![Luwian Language de](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Luwian_Language_de.svg)
Luwian (), sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the
Anatolian branch of the
Indo-European
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in hist ...
. The
ethnonym
An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...
Luwian comes from ''Luwiya'' (also spelled ''Luwia'' or ''Luvia'') – the name of the region in which the
Luwians
The Luwians were a group of Anatolian peoples who lived in central, western, and southern Anatolia, in present-day Turkey, during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. They spoke the Luwian language, an Indo-European language of the Anatolian sub-fam ...
lived. Luwiya is attested, for example, in the
Hittite laws
The Hittite laws, also known as the Code of the Nesilim, constitute an ancient legal code dating from c. 1650 – 1500 BCE. They have been preserved on a number of Hittite cuneiform tablets found at Hattusa ( CTH 291-292, listing 200 laws). ...
.
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
Luwian (), 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'') ...
(''CLuwian'') and
Hieroglyphic Luwian
Hieroglyphic Luwian (''luwili'') is a variant of the Luwian language, recorded in official and royal seals and a small number of monumental inscriptions. It is written in a hieroglyphic script known as Anatolian hieroglyphs.
A decipherment was pr ...
(''HLuwian''). There is no consensus as to whether these were a single language or two closely related languages.
Classification
Several other Anatolian languages – particularly
Carian
The Carian language is an extinct language of the Luwic subgroup of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The Carian language was spoken in Caria, a region of western Anatolia between the ancient regions of Lycia and Lydia, ...
,
Lycian,
Lydian and
Milyan
Milyan, also known as Lycian B and previously Lycian 2, is an extinct ancient Anatolian language. It is attested from three inscriptions: two poems of 34 and 71 engraved lines, respectively, on the so-called Xanthian stele (or Xanthian O ...
(also known as Lycian B or Lycian II) – are now usually identified as related to Luwian – and as mutually connected more closely than other constituents of the Anatolian branch.
[Anna Bauer, 2014, ''Morphosyntax of the Noun Phrase in Hieroglyphic Luwian'', Leiden, Brill NV, pp. 9–10.] This suggests that these languages formed a sub-branch within Anatolian. Some linguists follow
Craig Melchert in referring to this broader group as Luwic, whereas others refer to the "Luwian group" (and, in that sense, "Luwian" may mean several distinct languages). Likewise, Proto-Luwian may mean the common ancestor of the whole group, or just the ancestor of Luwian (normally, under
tree-naming conventions, were the branch to be called Luwic, its ancestor should be known as Proto-Luwic or Common Luwic; in practice, such names are seldom used). Luwic or Luwian (in the broad sense of the term), is one of three major sub-branches of Anatolian, alongside
Hittite and
Palaic
Palaic is an extinct Indo-European language, attested in cuneiform tablets in Bronze Age Hattusa, the capital of the Hittites. Palaic, which was apparently spoken mainly in northern Anatolia, is generally considered to be one of four primary sub ...
.
As Luwian has numerous archaisms, it is regarded as important to the study of
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
(''IE'') in general, the other Anatolian languages, and the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
Aegean. These archaisms are often regarded as supporting the view that the
Proto-Indo-European language
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...
(''PIE'') had three distinct sets of
velar consonant
Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum).
Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive an ...
s:
plain velars,
palatovelars
Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum).
Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive an ...
, and
labiovelars. For Melchert, PIE ' → Luwian ''z'' (probably ); ' → ''k''; and ' → ''ku'' (probably ). Luwian has also been enlisted for its verb ''kalut(t)i(ya)-'', which means "make the rounds of" and is probably derived from ''*kalutta/i-'' "circle". It has been argued that this derives from a proto-Anatolian word for "
wheel
A wheel is a circular component that is intended to rotate on an axle Bearing (mechanical), bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the Simple machine, six simple machines. Wheels, in conjunction wi ...
", 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 BC and, if ''kaluti'' does derive from it, then the Anatolian branch left PIE after its invention (so validating the
Kurgan hypothesis
The Kurgan hypothesis (also known as the Kurgan theory, Kurgan model, or steppe theory) is the most widely accepted proposal to identify the Proto-Indo-European homeland from which the Indo-European languages spread out throughout Europe and par ...
as applicable to Anatolian). However, ''kaluti'' need not imply a wheel and so need not have been 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.
