| Kaskian | |
| Nativename: | Kaška |
| Region: | Northeastern Anatolia Colchis[1] |
| Ethnicity: | Kaskians |
| Era: | Bronze Age |
| Familycolor: | unclassified |
| Family: | unclassified |
| Iso3: | zsk |
| Linglist: | zsk |
| Glotto: | none |
Kaskian (Kaskean) was the language of the Kaskians (Kaska) of northeastern Bronze Age Anatolia in the mountains along the Black Sea coast. The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture lists the Kaskians as non–Indo-European.[2] There are a number of theories regarding the language family to which it belonged.
It is sometimes suspected that Kaskian was related to the pre-Hittite Hattic language, based on toponyms and personal names; the Hattic moon god was named Kasku. Conversely, the Kaskian language may have been an Indo-European language, perhaps related to Thraco-Phrygian.[3] There may also be connections to the Northwest Caucasian languages; the name Kaskian[4] may be cognate with an old name for Circassia,[5] and the name of one of the tribes in the Kaskian confederation, the Abešla, may be cognate with the endonym of the Abkhaz people and some Circassian people,[6] suggesting the Kaskians proper and Abešla might have been the ancestors of the Circassians and other Caucasian peoples.[7] It has been conjectured that Kaskian might belong to the Zan family of languages, and have affinities to Megrelian or Laz.[8]
In 2023, D. Sasseville presented an unknown language preserved on several tablet fragments from the archives of Hattusa and argued on methodological grounds that it is the Kaskean language.[9]