Carian | |
---|---|
Region | Ancient southwestern Anatolia and the city of Memphis in Egypt |
Ethnicity | Carians |
Era | attested 7th–3rd century BCE [2] |
Early forms | |
Carian alphabets | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | xcr |
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]
Carian is known from these sources: [5] [6]
Text in Carian: Kaunusa tiñ árdajós martaša arpandab tarśñpi mašina xrá́m za
Prior to the late 20th century the language remained a total mystery even though many characters of the script seemed to be from the Greek alphabet. Using Greek phonetic values of letters investigators of the 19th and 20th centuries were unable to make headway and erroneously classified the language as non-Indo-European.
A breakthrough was reached in the 1980s, using bilingual funerary inscriptions (Carian-Egyptian) from Egypt (Memphis and Sais). By matching personal names in Carian characters with their counterparts in Egyptian hieroglyphs, John D. Ray, Diether Schürr, and Ignacio J. Adiego were able to unambiguously derive the phonetic value of most Carian signs. It turned out that not a single Carian consonant sign has the same phonetic value as signs of similar shape in the Greek alphabet. By 1993 the so-called "Ray-Schürr-Adiego System" was generally accepted, and its basic correctness was confirmed in 1996 when in Kaunos (Caria) a new Greek-Carian bilingual was discovered, where the Carian names nicely matched their Greek counterparts. [8]
The language turned out to be Indo-European, its vocabulary and grammar closely related to the other Anatolian languages like Lycian, Milyan, or Lydian. A striking feature of Carian is the presence of large consonant clusters, due to a tendency to not write short vowels. Examples:
sb | = 'and' | cf. Milyan sebe, 'and' | ||
ted | = 'father' | cf. Lycian tedi-, Lydian taada-, 'father' | ||
en | = 'mother' | cf. Lycian ẽni, Lydian ẽnaś, 'mother' | ||
Ktmno, k̂tmño | (Carian personal name) | Greek Hekatomnos (cf. Hecatomnus of Mylasa) | ||
Psmaśk, Pismaśk, Pismašk | (Egyptian personal name) | Psamtik (cf. Greek Psammetikhos I, II, III, IV) | ||
Kbid-, Kbd- | (name of a Carian city) | cf. Lycian χbide (Greek Kaunos) |
The sound values of the Carian alphabetic signs are very different from those in the usual Greek alphabets. Only four vowels signs are the same as in Greek (A = α, H = η, O = ο, Y = υ/ου), but not a single consonant is the same. The reason for this might be that the Carians originally developed an alphabet consisting of consonants only (like the Phoenician and Hieroglyphic alphabets before them), and later added the vowel signs, borrowed from a Greek alphabet.
The Carian alphabet consisted of about 34 characters:
transcription | a | b | β | d | δ | e | γ | i | j | k | k̂ | l | λ | Í | m | n | ñ | ŋ | o | p | q | r | s | ś | š | t | τ | u | w | y | ý | z | 18 | 39 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Carian sign | 𐊠 | Λ,𐊩 | 𐋊 | 𐊢,< | 𐊾 | 𐊺,𐋏 | 𐋀 | 𐊹 | 𐋅 | 𐊼,𐊽 | 𐊴,+ | 𐊣 | 𐊦 | 𐋃 | 𐊪 | 𐊵 | 𐊳 | 𐋄 | 𐊫 | 𐊷 | ʘ,𐊨 | ,𐊥 | 𐊰 | 𐊸 | 𐤧,𐤭 | 𐊭 | 𐋇 | 𐊲,V | 𐊿 | 𐊤,𐋈 | 𐊻 | 𐋂 | 𐊱 | 𐋆 |
(rare variants) | 𐊱? [9] | 𐋋,𐋌, 𐋍,𐊡 | 𐊧 | 𐋁 | 𐤴 | 𐋎? | 𐋏,𐋎 | 𐋉 | 𐊮,𐊯 | Ρ,𐊬 | 𐊶 | 𐋐 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
IPA | /a/ | /β/ | /ᵐb/ | /ð/? | /ⁿd/ | /e/ | /ᵑkʷ/? | /i/ | /j/ | /k/ | /c/ | /l~r/ | /l:~d/ | /rʲ/? | /m/ | /n/ | /ɲ/ | /ᵑk/ | /o/ | /p/ | /kʷ/ | /r/ | /s/ | /ç/ | /ʃ/ | /t/ | /tʃ/ | /u/ | /w/ | /y/ | /ɥ/ | /ts/ | ? | ? |
interchangeable? [10] | a←e | e→a | j→i | ℓ-variants [11] | w→u | ý→y |
In Caria inscriptions are usually written from left to right, but most texts from Egypt are written right-to-left; in the latter case each character is written mirrorwise. Some, mostly short, inscriptions have word dividers: vertical strokes, dots, spaces or linefeeds.
