| Lycian | |
|---|---|
| 𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊍𐊆Trm̃mili | |
 Xanthos stele with Lycian inscriptions | |
| Native to | Lycia,Lycaonia |
| Region | SouthwesternAnatolia |
| Ethnicity | Lycians |
| Era | 500 – ca. 200 BC[1] |
Early forms | |
| Lycian script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xlc |
xlc | |
| Glottolog | lyci1241 |
TheLycian language (𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊍𐊆Trm̃mili)[2] was the language of the ancientLycians who occupied theAnatolian region known during theIron Age asLycia. Most texts date back to the fifth and fourth century BC. Two languages are known as Lycian: regular Lycian or Lycian A, and Lycian B orMilyan.Lycian became extinct around the beginning of the first century BC, replaced by theAncient Greek language during theHellenization of Anatolia. Lycian had itsown alphabet, which was closely related to theGreek alphabet but included at least one character borrowed fromCarian as well as characters proper to the language. The words were often separated by two points.
Lycia covered the region lying between the modern cities ofAntalya andFethiye in southernTurkey, especially the mountainous headland between Fethiye Bay and the Gulf of Antalya. TheLukka, as they were referred to in ancientEgyptian sources, which mention them among theSea Peoples, probably also inhabited the region calledLycaonia, located along the next headland to the east, also mountainous, between the modern cities of Antalya andMersin.
From the late eighteenth century Western European travellers began to visit Asia Minor to deepen their acquaintance with the worlds ofHomer and theNew Testament. In southwest Asia Minor (Lycia) they discovered inscriptions in an unknown script. The first four texts were published in 1820, and within months French OrientalistAntoine-Jean Saint-Martin used a bilingual showing individuals' names in Greek and Lycian as a key to transliterate theLycian alphabet and determine the meaning of a few words.[4] During the next century the number of texts increased, especially from the 1880s when Austrian expeditions systematically combed through the region. However, attempts to translate any but the most simple texts had to remain speculative, althoughcombinatorial analysis of the texts cleared up some grammatical aspects of the language. The only substantial text with a Greek counterpart, theXanthos stele, was hardly helpful because the Lycian text was quite heavily damaged, and worse, its Greek text does not anywhere come near to a close parallel.[5]
It was only after the decipherment ofHittite, byBedřich Hrozný in 1917, that a language became known that was closely related to Lycian and could help etymological interpretations of the Lycian vocabulary. A next leap forward could be made with the discovery in 1973 of theLetoon trilingual in Lycian, Greek and Aramaic.[6] Though much remains unclear, comprehensive dictionaries of Lycian have been composed since byCraig Melchert[7] andGünter Neumann.[8]
Lycian is known from these sources, some of them fairly extensive:[9][10][11]
𐊁𐊂𐊚𐊑𐊏𐊚:
ebẽñnẽ
𐊓𐊕𐊑𐊏𐊀𐊇𐊒:
prñnawu
𐊎𐊚𐊏:
mẽn.
𐊁𐊓𐊕𐊑𐊏𐊀𐊇𐊀𐊗𐊚:
e prñnawatẽ
𐊛𐊀𐊏𐊀𐊅𐊀𐊈𐊀:
hanadaza
𐊛𐊕𐊓𐊓𐊆𐊍𐊀𐊅𐊆:
hrppi ladi
𐊁𐊛𐊂𐊆:
ehbi
𐊖𐊁𐊗𐊆𐊅𐊁𐊆𐊎𐊁
setideime
𐊁𐊂𐊚𐊑𐊏𐊚: 𐊓𐊕𐊑𐊏𐊀𐊇𐊒: 𐊎𐊚𐊏: 𐊁𐊓𐊕𐊑𐊏𐊀𐊇𐊀𐊗𐊚: 𐊛𐊀𐊏𐊀𐊅𐊀𐊈𐊀: 𐊛𐊕𐊓𐊓𐊆𐊍𐊀𐊅𐊆: 𐊁𐊛𐊂𐊆: 𐊖𐊁𐊗𐊆𐊅𐊁𐊆𐊎𐊁
ebẽñnẽ prñnawu mẽn. {e prñnawatẽ} hanadaza {hrppi ladi} ehbi setideime
"Hanadaza built this building for his wife and sons."
