Lycian language
Encyclopedia
Lycian language refers to the inscriptional language of ancient Lycia
, populated by Lycians
, as well as its presumed spoken counterpart.
and Fethiye
in southern Turkey
, and especially the mountainous headland between Fethiye Bay and the Gulf of Antalya. The Lukka, as they were referred to in ancient Egypt
ian sources which mentions them among the Sea Peoples
, probably also inhabited the region called Lycaonia
, located along the next headland to the east, also mountainous, between the modern cities of Antalya and Mersin.
language, one in the Luwian
subgroup of Anatolian languages
. The Luwian subgroup comprised also cuneiform and hieroglyphic Luwian, Carian
, Sidetic and Pisidic
. All but Luwian were spoken only in the Iron Age
, after roughly 1000 BC; thus neither the Lukka
of the time of the Sea Peoples
nor the Lycians cited among the allies of the Trojans
during the Trojan War
could have spoken any Lycian. Luwian language, on the other hand, extended back into the Late Bronze Age and preceded the fall of the Hittite Empire. This language vanished at about the time of the Neo-Hittite
states in southern Anatolia (and Syria
); thus, the Iron Age members of the subgroup are localized daughter languages of Luwian. Whether the Lukka
people always resided in southern Anatolia or whether they always spoke Luwian are different topics. Lycian became extinct around the beginning of the first century BC, having been replaced by the Ancient Greek language.
The language is known from a few fairly extensive inscriptions. From them scholars have identified at least two dialects. One is considered standard Lycian, also termed Lycian A; the other, which is attested on side D of the Xanthos
stele, is termed Lycian B or Milyan, separated by its grammatical particularities. Lycian had its own alphabet, which was closely related to the Greek alphabet
but included at least one character borrowed from Carian
, as well characters proper to the language. The words were often, but not always, separated by two points.
A few etymological
studies of the Lycian language endonym
are present. These are:
The inscriptional material covers a time span of about 170 years, between 500-330 BC.
Lycia
Lycia Lycian: Trm̃mis; ) was a region in Anatolia in what are now the provinces of Antalya and Muğla on the southern coast of Turkey. It was a federation of ancient cities in the region and later a province of the Roman Empire...
, populated by Lycians
Lycians
-Historical accounts:According to Herodotus, the Lycians originally came from Crete and were the followers of Sarpedon. They were expelled by Minos and ultimately settled in territories belonging to the Solymoi of Milyas in Asia Minor. The Lycians were originally known as Termilae before being...
, as well as its presumed spoken counterpart.
The speakers
Lycia covered the region lying between the modern cities of AntalyaAntalya
Antalya is a city on the Mediterranean coast of southwestern Turkey. With a population 1,001,318 as of 2010. It is the eighth most populous city in Turkey and country's biggest international sea resort.- History :...
and Fethiye
Fethiye
Fethiye is a city and district of Muğla Province in the Aegean region of Turkey with about 68,000 inhabitants .-History:...
in southern Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, and especially the mountainous headland between Fethiye Bay and the Gulf of Antalya. The Lukka, as they were referred to in ancient Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian sources which mentions them among the Sea Peoples
Sea Peoples
The Sea Peoples were a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty and especially during year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty...
, probably also inhabited the region called Lycaonia
Lycaonia
In ancient geography, Lycaonia was a large region in the interior of Asia Minor, north of Mount Taurus. It was bounded on the east by Cappadocia, on the north by Galatia, on the west by Phrygia and Pisidia, while to the south it extended to the chain of Mount Taurus, where it bordered on the...
, located along the next headland to the east, also mountainous, between the modern cities of Antalya and Mersin.
The language
Their language, Lycian, was an Indo-EuropeanIndo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
language, one in the Luwian
Luwian language
Luwian is an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. Luwian is closely related to Hittite, and was among the languages spoken during the second and first millennia BC by population groups in central and western Anatolia and northern Syria...
subgroup of Anatolian languages
Anatolian languages
The Anatolian languages comprise a group of extinct Indo-European languages that were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language.-Origins:...
. The Luwian subgroup comprised also cuneiform and hieroglyphic Luwian, Carian
Carian language
The Carian language is an extinct language of the Luwian subgroup of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The Carian language was spoken in Caria, a region of western Anatolia between the ancient regions of Lycia and Lydia, by the Carians, a name possibly first mentioned in...
, Sidetic and Pisidic
Pisidia
Pisidia was a region of ancient Asia Minor located north of Lycia, and bordering Caria, Lydia, Phrygia and Pamphylia. It corresponds roughly to the modern-day province of Antalya in Turkey...
. All but Luwian were spoken only in the Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
, after roughly 1000 BC; thus neither the Lukka
Lukka
The Lukka lands are often mentioned in Hittite texts from the second millennium BC. It denotes a region in the southwestern part of Anatolia. The Lukka lands were never put under permanent Hittite control and were viewed as hostile by the Hittites....
of the time of the Sea Peoples
Sea Peoples
The Sea Peoples were a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty and especially during year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty...
nor the Lycians cited among the allies of the Trojans
Troy
Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...
during the Trojan War
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...
could have spoken any Lycian. Luwian language, on the other hand, extended back into the Late Bronze Age and preceded the fall of the Hittite Empire. This language vanished at about the time of the Neo-Hittite
Neo-Hittite
The states that are called Neo-Hittite, or more recently Syro-Hittite, were Luwian, Aramaic and Phoenician-speaking political entities of the Iron Age northern Syria and southern Anatolia that arose following the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180 BC and lasted until roughly 700 BC...
states in southern Anatolia (and Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
); thus, the Iron Age members of the subgroup are localized daughter languages of Luwian. Whether the Lukka
Lukka
The Lukka lands are often mentioned in Hittite texts from the second millennium BC. It denotes a region in the southwestern part of Anatolia. The Lukka lands were never put under permanent Hittite control and were viewed as hostile by the Hittites....
people always resided in southern Anatolia or whether they always spoke Luwian are different topics. Lycian became extinct around the beginning of the first century BC, having been replaced by the Ancient Greek language.