Geographic and chronological distribution
Luwian was among the languages spoken during the 2nd and 1st millennia BC by groups in central and western Anatolia and northern
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
. The earliest Luwian texts in cuneiform transmission are attested in connection with the Kingdom of
Kizzuwatna
Kizzuwatna (or Kizzuwadna; in Ancient Egyptian ''Kode'' or ''Qode''), was an ancient Anatolian kingdom in the 2nd millennium BC. It was situated in the highlands of southeastern Anatolia, near the Gulf of İskenderun, in modern-day Turkey. It enc ...
in southeastern Anatolia, as well as a number of locations in central Anatolia. Beginning in the 14th century BC, Luwian-speakers came to constitute the majority in the Hittite capital
Hattusa
Hattusa (also Ḫattuša or Hattusas ; Hittite: URU''Ḫa-at-tu-ša'', Turkish: Hattuşaş , Hattic: Hattush) was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey, within the great loop of t ...
. It appears that by the time of the collapse of the
Hittite Empire
The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-centra ...
''ca''. 1180 BC, the Hittite king and royal family were fully bilingual in Luwian. Long after the extinction of the
Hittite language
Hittite (natively / "the language of Neša", or ''nešumnili'' / "the language of the people of Neša"), also known as Nesite (''Nešite'' / Neshite, Nessite), is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites, a peopl ...
, Luwian continued to be spoken in the
Neo-Hittite states of
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, such as
Milid
Melid, also known as Arslantepe, was an ancient city on the Tohma River, a tributary of the upper Euphrates rising in the Taurus Mountains. It has been identified with the modern archaeological site of Arslantepe near Malatya, Turkey.
It was ...
and
Carchemish
Carchemish ( Turkish: ''Karkamış''; or ), also spelled Karkemish ( hit, ; Hieroglyphic Luwian: , /; Akkadian: ; Egyptian: ; Hebrew: ) was an important ancient capital in the northern part of the region of Syria. At times during it ...
, as well as in the central Anatolian kingdom of
Tabal
Tabal (c.f. biblical ''Tubal''; Assyrian: 𒋫𒁄) was a Luwian speaking Neo-Hittite kingdom (and/or collection of kingdoms) of South Central Anatolia during the Iron Age. According to archaeologist Kurt Bittel, references to Tabal first appeare ...
that flourished in the 8th century BC.
A number of scholars in the past attempted to argue for the Luwian homeland in western Anatolia. According to
James Mellaart
James Mellaart FBA (14 November 1925 – 29 July 2012) was an English archaeologist and author who is noted for his discovery of the Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük in Turkey. He was expelled from Turkey when he was suspected of involvem ...
, the earliest Indo-Europeans in northwest Anatolia were the horse-riders who came to this region from the north and founded
Demircihöyük (
Eskişehir Province
Eskişehir Province ( tr, ) is a province in northwestern Turkey. Its adjacent provinces are Bilecik to the northwest, Kütahya to the west, Afyon to the southwest, Konya to the south, Ankara to the east, and Bolu to the north. The provincia ...
) in
Phrygia
In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; grc, Φρυγία, ''Phrygía'' ) was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. After its conquest, it became a region of the great empires ...
c. 3000 BC. They were allegedly ancestors of the
Luwians
The Luwians were a group of Anatolian peoples who lived in central, western, and southern Anatolia, in present-day Turkey, during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. They spoke the Luwian language, an Indo-European language of the Anatolian sub-fam ...
who inhabited
Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...
II, and spread widely in the Anatolian peninsula. He cited the distribution of a new type of wheel-made pottery, Red Slip Wares, as some of the best evidence for his theory. According to Mellaart, the proto-Luwian migrations to Anatolia came in several distinct waves over many centuries. The recent detailed review of Mellaart's claims suggests that his ethnolinguistic conclusions cannot be substantiated on archaeological grounds.
