[2]) is part of the Bogazköy Archive excavated at Hattusa, the Hittite capital.[3] The tablet, written in Hittite cuneiform of the 13th century BCE,[2] is one of many in the archive recording rituals of the empire's subject and neighbouring peoples.[1] Its Hittite-language introduction describes its main text as in "the language of the land of Kalašma"[1] (URUka-la-aš-mi-li[2]).

At the time its discovery was announced, the text itself had not been deciphered.[1] While the language is clearly part of the Anatolian family, its relationship categorization within that family is unclear. Some researchers have hypothesized that it is part of the Luwic subgroup.[4] The text was published on 2 February 2024 by Daniel Schwemer.[5][6][7]

A linguistic analysis by Ilya Yakubovich and Elisabeth Rieken [de] is due to be published in 2024 in Archäologischer Anzeiger [de].[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "New Indo-European Language Discovered". Julius-Maximilians-Universität of Würzburg. 2023-09-21. Retrieved 2023-09-26.
  2. ^ a b c d Schwemer 2024 p. XIX
  3. ^ Georgiou, Aristos (2023-09-22). "Archaeologists discover previously unknown language from ancient tablet". Newsweek. Retrieved 2023-09-26.
  4. ^ Chrysopoulos, Philip (2023-09-23). "New Indo-European Language Discovered in Ancient City of Hattusa". Greek Reporter. Retrieved 2023-09-26.
  5. ^ Ceylan, Kemal; Şeker, Şahin (6 October 2023). "Epigraflar Kalaşma dilini okuyoruz ama anlayamıyoruz dedikleri Hitit tabletinde keşfetmiş" [Epigraphers discovered the Kalash language in the Hittite tablet, which they say we can read but cannot understand.]. Arkeolojik Haber (in Turkish). Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  6. ^ "The Language of Kalašma: A New Branch of Anatolian". www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de. Retrieved 2024-02-05.
  7. ^ Schwemer 2024

Bibliography

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  • Schwemer, Daniel (2024). Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazköi (PDF) (in German). Vol. 71. Mainz: Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur. pp. XIX, XXXI [text], 42-43 [images]. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
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  • Thesaurus Linguarum Hethaeorum digitalis Search for "KBo 71.145" for transliteration of tablet (and gloss of Hittite introduction)