Buddhagupta Stone

Batı Malezya'da MS 5. yüzyılda Güneydoğu Asya Budistleri tarafından ticaret nedeniyle yazılan bir Sanskritçe yazıt. İlgili yazıtlar Borneo ve Brunei'de bulunmuştur.

archaeologsTurkishAncient Languages

Buddhagupta Stone

A Sanskrit language inscription of c. 5th century ad from western Malaysia, due to trade by Buddhists of Southeast Asia. Related inscriptions have been found in Borneo and Brunei.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Sanskrit

An early Indo-European language, still used in India for religious purposes. The Rigveda, the oldest religious document of India, is written in an archaic form of Sanskrit. The discovery in the late 18 th century that this language was related to Greek and Latin and many other European languages ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Quechua

See Inca, Tarascan.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages, Regions

Nahuatl

Native language of the Aztec and other Mesoamerican groups and member of the Uto-Aztecan language family which is distributed over a large area of northwest and central America. Still widely spoken in the Basin of Mexico, it is the source of a number of words current in the English language, such...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Mon-Khmer

A linguistic family of southern Asia, comprising Mon, Khmer, and a number of languages of mountain populations in the Indochinese Peninsula as well as of India. According to recent research, Vietnamese is also a member of this family.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Indo-European

Name of the group of languages from which most modem European languages are derived, as are the Indian Sanskrit and its descendants and the Farsi language of Iran. Since it is assumed that the dispersal of the languages of this group must have occurred through large-scale migrations of people, ma...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Celt

Term used in a number of different ways. In language studies it refers to a branch of Indoeuropean languages found now only in the far northwest of Europe (Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish and Breton) but once much more widespread. As an ethnic group Celts were described by classical writers such as Herodo...

archaeologsEnglishNations, Ancient Languages

Bantu

A linguistic term, applied to a widely distributed group of closely interrelated languages in sub-Saharan Africa. It has long been believed that the distribution of these languages, which form part of the Niger-Congo linguistic family, indicates a relatively recent expansion of population from a ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Aymara

The Aymara language, still spoken and once widespread in southern Peru and the Bolivian Highlands, is one of the defining characteristics of numerous polities in and around the Lake Titicaca basin in the Late Intermediate Period. These ‘Aymara Kingdoms’ (the largest being Colla and Lupaqa) were f...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages, Nations

Austronesian

The major language family of Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific: Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, parts of southern Vietnam, Madagascar, Melanesia (excluding most of New Guinea), Micronesia and Polynesia. Proto-Austronesian was probably located in southern China or Taiwan before 3000 ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Austro-Asiatic

A linguistic family which includes Munda (eastern India), Mon (southwest Burma), Khmer (Kampuchea), Vietnamese and several minor language groups including Nicobarese, and Aslian of peninsular Malaysia. Once the major linguistic family of mainland Southeast Asia, its speakers have become geographi...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Attic

(1) Relating to Athens, or the surrounding area of Attica. (2) The particular dialect of Greek spoken and written in classical Athens, especially in the 5th century bc. This dialect was originally only one of a number of differing regional forms, but, by the accident of Athenian cultural history,...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Ugaritic

Ugaritçe veya Ugarit dili, 1929'da Fransız arkeologlar tarafından keşfedilmiş Ugarit metinleri ile tasdik edilmiş, Amorice'nin nesli tükenmiş bir lehçesidir. Neredeyse sadece Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra, Suriye) şehrinde bulunmuş Ugarit metinlerinde kullanılmış dil aynı zamanda Amori dilinin yazıya...

archaeologsTurkishAncient Languages

Ugaritic

An extinct Semitic language spoken and written from at least the middle of 2nd millennium BC at Ugarit and the surrounding area. It belonged to a western group of Semitic languages (i.e. Arabic, Hebrew) and was conveyed alphabetically - the earliest alphabet for which we have a complete record. T...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Ugaritic

Bantu

A Niger-Congo language family, with approximately 60,000,000 speakers of more than 200 distinct languages, who occupy almost the entire southern projection of the African continent (roughly from the bulge downward). The classification is linguistic as the cultures of the Bantu speakers are extrem...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Bantu

Aymara

A large South American tribal group occupying the Titicaca plateau (central Andes) in the Late Intermediate Period - and the language spoken by them. The Aymara language is still spoken some parts of Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. The Aymara kingdoms - Canchi Colla Lupaca Collagua Ubina Pacasa Car...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages, Nations

Aymara

Papuan Languages

A group of over 700 languages of New Guinea and adjacent parts of eastern Indonesia and Melanesia. Today these languages are spoken by about 2.9 million people, and the family is perhaps the most diverse in the world. The Papuan languages presumably descend from the languages of the first settler...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Papuan Languages

Nahua

The tribal population of Central Mexico, originating from the north. The last and best-known were the Aztecs. The language of the Aztecs, Nahua, is spoken by all the Nahua peoples in a variety of dialects.

