Alphabets of Asia Minor

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History of the Alphabet
Middle Bronze Age 19–15th c. BC Canaanite-Phoenician 14th c. BC *Aramaic 9th c. BC **Brāhmī & Indic, 6th c. BC ***Tibetan 7th c. ***Khmer/Javanese, 9th c. **Hebrew 3rd c. BC **Syriac 2nd c. BC **Din Dabireh 3rd c. **Arabic 4th c. *Greek 9th c. BC **Etruscan 8th c. BC ***Latin 7th c. BC ***Runes 2nd c. **Gothic 4th c. **Armenian 405 **Glagolitic 862 **Cyrillic 10th c. *Samaritan 6th c. BC *Iberian 6th c. BC South Arabian 9th c. BC *Ge'ez 5–6th c. BC
Meroitic 3rd c. BC
Complete genealogy

Various alphabetic writing systems were in use in Iron Age Anatolia to record Anatolian dialects and the Phrygian language. Previously several of these languages had been written with logographic and syllabic systems.

The alphabets of Asia Minor may be split into two groups. The first of them (Phrygian and Lemnian) were early adaptations of regional variants of the Greek alphabet; the earliest Phrygian inscriptions are contemporary with early Greek inscriptions, but contain Greek innovations such as the letters Φ and Ψ which did not exist in the earliest forms of the Greek alphabet.

• The Phrygian alpbahet, recording the Phrygian language, was in use in Phrygia from ca. the 8th to the 3rd century BC, 20 letters. Phrygian was based on the western Greek alphabet which used Ψ (instead of Χ) for [kʰ]. The Mysian alphabet is a variant, with one additional letter.
• The Lemnian alphabet of Pelasgians, see Lemnos stele

The second group (Carian, Para-Carian, Lydian, Para-Lydian, Lycian and Sidetic) probably emerged even before the Greek alphabet. They have a lot of common characteristics that distinguish them from the earliest forms of the Greek alphabet; many letters in these alphabets, although they resemble Greek letters, have absolutely different reading (most extensively in the case of Carian).

• The Lydian alphabet, used to record the Lydian language from ca. the 5th to 4th centuries BC, related is the "Para-Lydian" alphabet known from a single inscription in Sardis. Lydian used the letter 8 for /f/, a remarkable convergence with the Etruscan alphabet, where 8 was added in the 6th century BC.
• The Carian alphabet, recording the Carian language, extant in about 10 varieties known from inscriptions in Caria, Egypt and Athens. Only partially understood, there may have been 35-45 letters. Deciphered in 1960s by Russian (later American) linguist Vitaly Shevoroshkin.
• The Lycian alphabet, recording the Lycian language from the 5th to 4th centuries BC.
• The Sidetic alphabet of 25 letters, known from coin legends in what might be a Sidetic language, is only partially deciphered.

The Anatolian alphabets fell out of use around the 4th century BC with the beginning Hellenistic period.

See also

• History of the alphabet
• Greek alphabet
• Old Italic alphabets

External links

• http://indoeuro.bizland.com/project/script/asiam.html

Literature

• Diringer D. Alphabet. Cambridge, 1948.
• Friedrich J. Geschichte der Schrift. 1966.

 

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