| Sidetic | |
|---|---|
| Region | Ancient southwesternAnatolia |
| Extinct | after the third centuryBCE |
Early forms | |
| Sidetic script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xsd |
xsd | |
| Glottolog | side1240 |
 Map showing (in red) where Sidetic inscriptions have been found. | |
Sidetic is a member of the extinctAnatolian branch of theIndo-European language family. It is known from legends of coins, found inSide at thePamphylian coast, that date to the period of approximately the 5th to 3rd centuries BCE, and from two Greek–Sideticbilingual inscriptions from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE. The Greek historianArrian in hisAnabasis Alexandri (mid-2nd century CE) mentions the existence of a peculiar indigenous language in the city of Side, which is assumed to be the language of the coins and inscriptions.Sidetic was probably closely related toLydian,Carian andLycian.
Sidetic was written with a script of theAnatolian group. The Sidetic alphabet has 31 identified letters, a few of which are clearly derived from Greek. The script has been partially deciphered, though the phonetic values of many letters are uncertain.[1]
Coins from Side were first discovered in the 19th century, which bore legends in a then-unknown script. In 1914, an altar came to light in Side with a Greek inscription and a Sidetic one, but the latter could not be deciphered. It was only after the discovery of a second Greek-Sidetic bilingual inscription in 1949, thatHellmut Theodor Bossert was able to identify 14 letters of the Sidetic script using the two bilinguals.[2] In 1964 a large stone block was unearthed near the east gate of Side, with two longer Sidetic texts, including loan words from Greek (istratag from στρατηγός, 'commander' andanathema- from ἀνάθημα, 'votive offering'). In 1972, a text was found outside Side for the first time, at the neighbouring town ofLyrbe-Seleukia. Currently, eleven Sidetic coins and several coins with Sidetic legends are known.
In addition to the inscriptions, two Sidetic words are known from ancient Greek texts:ζειγάρη forcicada,[3] mentioned by the ancient lexicographerHesychius, andλαέρκινον forValeriana, cited byGalen. In addition, it is believed that some incomprehensible characters in the third book ofHippocrates'Epidemics were originally quotations of the doctorMnemon of Side, which might have been in the Sidetic script.[4]
The designated number and date of discovery are given:
In addition a few Sidetic words have been handed down via classical authors, though not written in Sidetic script: "laerkinon" (λαέρκινον, = the herbvalerian), "zeigarê" (ζειγάρη, a cricket, cicada).[10]
| Sidetic | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | alphabet |
| Direction | Right to left |
| Languages | Sidetic |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Sidt(180), Sidetic |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Sidetic |
| U+10940–U+1095F | |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
Texts in the Sidetic language are written right to left in an alphabet of 31 distinct letters in inscriptions, plus another 4 characters found only on coins. Recent research is providing updates to the script: there are new letters and variants[11]
| Nollé number | N01 | N02 | N03 | N04 | N05 | N06 | N07 | N08 | N09 | N10 | N11 | N12 | N13 | N14 | N15 | N16 | N17 | N18 |
| glyph |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| (variants:) | ( ) | ( ) | ( ?) | ( ) | ( ) | ( ) | ( ) | ( ) | ( ) | |||||||||
| Graz-Verona transliteration | a | e | i | o | u | w | y | p | d2 | m | t | d | θ | s | s2 | n | l | 𐌣 |
| (superseded transliterations:) | (v, j) | (j,w) | (τ,ç, φ) | (z,ś) | (s) | (š,ṯ) | ||||||||||||
| notes | vowel or semivowel | no consensus transliteration | value uncertain; likely /ts/ or /ʃ/ | |||||||||||||||
| Nolle number | N19 | N20 | N21 | N22 | N23 | N24 | N25 | N26 |
| glyph |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| (variants:) | ( ) | ( ) | ( ) | (?) | ( ) | |||
| transliteration | g | χ | r | V | k | b | n2 | z (?) |
| (superseded transliterations:) | (ñ) | (c,ñ) | (δ) | |||||
| notes | unknown vowel | perhaps [β] | probably [z] |
| Extended repertoire | ||||
| glyph |  |  |  | Ω |
| (variants:) | ||||
| transliteration | ||||
| (superseded transliterations:) | ||||
| notes | letters attested only from coins | |||
The values of two-thirds of the letters are now firmly established, but there are still significant uncertainties: for example, while the majority view is that the frequent vertical strokes ( or) are a character denoting a sibilant (z ors), that as a genitival ending would fit in nicely with the usual paradigms of the Anatolian languages,[5] others interpret the strokes as word dividers.[6]
The inscriptions show that Sidetic was already strongly influenced by Greek at the time when they were written. LikeLycian andCarian, it was part of theLuwian language family. However, only a few words can be derived from Luwian roots, likemaśara 'for the gods' (Luwianmasan(i)-, 'god', 'divinity'), and, possibly,malwadas 'votive offering' (Luwianmalwa-; but alternative readings are possible, for example,Malya das, 'he dedicated to Malya [= Athena]'). It has been argued that there were also Anatolian pronouns (ev, 'this';ab, 'he/she/it'), conjunctions (ak andza, 'and'), prepositions (de, 'for'), and adverbs (osod, 'there').
The declension of nouns basically follows a familiar Anatolian language pattern:[5][12]
| Singular | Plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| animate | inanimate | animate | inanimate | |
| Nominative | -Ø | -s (-z/ś) | ||
| Accusative | -o (?) | |||
| Genitive | -s (-z/ś) | -e | ||
| Dative /Locative | -i, -a (-o?) | -a | ||
| Ablative | -d (?) | |||
No verbs have yet been securely identified. A promising candidate isozad, 'he offered', dedicated' (twice attested with objectanathemataz, 'sacrifices'), a 3rd person singular preterite with the common Anatolian ending-d.
Like the neighbouringPamphylian language,aphaeresis is frequent in names in Sidetic (e.g.Poloniw for Apollonios,Thandor for Athenodoros), as issyncope (e.g.Artmon for Artemon).
The Sidetic alphabet was added to theUnicode Standard in September 2025 with the release of version 17.0.
The Unicode block for Sidetic is U+10940–U+1095F:
| Sidetic[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+1094x | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| U+1095x | | | | | | | | | | | ||||||
| Notes | ||||||||||||||||
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