Lydian language

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Lydian was an Indo-European language that was spoken in the state of Lydia in Western Anatolia, present-day Turkey. It is now considered definitely to belong to the Anatolian subgroup of Indo-European, but occupies a unique position within this group due to a number of features not shared with the other Anatolian languages. It is not presently known whether these represent unique developments in pre-Lydian or the retention of archaic features lost in the other Anatolian languages. (Melchert 2004)

Lydian is attested in 7th century BC coin legends, and in some 100 inscriptions dating to the 5th and 4th centuries, including many epitaphs but also many short graffitti. Epitaphs (inscriptions on funerary stelae) typicallly begin with eś wãnaś "this grave". Lydian became extinct around the first century BC and was replaced by Greek.

Contents

0.1 Phonology
0.2 Morphology

1 Syntax

1.1 Example text

2 References
3 See also
4 Notes
5 External links

Phonology

Lydian is notable for its extensive consonant clusters, which resulted from the loss of word-final short vowels together with massive syncope.

Lydian had its own alphabet, which was closely related to the other alphabets of Asia Minor as well as the Greek alphabet. Unlike the Carian alphabet which had an f derived from Φ, the Lydian f has the peculiar 8 shape also found in the Etruscan alphabet. The alphabet is usually transliterated as follows:

''aãbdδeẽfghiklλmnνopqrsśtτuw

The letters δ, τ, λ, ν and ś indicate palatalized variants of d, t, l, n and s. ã and ẽ are nasalized vowels. Earlier texts are written both left-to-right and right-to-left; later texts are exclusively right-to-left.

Morphology

Nouns and adjectives distinguish singular and plural forms and occur in two genders, animate and inanimate. Only three cases are securely attested: nominative, accusative, and dative-locative. There may have been other cases that remain unknown due to the paucity of material.

Syntax

The basic word order is Subject-Object-Verb, but constituents may be extraposed to the right of the verb. Lydian had at least one postposition. Modifiers of the noun normally precede the noun.

Example text

A notable inscription is an Aramaic-Lydian bilingual found at Sardis, with eight lines of the Lydian text preserved (the first line of the text was destroyed):

[o]raλ islλ bakillλ est mrud eśśk [wãnaś]

laqrisak qelak kudkit ist esλ wãn[aλ]

bλtarwod akad manelid kumlilid silukalid akit n[ãqis]

esλ mruλ buk esλ wãnaλ buk esνaν

laqirisaν bukit kud ist esλ wãnaλ bλtarwo[d]

aktin nãqis qelλk fẽnsλifid fakmλ artimuś

ibśimsis artimuk kulumsis aaraλ biraλk

kλidaλ kofuλk qiraλ qelλk bilλ wcbaqẽnt

References

Gusmani, R. Lydisches Wörterbuch. Mit grammatischer Skizze und Inschriftensammlung, Heidelberg 1964 (Ergänzungsband 1-3, Heidelberg 1980-1986).
Melchert, H. Craig (2004) "Lydian", in Roger D. Woodard (ed.), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56256-2. pp. 601-608.
[Melchert, H. Craig Lydian corpus]
[Lydian Corpus]
Shevoroshkin, V. The Lydian Language, Moscow, 1977.

Notes

External links

[Lydian Grammar] by Cyril Babaev
[Lydian Concise Dictionary]

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