In the chart below, the Carian letter is given, followed by the transcription. Where the transcription differs from IPA, the phonetic value is given in brackets. Many Carian phonemes were represented by multiple letter forms in various locations. The Egypto-Carian dialect seems to have preserved semivowels w, j, and ý lost or left unwritten in other varieties. Two Carian letters have unknown phonetic values: 𐊱 and 𐋆. [12] The letter 𐊶 τ2 may have been equivalent to 𐋇 τ.
Bilabial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | 𐊷 p | 𐊭 t | 𐊴, 𐊛 k̂ [c] | 𐊼,𐊽 k | 𐊨 q [kʷ] | |
Prenasalized | 𐋌 β [ᵐb] | 𐊾 δ [ⁿd] | 𐋄 ŋ [ⁿg]? | 𐋀,𐋁 γ [ⁿgʷ]? | ||
Nasal | 𐊪 m | 𐊵, 𐊜 n 𐊳 ñ [n̩, n̚] | ||||
Fricative | 𐊬, Λ b [β~ɸ] | 𐊢 d [ð~θ] 𐊰 s | 𐊮,𐊯,𐤭 š [ʃ] | 𐊸 ś [ç] | ||
Affricate | 𐋂 z[t͡s] | 𐋇 τ [t͡ʃ] 𐊶 τ2 [t͡ʃ]? | ||||
Trill | 𐊥 r | |||||
Lateral | 𐊣, 𐋎, 𐋃 l 𐊦, 𐊣 λ [l:, ld] 𐋃, 𐋉 ĺ [l]? | |||||
Approximant | 𐊿 w† | 𐋅 j† | 𐊻,𐋈,𐋐 ý [ɥ]† |
† Phonemes attested in Egypto-Carian only.
Across the various sites where inscriptions have been found, the two lateral phonemes /l/ and /λ/ contrast but may be represented by different letters of the Carian script 𐊣/𐋎, 𐊦, and 𐋃/𐋉 depending on the location. The letter 𐋉 (formerly transcribed <ŕ>) is now seen as an Egyptian variant of 𐋃 <ĺ>. [11]
In the chart below, the Carian letter for each vowel is followed by the conventional transcription with the Greek equivalent in parentheses. An epenthetic schwa to break up clusters may have been unwritten.
Front | Central | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
-R | +R | |||
Close | 𐊹 i (ι) | 𐊤 y (υ) | 𐊲 u (ου) | |
Open-mid | 𐊺, 𐋏 e (η) | - [ə] | 𐊫 o (ω) | |
Open | 𐊠 a (α) |
Carian nouns are inflected for at least three cases: nominative, accusative, and genitive. The dative case is assumed to be present also, based on related Anatolian languages and the frequency of dedicatory inscriptions, but its form is quite unclear. All Anatolian languages also distinguish between animate and inanimate noun genders.
case | Singular | Plural | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
animate | inanimate | animate | inanimate | |
Nominative | -Ø | -Ø (-n?) | -š (?) | -Ø (?) |
Accusative | -n | -š | ||
Genitive / Possessive | -ś, -s(?) | -τ (??) | ||
Dative | -s(?), -Ø(?), -e(?), -o(?), -i(?) | -τ (?) | ||
Locative | -o (?), [11] -δ (??) | |||
Ablative / Instrumental | -δ (?) [13] |
Features that help identify the language as Anatolian include the asigmatic nominative (without the Indo-European nominative ending *-s) but -s for a genitive ending: 𐊿𐊸𐊫𐊦 wśoλ, 𐊿𐊸𐊫𐊦𐊰 wśoλ-s. [14] [ clarification needed ][ need quotation to verify ] The similarity of the basic vocabulary to other Anatolian languages also confirms this e.g. 𐊭𐊺𐊢 ted "father"; 𐊺𐊵 en "mother". A variety of dative singular endings have been proposed, including zero-marked and -i/-e suffixation. [15] No inanimate stem has been securely identified but the suffix -n may be reconstructed based on the inherited pattern. Alternatively, a zero ending may be derived from the historical *-od. [15] The ablative (or locative?) case is suspected in one phrase (𐊠𐊣𐊫𐊰𐊾 𐊴𐊠𐊥𐊵𐊫𐊰𐊾 alosδ k̂arnosδ "from/in Halicarnassus(?)"), perhaps originally a clitic derived from the preverb δ "in, into" < PIE *endo.
