Lycian language

Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} {{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other Template:Contains special characters The Lycian language ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration)<ref name=bry30>Bryce (1986) page 30.</ref> 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

Template:Multiple image 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal (archived at BnF Gallica).</ref> 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.<ref>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.</ref>

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.<ref>Laroche, Emmanuel (1979). "L'inscription lycienne". Fouilles de Xanthos. VI: 51-128.</ref> Though much remains unclear, comprehensive dictionaries of Lycian have been composed since by Craig Melchert<ref>Melchert, H. Craig (2004). A Dictionary of the Lycian Language. Ann Arbor: Beech Stave.</ref> and Günter Neumann.<ref>Neumann, Günter & Tischler, Johann (2007). Glossar des lykischen. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.</ref>

Sources

File:Lycian inscriptions.png

Map showing places where Lycian inscriptions have been found.

Lycian is known from these sources, some of them fairly extensive:<ref>Adiego (2007) page 764.</ref><ref>Bryce (1986) page 42.</ref><ref>Christiansen, Birgit (2019), Editions of Lycian Inscriptions not Included in Melchert’s Corpus from 2001, in: Template:Cite book</ref>

• 172 inscriptions on stone in the Lycian script dating from the 5th and 4th century BC (until ca. 330 BC).<ref>Bryce (1986) pp. 50, 54.</ref> 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.<ref>Bryce (1986) pages 51–52.</ref>
• Personal and place names in Greek.

Sample text

File:LycianScripture GeorgeEBean.jpg

An epitaph in the Lycian language, which reads: Template:Fs interlinear

A Lycian epitaph (shown right): {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}

Transliteration: Ebẽñnẽ prñnawu mẽn e prñnawatẽ hanadaza hrppi ladi ehbi setideime.

Translation: Hanadaza built this building for his wife and sons.

Lycian alphabet

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The Lycian alphabet consists of about 29 signs, many of them reminiscent of the Greek alphabet:

Lycian sign	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script	Template:Script
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

File:Lycian alphabet.jpg

Lycian alphabet: an early attempt at transliteration

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:<ref>Adiego (2007) page 765.</ref>

• 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.<ref>Adiego (2007) page 763.</ref> 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 vowels Front Back High Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme Mid Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme Low Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme

Nasal vowels Front Central High (Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme) (Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme) Mid Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme Low Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar		Labio- velar	Uvular	Glottal
				plain	lab.		plain	pal.
Nasal		Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme		Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme
Plosive		Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme		Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme	Template:IPA link? Template:Grapheme	Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme	Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme	Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme	Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme	Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme
Affricate				Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme
Fricative	voiceless		Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme	Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme							Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme
	voiced	Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme	Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme				Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme
Rhotic				Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme
Lateral				Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme
Approximant						Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme			Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme

• Melchert reconstructs /Template:IPA link/ for Template:Grapheme, /Template:IPA link/ for Template:Grapheme, /Template:IPA link/ for Template:Grapheme and /Template:IPA link/ for Template:Grapheme.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> Kloekhorst instead proposes /Template:IPA link/ for Template:Grapheme, /Template:IPA link/ for Template:Grapheme, /Template:IPA link/ for Template:Grapheme and /Template:IPA linkTemplate:IPA link/ for Template:Grapheme.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Template:Grapheme alternates with Template:Grapheme and represents a transitional sound between /Template:IPA link/ and /Template:IPA link/. Based on this, Melchert suggested a phonetic value [[[:Template:IPA link]]] for Template:Grapheme but later retracted this view.<ref name=":0" />
• Lycian stops (represented by Template:Grapheme, Template:Grapheme, Template:Grapheme, Template:Grapheme, Template:Grapheme, Template:Grapheme, Template:Grapheme and possibly Template:Grapheme) are voiced when after nasal consonants and voiceless otherwise.
• Nasal and liquid sounds can also occur as syllabic {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, and with {{#invoke:IPA|main}} being written as m̃ Template:Grapheme and ñ Template:Grapheme respectively.<ref name=":0" />

