Editing Luwian language (section)

==History of research==
After the decipherment of Hittite, Cuneiform Luwian was recognised as a separate, but related language by [[Emil Forrer]] in 1919. Further progress in the understanding of the language came after the Second World War, with the publication and analysis of a larger number of texts. Important work in this period was produced by [[Bernhard Rosenkranz]], [[Heinrich Otten]] and [[Emmanuel Laroche]]. An important advance came in 1985 with the reorganisation of the whole text-corpus by [[Frank Starke]].

The decipherment and classification of Hieroglyphic Luwian was much more difficult. In the 1920s, there were a number of failed attempts. In the 1930s some individual logograms and syllabic signs were correctly identified. At this point the classification of the language was not yet clear and, since it was believed to be a form of Hittite, it was referred to as ''Hieroglyphic Hittite''. After a break in research due to the Second World War, there was breakthrough in 1947 with the discovery and publication of a [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]]-Hieroglyphic Luwian [[Karatepe Bilingual|bilingual text]] by [[Helmuth Theodor Bossert]]. The reading of several syllabic signs was still faulty, however, and as a result it was not realised that the cuneiform and hieroglyphic texts recorded the same language.

In the 1970s, as a result of a fundamental revision of the readings of a large number of hieroglyphs by [[John David Hawkins]], [[Anna Morpurgo Davies]], and [[Günter Neumann (philologist)|Günter Neumann]], it became clear that both cuneiform and hieroglyphic texts recorded the same Luwian language. This revision resulted from a discovery outside the area of Luwian settlement, namely the annotations on [[Urartu|Urartian]] pots, written in the [[Urartian language]] using the hieroglyphic Luwian script. The sign [[File:Hieroglyph luwian za.jpg|100x33px]], which had hitherto been read as ''ī'' was shown to be being used to indicate the sound ''za'', which triggered a chain reaction resulting in an entirely new system of readings. Since that time, research has concentrated on better understanding the relationship between the two different forms of Luwian, in order to gain a clearer understanding of Luwian as a whole.