Other arguments were advanced for the extensive Luwian presence in western Anatolia in the late second millennium BC. In the
Old Hittite
Hittite (natively / "the language of Neša", or ''nešumnili'' / "the language of the people of Neša"), also known as Nesite (''Nešite'' / Neshite, Nessite), is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites, a peopl ...
version of the
Hittite Code, some, if not all, of the Luwian-speaking areas were called ''Luwiya''. Widmer (2007) has argued that the
Mycenaean term ''ru-wa-ni-jo'', attested in
Linear B
Linear B was a syllabic script used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of Greek. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries. The oldest Mycenaean writing dates to about 1400 BC. It is descended from ...
, refers to the same area. but the stem *''Luwan-'' was recently shown to be non-existent. In a corrupt late copy of the
Hittite Code the geographical term ''Luwiya'' is replaced with ''
Arzawa
Arzawa was a region and a political entity (a " kingdom" or a federation of local powers) in Western Anatolia in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC (roughly from the late 15th century BC until the beginning of the 12th century BC). The core ...
'' a western Anatolian kingdom corresponding roughly with Mira and the Seha River Land. Therefore, several scholars shared the view that Luwian was spoken—to varying degrees—across a large portion of western Anatolia, including
Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...
(''
Wilusa
Wilusa ( hit, ) or Wilusiya was a Late Bronze Age city in western Anatolia known from references in fragmentary Hittites, Hittite records. The city is notable for its identification with the archaeological site of Troy, and thus its potential con ...
''), the Seha River Land (''Sēḫa'' ~ ''Sēḫariya'', i.e., the Greek
Hermos river and
Kaikos valley), and the
Mira-Kuwaliya kingdom with its core being the
Maeander valley. In a number of recent publications, however, the geographic identity between Luwiya and
Arzawa
Arzawa was a region and a political entity (a " kingdom" or a federation of local powers) in Western Anatolia in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC (roughly from the late 15th century BC until the beginning of the 12th century BC). The core ...
was rejected or doubted. In the post-Hittite era, the region of Arzawa came to be known as
Lydia
Lydia (Lydian language, Lydian: 𐤮𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣𐤠, ''Śfarda''; Aramaic: ''Lydia''; el, Λυδία, ''Lȳdíā''; tr, Lidya) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the mod ...
(Assyrian ''Luddu'', Greek Λυδία), where the
Lydian language
Lydian (𐤮𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣𐤶𐤯𐤦𐤳 ''Sfardẽtiš'' " anguageof Sardis") is an extinct Indo-European Anatolian language spoken in the region of Lydia, in western Anatolia (now in Turkey). The language is attested in graffiti and in co ...
was in use. The name ''Lydia'' has been derived from the name ''Luwiya'' (Lydian *''lūda''- < *''luw(i)da''- < ''luwiya''-, with regular Lydian sound change ''y'' > ''d''). The
Lydian language
Lydian (𐤮𐤱𐤠𐤭𐤣𐤶𐤯𐤦𐤳 ''Sfardẽtiš'' " anguageof Sardis") is an extinct Indo-European Anatolian language spoken in the region of Lydia, in western Anatolia (now in Turkey). The language is attested in graffiti and in co ...
, however, cannot be regarded as the direct descendant of Luwian and probably does not even belong to the Luwic group (see
Anatolian languages). Therefore, none of the arguments in favour of the Luwian linguistic dominance in Western Asia Minor can be regarded as compelling, although the issue continues to be debated.
Script and dialects
Luwian was split into many dialects, which were written in two different writing systems. One of these was the ''Cuneiform Luwian'' which used the form of
Old Babylonian
Old Babylonian may refer to:
*the period of the First Babylonian dynasty (20th to 16th centuries BC)
*the historical stage of the Akkadian language
Akkadian (, Akkadian: )John Huehnergard & Christopher Woods, "Akkadian and Eblaite", ''The Camb ...
cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...
that had been adapted for the
Hittite language
Hittite (natively / "the language of Neša", or ''nešumnili'' / "the language of the people of Neša"), also known as Nesite (''Nešite'' / Neshite, Nessite), is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites, a peopl ...