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:<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="kloekhorst2013">Template:Cite journal (in Russian)</ref><ref name="didier">Template:Cite journal</ref>

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)Template:Efn
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:<ref>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.</ref><ref name="didier"/>

case	Singular		Plural
	Template:Small	Template:Small	Template:Small	Template:Small
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:<ref name="didier"/>

case		ẽmu, amu 'I'	ẽmi- 'my'	eb(e)- 'he, she, it'	ehbi(je)- 'his'		epttehe/i-, eb(e)ttehe/i- 'their'
					Template:Small	Template:Small	Template:Small	Template:Small
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:<ref name="didier"/>

• 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:<ref name="didier"/>

	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:<ref>Billings, Nils Oscar Paul. "Finite verb formation in Lycian" (thesis), Leiden 2019.</ref><ref name="sass2020">Template:Cite book</ref>

			Active	Mediopassive	prñnawa-(ti)	(t)ta-(di)	a(i)-(di)	(h)ha-(ti)	si-(?)
			ending	ending	'to build'	'to put, place'	'to make, do'	'to release'	'to lie' (MP)
Present / future	Singular	1	-u (-w)	-xani, -xãni					sixani
		2	?	?
		3	-di, -(t)ti, -i, -e	-ẽni, -tẽni	prñnawati	(t)tadi	adi, edi	hadi, hati	sijẽni, sijeni, sitẽni
	Plural	1	?	?
		2	(-tẽni ?)	?
		3	~-ti, -(i)ti, -ñti	~-tẽni (?)		tãti (tẽti)	aiti	(h)hãti, (h)hati	sitẽni (?)
Preterite	Singular	1	-(x)xa, -xã, -ga, -ax(a)	-xagã, -xaga (?)	prñnawaxã, -waxa	taxa	axa, aga, axã, agã; (MP:) axagã, axaga
		3	-tẽ, -(t)te, -dẽ, -de	(-tte ?)	prñnawatẽ, -wate (-wetẽ, -wete)	tadẽ, tade (tetẽ ?)	adẽ. ade (ede, ada)	hadẽ, hade
	Plural	1	?	?
		3	~-tẽ, -(i)tẽ, -(i)te, ~-te, -ñtẽ, -ñte	?	prñnawãtẽ, -wãte; prñnewãtẽ	tete	aitẽ, aite	hãtẽ, hãte
Imperative	Singular	1	-lu (?)<ref name="lycb">Only attested in Lycian B.</ref>	?
		2	-Ø<ref name="lycb" />	?
		3	-(t)tu, -du, -u	(-tẽnu ?)		tatu		hadu
	Plural	2	(-tẽnu ?)	(-tẽnu ?)
		3	~-tu	(~-tẽnu ?)		tãtu, tatu
Participle Active (Passive?)	Singular		-mi, ~-mi, -me, -ma
	Plural		-mi				(acc. neutr.:) eim̃	(accusative:) hm̃mis
Infinitive			-ne, ~-ne, -na, ~-na	?		(t)tãne, tane, ttãna		hane, hãne, hhãna

A suffix -s- (cognate with Greek, Latin -/sk/-), appended to the stem and attested with half a dozen verbs, is thought to make a verb iterative:<ref name="didier" /><ref>Billings (2019), pp. 116-118.</ref>

stem a(i)-, 'to do, to make', s-stem as-; (Preterite 3 Singular:) ade, adẽ, 'he did, made', astte, 'he always did, has made repeatedly';

stem tuwe-, 'to erect, place (upright)', s-stem tus-; (Present/future 3 Plural:) tuwẽti, 'they erect', tusñti , 'they will erect repeatedly'.

