The Lycian language ( ) was the language of the ancient Lycians who occupied the Anatolian region known during the Iron Age as Lycia. Most texts date back to the fifth and fourth century BC. Two languages are known as Lycian: regular Lycian or Lycian A, and Lycian B or Milyan. Lycian became extinct around the beginning of the first century BC, replaced by the Ancient Greek language during the Hellenization of Anatolia. Lycian had its own alphabet, which was closely related to the Greek alphabet but included at least one character borrowed from Carian as well as characters proper to the language. The words were often separated by two points.
Area Lycia covered the region lying between the modern cities of Antalya and Fethiye in southern Turkey, especially the mountainous headland between Fethiye Bay and the Gulf of Antalya. The Lukka, as they were referred to in ancient Egyptian sources, which mention 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.
Discovery and decipherment
From the late eighteenth century Western European travellers began to visit Asia Minor to deepen their acquaintance with the worlds of Homer and the New Testament. In southwest Asia Minor (Lycia) they discovered inscriptions in an unknown script. The first four texts were published in 1820, and within months French Orientalist Antoine-Jean Saint-Martin used a bilingual showing individuals' names in Greek and Lycian as a key to transliterate the Lycian alphabet and determine the meaning of a few words. (archived at BnF Gallica). During the next century the number of texts increased, especially from the 1880s when Austrian expeditions systematically combed through the region. However, attempts to translate any but the most simple texts had to remain speculative, although combinatorial analysis of the texts cleared up some grammatical aspects of the language. The only substantial text with a Greek counterpart, the Xanthos stele, was hardly helpful because the Lycian text was quite heavily damaged, and worse, its Greek text does not anywhere come near to a close parallel.Neumann, Günther (1969), "Lydisch". In: Handbuch der Orientalistik, II. Band, 1. und 2. Abschnitt, Lieferung 2, Altkleinasiatische Sprachen, Leiden/Köln: Brill, pp. 358-396: pp. 360-371.
It was only after the decipherment of Hittite, by Bedřich Hrozný in 1917, that a language became known that was closely related to Lycian and could help etymological interpretations of the Lycian vocabulary. A next leap forward could be made with the discovery in 1973 of the Letoon trilingual in Lycian, Greek and Aramaic.Laroche, Emmanuel (1979). "L'inscription lycienne". Fouilles de Xanthos. VI: 51-128. Though much remains unclear, comprehensive dictionaries of Lycian have been composed since by Craig MelchertMelchert, H. Craig (2004). A Dictionary of the Lycian Language. Ann Arbor: Beech Stave. and Günter Neumann.Neumann, Günter & Tischler, Johann (2007). Glossar des lykischen. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Sources
Lycian is known from these sources, some of them fairly extensive:Adiego (2007) page 764.Bryce (1986) page 42.Christiansen, Birgit (2019), Editions of Lycian Inscriptions not Included in Melchert’s Corpus from 2001, in: 172 inscriptions on stone in the Lycian script dating from the 5th and 4th century BC (until ca. 330 BC).Bryce (1986) pp. 50, 54. They include: The Xanthus stele. 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 Greek and additional text, found mainly on the west side, in Milyan. Milyan appears only there and on a tomb in Antiphellos. The total number of lines on the stele is 255, including 138 in Lycian A, 12 in Greek, and 105 in Milyan. The Letoon trilingual, in Lycian A, Greek and Aramaic. 150 burial instructions carved on rock tombs. 20 votive or dedicatory inscriptions. About 100 inscriptions on coins minted at Xanthus from the reign of Kuprili, 485-440 BC, to the reign of Pericle, 380-360 BC.Bryce (1986) pages 51–52. Personal and place names in Greek.
Sample text
A Lycian epitaph (shown right):
Transliteration: Ebẽñnẽ prñnawu mẽn e prñnawatẽ hanadaza hrppi ladi ehbi setideime.
Translation: Hanadaza built this building for his wife and sons.
