Re: THEORY : Asianic?

Quoting Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>:

> I just read that the Kassites' language is classed as belonging to
> the "Asianic" group. Google is not helpful in finding out anything
> about this grouping, so I thought I'd ask if anyone here knows
> anything about this. In particular, what other Asianic languages
> are there?
One of my friends who is a Hittitologist over at the OI had
this to say:

================================================================
        "Asianic" is a term that was extensively used in the early
20th century for the languages of the Near East whose genetic
affiliation remained unknown at that time (read: for all the
languages of the Near East other than Indo-European and Semitic).
Carian and Urartian are the examples of languages that were assigned
this label at some point. A respectful Francophone journal that
passed away in early 70-s was called "Revue Hittite et Asianique".
I am strongly against using the term "Asianic" in modern scholarly
discourse, but it can be still found in some less linguistically
oriented articles.
        I do not know the genetic affiliation of Kassite. Djakonoff
thought that it is related to Elamite, but I cannot say anything
either pro or contra, and I suspect that we know too little about
the language to make such sweeping statements. What I do believe
in is that Kassite underwent an influence of Indo-Aryan Mitannians
at some point in time. In particular, The Kassite Sun-god is called
Suriyash, and the Kassite War-god was called Maruttash.
====================================================================


 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier            "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

Reply