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

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 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] This work established that it is part of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. Its place within the Anatolian languages is uncertain, but it has been hypothesized to be part of the Luwic subgroup.[6][7][8]

References

  1. ^ a b c "New Indo-European Language Discovered". Julius-Maximilians-Universität of Würzburg. 2023-09-21. Retrieved 2023-09-26.
  2. ^ a b c Schwemer 2024 p. XIX
  3. ^ Georgiou, Aristos (2023-09-22). "Archaeologists discover previously unknown language from ancient tablet". Newsweek. Retrieved 2023-09-26.
  4. ^ https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/kalama-language-deciphered-a-forgotten-indo-european-language-of-the-bronze-age-anatolia
  5. ^ https://www.hethport.uni-wuerzburg.de/kbo/
  6. ^ Chrysopoulos, Philip (2023-09-23). "New Indo-European Language Discovered in Ancient City of Hattusa". Greek Reporter. Retrieved 2023-09-26.
  7. ^ "The Language of Kalašma: A New Branch of Anatolian". www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de. Retrieved 2024-02-05.
  8. ^ 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.
  • Thesaurus Linguarum Hethaeorum digitalis Search for "KBo 71.145" for transliteration of tablet (and gloss of Hittite introduction)
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