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Lydian was an Indo-European language that was spoken in the state of Lydia in Western Anatolia, present-day Turkey. It is now considered definitely to belong to the Anatolian subgroup of Indo-European, but occupies a unique position within this group due to a number of features not shared with the other Anatolian languages. It is not presently known whether these represent unique developments in pre-Lydian or the retention of archaic features lost in the other Anatolian languages. (Melchert 2004) Lydian is attested in 7th century BC coin legends, and in some 100 inscriptions dating to the 5th and 4th centuries, including many epitaphs but also many short graffitti. Epitaphs (inscriptions on funerary stelae) typically begin with eś wãnaś "this grave". Lydian became extinct around the first century BC and was replaced by Greek.
Phonology Lydian is notable for its extensive consonant clusters, which resulted from the loss of word-final short vowels together with massive syncope. Lydian had its own Lydian alphabet, which was closely related to the other alphabets of Asia Minor as well as the Greek alphabet. Unlike the Carian alphabet which had an f derived from Φ, the Lydian f has the peculiar 8 shape also found in the Etruscan alphabet. The alphabet is usually transliterated as follows: aãbdδeẽfghiklλmnνopqrsśtτuw The letters δ, τ, λ, ν and ś indicate palatalized variants of d, t, l, n and s. ã and ẽ are nasalized vowels. Earlier texts are written both left-to-right and right-to-left; later texts are exclusively right-to-left. Morphology Nouns and adjectives distinguish singular and plural forms and occur in two genders, animate and inanimate. Only three cases are securely attested: nominative, accusative, and dative-locative. There may have been other cases that remain unknown due to the paucity of material. Syntax The basic word order is Subject-Object-Verb, but constituents may be extraposed to the right of the verb. Lydian had at least one postposition. Modifiers of the noun normally precede the noun. Example text A notable inscription is an Aramaic-Lydian bilingual found at Sardis, with eight lines of the Lydian text preserved (the first line of the text was destroyed): oraλ islλ bakillλ est mrud eśśk wãnaś laqrisak qelak kudkit ist esλ wãnaλ bλtarwod akad manelid kumlilid silukalid akit nãqis esλ mruλ buk esλ wãnaλ buk esνaν laqirisaν bukit kud ist esλ wãnaλ bλtarwod aktin nãqis qelλk fẽnsλifid fakmλ artimuś ibśimsis artimuk kulumsis aaraλ biraλk kλidaλ kofuλk qiraλ qelλk bilλ wcbaqẽnt See also Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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