The ancient Cappadocian language was an ancient language or group of languages spoken in
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...
, possibly related to
Hittite or
Luwian
The Luwians were a group of Anatolian peoples who lived in central, western, and southern Anatolia, in present-day Turkey, during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. They spoke the Luwian language, an Indo-European language of the Anatolian sub- ...
.
[Mark Janse, "The Resurrection of Cappadocian (Asia Minor Greek)", ΑΩ International. https://www.academia.edu/695490/The_Resurrection_of_Cappadocian_Asia_Minor_Greek_][Mark Janse, ''The Survival of Cappadocian Greek''. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341832339_Hellenisti_ginoskeis_Acts_2137_The_Survival_of_Cappadocian_Greek] If Luwian, it may have been related to the dialect of
Tabal.
However, there are no known texts in this language.
Strabo and
Basil of Caesarea state that it was not
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
.
[As referenced in Arnold Hugh Martin Jones, ''The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces'', 1937, p. 430: Strabo, 12:1:2, Basil of Caesarea, ''de Spiritu Sancto'' 29, Migne, ''P.G.'' 32:208 "και Καππαδόκαι δε ούτω λέγομεν εγχωρίως"]
It was ultimately replaced by
Koine Greek
Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...
, but appears to have survived in some locations until at least the 6th century CE.
[J. Eric Cooper, Michael J. Decker, ''Life and Society in Byzantine Cappadocia'' , p. 14]
Notes
{{Anatolian languages
Languages of ancient Anatolia
Languages extinct in the 6th century
Unclassified languages of Asia
Unclassified Indo-European languages
Unattested languages of Asia