Talk:Luwian language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of the WikiProject Languages, an attempt at creating a standardized, informative, and easy-to-use resource about languages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale.
This article falls within the scope of the ancient Near East WikiProject. Please participate by editing this article, and help us improve articles to good article standards, or visit the project page.

Contents

[edit] Comments

why does the article say that Luvian was spoken in Arzawa, which was in the far west, when the map shows the Luvian area as in the east?Bbpowell 22:23, 21 August 2007 (UTC){

[edit] Influence on Semitic?

Where is the evidence that Hittite and Luwian "moved" south to the Middle East and influenced Semitic tongues? Is this some sort of a confusion with Phillistines(Greeks) ?

  • No evidence at all, it is clear that the author does not have a clue what (s)he is talking about. There were Neo-Hittite kingdoms in northern Syria during the first millennium BC using the Luwian language in inscriptions, but the presence of Luwians among the Sea people/Philistines are pure guesswork. Any linguistic influence on the Semitic tongues from Luwian is strictly confined to loan-words.--JFK 15:02, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cut from the article

This is the highly disputed part of the article cut and pasted. Before a reference can be presented who these academic specialists are this hypothesis does not belong in the main article. It is certainly not the scholar Melchert in Anatolian languages nor his colleagues Meid, Neu Otten or Puhvel. The text:

Luwian (and Hittite) groups are now believed by most academic specialists to have moved south into Amurru, Aram Naharaim, Canaan and the Hejaz (modern Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia) after ca. the 14th century BC, and to have had an influence on the various West Semitic languages that its speakers came into contact with (Amorite dialects and especially Hebrew). --JFK 23:30, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

I agree, the Luwian-speaking movement from Lycia followed the South Anatolian coastline apparently after the Hittites, which is associated with the Sea Peoples activity, and they did get as far as Syria, but I never heard of them getting to Saudi Arabia...! Pulling out that OR was a good call... ፈቃደ (ውይይት) 01:08, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

It was George E. Mendenhall from the University of Michigan. He ascribed originally Luwian names to Midianite figures reported in the Old Testament, some of whom (Moses' father-in-law Jethro for example) were associated with the Hejaz. --Fire Star 04:16, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Boustrephedon, etc

Boustrephedon writing does not apply to Cuneiform Luwian, and so the discussion on it shouldn't go on in this article. I've moved that discussion (and the paragraph which sparked it) over to Hieroglyphic Luwian. Enjoy! - Zimriel 21:31, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Cuneiform Luwian and Hieroglyphic Luwian are language varieties which should be discussed at Luwian language; directionality and other features of the writing system should be discussed at Anatolian hieroglyph. Evertype 15:38, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Split "Luwians"

Propose splitting Luwian land and people from the language article. Categorystuff (talk) 16:37, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Who are you calling "Luwians"? Do you have such a great deal of material on "Luwians" that it would unbalance the present article? Why don't you simply begin by editing it in a section here and see how much you've got.--Wetman (talk) 07:38, 28 May 2008 (UTC)