Luwian | |
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Native to | Hittite Empire, Arzawa, Neo-Hittite kingdoms |
Region | Anatolia (Turkey), Northern Syria |
Ethnicity | Luwians |
Extinct | around 600 BC |
Early forms | |
Cuneiform Anatolian hieroglyphs | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Either:xlu – Cuneiform Luwianhlu – Hieroglyphic Luwian |
xlu Cuneiform Luwian | |
hlu Hieroglyphic Luwian | |
Glottolog | luvi1235 |
Distribution of the Luwian language | |
Luwian (/ˈluːwiən/), sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from Luwiya (also spelled Luwia or Luvia) – the name of the region in which the Luwians lived. Luwiya is attested, for example, in the Hittite laws.[1]
The two varieties of Proto-Luwian or Luwian (in the narrow sense of these names) are known after the scripts in which they were written: Cuneiform Luwian (CLuwian) and Hieroglyphic Luwian (HLuwian). There is no consensus as to whether these were a single language or two closely related languages.