. The other was ''Hieroglyphic Luwian'', which was written in a unique native hieroglyphic script. The differences between the dialects are minor, but they affect vocabulary, style, and grammar. The different orthographies of the two writing systems may also hide some differences.
Cuneiform Luwian
Cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...
Luwian (or Kizzuwatna Luwian) is the corpus of Luwian texts attested in the tablet archives of
Hattusa
Hattusa (also Ḫattuša or Hattusas ; Hittite: URU''Ḫa-at-tu-ša'', Turkish: Hattuşaş , Hattic: Hattush) was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey, within the great loop of t ...
; it is essentially the same
cuneiform writing system used in
Hittite. In Laroche's ''Catalog of Hittite Texts,'' the corpus of Hittite cuneiform texts with Luwian insertions runs from CTH 757–773, mostly comprising rituals. Cuneiform Luwian texts are written in several dialects, of which the most easily identifiable are
Kizzuwatna
Kizzuwatna (or Kizzuwadna; in Ancient Egyptian ''Kode'' or ''Qode''), was an ancient Anatolian kingdom in the 2nd millennium BC. It was situated in the highlands of southeastern Anatolia, near the Gulf of İskenderun, in modern-day Turkey. It enc ...
Luwian,
Ištanuwa Luwian, and Empire Luwian. The last dialect represents the
vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
of
Hattusa
Hattusa (also Ḫattuša or Hattusas ; Hittite: URU''Ḫa-at-tu-ša'', Turkish: Hattuşaş , Hattic: Hattush) was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey, within the great loop of t ...
n scribes of the 14th–13th centuries BC and is mainly attested through ''
Glossenkeil
The ''Winkelhaken'' (, "angular hook"), also simply called a hook, is one of five basic wedge elements appearing in the composition of signs in Akkadian cuneiform. It was realized by pressing the point of the stylus into the clay.
A single Winkelh ...
'' words in Hittite texts.
Compared to cuneiform Hittite,
logogram
In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced ''hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, as ...
s (signs with a set symbolic value) are rare. Instead, most writing is done with the syllabic characters, where a single symbol stands for a vowel, or a consonant-vowel pair (either VC or CV). A striking feature is the consistent use of 'full-writing' to indicate long vowels, even at the beginning of words. In this system a long vowel is indicated by writing it twice. For example, ''īdi'' "he goes" is written ''i-i-ti'' rather than ''i-ti'', and ''ānda'' "in" is written ''a-an-ta'' rather than ''an-ta''.
Hieroglyphic Luwian
![Museum of Anatolian Civilizations057 kopie1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Museum_of_Anatolian_Civilizations057_kopie1.jpg)
Hieroglyphic Luwian is the corpus of Luwian texts written in a native script, known as
Anatolian hieroglyphs
Anatolian hieroglyphs are an indigenous logographic script native to central Anatolia, consisting of some 500 signs. They were once commonly known as Hittite hieroglyphs, but the language they encode proved to be Luwian, not Hittite, and the ter ...
. Once thought to be a variety of the
Hittite language
Hittite (natively / "the language of Neša", or ''nešumnili'' / "the language of the people of Neša"), also known as Nesite (''Nešite'' / Neshite, Nessite), is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites, a peopl ...
, "Hieroglyphic Hittite" was formerly used to refer to the language of the same inscriptions, but this term is now obsolete. The dialect of Luwian hieroglyphic inscriptions appears to be either Empire Luwian or its descendant, Iron Age Luwian.
The first report of a monumental inscription dates to 1850, when an inhabitant of
Nevşehir
Nevşehir (from the Persian compound ''Now-shahr'' meaning "new city"), formerly Neapolis (Ancient Greek: Νεάπολις) and Muşkara, is a largely modern city and the capital district of Nevşehir Province in the Central Anatolia Region of ...
reported the relief at
Fraktin. In 1870, antiquarian travellers in
Aleppo
)), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black".