Of the demonstrative pronouns s(a)- and a-, 'this', the nominative and accusative are probably attested: [16]
s(a)- | a- | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Singular | |||
animate | inanimate | animate | inanimate | |
Nominative | sa | san | an (?) | ann (?) |
Accusative | snn | an (?) |
The relative pronoun k̂j, k̂i, originally 'who, that, which', has in Carian usually developed into a particle introducing complements. [17] Example:
No undisputable verbal forms have yet been discovered in Carian. If verbal conjugation in Carian resembles the other Anatolian languages, one would expect 3rd person singular or plural forms, in both present and preterite, to end in -t or -d, or a similar sound. A few candidates have been proposed: ýbt, 'he offered', not, 'he brings / brought', ait, 'they made', but these are not well established.
In a Carian-Greek bilingual from Kaunos the first two words in Carian are kbidn uiomλn, corresponding to Greek ἔδοξε Καυνίοις, 'Kaunos decided' (literally: 'it seemed right to the Kaunians'). The first word, kbidn, is Carian for 'Kaunos' (or, 'the Kaunians'), so one would expect the second word, uiomλn, to be the verbal form, 'they decided'. Several more words ending in a nasal are suspected to be verbal forms, for example mδane, mlane, mλn (cf. uio-mλn), 'they vowed, offered (?)', pisñ, 'they gave (?)'. However, to make such nasal endings fit in with the usual Anatolian verb paradigm (with 3rd person plural preterite endings in -(n)t/-(n)d, from *-onto), one would have to assume a non-trivial evolution in Carian from *-onto into -n, -ñ (and possibly -ne?). [18]
Virtually nothing is known of Carian syntax. This is chiefly due to two factors: first, uncertainty as to which words are verbs; second, the longer Carian inscriptions hardly show word dividers. Both factors seriously hamper the analysis of longer Carian texts.
The only texts for which the structure is well understood, are funeral inscriptions from Egypt. [19] Their nucleus is the name of the deceased. Personal names in Carian were usually written as "A, [son] of B" (where B is in the genitive, formally recognizable from its genitival ending -ś). For example:
In funeral inscriptions the father's name is often accompanied by the relative pronoun k̂i, "who, who is":
The formula may then be extended by a substantive like 'grave', 'stele', 'monument'; by the name of the grandfather ("A, [son] of B, [son] of C"); other familial relations ("mother of ..., son of ...", etc.); profession ("astrologer, interpreter"); or ethnicity or city of origin. Example:
Greek | Transliterated | Translation |
---|---|---|
ἄλα | ala | horse |
βάνδα | banda | victory |
γέλα | gela | king |
γίσσα | gissa | stone |
κόον | koon | sheep |
σοῦα(ν) | soua(n) | tomb |
Greek | Transliterated | Carian |
---|---|---|
Ἑκατόμνω "Hecatomnid" | Hekatomnō (gen. patronymic) | 𐊴𐊭𐊪𐊳𐊫𐊸 K̂tmñoś |
Καύνιος | Kaunios | 𐊼𐊬𐊢𐊿𐊵 Kbdwn |
Καῦνος | Kaunos | 𐊼𐊬𐊹𐊢 Kbid |
Πιγρης | Pigrēs | 𐊷𐊹𐊼𐊥𐊺 Pikre |
Πονυσσωλλος | Ponussōllos | 𐊷𐊵𐊲𐊸𐊫𐊦 Pnuśoλ |
Σαρυσσωλλος | Sarussōllos | 𐊮𐊠𐊥𐊲𐊸𐊫𐊦 Šaruśoλ |
Υλιατος | Uliatos | 𐊿𐊣𐊹𐊠𐊭 Wliat |
Greek | Transliterated | Carian |
---|---|---|
Λυσικλέους (genitive) | Lysikleous | 𐊣𐊿𐊰𐊹𐊼𐊣𐊠𐊰 Lùsiklas |
Λυσικράτους (genitive) | Lysikratous | 𐊣𐊿𐊰𐊹𐊼𐊥𐊠𐊭𐊠𐊰 Lùsikratas |
Ἀθηναῖον (accusative) | Athēnaion | 𐊫𐊭𐊫𐊵𐊫𐊰𐊵 Otonosn |
Φίλιππος (nominative) | Philippos | 𐊷𐊹𐋃𐊹𐊷𐊲𐊰 Pilipus [11] |
The Athenian Bilingual Inscription [20] [21] [22] [23]
Σε̂μα τόδε : Τυρ[ Greek: [24] Sema tode Tyr — "This is the tomb of Tur...,"
Καρὸς τô Σκύλ[ακος] Greek: Karos to Skylakos — "the Carian, the son of Scylax" ()
𐊸𐋅𐊠𐊰 : 𐊰𐊠𐊵 𐊭𐊲𐊥[ Carian: [25] Śjas: san Tur[ "This is the tomb of Tur..."
