Cassite language

language
name=Kassite (Cassite)
familycolor=Isolate
states=Babylon (extinct)
region=Middle East
extinct=by the end of the 4th century BCE
family=possible language isolate, but see Elamo-Dravidian languages
iso2=|iso3=

Kassite (Cassite) language was a language spoken by Kassites in northern Mesopotamia from approximately the 18th to the 4th century BC. From the 16th to 12th centuries, kings of Kassite origin ruled in Babylon until they were overthrown by Elamites.

Kassites in the Babylon state used mostly Akkadian language. Traces of the Kassite language are few: a short Kassite-Akkadian dictionary containing agricultural and technical terms, names of colors etc., and lists of personal names (some names are collated with Semitic equivalents), names of deities and horses. A lack of Kassite texts makes the reconstruction of Kassite grammar impossible at present.

Genetic relations of the Kassite language are unclear, although it surely was neither Indo-European nor Semitic; relation with Elamite language is doubtful. Some words may have been loaned from the Indo-Iranian languages.

Morphemes are not known; the words "buri" (ruler) and "burna" (protected) probably have the same root.

Literature

* Ancilotti, A. La lingua dei Cassiti. Milan, 1980
* Balkan, K. Kassitenstudien. I. Die Sprache der Kassiten. New Haven, 1954.
* Jaritz, K. Die kassitische Sprachreste // Anthropos, vol. 52, 1957.

Links

* [http://www.trypillia.narod.ru/articles/gr6.htm (in Russian)]