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages, Nations

Nahua

Celt

A New Stone Age tool, usually a polished, ungrooved ax or adz head or blade that would be attached to a wooden shaft. The tool, often shaped like a chisel and made of stone or bronze, was probably used for felling trees or shaping wood. Great numbers of celts have been discovered in the British I...

archaeologsEnglishNations, Ancient Languages

Celt

Navajo

Athabascan language group people of United States southwest. Their intrusion from Northwestern subarctic areas of Canada, c 900-1200 AD, helped bring about the abandonment of Pueblos in Anasazi subarea. They were probably aided by groups of Apache Indians, also Athabascans, moving into southwest ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Navajo

Khoisan

Collective term for the Khoikhoin and San peoples of southern Africa and their languages. The Khoisan languages are click languages spoken in southern Africa. The term Khoisan was created to refer to the related peoples known as Bushmen and Hottentots (i.e., the Khoisanid peoples) under a common ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages, Nations

Khoisan

Mon-Khmer

An Austro-Asiatic linguistic family of southern Asia, comprising Mon, Khmer, and a number of languages of mountain populations in the Indochinese Peninsula as well as of India. Mon-Khmer languages constitute the indigenous language family of mainland Southeast Asia. They range north to southern C...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Mon-Khmer

Tokharian

Indo-European language that was spoken in northern Chinese Turkistan during the latter half of the 1st millennium AD. Documents from about 500-700 show two dialects: Tocharian A, from the area of Turfan in the east; and Tocharian B, chiefly from the region of Kucha in the west but also from the T...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Tokharian

Austro-Asiatic

A family of about 150 languages which includes Vietnamese, Munda (eastern India), Mon (southwest Burma), Khmer (Kampuchea), and several minor language groups including Nicobarese, and Aslian of peninsular Malaysia. Vietnamese, Khmer, and Mon are culturally the most important of these and have the...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Austro-Asiatic

Basques; Basque

A people living in both Spain and France in areas bordering the Bay of Biscay and encompassing the western foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains. The Basques are distinguished partly by an unusual pattern of blood groups, very high in the Rhesus negative factor, and by their language, quite unrelat...

archaeologsEnglishNations, Ancient Languages

Basques; Basque

Semite

A name applied to the speakers of a set of related languages who inhabited portions of southwestern Asia since the time of the first cities. Semitic languages are characterized by the importance of the consonants, usually three forming the root of each word. The vowels are omitted altogether in a...

archaeologsEnglishNations, Ancient Languages

Semite

Assyrian

One of the two main dialects of ancient Mesopotamia, used in the north. A Semitic language very close to Babylonian, from which it is thought to have diverged at the end of the 2nd millennium. Assyrian probably disappeared with the destruction of Assyria in 7th century BC. Old Assyrian cuneiform ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Assyrian

Austronesian

The major language family of the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific (including Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, parts of southern Vietnam, Madagascar, Melanesia (excluding much of New Guinea), Micronesia, and Polynesia). The family is divided into 1) Western Austronesian, or Indon...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Austronesian

Syllabary

A system of written symbols used to represent the syllables of the words of a language. Writing systems that use syllabaries include modern Japanese, Cherokee, the ancient Cretan scripts (Linear A, Linear B), and various Indic and cuneiform writing systems. Some syllabaries have separate symbols ...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Syllabary

Symbolic Language

Language as a communications system characterized by (1) the use of a finite number of symbols, including sounds, to create an infinite number of words, sentences, and ideas; (2) displacement where topics can deal with the past or future and thus are not limited to the present time and space; (3)...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Symbolic Language

Palaeoasiatic

A theoretical early 'race' of Homo sapiens sapiens in northeastern Asia. This race included the postglacial Chulmun and Jomon inhabitants of Korea and Japan and the modern Ainu. The far northeastern region of Siberia is the home of the so-called Paleoasiatic peoples, including the Chukchi, Koryak...

archaeologsEnglishAncient Languages

Palaeoasiatic