[Ἀ]ριστοκλε̂ς ἐπ[οίε̄] Greek: Aristokles epoie — "Made by Aristocles."
The word 𐊰𐊠𐊵 san is equivalent to τόδε and evidences the Anatolian language assibilation, parallel to Luwian za-, "this". [20] If 𐊸𐋅𐊠𐊰 śjas is not exactly the same as Σε̂μα Sēma it is roughly equivalent.
The Achaean Greeks arriving in small numbers on the coasts of Anatolia in the Late Bronze Age found them occupied by a population that did not speak Greek and were generally involved in political relationships with the Hittite Empire. After the fall of the latter the region became the target of heavy immigration by Ionian and Dorian Greeks who enhanced Greek settlements and founded or refounded major cities. They assumed for purposes of collaboration new regional names based on their previous locations: Ionia, Doris.
The writers born in these new cities reported that the people among whom they had settled were called Carians and spoke a language that was "barbarian", "barbaric" or "barbarian-sounding" (i.e. not Greek). No clue has survived from these writings as to what exactly the Greeks might mean by "barbarian". The reportedly Carian names of the Carian cities did not and do not appear to be Greek. Such names as Andanus, Myndus, Bybassia, Larymna, Chysaoris, Alabanda, Plarasa and Iassus were puzzling to the Greeks, some of whom attempted to give etymologies in words they said were Carian. For the most part they still remain a mystery.
Writing disappeared in the Greek Dark Ages but no earlier Carian writing has survived. When inscriptions, some bilingual, began to appear in the 7th century BCE it was already some hundreds of years after the city-naming phase. The earlier Carian may not have been exactly the same.
The local development of Carian excludes some other theories as well: it was not widespread in the Aegean, is not related to Etruscan, was not written in any ancient Aegean scripts, and was not a substrate Aegean language[ citation needed ]. Its occurrence in various places of Classical Greece is due only to the travel habits of Carians[ citation needed ], who apparently became co-travellers of the Ionians. The Carian cemetery of Delos probably represents the pirates mentioned in classical texts. The Carians who fought for Troy (if they did) were not classical Carians any more than the Greeks there were classical Greeks.
Being penetrated by larger numbers of Greeks and under the domination from time to time of the Ionian League, Caria eventually Hellenized and Carian became a dead language. The interludes under the Persian Empire perhaps served only to delay the process. Hellenization would lead to the extinction of the Carian language in the 1st century BCE or early in the Common Era.
Mausolus was a ruler of Caria and a satrap of the Achaemenid Empire. He enjoyed the status of king or dynast by virtue of the powerful position created by his father Hecatomnus, who was the first satrap of Caria from the hereditary Hecatomnid dynasty. Alongside Caria, Mausolus also ruled Lycia and parts of Ionia and the Dodecanese islands. He is best known for his monumental tomb and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the construction of which has traditionally been ascribed to his wife and sister Artemisia.
The Anatolian languages are an extinct branch of Indo-European languages that were spoken in Anatolia. The best known Anatolian language is Hittite, which is considered the earliest-attested Indo-European language.
The Lycian language was the language of the ancient Lycians who occupied the Anatolian region known during the Iron Age as Lycia. Most texts date back to the fifth and fourth century BC. Two languages are known as Lycian: regular Lycian or Lycian A, and Lycian B or Milyan. Lycian became extinct around the beginning of the first century BC, replaced by the Ancient Greek language during the Hellenization of Anatolia. Lycian had its own alphabet, which was closely related to the Greek alphabet but included at least one character borrowed from Carian as well as characters proper to the language. The words were often separated by two points.
Luwian, sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from Luwiya – the name of the region in which the Luwians lived. Luwiya is attested, for example, in the Hittite laws.
