Lydian language

Lydian (������������������ Śfardẽtis "[language] of Sardis") is an extinct Indo-European Anatolian language spoken in the region of Lydia, in western Anatolia (now in Turkey). The language is attested in graffiti and in coin legends from the late 8th century or the early 7th century to the 3rd century BC, but well-preserved inscriptions of significant length are so far limited to the 5th century and the 4th century BC, during the period of Persian domination. Thus, Lydian texts are effectively contemporaneous with those in Lycian.

Strabo mentions that around his time (1st century BC), the Lydian language was no longer spoken in Lydia proper but was still being spoken among the multicultural population of Kibyra (now Gölhisar) in southwestern Anatolia, by the descendants of the Lydian colonists, who had founded the city.^[1]

Text corpus and decipherment

In 1916 a bilingual inscription in Aramaic and Lydian allowed Enno Littmann to decipher the Lydian language.^[2] From an analysis of the two parallel texts, he identified the alphabetic signs, most of them correctly, established a basic vocabulary, attempted translation of a dozen unilingual texts, gave an outline of Lydian grammar, and even recognized peculiar poetical characteristics in several texts. Eight years later William Hepburn Buckler presented a collection of 51 inscriptions than known.^[3] The 109 inscriptions known by 1986 have been treated comprehensively by Roberto Gusmani;^[4][5] new texts keep being found from time to time.^[6]

All but a few of the extant Lydian texts have been found in or near Sardis, the Lydian capital, but fewer than 30 of the inscriptions consist of more than a few words or are reasonably complete. Most of the inscriptions are on marble or stone and are sepulchral in content, but several are decrees of one sort or another, and some half-dozen texts seem to be in verse, with a stress-based meter and vowel assonance at the end of the line. Tomb inscriptions include many epitaphs, which typically begin with the words ���� ���������� eś wãnaś ("this grave"). The short texts are mostly graffiti, coin legends, seals, potter's marks, and the like.

Classification

Within the Anatolian group, Lydian occupies a unique and problematic position. One reason is the still very limited evidence and understanding of the language. Another reason is a number of features that are not shared with any other Anatolian language.^[7] It is still not known whether those differences represent developments peculiar to pre-Lydian or the retention in Lydian of archaic features that were lost in the other Anatolian languages.^[8] Until more satisfactory knowledge becomes available, the status of Lydian within Anatolian remains a "special" one.

Writing system

The Lydian script, which is strictly alphabetic, is related to or derived from that of Greek as well as its western Anatolian neighbours, the exact relationship still remaining unclear. The direction of writing in the older texts is either from left to right or right to left. Later texts show exclusively the latter. Use of word-dividers is variable. The texts were found chiefly at the ancient capital of Sardis and include decrees and epitaphs, some of which were composed in verse; most were written during the 5th century and the 4th century BC, but a few may have been created as early as the 7th century.^[9]

Phonology

Vowels

Lydian has seven vowels: �� a, �� e, �� i, �� o, �� u, �� ã, and �� ẽ, the last two being nasal vowels, typically before a (synchronic or diachronic) nasal consonant (like n or m). The vowels e, o, ã, and ẽ occur only when accented. A vowel or glide �� y appears rarely, and probably indicates an allophone of i or e that is perhaps unstressed.

Lydian is notable for its extensive consonant clusters, which resulted from the loss of word-final short vowels, together with massive syncope; there may have been an unwritten [ə] in such sequences.

Consonants

(Note: on this page the conventional Buckler (1924)^[3] transliteration scheme is used, except that �� is rendered w instead of v to prevent confusion with the Greek nu symbol ν = ��.)

Voicing was likely not distinctive in Lydian. However /p t k/ are voiced before nasals and apparently before /r/. The palatal affricate and sibilant may have been palato-alveolar.

