Lycian language

Spoken in

Indo-European

• Lycian

-

Ine ( other Indo-European languages)

Xlc

Lycian was the language of the ancient population of the Lycians. It was an Indo-European language and belonged to the subgroup of the Anatolian languages. Kinship closest it became the Luwian and was spoken in Lycia in southern Anatolia.

In the Lycian there were different dialects, which are called Lycian Lycian A and B. Lycian B is also called Milyisch and sometimes referred to as a separate language.

Some names that have been found on inscriptions indicate pre- Indo-European inhabitants of Lycia. Thus, old Anatolian elements have kept very long in Lycia, which can be explained by the remoteness and inaccessibility of the land.

Writing and deciphering

The Lycian language helped himself from the 5th century BC, a font that was probably derived from a western Greek alphabet and is documented by about 180 stone inscriptions and coin legends 200 from the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The period of the language monuments comprises only about 180 years. As early as the 4th century, the language is subject to strong Hellenistic influences - the population began to give himself Greek names. The writing is not completely decoded, many readings are based on hypotheses. The phonetics is still unclear.

A key role in decoding the language comes to two language monuments. The in 1974 discovered Trilingue from Letoon from the year 337 BC and the stele of Xanthos around 400 BC, a grave pillar, which is labeled on all four sides. On the Trilingue a lex sacra (cult rule) is published in three languages ​​: Greek, Aramaic and Lycian. On the Xanthian stele is at least a Greek summary. Nevertheless, the Lycian text yet resists the translation experiments. Until now, it only understands that on the stele the exploits of the son of a certain Harpagos the king Xeriga are described, the conquered several fortresses and had victories at competitions. On the grave monuments of the names that genealogies and the dispositions for later burials are apparently being held.

The font is in Unicode block in Lycian and is thus standardized for use on computer systems.