, motto =
, image_map =
, mapsize =
, map_caption =
, image_map1 =
...
found another inscription built into the south wall of the
Al-Qaiqan Mosque
Al-Qaiqan Mosque ( ar, جَامِع الْقَيْقَان, Jāmiʿ al-Qayqān, lit=Mosque of the Crows) is one of the oldest surviving mosques in Aleppo, Syria. It is located in the western part of the Ancient City of Aleppo, within the histori ...
. In 1884, Polish scholar discovered an inscription near
Köylütolu, in western
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. The largest known inscription was excavated in 1970 in Yalburt, northwest of
Konya
Konya () is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium (), although the Seljuks also called it ...
. Luwian hieroglyphic texts contain a limited number of lexical borrowings from
Hittite,
Akkadian Akkadian or Accadian may refer to:
* Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire
* Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language
* Akkadian literature, literature in this language
* Akkadian cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo- syllabi ...
, and
Northwest Semitic
Northwest Semitic is a division of the Semitic languages comprising the indigenous languages of the Levant. It emerged from Proto-Semitic in the Early Bronze Age. It is first attested in proper names identified as Amorite in the Middle Bronze A ...
; the lexical borrowings from Greek are limited to proper nouns, although common nouns borrowed in the opposite direction do exist.
Phonology
The reconstruction of the Luwian phoneme inventory is based mainly on the written texts and comparisons with the known development of other Indo-European languages. Two series of stops can be identified, transliterated as geminate in the cuneiform script. These fortis and lenis stops may have been distinguished by either voicing or gemination. The contrast was lost initially and finally, suggesting that any voicing only appeared intervocalically.
The following table provides a minimal consonant inventory, as can be reconstructed from the script. The existence of other consonants, which were not differentiated in writing, is possible.
There are only three
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s, ''a'', ''i'', and ''u'', which could be short or long. Vowel length is not stable but changes with the stress and word position. For example, ''annan'' occurs alone as an
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
as ''ānnan'' ('underneath') but as a
preposition
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
, it becomes ''annān pātanza'' ('under the feet').
The characters that are transliterated as ''-h-'' and ''-hh-'' have often been interpreted as pharyngeal fricatives and . However, they may have instead been uvular and or
velar fricative
A velar fricative is a fricative consonant produced at the velar place of articulation. It is possible to distinguish the following kinds of velar fricatives:
*Voiced velar fricative, a consonant sound written as in the International Phonetic Alph ...
s and . In loans to Ugaritic, these sounds are transcribed with <ḫ> and <ġ>, while in Egyptian they are transcribed with ''ḫ'' and ''g.'' As both of these languages had pharyngeal consonants, the Luwian sounds are unlikely to have been pharyngeal.
In transcriptions of Luwian cuneiform, ''š'' is traditionally distinguished from ''s'', since they were originally distinct signs for two different sounds, but in Luwian, both signs probably represented the same ''s'' sound.
A noteworthy phonological development in Luwian is
rhotacism
Rhotacism () or rhotacization is a sound change that converts one consonant (usually a voiced alveolar consonant: , , , or ) to a rhotic consonant in a certain environment. The most common may be of to . When a dialect or member of a language ...
; in some cases, ''d'', ''l'', and ''n'' becomes ''r''. For example, *''īdi'' ('he gets') becomes ''īri'' and ''wala-'' '(die') becomes ''wara-''. Additionally, a ''d'' in word final position can be dropped, and an ''s'' may be added between two
dental consonant
A dental consonant is a consonant articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as , . In some languages, dentals are distinguished from other groups, such as alveolar consonants, in which the tongue contacts the gum ridge. Dental c ...
s and so ''*ad-tuwari'' becomes ''aztuwari'' ('you all eat') (''ds'' and ''z'' are phonetically identical).
Morphology
Nouns
There were two
grammatical gender
In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all nouns ...
s: animate and inanimate/neuter. There are two
grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and other languages present number categories of ...
s: singular and plural. Some animate nouns could also take a collective plural in addition to the regular numerical plural.
Luwian had six
cases:
#
nominative
In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
#
genitive
In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
#
dative/
locative
#
accusative
The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb.
In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘the ...
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ablative
In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. ...
/
instrumental
An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...
#
vocative
In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed, or occasionally for the noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numer ...