The sign �� has traditionally been transliterated d and interpreted as an interdental /ð/ resulting from the sound change *i̯ > ð or the lenition of Proto-Anatolian *t. However, it has recently been argued that in all contexts d in fact represents the palatal glide /j/, previously considered absent from Lydian.^[10] An interdental /ð/ would stand as the only interdental sound in Lydian phonology, whereas a palatal interpretation of d is complemented by a full series of other palatal consonants: λ, s (š), ν, and τ.

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns and adjectives distinguish singular and plural forms. Words in the texts are predominantly singular. Plural forms are scarce, and a dual does not exist in Lydian. There are two genders: animate (or 'common') and inanimate (or 'neutre'). Only three cases are securely attested: nominative, accusative, and dative-locative. A genitive case seems to be present in the plural, but in the singular a so-called possessive is used instead, which is similar to the Luwic languages: a suffix -li is added to the root of a substantive, and thus an adjective is formed that is declined in turn. Of an ablative case there are only a few uncertain examples.

Nouns, adjectives, and pronomina are all declined according to the same scheme:

Substantives

Examples of substantives:^[4][5]

Adjectives

Examples of adjectives:^[4][5]

Pronomina

Examples of pronomina:^[4][5]

Verbs

Just as in other Anatolian languanges verbs in Lydian were conjugated in the present-future and preterite tenses with three persons. Singular and plural number were not distinguished in all persons. For example, the present 3rd singular and plural fell together as -d/-t. Lydian distinguished a mediopassive voice (derived from Proto-Anatolian *-tori) with the third-person ending -tλ for consonant stems and -daλ when lenited after a stem ending in a vowel or glide.^[11]

Many Lydian verbs are composite, using prefixes such as ẽn-, ẽt-, fa-, and kat-/kaτ-, and suffixes like ãn-/ẽn-, no-/νo-, saw-, ti- or to-; their meaning is often difficult to determine.^[4]

Examples of verbal conjugation:^[4]

Particles

Lydian uses a series of enclitic particles that can be affixed to a pivotal word in a sentence, providing a kind of emphasis. Examples of such enclitics are -in-, -it-/-iτ-, -t-/-τ-, -at-, and -m-/-um-. When stacked and combined with other suffixes (such as pronomina) veritable clusters are formed. The word ak = 'so..., so if...' provides many examples:^[4]

akτin (= ak-τ-in) - 'so...', 'so if...', 'yea, if...'

akmśin (= ak-m-ś-in) - 'so if he...'

akmλt (= ak-m-λ-t) - 'so if to him...'

Syntax

The basic word order is subject-object-verb, but constituents may be extraposed to the right of the verb. Like other Anatolian languages, Lydian features clause-initial particles with enclitic pronouns attached in a chain. It also has a number of preverbs and at least one postposition. Modifiers of a noun normally precede it.

Sample text and vocabulary

The Lydian bilingual

In May 1912 American excavators at the Sardis necropolis discovered a bilingual inscription in Lydian and Aramaic.^[12] Being among the first texts found it provided a limited equivalent of the Rosetta Stone and permitted a first understanding of the Lydian language.^[2]

The first line of the Lydian text has been destroyed, but can be reconstructed from its Aramaic counterpart.

Vocabulary

Examples of words in the bilingual:

������ – ora – month; cf. Greek ὥρα (season, year, moment), Latin hora (hour), English hour

�������������� – laqrisa – wall, walls (traditional translation); letters, inscription (?)^[16]

�������� – bira – house

�������� – qira – field, ground, immovable property

�� – -k (suffix) – and; cf. Greek τε, Latin -que = and

Other words with Indo-European roots and with modern cognates:

������ - qis - who; cf. Greek τίς, Latin quis, French qui

������������ - brafrś - community, brotherhood; cf. Latin frater, English brother, French frère

�������� - ciws - god; cf. Greek θεός, Latin deus, French dieu (god)

�������� - aλaś - other; cf. Greek ἄλλος (other; is an element in words such as allogamy, allomorph, allopathy, allotropy), Latin alius (other), alter (another, the other one, second), French autre

Only a small fraction of the Lydian vocabulary is clearly of Indo-European stock. Gusmani^[5] provides lists of words that have been linked to words in various Indo-European and other languages.