Lycian alphabet
The Lycian alphabet consists of about 29 signs, many of them reminiscent of the Greek alphabet:
Lycian sign transcription a b g d i w z h θ j (y) k l m n u p κ (c) r s t e ã ẽ m̃ ñ τ q β χ pronounced (IPA) /a/ /β/ /ɣ/ /ð/ /i/, /ĩ/ /w/ /t͡s/ /h/ /θ/ /j/ /kʲ~ɡʲ/ /l/, /l̩~əl/ /m/ /n/ /u/, /ũ/ /p~b/ /k/?, /kʲ/?, /h(e)/? /r/, /r̩~ər/ /s/ /t/ /e/ /ã/ /ẽ/ /m̩~əm/, /m./ /n̩~ən/, /n./ /tʷ/? /t͡ʃ/? /k/? /kʷ/? /k/? /kʷ/? /ç/? /q/? /kʷ/? Greek equivalent Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ϝ Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ο Π Ϙ Ρ Σ Τ Ψ
Classification
Lycian was an Indo-European language, one in the Luwian subgroup of Anatolian languages. A number of principal features help identify Lycian as being in the Luwian group:Adiego (2007) page 765. Assibilation of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) palatals (satem change): *h₁éḱwos to Luwian á-zú-wa/i-, Lycian esbe 'horse'. Replacement of genitive case with adjectives ending in -ahi or -ehi, Luwian -assi-. A preterite active formed with PIE secondary middle endings: PIE *-to to Luwian -ta, Lycian -te or -de in the third person singular PIE *-nto to Luwian -nta, Lycian -(n)te in the third person plural Similarity of words: Luwian māssan(i)-, Lycian māhān(i) 'god'.
The Luwian subgroup also includes cuneiform and hieroglyphic Luwian, Carian, Sidetic, Milyan and Pisidic.Adiego (2007) page 763. The pre-alphabetic forms of Luwian extended back into the Late Bronze Age and preceded the fall of the Hittite Empire. These 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.
Of the Luwic languages, only the Luwian parent language is attested prior to 1000 BC, so it is unknown when the classical-era dialects diverged. Whether the Lukka people always resided in southern Anatolia or whether they always spoke Luwian are different topics.
From the inscriptions, scholars have identified at least two languages that were termed Lycian. One is considered standard Lycian, also termed Lycian A; the other, which is attested on side D of the Xanthos stele, is Milyan or Lycian B, separated by its grammatical particularities.
Phonology Vowels +Oral vowelsFrontBackHigh Mid Low +Nasal vowelsFrontCentralHigh( )( )Mid Low
Consonants LabialDentalAlveolarPalatalVelarLabio-velarUvularGlottalplainlab.plainpal.Nasal Plosive ? Affricate Fricativevoiceless voiced Rhotic Lateral Approximant
Melchert reconstructs // for , // for , // for and // for . Kloekhorst instead proposes // for , // for , // for and // for . alternates with and represents a transitional sound between // and //. Based on this, Melchert suggested a phonetic value [] for but later retracted this view. Lycian stops (represented by , , , , , , and possibly ) are voiced as when after nasal consonants and voiceless otherwise. Nasal and liquid sounds can also occur as syllabic , and with being written as m̃ and ñ respectively.
Grammar Nouns Nouns and adjectives distinguish singular and plural forms. A dual has not been found in Lycian. There are two genders: animate (or 'common') and inanimate (or 'neuter'). Instead of the genitive singular case normally a so-called possessive (or "genitival adjective") is used, as is common practice in the Luwic languages: a suffix -(e)h- is added to the root of a substantive, and thus an adjective is formed that is declined in turn.
