Kalašma language
| Kalašma | |
|---|---|
| Kalasmaic | |
| Native to | Kalašma |
| Region | Anatolia |
| Era | 13th century BCE |
| Hittite cuneiform | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (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
[edit]The first (and thus far only) Kalasmaic text was discovered in 2023, by researchers at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. Written on a clay tablet (indexed KBo 71.145[2]), it 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 subjects 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]).
The language was deciphered by Prof. Daniel Schwemer, in his work "Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazköi (Cuneiform Texts from Boghazköi)"[4][5] and is part of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family as confirmed by Prof. Elisabeth Rieken at Philipps-Universität Marburg. Its place within the Anatolian languages is uncertain, but it has been hypothesized to be part of the Luwic subgroup.[6][7][8]
A detailed analysis of the text was published in November 2024 by Elisabeth Rieken, Ilya Yakubovich and Daniel Schwemer.[9]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "New Indo-European Language Discovered". www.uni-wuerzburg.de. Archived from the original on 2023-10-18. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
- ^ a b c Schwemer 2024 p. XIX
- ^ Georgiou, Aristos (2023-09-22). "Archaeologists discover previously unknown language from ancient tablet". Newsweek. Retrieved 2023-09-26.
- ^ "Kalašma Language Deciphered: A Forgotten Indo-European Language of the Bronze Age Anatolia". The Archaeologist. 2024-08-11. Archived from the original on 2024-11-12. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
- ^ "Keilschrifttexte aus Boghazköi". www.hethport.uni-wuerzburg.de (in German). Archived from the original on 2024-11-12. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
- ^ Chrysopoulos, Philip (2023-09-23). "New Indo-European Language Discovered in Ancient City of Hattusa". Greek Reporter. Retrieved 2023-09-26.
- ^ "The Language of Kalašma: A New Branch of Anatolian". www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de. Retrieved 2024-02-05.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Rieken, Elisabeth; Yakubovich, Ilya; Schwemer, Daniel (2024). "Eine neue Sprache im Hethiterreich: Der Fund der Kalašma-Tafel". Archäologischer Anzeiger. 1: 11–35. Archived from the original on 2024-12-13. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
External links
[edit]- Thesaurus Linguarum Hethaeorum digitalis Search for "KBo 71.145" for transliteration of tablet (and gloss of Hittite introduction)