The Carians were the ancient inhabitants of Caria in southwest Anatolia, who spoke the Carian language.
The Minoan language is the language of the ancient Minoan civilization of Crete written in the Cretan hieroglyphs and later in the Linear A syllabary. As the Cretan hieroglyphs are undeciphered and Linear A only partly deciphered, the Minoan language is unknown and unclassified. With the existing evidence, it is even impossible to be certain that the two scripts record the same language.
Pamphylian was a little-attested dialect of Ancient Greek that was spoken in Pamphylia, on the southern coast of Asia Minor. Its origins and relation to other Greek dialects are uncertain, though a number of scholars have proposed isoglosses with Arcadocypriot. It is the sole classical era dialect which did not use articles, suggesting that it split off from other dialects early. Some of its distinctive characteristics reflect potential language contact with Anatolian languages spoken nearby.
Idrieus, or Hidrieus was a ruler of Caria as a Satrap under the Achaemenid Empire. Alongside his sister and wife Ada, he enjoyed the status of king or dynast by virtue of the powerful position he inherited from his predecessors of the House of Hecatomnus.
Kaunos was a city of ancient Caria and in Anatolia, a few kilometres west of the modern town of Dalyan, Muğla Province, Turkey.
The Sidetic language is a member of the extinct Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family known from legends of coins dating to the period of approximately the 5th to 3rd centuries BCE found in Side at the Pamphylian coast, and two Greek–Sidetic bilingual inscriptions from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE respectively. The Greek historian Arrian in his Anabasis Alexandri mentions the existence of a peculiar indigenous language in the city of Side. Sidetic was probably closely related to Lydian, Carian and Lycian.
The Pisidian language is a member of the extinct Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family spoken in Pisidia, a region of ancient Asia Minor. Known from some fifty short inscriptions from the first to second centuries AD, it appears to be closely related to Lycian, Milyan, and Sidetic.
Various alphabetic writing systems were in use in Iron Age Anatolia to record Anatolian languages and Phrygian. Several of these languages had previously been written with logographic and syllabic scripts.
The Carian alphabets are a number of regional scripts used to write the Carian language of western Anatolia. They consisted of some 30 alphabetic letters, with several geographic variants in Caria and a homogeneous variant attested from the Nile delta, where Carian mercenaries fought for the Egyptian pharaohs. They were written left-to-right in Caria and right-to-left in Egypt.
The Lycian alphabet was used to write the Lycian language of the Asia Minor region of Lycia. It was an extension of the Greek alphabet, with half a dozen additional letters for sounds not found in Greek. It was largely similar to the Lydian and the Phrygian alphabets.
Lydian script was used to write the Lydian language. Like other scripts of Anatolia in the Iron Age, the Lydian alphabet is based on the Phoenician alphabet. It is related to the East Greek alphabet, but it has unique features.
In epigraphy, a multilingual inscription is an inscription that includes the same text in two or more languages. A bilingual is an inscription that includes the same text in two languages. Multilingual inscriptions are important for the decipherment of ancient writing systems, and for the study of ancient languages with small or repetitive corpora.
Milyan, also known as Lycian B and previously Lycian 2, is an extinct ancient Anatolian language. It is attested from three inscriptions: two poems of 34 and 71 engraved lines, respectively, on the so-called Xanthian stele (or Xanthian Obelisk, found at Xanthos, and another, shorter, inscription on a sarcophagus at Antiphellus. All three poems are divided in strophes.
Tarḫunz was the weather god and chief god of the Luwians, a people of Bronze Age and early Iron Age Anatolia. He is closely associated with the Hittite god Tarḫunna and the Hurrian god Teshub.
Hyllarima was an inland town of northeastern ancient Caria. Its site is located near Mesevle in Asiatic Turkey. Hyllarima is the find-site of about 30 inscriptions and is the type-site of one variant of the Carian alphabets. It governed a number of rural sanctuaries, of which the most notable is that of Zeus Hyllos.
Sinuri was a sanctuary of the god Sinuri in ancient Caria, Anatolia. The ruins of Sinuri are located on the hilltop now called Tarla Tepe, close to the modern village of Çamlıbelen, Milas, Muğla Province, Turkey. It was an active religious centre for over a thousand years, from the Archaic period to late antiquity. The community at Sinuri erected a large number of inscriptions from the 4th to the 1st centuries BCE, and it is one of the most important known find-sites for inscriptions in the Carian language. Extensive excavations halted in 1937 and organised archaeological activity only resumed in 2022.
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.
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