Re: [tied] obscure languages - Kaskian, Hattic,

It's not so much that I lack data to allow me to accept a Kaskian-NWC link,
but rather it's the basic premise of the theory itself. I don't see a
logical connection at all.


George:

>[The Kaskians] have been linked ethnically (and it is presumed that
>there is also a linguistic link) to the pre-Indo-Hittite population of
>Anatolia from circa 3000 BC.

A cultural link doesn't allow us to assume a linguistic link.

>In Ch.2 p.42-3 of a work I cited previously, 'The Abkhazians'
>(ed. Hewitt), the Kaskians are treated as one element of a
>linguistic continuum located around the south-east, east and
>north-east shores of the Black Sea. This conclusion has been
>reached on the basis of ancient toponyms and hydronyms.

So the mere location of the Kaskians warrants their linguistic
link to NWC? Sounds kinda goofy.

>A modification of this theory suggests either migration from
>Anatolia to the NW Caucasus at a remote date or FROM the
>NW Caucasus TO Anatolia. A positive link between Hattic
>and NW Caucasian is already proven beyond reasonable doubt.

I've accepted this link.

>One much-cited linguistic 'clue' to the relationship of the Kaskian
>language is the presence of the toponymic/hydronomic element
>-ps(y)- (= water, river in Abkhaz), e.g. Aripsa, the name of a city/
>fortress in NE Anatolia, also the ancient name for the R. Chorokh,
>which was Apsara, earlier still called Akampsis.

How can we possibly assume that this -ps(y)- is of Kaskian origin
when you admit that it was never written? There's Starostin's NWC *bz&
however.

>The ps(y)- element is also wide-spread in the area of W. Georgia
>I referred to, in the hydronyms Supsa and Lagumpsa and similar. This
>suggest that the original population of W.Georgia, ancient Colchis,
>was almost certainly not Kartvelian in origin.

Yes. The Kartvelians came up from the south. So they were NWC in origin,
but that still doesn't connect anything with Kaskians.

>Archaeology also supports southern connections of NW Caucasians,
>who are held to be the originators of the Maikop Culture.

Hmm. But there was certainly a cultural link with the south because
of trade.


- gLeN


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