A Lycian epitaph (shown right):𐊁𐊂𐊚𐊑𐊏𐊚: 𐊓𐊕𐊑𐊏𐊓𐊇𐊒: 𐊎𐊚𐊏: 𐊁𐊓𐊕𐊑𐊏𐊀𐊥𐊀𐊗𐊚: 𐊛𐊀𐊏𐊀𐊅𐊀𐊈𐊀: 𐊛𐊕𐊓𐊓𐊆𐊍𐊀𐊅𐊆: 𐊁𐊛𐊂𐊆: 𐊖𐊁𐊗𐊆𐊅𐊁𐊆𐊎𐊁
Transliteration: Ebẽñnẽ prñnawu mẽn e prñnawatẽ hanadaza hrppi ladi ehbi setideime.
Translation: Hanadaza built this building for his wife and sons.
The Lycian alphabet consists of about 29 signs, many of them reminiscent of theGreek alphabet:
| Lycian sign | 𐊀 | 𐊂 | 𐊄 | 𐊅 | 𐊆 | 𐊇 | 𐊈 | 𐊛 | 𐊉 | 𐊊 | 𐊋 | 𐊍 | 𐊎 | 𐊏 | 𐊒 | 𐊓 | 𐊔 | 𐊕 | 𐊖 | 𐊗 | 𐊁 | 𐊙 | 𐊚 | 𐊐 | 𐊑 | 𐊘 | 𐊌 | 𐊃 | 𐊜 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| transcription | a | b | g | d | i | w | z | h | θ | j (y) | k | l | m | n | u | p | κ (c) | r | s | t | e | ã | ẽ | m̃ | ñ | τ | q | β | χ |
| pronounced (IPA) | /a/ | /β/ | /ɣ/ | /ð/ | /i/, /ĩ/ | /w/ | /t͡s/ | /h/ | /θ/ | /j/ | /kʲ~ɡʲ/ | /l/, /l̩~əl/ | /m/ | /n/ | /u/, /ũ/ | /p~b/ | /k/?, /kʲ/?, /h(e)/? | /r/, /r̩~ər/ | /s/ | /t/ | /e/ | /ã/ | /ẽ/ | /m̩~əm/, /m./ | /n̩~ən/, /n./ | /tʷ/? /t͡ʃ/? | /k/? /kʷ/? | /k/? /kʷ/? /ç/? | /q/? /kʷ/? |
| Greek equivalent | Α | Β | Γ | Δ | Ε | Ϝ | Ζ | Η | Θ | Ι | Κ | Λ | Μ | Ν | Ο | Π | Ϙ | Ρ | Σ | Τ | Ψ |
Lycian was anIndo-European language, one in theLuwian subgroup ofAnatolian languages. A number of principal features help identify Lycian as being in the Luwian group:[14]
The Luwian subgroup also includes cuneiform and hieroglyphic Luwian,Carian,Sidetic,Milyan andPisidic.[15] The pre-alphabetic forms of Luwian extended back into theLate Bronze Age and preceded the fall of theHittite Empire. These vanished at about the time of theNeo-Hittite states in southern Anatolia (andSyria); thus, the Iron Age members of the subgroup are localized daughter languages of Luwian.
Of the Luwic languages, only the Luwian parent language is attested prior to 1000 BC, so it is unknown when the classical-era dialects diverged. Whether theLukka people always resided in southern Anatolia or whether they always spoke Luwian are different topics.
From the inscriptions, scholars have identified at least two languages that were termedLycian. One is considered standard Lycian, also termed Lycian A; the other, which is attested on side D of theXanthos stele, isMilyan or Lycian B, separated by its grammatical particularities.