Nouns can be divided in five declension groups: a-stems, e-stems, i-stems, consonant stems, and mixed stems; the differences between the groups are very minor. The declension of nouns goes as follows: (in Russian)
case ending lada'wife, lady' tideimi'son, child' tuhes'nephew, niece' tese'vow, oath' atlahi'own' animate inanimate (a-stem) (i/e-stem) (consonant stem) (inanimate) (adjective) Singular Nominative -Ø, -s -~, -Ø, -yẽ lada tideimi tuhes (tese) atlahi Accusative -~, -u, -ñ ladã, ladu tideimi tuhesñ atlahi Ergative — ? Dative -i ladi tideimi tuhesi atlahi Locative -a, -e, -i (lada) (tideime) tesi (atlahi) Genitive -Ø, -h(e);Possessive: -(e)he-, -(e)hi- (Poss.:) laθθi SIng., Pl. Ablative-instrumental -di (ladadi) (tideimedi) tuhedi Plural Nominative ~-i -a ladãi tideimi tuhẽi tasa Accusative -s ladas tideimis Ergative — -ẽti tesẽti, teseti Dative/Locative -e, -a lada tideime tuhe tese atlahe Genitive -ẽ, -ãi ladãi (?) tideimẽ
Pronouns Demonstrative pronoun The paradigm for the demonstrative pronoun ebe, "this" is:Neumann, Günther (1969), "Lydisch". In: Handbuch der Orientalistik, II. Band, 1. und 2. Abschnitt, Lieferung 2, Altkleinasiatische Sprachen, Leiden/Köln: Brill, pp. 358-396: p. 386.
case Singular Plural Nominative ebe ebẽ ebẽi ebeija Accusative ebẽ, ebeñnẽ, ebẽñni ebeis, ebeijes Dative / Locative ebehi ebette Genitive (Possessive:) ebehi ebẽhẽ Ablative / Instrumental ? ?
Personal pronoun The demonstrative ebe, 'this', is also used as a personal pronoun: 'this one', therefore 'he, she, it'. Here is a paradigm of all attested personal pronouns: case ẽmu, amu'I' ẽmi-'my' eb(e)-'he, she, it' ehbi(je)-'his' epttehe/i-, eb(e)ttehe/i-'their' Singular Nominative ẽmu, amu ẽmi ebe ehbi ehbijẽ ebttehi Accusative ebñnẽ Genitive (Possessive:) ehbijehi Dative emu ehbi ebttehi Ablative/Instrumental ehbijedi Plural Nominative ehbi ehbija ebttehi Accusative ẽmis ehbis ebttehis Genitive Dative / Locative ebtte ehbije epttehe
Other pronouns Other pronouns are: Relative or interrogative pronouns: ti-, 'who, which'; teri or ẽke, 'when'; teli, 'where'; km̃mẽt(i)-, 'how many' (also indefinite: 'however many'). Indefinite pronouns: tike-, 'someone, something'; tise, 'anyone, anything'; tihe, 'any'. Reflexive pronoun: -ti (suffixed), 'himself'.
Numerals The following numerals are attested:
cardinal number 'x-fold' 'x-year-old' also attested two [kbi-] tupm̃me-, 'twofold, pair' kbisñne/i-, 'two-year-old' kbihu, 'twice'; kbijẽt(i)-, 'double'; kbi-, kbije-, '(an-)other'; kbisñtãta, 'twenty' three teri- trppem-, 'threefold (?)' trisñne/i-, 'three-year-old' (Milyan:) trisu, 'thrice' four mupm̃m[- mupm̃m[-, 'four, fourfold' eight aitãta nine nuñtãta twelve qñnãkba (Milyan:) qñnãtbisu, 'twelve times' twenty kbisñtãta
Verbs Just as in other Anatolian languages (Luwian, Lydian) verbs in Lycian were conjugated in the present-future and preterite tenses and in the imperative with three persons singular and plural. Some endings have many variants, due to nasalization (-a- → -añ-, -ã-; -e- → -eñ-, -ẽ-), lenition (-t- → -d-), gemination (-t- → -tt-; -d- → -dd-), and vowel harmonization (-a- → -e-: prñnawãtẽ → prñnewãtẽ).
About a dozen conjugations can be distinguished, on the basis of (1) the verbal root ending (a-stems, consonant stems, -ije-stems, etc.), and (2) the endings of the third person singular being either unlenited (present -ti; preterite -te; imperative -tu) or lenited (-di; -de; -du). For example, prñnawa-(ti) (to build) is an unlenited a-stem (prñnawati, he builds), a(i)-(di) (to make) is a lenited a(i)-stem (adi, he makes). Differences between the various conjugations are minor.
Verbs are conjugated as follows; Mediopassive (MP) forms are in brown:Billings, Nils Oscar Paul. "Finite verb formation in Lycian" (thesis), Leiden 2019.