Lycian was an Indo-European language, one of the Anatolian languages, that was spoken in the Iron age region of Lycia in Anatolia, present day Turkey. It is believed by some specialists to be a descendant of Hittite or Luwian or perhaps both. It became extinct around the first century BC and was replaced by Greek. The language is known from a few fairly exstensive inscriptions, which are divided into Lycian A and B depending of grammer. Lycian had its own alphabet that was closely related to the Greek alphabet but included at least one character borrowed from Carian.

From the inscriptions, scholars have identified at least two dialects. One is considered standard Lycian, the other which is attested on side d of the Letoon trilingual is termed Milyan.

Sources

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Trevor R. Bryce, The Lycians, Vol. I, pp.68-71 (ISBN 8772890231)

Anatolian languages | Ancient languages

External links

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• The Lycian language
• Lycian Turkey
• Lycian Grammar
• Working group document on Lycian Language
• Lycian text

Anatolian languages | Ancient languages | Extinct languages of Asia

Lykisk (sprog) | Lykische Sprache | Lycien | Lingua licia | Lingua Lycia | Język licyjski