more Lydian was on Indo-European language spoken in the region of Lydia in western Anatolia (present-day Turkey). It belongs to the Anatolian subgroup of the Indo-European language family. Within this subgroup, it occupies a unique position 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). For other uses, see Indo-European. ... Lydia (Greek ) is a historic region of western Anatolia, congruent with Turkeys modern provinces of İzmir and Manisa. ... Anatolia and Europe Anatolia (Turkish: from Greek: Ανατολία - Anatolia) is a peninsula of Western Asia which forms the greater part of the Asian portion of Turkey, as opposed to the European portion (Thrace, or traditionally Rumelia). ... The Anatolian languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages, which were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language. ... A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common proto-language. ...

Lydian is attested in coin legends of the 7th century BC and in some 100 inscriptions dating to the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The inscriptions include many epitaphs (inscriptions on funerary stelae) but also many short graffiti. The epitaphs typically begin with eś wãnaś "this grave". (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium) The 7th century BC started on January 1, 700 BC and ended on December 31, 601 BC. // Overview Events Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria who created the the first systematically collected library at Nineveh A 16th century depiction of the Hanging Gardens of... The 5th century BC started the first day of 500 BC and ended the last day of 401 BC. // The Parthenon of Athens seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west. ... The 4th century BC started the first day of 400 BC and ended the last day of 301 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period. ...

Lydian became extinct around the first century BC, giving way to Greek. (2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century - other centuries) The 1st century BC starts on January 1, 100 BC and ends on December 31, 1 BC. An alternative name for this century is the last century BC. (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium AD) Events The Roman...

Writing system

Lydian alphabet was used for the Lydian languageLydian had its own alphabet. The Lydian alphabet was closely related to the other alphabets of Asia Minor as well as to 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. ISO 15924, Codes for the representation of names of scripts, defines two sets of codes for a number of writing systems (scripts). ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... ABCs redirects here, for the Alien Big Cats, see British big cats. ... more Lydian was on Indo-European language spoken in the region of Lydia in western Anatolia (present-day Turkey). ... Various alphabetic writing systems were in use in Iron Age Anatolia to record Anatolian dialects and the Phrygian language. ... The Greek alphabet (Greek: ) is an alphabet consisting of 24 letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 8th or early 9th century BC. It was the first alphabet in the narrow sense, that is, a writing system using a separate symbol for each vowel...   Carian script was used to write Carian language. ... Phi (upper case Φ, lower case φ or ), pronounced fee or fie (depending on context and, often, personal inclination), is the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet. ... Old Italic refers to a number of related historical alphabets used on the Italian peninsula which were used for some non-Indo-European languages (Etruscan and probably North Picene), various Indo-European languages belonging to the Italic branch (Faliscan and members of the Sabellian group, including Oscan, Umbrian, and South...

The Lydian alphabet is usually transliterated as follows.

a ã b d δ e ẽ f g h i k l λ m n ν o p q r s ś t τ u w

ã and ẽ are nasalized vowels.

The letters δ, τ, λ, ν and ś indicate palatalized variants of d, t, l, n and s.

Early Lydian texts are written both from left to right and from right to left. Later texts are exclusively written from right to left.

Phonology

Lydian is notable for its extensive consonant clusters, which resulted from the loss of word-final short vowels together with massive syncope. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

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.

Sample Lydian 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): Aramaic is a Semitic language with a four-thousand year history. ... Sardis, (also Sardes) the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, the seat of a conventus under the Roman Empire, and the metropolis of the province Lydia in later Roman and Byzantine times, was situated in the middle Hermus valley, at the foot of Mt. ...

[o]raλ islλ bakillλ est mrud eśśk [wãnaś]

laqrisak qelak kudkit ist esλ wãn[aλ]

bλtarwod akad manelid kumlilid silukalid akit n[ãqis]

esλ mruλ buk esλ wãnaλ buk esνaν

laqirisaν bukit kud ist esλ wãnaλ bλtarwo[d]

aktin nãqis qelλk fẽnsλifid fakmλ artimuś

ibśimsis artimuk kulumsis aaraλ biraλk

kλidaλ kofuλk qiraλ qelλk bilλ wcbaqẽnt

See also

• Neo-Hittite
• Labrys
• Craig Melchert

The Neo-Assyrian Empire in the 9th to 7th centuries BC The so-called Neo-Hittite or post-Hittite states were Luwian-speaking political entities of Iron Age Syria that arose after the collapse of the Hittite Empire around 1180 BC and lasted until roughly 700 BC, the time of... Minoan symbolic labrys of gold, 2nd millennium BC: many have been found in the sacred cave of Arkalochori on Crete) Labrys is the term for a doubleheaded axe, known to the Classical Greeks as pelekus πέλεκυς or sagaris (the term for a single-bladed axe being hēmipelekus half-pelekus, e. ... H. Craig Melchert is a linguist known particularly for his work on the Anatolian branch of Indo-European. ...

References

• Fortson, Benjamin W. (2004). Indo-European Language and Culture : an Introduction. Malden: Blackwell. ISBN 1-4051-0316-7. 
• Gusmani, R. Lydisches Wörterbuch. Mit grammatischer Skizze und Inschriftensammlung, Heidelberg 1964 (Ergänzungsband 1-3, Heidelberg 1980-1986).
• Melchert, H. Craig (2004) "Lydian", in Roger D. Woodard (ed.), The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56256-2. pp. 601-608.
• Shevoroshkin, V. The Lydian Language, Moscow, 1977.

External links

• Lydian Grammar by Cyril Babaev
• Lydian Concise Dictionary
• Lydian Corpus
• Melchert, H. Craig, Lydian corpus
• Etruscans may have spoken Lydian