Luwian language
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Luwian hieroglyphic inscription from the city of Carchemish. |
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
Luwia. 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.
Luwian has numerous archaisms, and so is important both to
Indo-European linguists and to students of the Bronze Age Aegean.
Craig Melchert in
Studies in Memory of Warren Cowgill (1987; pp 182â€"204) used Luwian to propose that the
Proto-Indo-European language had three distinct sets of
velar consonants:
*
plain velars*
palatovelars*
labiovelarsFor Melchert, PIE *ḱ > Luwian
z (probably [ts]); *k >
k; and *kÊ· >
ku (probably [kÊ·]).
Luwian has also been enlisted for its verb
kaluti, which means "turn" or "circle". Many linguists claim that this derives from a proto-Anatolian word for "
wheel", which in turn would have derived from the common word for "wheel" found in all other Indo-European families. The wheel was invented in the 5th millennium and, if
kaluti does derive from it, then the Anatolian branch left PIE after its invention (so validating the
Kurgan hypothesis as applicable to Anatolian). However
kaluti need not imply a concrete wheel, and so need not have derived from a PIE word with that meaning. The IE words for a wheel may well have arisen in those other IE languages after the Anatolian split.
In addition, Luwian and its descendents in general reflect survivals of a non-
Indo-European type in western Anatolia. Where Hittite, with some Hieroglyphic Luwian and
Palaic language texts, allow for the classically
Indo-European suffix
-as for the singular genitive and
-an for the plural genitive, the "canonical" Luwian as used in Cuneiform (with some Palaic rituals) employed instead an adjectival suffix
-assa. Given the prevalence of
-assa place-names and words scattered around all sides of the
Aegean Sea, this suffix is considered evidence of a shared non-Indo-European language or at the very least an Aegean
Sprachbund preceding the arrivals of Luwians and
Greeks.
Luwian has been preserved in two forms named after the writing systems used to represent them, Cuneiform Luwian and Hieroglyphic Luwian.
Cuneiform Luwian
Cuneiform Luwian is the form of the
Luwian language attested in the tablet archives of
Hattusa; it is essentially the same writing system as
Hittite. In Laroche's Catalog of Hittite Texts, its corpus runs from CTH 757-773, mostly comprising rituals. Luwian and its descendents in general reflect survivals of a non-
Indo-European type in western Anatolia; but in Cuneiform they do so more defensively. Hieroglyphic Luwian and the
Palaic language allow for the classically
Indo-European suffix
-as for the singular genitive and
-an for the plural genitive; and also for an adjectival suffix
-assa. Cuneiform Luwian uses the latter exclusively. This feature of Cuneiform Luwian may have been a deliberate archaism, to emphasise their roots in that land; or else the Luwians may have genuinely forgotten the Indo-European genitive only to pick it up later for Hieroglyphic Luwian.
Hieroglyphic Luwian
Hieroglyphic Luwian is a form of Luwian written in a native script, known as
Anatolian hieroglyphs.
[Melchert, H. Craig. 2004. "Luvian", in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages, edited by Roger D. Woodard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56256-2] [Melchert, H. Craig. 1996. "Anatolian Hieroglyphs", in The World's Writing Systems, ed. {Peter T. Daniels and William Bright. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507993-0] Once thought to be a variety of the
Hittite language,
"Hieroglyphic Hittite" was used to refer to the language of the same inscriptions, but this term is now obsolete. The first report of a monumental inscription dates to
1850, when an inhabitant of Nevsehir reported the relief at
Fratkin. In
1870, antiquarian travellers in
Aleppo found one built into the south wall of the el-Qiqan Mosque. In 1884m Polish scholar Maryan Sokolowski discovered an inscription near Köylütolu, western Turkey. The largest known inscription was excavated in 1970 in Yalburt, northwest of
Konya.
Luwian and its descendents in general reflect survivals of a non-
Indo-European type in western Anatolia. Hieroglyphic Luwian and the
Palaic language allow for the classically
Indo-European suffix
-as for the singular genitive and
-an for the plural genitive; and also for an adjectival suffix
-assa. Hittite used the former exclusively, and Cuneiform Luwian used the latter exclusively. Luwian in its Hieroglyphic stage could have been influenced from Hittite and perhaps also
Greek, which had spread to Crete by the 15th century BC ("Late Minoan II").
*Laroche, Emmanuel.
Catalogue des textes hittites 1991.
*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.
*
Arzawa, to the west, throws light on Hittites*
Alekseev Manuscript*
Hieroglyphic Luwian Phonetic Signs*
Catalog of Hittite Texts: TEXTS IN OTHER LANGUAGES*
Genitive Case and Possessive Adjective in Anatolian