The language is known from a few fairly extensive inscriptions. From them scholars have identified at least two dialects. One is considered standard Lycian, also termed Lycian A; the other, which is attested on side D of the Xanthos
Xanthos
Xanthos was the name of a city in ancient Lycia, the site of present day Kınık, Antalya Province, Turkey, and of the river on which the city is situated...
stele, is termed Lycian B or Milyan, separated by its grammatical particularities. Lycian had its own alphabet, which was closely related to the Greek alphabet
Greek alphabet
The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...
but included at least one character borrowed from Carian
Carian language
The Carian language is an extinct language of the Luwian subgroup of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The Carian language was spoken in Caria, a region of western Anatolia between the ancient regions of Lycia and Lydia, by the Carians, a name possibly first mentioned in...
, as well characters proper to the language. The words were often, but not always, separated by two points.
Endonym
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
studies of the Lycian language endonym
Exonym and endonym
In ethnolinguistics, an endonym or autonym is a local name for a geographical feature, and an exonym or xenonym is a foreign language name for it...
are present. These are:
- Language of the mountain people (LaRoche). Luwian tarmi- "pointed object" becomes a hypothetical *tarmašši- "mountainous" used in Trm̃mis- "Lycia." Lycia and PisidiaPisidiaPisidia was a region of ancient Asia Minor located north of Lycia, and bordering Caria, Lydia, Phrygia and Pamphylia. It corresponds roughly to the modern-day province of Antalya in Turkey...
each had a hill-town named Termessos. - Attarima (Carruba). A previously unknown Late Bronze Age place name among the LukkaLukkaThe Lukka lands are often mentioned in Hittite texts from the second millennium BC. It denotes a region in the southwestern part of Anatolia. The Lukka lands were never put under permanent Hittite control and were viewed as hostile by the Hittites....
. - Termilae (Bryce). A people displaced from CreteCreteCrete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
about 1600 BC. - Termera (StraboStraboStrabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
) A LelegeLelegesThe Leleges were one of the aboriginal peoples of southwest Anatolia , who were already there when the Indo-European Hellenes emerged. The distinction between the Leleges and the Carians is unclear. According to Homer the Leleges were a distinct Anatolian tribe Homer...
people displaced by the Trojan WarTrojan WarIn Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...
, first settling in CariaCariaCaria was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionian and Dorian Greeks colonized the west of it and joined the Carian population in forming Greek-dominated states there...
and assigning such names as Telmessos, Termera, Termerion, Termeros, Termilae, then displaced to Lycia by the IoniansIoniansThe Ionians were one of the four major tribes into which the Classical Greeks considered the population of Hellenes to have been divided...
.
Sources
Lycian is known from these sources:- Personal and place names in Greek.
- 172 inscriptions on stone in the Lycian script dating from the late 5th century BC to the late 4th century BC. They are categorized as:
- 150 burial instructions carved on rock tombs.
- 20 votive or dedicatory inscriptions.
- About 100 inscriptions on coins minted at XanthusXanthosXanthos was the name of a city in ancient Lycia, the site of present day Kınık, Antalya Province, Turkey, and of the river on which the city is situated...
from the reign of Kuprili, 485-440 BC, to the reign of Pericle, 380-360 BC. - The Letoon trilingualLetoon trilingualThe Letoon trilingual is an inscription in three languages: standard Lycian or Lycian A, Greek and Aramaic covering the faces of a four-sided stone stele called the Letoon Trilingual Stele, discovered in 1973 during the archeological exploration of the Letoon temple complex, near Xanthos, ancient...
, in Lycian A, Greek and Aramaic. - The Xanthus stele bilingual. The inscribed upper part of a tomb at Xanthos, called the Xanthus Stele or the Xanthus Obelisk. A Lycian A inscription covers the south, east and part of the north faces. The north side also contains a 12-line poem in GreekAncient GreekAncient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
and additional text, found mainly on the west side, in a dialect of Lycian called Milyan or Lycian B. The dialect appears only there and on a tomb in Antiphellos. The total number of lines on the stele is 255, including 243 in Lycian and 12 in Greek.
The inscriptional material covers a time span of about 170 years, between 500-330 BC.
Description
A number of principal features help identify Lycian as being in the Luwian group:- AssibilationAssibilationIn linguistics, assibilation is the term for a sound change resulting in a sibilant consonant. It is commonly the final phase of palatalization.-Romance languages:...
of Indo-European (IE in this article) palatals (Satem change): *ekwo- (the original k was palatal) to Luwian á-zú-wa/i-, Lycian esbe, "horse." - Replacement of genitive caseGenitive caseIn grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
with adjectives ending in -ahi or -ehi, Luwian -assi-. - A preteritePreteriteThe preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
active formed with Indo-European secondary middle endings:- IE *-to to Luwian -ta, Lycian te- or de- in the third personGrammatical personGrammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
singular - IE *-nto to Luwian -nta, Lycian (n)te in the third person plural
- IE *-to to Luwian -ta, Lycian te- or de- in the third person
- Similarity of words: Luwian māssan(i)-, Lycian māhān(i), "god."