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labio- velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | plain | pal. | ||||||||
| Nasal | m⟨𐊎; m⟩ | n⟨𐊏; n⟩ | |||||||||
| Plosive | p⟨𐊓; p⟩ | t⟨𐊗; t⟩ | tʷ?⟨𐊘; τ⟩ | c⟨𐊔; c⟩ | k⟨𐊌; q⟩ | kʲ⟨𐊋; k⟩ | kʷ⟨𐊃; β⟩ | q⟨𐊜; χ⟩ | |||
| Affricate | t͡s⟨𐊈; z⟩ | ||||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | θ⟨𐊉; θ⟩ | s⟨𐊖; s⟩ | h⟨𐊛; h⟩ | |||||||
| voiced | β⟨𐊂; b⟩ | ð⟨𐊅; d⟩ | ɣ⟨𐊄; g⟩ | ||||||||
| Rhotic | r⟨𐊕; r⟩ | ||||||||||
| Lateral | l⟨𐊍; l⟩ | ||||||||||
| Approximant | j⟨𐊊; y⟩ | w⟨𐊇; w⟩ | |||||||||
Nouns and adjectives distinguishsingular and plural forms. Adual has not been found in Lycian. There are twogenders: animate (or 'common') and inanimate (or 'neuter'). Instead of thegenitive singular case normally a so-calledpossessive (or "genitival adjective") is used, as is common practice in theLuwic languages: a suffix -(e)h- is added to the root of a substantive, and thus an adjective is formed that is declined in turn.
Nouns can be divided in five declension groups:a-stems,e-stems,i-stems, consonant stems, and mixed stems; the differences between the groups are very minor. The declension of nouns goes as follows:[18][19][20]
| case | ending | lada 'wife, lady' | tideimi 'son, child' | tuhes 'nephew, niece' | tese 'vow, oath' | atlahi 'own' | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| animate | inanimate | (a-stem) | (i/e-stem) | (consonant stem) | (inanimate) | (adjective)[a] | ||
| Singular | Nominative | -Ø, -s | -~, -Ø, -yẽ | lada | tideimi | tuhes | (tese) | atlahi |
| Accusative | -~, -u, -ñ | ladã, ladu | tideimi | tuhesñ | atlahi | |||
| Ergative | — | ? | ||||||
| Dative | -i | ladi | tideimi | tuhesi | atlahi | |||
| Locative | -a, -e, -i | (lada) | (tideime) | tesi | (atlahi) | |||
| Genitive | -Ø, -h(e); Possessive: -(e)he-, -(e)hi- | (Poss.:) laθθi | ||||||
| SIng., Pl. | Ablative-instrumental | -di | (ladadi) | (tideimedi) | tuhedi | |||
| Plural | Nominative | ~-i | -a | ladãi | tideimi | tuhẽi | tasa | |
| Accusative | -s | ladas | tideimis | |||||
| Ergative | — | -ẽti | tesẽti, teseti | |||||
| Dative/Locative | -e, -a | lada | tideime | tuhe | tese | atlahe | ||
| Genitive | -ẽ, -ãi | ladãi (?) | tideimẽ | |||||
The paradigm for the demonstrative pronounebe, "this" is:[21][20]
| case | Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| animate | inanimate | animate | inanimate | |
| Nominative | ebe | ebẽ | ebẽi | ebeija |
| Accusative | ebẽ, ebeñnẽ, ebẽñni | ebeis, ebeijes | ||
| Dative / Locative | ebehi | ebette | ||
| Genitive | (Possessive:) ebehi | ebẽhẽ | ||
| Ablative / Instrumental | ? | ? | ||
The demonstrativeebe, 'this', is also used as a personal pronoun: 'this one', therefore 'he, she, it'. Here is a paradigm of all attested personal pronouns:[20]
| case | ẽmu, amu 'I' | ẽmi- 'my' | eb(e)- 'he, she, it' | ehbi(je)- 'his' | epttehe/i-, eb(e)ttehe/i- 'their' | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| animate | inanimate | animate | inanimate | |||||
| Singular | Nominative | ẽmu, amu | ẽmi | ebe | ehbi | ehbijẽ | ebttehi | |
| Accusative | ebñnẽ | |||||||
| Genitive | (Possessive:) ehbijehi | |||||||
| Dative | emu | ehbi | ebttehi | |||||
| Ablative/Instrumental | ehbijedi | |||||||
| Plural | Nominative | ehbi | ehbija | ebttehi | ||||
| Accusative | ẽmis | ehbis | ebttehis | |||||
| Genitive | ||||||||
| Dative / Locative | ebtte | ehbije | epttehe | |||||
Other pronouns are:[20]
The followingnumerals are attested:[20]
| cardinal number | 'x-fold' | 'x-year-old' | also attested | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| two | [kbi-] | tupm̃me-, 'twofold, pair' | kbisñne/i-, 'two-year-old' | kbihu, 'twice';kbijẽt(i)-, 'double'; kbi-,kbije-, '(an-)other';kbisñtãta, 'twenty' |
