Lycian language
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Lycian | ||
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Spoken in: | Southwestern Anatolia | |
Language extinction: | 1st century BC | |
Language family: | Indo-European Anatolian Luwian Lycian |
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Writing system: | Lycian script | |
Language codes | ||
ISO 639-1: | none | |
ISO 639-2: | — | |
ISO 639-3: | xlc | |
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. |
Lycian was an Indo-European language, one of the Anatolian languages, that was spoken in the Iron Age region of Lycia in Anatolia, present day Turkey. It is believed by some specialists to be a descendant of Hittite or Luwian or perhaps both. It became extinct around the first century BC and was replaced by Greek. The language is known from a few fairly extensive inscriptions, which are divided into Lycian A and B depending on grammar. Lycian had its own alphabet that was closely related to the Greek alphabet but included at least one character borrowed from Carian.
From the inscriptions, scholars have identified at least two dialects. One is considered standard Lycian, the other which is attested on side d of the Letoon trilingual is termed Milyan.
[edit] Sources
- Trevor R. Bryce, The Lycians, Vol. I, Copenhagen : Museum Tusculanum Press, 1986, pp. 68-71 (ISBN 87-7289-023-1)