Carian language
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.
| Carian | |
|---|---|
Inscription in Carian of the name 𐊨𐊣𐊠𐊦𐊹𐊸, qlaλiś | |
| Region | Ancient southwestern Anatolia |
| Ethnicity | Carians |
| Era | attested 7th–3rd century BCE |
Early forms | |
| Carian script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xcr |
xcr | |
| Glottolog | cari1274 |
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.