| three | teri- | trppem-, 'threefold (?)' | trisñne/i-, 'three-year-old' | (Milyan:)trisu, 'thrice' |
| four | mupm̃m[- | mupm̃m[-, 'four, fourfold' | ||
| eight | aitãta | |||
| nine | nuñtãta | |||
| twelve | qñnãkba | (Milyan:)qñnãtbisu, 'twelve times' | ||
| twenty | kbisñtãta |
Just as in other Anatolian languages (Luwian, Lydian) verbs in Lycian were conjugated in the present-future and preterite tenses and in the imperative with three persons singular and plural. Some endings have many variants, due tonasalization (-a- → -añ-, -ã-; -e- → -eñ-, -ẽ-),lenition (-t- → -d-),gemination (-t- → -tt-; -d- → -dd-), andvowel harmonization (-a- → -e-:prñnawãtẽ → prñnewãtẽ).
About a dozenconjugations can be distinguished, on the basis of (1) the verbal root ending (a-stems, consonant stems,-ije-stems, etc.), and (2) the endings of the third person singular being either unlenited (present-ti; preterite-te; imperative-tu) or lenited (-di;-de;-du). For example,prñnawa-(ti) (to build) is an unleniteda-stem (prñnawati, he builds),a(i)-(di) (to make) is a leniteda(i)-stem (adi, he makes). Differences between the various conjugations are minor.
Verbs are conjugated as follows; Mediopassive(MP) formsare in brown:[22][23]
| Active | Mediopassive | prñnawa-(ti) | (t)ta-(di) | a(i)-(di) | (h)ha-(ti) | si-(?) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ending | ending | 'to build' | 'to put, place' | 'to make, do' | 'to release' | 'to lie' (MP) | |||
| Present / future | Singular | 1 | -u (-w) | -xani, -xãni | sixani | ||||
| 2 | ? | ? | |||||||
| 3 | -di, -(t)ti, -i, -e | -ẽni, -tẽni | prñnawati | (t)tadi | adi,edi | hadi, hati | sijẽni, sijeni, sitẽni | ||
| Plural | 1 | ? | ? | ||||||
| 2 | (-tẽni ?) | ? | |||||||
| 3 | ~-ti, -(i)ti, -ñti | ~-tẽni (?) | tãti (tẽti) | aiti | (h)hãti, (h)hati | sitẽni (?) | |||
| Preterite | Singular | 1 | -(x)xa, -xã, -ga, -ax(a) | -xagã, -xaga (?) | prñnawaxã, -waxa | taxa | axa, aga, axã, agã; (MP:) axagã, axaga | ||
| 3 | -tẽ, -(t)te, -dẽ, -de | (-tte ?) | prñnawatẽ, -wate (-wetẽ, -wete) | tadẽ, tade (tetẽ ?) | adẽ. ade (ede, ada) | hadẽ, hade | |||
| Plural | 1 | ? | ? | ||||||
| 3 | ~-tẽ, -(i)tẽ, -(i)te, ~-te, -ñtẽ, -ñte | ? | prñnawãtẽ, -wãte; prñnewãtẽ | tete | aitẽ, aite | hãtẽ, hãte | |||
| Imperative | Singular | 1 | -lu (?)[24] | ? | |||||
| 2 | -Ø[24] | ? | |||||||
| 3 | -(t)tu, -du, -u | (-tẽnu ?) | tatu | hadu | |||||
| Plural | 2 | (-tẽnu ?) | (-tẽnu ?) | ||||||
| 3 | ~-tu | (~-tẽnu ?) | tãtu, tatu | ||||||
| Participle Active(Passive?) | Singular | -mi, ~-mi, -me, -ma | |||||||
| Plural | -mi | (acc. neutr.:)eim̃ | (accusative:) hm̃mis | ||||||
| Infinitive | -ne, ~-ne, -na, ~-na | ? | (t)tãne, tane, ttãna | hane, hãne, hhãna | |||||
Asuffix -s- (cognate with Greek, Latin -/sk/-), appended to the stem and attested with half a dozen verbs, is thought to make a verbiterative:[20][25]
Emmanuel Laroche, who analysed the Lycian text of the Letoon trilingual,[26] concluded that word order in Lycian is slightly more free than in the other Anatolian languages. Sentences in plain text mostly have the structure
The verb immediately follows an "initial particle cluster", consisting of a more or less meaningless particle "se-" or "me-" (literally, 'and') followed by a series of up to three suffixes, often called emphatics. The function of some of these suffixes is mysterious, but others have been identified as pronomina like "he", "it", or "them". The subject, direct object, or indirect object of the sentence may thus proleptically be referred to in the initial particle cluster. As an example, the sentence "X built a house" might in Lycian be structured: "and-he-it / he-built / X / a-house".
