Luwian language
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Image:Karkemish 2.jpg Luwian (sometimes spelled Luvian) is an extinct part of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. Luwian is closely related to Hittite, and was among the languages spoken by population groups in Arzawa, to the west or southwest of the core Hittite area. In the oldest texts that area was referred to as Luwiya. Much later, this same area came to be known as Lydia (or Ludia). It is either the direct ancestor of Lycian or a close relative of the ancestor of Lycian. Luwian is the most likely candidate for the language spoken by the Trojans.
From this homeland, Luwian speakers gradually spread eastward through Anatolia and became a contributing factor to the downfall of the Hittite Empire, where it also seems to have been widely spoken by this time. Luwian was also the language of the Neo-Hittite states of Syria such as Milid and Carchemish, and also of the central Anatolian kingdom of Tabal that flourished around 900 AD.
Significance and sources
Luwian is important to Indo-European linguists, since it is used as evidence (Melchert 1987) that the Proto-Indo-European language had three distinct sets of velar consonants:
- palatovelars
- plain velars
- labiovelars
Luwian has been preserved in two forms named after the writing systems used to represent them:
- Cuneiform Luwian was written in essentially the same writing system as Hittite
- Hieroglyphic Luwian.
Unlike Egyptian hieroglyphs, the lines of Luwian hieroglyphs are written alternately left-to-right and right-to-left. This practice was called by the Greeks boustrophedon, meaning "as the ox turns" (as when plowing a field).
References
- Melchert, H. Craig. "PIE velars in Luvian." In Studies in memory of Warren Cowgill (1929–1985): Papers from the Fourth East Coast Indo-European Conference, Cornell University, June 6–9, 1985, ed. C. Watkins, 182–204. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1987.
- Melchert, H. Craig. Anatolian Historical Phonology. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1994.
- Melchert, H. Craig (ed). The Luwians. Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2003. ISBN 9004130098.
- Otten, Heinrich. Zur grammatikalischen und lexikalischen Bestimmung des Luvischen. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1953.
- Rosenkranz, Bernhard. Beiträge zur Erforschung des Luvischen. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1952.
- Starke, Frank. Die keilschrift-luwischen Texte in Umschrift (StBoT 30, 1985)
- Starke, Frank. Untersuchungen zur Stammbildung des keilschrift-luwischen Nomens (StBoT 30, 1990)
- Woudhuizen, Fred. The Language of the Sea Peoples. Amsterdam: Najade Pres, 1992.