Carian language

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Carian
Spoken in:	Southwestern Anatolia
Language extinction:	?
Language family:	Indo-European Anatolian Carian
Writing system:	Carian script
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`ine`
ISO 639-3:	`xcr`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

The Carian language was the language of the Carians. It was an Anatolian language, apparently closer to Lydian than to Lycian. It is attested by a number of proper names (Sangodos, Kaphenos, Truoles, Nastes, Nomion, Mausolos, etc.) and a small corpus of inscriptions, from which some Carian words have been identified (see some examples below). The Carian script consists of 45 letters altogether.

In the 1960s the Russian researcher Vitaly Shevoroshkin worked on the decipherment. It was finally deciphered in the last decade of the 20th century by Adiego and Schuerr.

The language was heavily influenced by older aboriginal languages of Anatolia, such as the pre-Indo-European tongue of the Leleges who also dwelt in Caria (and with whom the Carians were sometimes confounded). Hellenization of Caria would lead to the extinction of the Carian language in the first century BC or early in the Common Era.

[edit] Carian words

avka 'definition, situation' (Lydian avka-, 'a situation')
cehi 'him' (Lycian se-si, 'him')
glous 'robber, pirate'
kave 'a priest' (Lydian kave, 'a priest')
lile 'atonement' (Hittite 'lila', 'atonement')
mukwar 'a prayer' (Hittite mugawwar, 'a prayer')
ravmi 'liberated' (Hittite arawa, 'free')
sav- 'to glorify'
sav, sava 'something good' (Lydian sav-, 'good')
tavse 'powerful' (Lydian tavs'a, 'power' <PIE *teu, 'powerful, swollen')
ul-, velu- (Hittite walla, 'to praise' <PIE *wel, 'to wish, will')
usselos 'spear-carrier' (<PIE *wedh, 'to thrust, strike')
ussos 'spear' (<PIE *wedh, 'to thrust, strike')

[edit] References

Melchert, H. Craig. 2004. "Carian" in Roger D. Woodard, ed., The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 609–613.
Ray, John D., "An outline of Carian grammar", Kadmos 29:54-73 (1990).