Lydian words still in use

Labrys (Greek: λάβρυς, lábrys) is the term for a symmetrical double-bitted axe originally from Crete in Greece, one of the oldest symbols of Greek civilization. The priests at Delphi in classical Greece were called Labryades (the men of the double axe). The term labrys "double-axe" is not found in any surviving Lydian inscription, but on the subject, Plutarch states that "the Lydians call the axe labrys" (Λυδοὶ γὰρ ‘λάβρυν’ τὸν πέλεκυν ὀνομάζουσι).^[17]

Another possibly Lydian loanword may be tyrant "absolute ruler",^[18] which was first used in Ancient Greek sources, without negative connotations, for the late 8th century or early 7th century BC. It is possibly derived from the native town of King Gyges of Lydia, founder of the Mermnad dynasty, which was Tyrrha in classical antiquity and is now Tire, Turkey.^[19] Yet another is the element molybdenum, borrowed from Ancient Greek mólybdos, "lead", from Mycenaean Greek mo-ri-wo-do, which in Lydian was mariwda- "dark".^[20] All of those loanwords confirm a strong cultural interaction between the Lydians and the Greeks since the Creto-Mycenaean era (2nd millennium BC).

Lydian Poetry

In his seminal decipherment of Lydian texts Littmann noted that at least five of them show two poetical aspects:^[21]

• First, assonance: all lines have the same vocal (o, or a, or i) in the last syllable. One of the longest inscriptions, 19 lines, has in each line an o in the last syllable. Littmann sensationally labeled these assonances "the earliest rhyme in the history of human literature",^[22] though the word 'rhyme' is slightly misleading because the consonants in the last syllables do vary.
• Secondly, the poetic texts apparently show a metre: lines have twelve (sometimes eleven) syllables with a caesura before the fifth or sixth syllable from the end. The twelve-syllable lines sound like anapestic tetrameters.

Martin West, after comparing historical metres in various Indo-European languages, concluded that the Lydian metres are compatible with reconstructed common Proto-Indo-European metres.^[23] The Lydians probably borrowed these metres from the Greeks; however, the assonance was a unique innovation of their own.

Only one text shows mixed character: a poetical middle part is sandwiched in between a prose introduction and a prose conclusion.^[24] Analoguous to the bilingual text the introduction tells whose monument it is, the final part curses those who would dare to damage it. The poetic middle part may be a eulogy of the ancestors of the deceased.

See also

• Lydia
• Lydians
• Lydian script
• Neo-Hittite
• Craig Melchert

References

Sources

External links

• The Archaeological Exploration of Sardis (Sardis Expedition Project) (Retrieved 2021-02-13)

Further reading

• Kearns, John Michael. "A Greek Genitive from Lydia." Glotta 72, no. 1/4 (1994): 5-14. Accessed July 12, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/40266977.
• Payne, Annick, and Jorit Wintjes. "The Lydian Language." In: Lords of Asia Minor: An Introduction to the Lydians, 63-72. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2016. Accessed July 11, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvc5pfx2.8.
• Payne, Annick, and Jorit Wintjes. "Lydian Inscriptions." In: Lords of Asia Minor: An Introduction to the Lydians, 73-86. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2016. Accessed July 11, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvc5pfx2.9.
• Ricl, Marijana. "Current Archaeological and Epigraphic Research in the Region of Lydia". In: L'Anatolie des peuples, des cités et des cultures (IIe millénaire av. J.-C. – Ve siècle ap. J.-C.). Colloque international de Besançon - 26-27 novembre 2010. Volume 2. Approches locales et régionales. Besançon : Institut des Sciences et Techniques de l'Antiquité, 2013. pp. 189–195. (Collection « ISTA », 1277) [www.persee.fr/doc/ista_0000-0000_2013_act_1277_2_3751]
• Yakubovich, Ilya. "Lydian Etymological Notes." Historische Sprachforschung / Historical Linguistics 118 (2005): 75-91. Accessed July 11, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/40849242.