Carian language information

Carian
Carian
	Inscription in Carian of the name 𐊨𐊣𐊠𐊦𐊹𐊸, qlaλiś
Region	Ancient southwestern Anatolia
Ethnicity	Carians
Era	attested 7th–3rd century BCE
Language family	Indo-European Anatolian Luwo-Lydian Luwo-Palaic Luwic Lyco-Carian Carian–Milyan Carian; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Anatolian ;
Writing system	Carian script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xcr
Linguist List	xcr
Glottolog	cari1274

The Carian language is an extinct language of the Luwic subgroup of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family, spoken by the Carians. The known corpus is small, and the majority comes from Egypt. Circa 170 Carian inscriptions from Egypt are known, whilst only circa 30 are known from Caria itself.^[3]

Caria is a region of western Anatolia between the ancient regions of Lycia and Lydia, a name possibly first mentioned in Hittite sources. Carian is closely related to Lycian and Milyan (Lycian B), and both are closely related to, though not direct descendants of, Luwian. Whether the correspondences between Luwian, Carian, and Lycian are due to direct descent (i.e. a language family as represented by a tree-model), or are due to the effects of a sprachbund, is disputed.^[4]

^ Palaeolexicon. "The Carian word qlaλiś".
^ Carian at MultiTree on the Linguist List
^ Lajara, I.J.A.; Chatty, D. (2007). The Carian Language. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Brill. p. 17. ISBN 978-90-04-15281-6. The most direct and important sources of Carian language are obviously the inscriptions in Carian alphabet, although strangely the bulk of this epigraphic corpus does not come from Caria itself, but from various other locations in Egypt... About 170 inscriptions have been found in Egypt to date. All these texts are relatively short, given their typology (onomastic formulae in funerary texts Carians were somewhat laconic when writing epitaphs and brief graffiti). The epigraphic material found in Caria itself is far less abundant (approximately 30 inscriptions), but it includes several texts that are more extensive than those discovered in Egypt, particularly the following three: a decree from Kaunos whose precise terms are still unknown (C.Ka 2), the proxeny decree for two Athenian citizens written in Carian and Greek, also from Kaunos (C.Ka 5), and a decree enacted by the Carian satraps Idrieus and Ada, possibly concerning a syngeneia of the temple of the god Sinuri, near Mylasa (C.Si 2). To these three inscriptions now must be added the new inscriptions of Mylasa (C.My 1) and Hyllarima (C.Hy 1), the latter in fact a fragment that completes the inscription already known.
^ Melchert, H. C. 2008. 'Lycian'. In The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor, ed. R. D. Woodard, 46–55 at p. 46. Cambridge.

[palaeolexicon-1] Palaeolexicon. "The Carian word qlaλiś".

[linglist-2] Carian at MultiTree on the Linguist List

[3] Lajara, I.J.A.; Chatty, D. (2007). The Carian Language. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Brill. p. 17. ISBN 978-90-04-15281-6. The most direct and important sources of Carian language are obviously the inscriptions in Carian alphabet, although strangely the bulk of this epigraphic corpus does not come from Caria itself, but from various other locations in Egypt... About 170 inscriptions have been found in Egypt to date. All these texts are relatively short, given their typology (onomastic formulae in funerary texts Carians were somewhat laconic when writing epitaphs and brief graffiti). The epigraphic material found in Caria itself is far less abundant (approximately 30 inscriptions), but it includes several texts that are more extensive than those discovered in Egypt, particularly the following three: a decree from Kaunos whose precise terms are still unknown (C.Ka 2), the proxeny decree for two Athenian citizens written in Carian and Greek, also from Kaunos (C.Ka 5), and a decree enacted by the Carian satraps Idrieus and Ada, possibly concerning a syngeneia of the temple of the god Sinuri, near Mylasa (C.Si 2). To these three inscriptions now must be added the new inscriptions of Mylasa (C.My 1) and Hyllarima (C.Hy 1), the latter in fact a fragment that completes the inscription already known.

[4] Melchert, H. C. 2008. 'Lycian'. In The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor, ed. R. D. Woodard, 46–55 at p. 46. Cambridge.

Carian language information

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