Lycian language

Lycian
𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊍𐊆 Trm̃mili
Xanthos stele with Lycian inscriptions
Native toLycia, Lycaonia
RegionSouthwestern Anatolia
EthnicityLycians
Era500 – ca. 200 BC[1]
Early forms
Lycian script
Language codes
ISO 639-3xlc
xlc
Glottologlyci1241

The Lycian language (𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊍𐊆 Trm̃mili)[2] was the language of the ancient Lycians who occupied the Anatolian region known during the Iron Age as Lycia. Most texts date back to the fifth and fourth century BC. Two languages are known as Lycian: regular Lycian or Lycian A, and Lycian B or Milyan. Lycian became extinct around the beginning of the first century BC, replaced by the Ancient Greek language during the Hellenization of Anatolia. Lycian had its own alphabet, which was closely related to the Greek alphabet but included at least one character borrowed from Carian as well as characters proper to the language. The words were often separated by two points.

  1. ^ Lycian at MultiTree on the Linguist List
  2. ^ Bryce (1986) page 30.