Other constituents of a sentence, like an indirect object, predicate, or complimentary adjuncts, can be placed anywhere after the verb.
Contrary to this pattern, funeral inscriptions as a rule have a standard form with the object at the head of the sentence: "This tomb built X"; literally: "This tomb / it / he built / X" (order:O - ipc - V - S). Laroche suspects the reason for this deviation to be that in this way emphasis fell on the funerary object: "This object, it was built by X". Example:[27]
| 1. | ebẽñnẽ prñnawãmẽti prñnawatẽ | This building, [it was]he who builtit: | |
| 2. | xisteriya xzzbãzeh tideimi | Qisteria, Qtsbatse's son, | |
| 3. | hrppi ladi ehbi se tideime | for his wife and for the sons. |
In line 1mẽti = m-ẽ-ti is the initial particle cluster, wherem- = me- is the neutral "steppingstone" to which two suffixes are affixed:-ẽ- = "it", and therelative pronoun-ti, "who, he who".
Kim McCone proposed in the 1970s that Lycian's unmarked word order was insteadsubject-verb-object. The apparent VSO and OVS orders come from various frontings anddislocations of a basic SVO structure.
Lycian's SVO is itself a shift from the typical Anatoliansubject-object-verb order, of which Lycian preverbal object pronouns likeẽ "him/her/it" would be a relic.[28]
mexisttẽn
Megasthenes.NOM
mexisttẽn ẽ-ep[i]tuwe-te
Megasthenes.NOM it-set.up.PRET-3sg
Megasthenes set it up…
In spite of McCone's alternative analysis, the assumption thatverb-subject-object was Lycian's unmarked word order went unchallenged until the 2010s, whenAlwin Kloekhorst independently formulated and adopted the SVO hypothesis. This led to other linguists like Heiner Eichner and H. Craig Melchert to adopt the SVO hypothesis after him.[29] The principal unmarked example cited by SVO supporters comes from the following sentence:[30]
pajawa
Pajawa.NOM
m[a]n[ax]ine:
Manaxine
prñnaw-ã
building-ACC
ebẽ-ñnẽ:
this-ACC
pajawa m[a]n[ax]ine: prñnawa-te: prñnaw-ã ebẽ-ñnẽ:
Pajawa.NOM Manaxine build.PRET-3sg building-ACC this-ACC
Pajawa Manaxine built this building. (Note the absence of the initial particle cluster.)
Further examples of subject-initial unmarked clauses cited by Melchert include:[29]
tebursseli
Tebursseli.NOM
lusñ[tr]e
Lysander.GEN
ẽti
at
waziss-e
leadership-LOC
tebursseli prñnawa-te lusñ[tr]e ẽti waziss-e
Tebursseli.NOM build.PRET-3sg Lysander.GEN at leadership-LOC
Tebursseli built (this tomb) under Lysander's leadership.[31]
upazij
Upazij.NOM
hrppi
for
prñnezi
household
ehbi
his.DAT
upazij ẽne-prñnawa-te hrppi prñnezi ehbi
Upazij.NOM it-build.PRET-3sg for household his.DAT
Upazij built it for his household.[32]
A fewetymological studies of the Lycian languageendonym exist, namely:[2]
.svg)
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)