Syntax

Emmanuel Laroche, who analysed the Lycian text of the Letoon trilingual,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> concluded that word order in Lycian is slightly more free than in the other Anatolian languages. Sentences in plain text mostly have the structure

ipc (initial particle cluster) - V (Verb) - S (Subject) - O (direct Object).

The verb immediately follows an "initial particle cluster", consisting of a more or less meaningless particle "se-" or "me-" (literally, 'and') followed by a series of up to three suffixes, often called emphatics. The function of some of these suffixes is mysterious, but others have been identified as pronomina like "he", "it", or "them". The subject, direct object, or indirect object of the sentence may thus proleptically be referred to in the initial particle cluster. As an example, the sentence "X built a house" might in Lycian be structured: "and-he-it / he-built / X / a-house".

Other constituents of a sentence, like an indirect object, predicate, or complimentary adjuncts, can be placed anywhere after the verb.

Contrary to this pattern, funeral inscriptions as a rule have a standard form with the object at the head of the sentence: "This tomb built X"; literally: "This tomb / it / he built / X" (order: O - ipc - V - S). Laroche suspects the reason for this deviation to be that in this way emphasis fell on the funerary object: "This object, it was built by X". Example:<ref>Inscription TL 19 from Pinara.</ref>

1.		ebẽñnẽ prñnawã mẽti prñnawatẽ	This building, [it was] he who built it:
2.		xisteriya xzzbãzeh tideimi	Qisteria, Qtsbatse's son,
3.		hrppi ladi ehbi se tideime	for his wife and for the sons.

In line 1 mẽti = m-ẽ-ti is the initial particle cluster, where m- = me- is the neutral "steppingstone" to which two suffixes are affixed: -ẽ- = "it", and the relative pronoun -ti, "who, he who".

Subject-verb-object hypothesis

Kim McCone proposed in the 1970s that Lycian's unmarked word order was instead subject-verb-object. The apparent VSO and OVS orders come from various frontings and dislocations of a basic SVO structure.

Lycian's SVO is itself a shift from the typical Anatolian subject-object-verb order, of which Lycian preverbal object pronouns like ẽ "him/her/it" would be a relic.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In spite of McCone's alternative analysis, the assumption that verb-subject-object was Lycian's unmarked word order went unchallenged until the 2010s, when Alwin Kloekhorst independently formulated and adopted the SVO hypothesis. This led to other linguists like Heiner Eichner and H. Craig Melchert to adopt the SVO hypothesis after him.<ref name="Melchert 2021">Template:Cite journal</ref> The principal unmarked example cited by SVO supporters comes from the following sentence:<ref>Inscription TL 40 from Xanthos.</ref>

Further examples of subject-initial unmarked clauses cited by Melchert include:<ref name="Melchert 2021"/>

Endonym

A few etymological studies of the Lycian language endonym exist, namely:<ref name=bry30/>

• Language of the mountain people (Laroche): Luwian tarmi- "pointed object" becomes a hypothetical *tarmašši- "mountainous" used in Trm̃mis- "Lycia." Lycia and Pisidia each had a hill-town named Termessos.
• Attarima (Carruba): A previously unknown Late Bronze Age place name among the Lukka.
• Termilae (Bryce): A people displaced from Crete about 1600 BC.
• Termera (Strabo<ref>Strabo 7.7.1, 13.1.59.</ref>): A Lelege people displaced by the Trojan War, first settling in Caria and assigning such names as Telmessos, Termera, Termerion, Termeros, Termilae, then displaced to Lycia by the Ionians.<ref>Strabo 14.1.3, 14.2.18.</ref>

See also

• Letoon trilingual
• Lycia
• Lycian script
• Anatolian languages

External links

• {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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References

• Template:Cite book
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Further reading

• Goldstein, David M. "Object agreement in Lycian". In: Historische Sprachforschung Vol. 127, Number 1 (2014): 101-124. 10.13109/hisp.2014.127.1.101 [1]
• Template:Cite journal
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