.
The vocative case occurs rarely in surviving texts and only in the singular.
In the animate gender, an ''-i-'' is inserted between the stem and the case ending. In hieroglyphic Luwian, the particle ''-sa/-za'' is added to the nominative/accusative inanimate case ending. In the genitive case, cuneiform and hieroglyphic Luwian differ sharply from each other. In cuneiform Luwian the possessive suffix ''-assa'' is used for the genitive singular and ''-assanz-'' is used for the genitive plural. In hieroglyphic Luwian, as in Hittite, the classical Indo-European suffixes ''-as'' for the genitive singular and ''-an'' for the plural are used. The special form of possessive adjectives with a plural possessor is restricted to Kizzuwatna Luwian and probably represents a
calque
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language wh ...
from
Hurrian
The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Northern ...
.
Because of the prevalence of ''-assa'' place names and words scattered around all sides of the
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek language, Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish language, Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It ...
, the possessive suffix was sometimes considered evidence of a shared non-Indo-European language or an Aegean
Sprachbund preceding the arrivals of Luwians and
Greeks
The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...
. It is, however, possible to account for the Luwian possessive construction as a result of case attraction in the Indo-European noun phrase.
Adjective
Adjectives agree with nouns in number and gender. Forms for the nominative and the accusative differ only in the animate gender and even then, only in the singular. For the sake of clarity, the table includes only the endings beginning with ''-a'', but endings can also begin with an ''-i''. The forms are largely derived from the forms of the nominal declension, with an ''-as-'' before the case ending that would be expected for nouns.
Pronouns
In addition to
personal pronouns typical of Anatolian languages, Luwian also has
demonstrative pronouns, the which are formed from ''apa-'' and ''za-/zi-''. The case endings are similar those of Hittite, but not all cases are attested for personal pronouns. In the third person, the demonstrative pronoun ''apa-'' occurs instead of the personal pronoun.
Possessive pronouns and demonstrative pronouns in ''apa-'' are declined as adjectives. All known forms of the personal pronouns are given, but it is not clear how their meanings differed or how they changed for different cases.
In addition to the forms given in the table, Luwian also had a demonstrative pronoun formed from the stem ''za-/zi-'', but not all cases are known, and also a
relative pronoun
A relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause. It serves the purpose of conjoining modifying information about an antecedent referent.
An example is the word ''which'' in the sentence "This is the house which Jack built." Here the ...
, which was declined regularly: ''kwis'' (nominative singular animate), ''kwin'' (accusative singular animate), ''kwinzi'' (nominative/accusative plural animate), ''kwati'' (ablative/instrumental singular), ''kwanza'' (dative/locative plural), ''kwaya'' (nominative/accusative plural inanimate). Some
indefinite pronoun
An indefinite pronoun is a pronoun which does not have a specific familiar referent. Indefinite pronouns are in contrast to definite pronouns.
Indefinite pronouns can represent either count nouns or noncount nouns. They often have related for ...
s whose meanings are not entirely clear are also transmitted.
Verbs
Like many other Indo-European languages, Luwian distinguishes two numbers (singular and plural) and three
persons
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, ...
. There are two
moods:
indicative
A realis mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences. Mos ...
and
imperative but no
subjunctive. Only the active
voice
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...
has been attested, but the existence of a
mediopassive
The mediopassive voice is a grammatical voice that subsumes the meanings of both the middle voice and the passive voice.
Description
Languages of the Indo-European family (and many others) typically have two or three of the following voices: acti ...
is assumed. There are two
tenses: the
present, which is used to express future events as well, and the
preterite
The preterite or preterit (; abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past; in some languages, such as Spanish, French, and English, it is equivalent to the simple pas ...
.
The conjugation is very similar to the Hittite
''ḫḫi'' conjugation.
A single
participle
In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
can be formed with the suffix ''-a(i)mma''. It has a passive sense for transitive verbs and a stative sense for intransitive verbs. The
infinitive
Infinitive (abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is deri ...
ends in ''-una''.
Syntax
The usual word order is
subject-object-verb, but words can be moved to the front of the sentence for stress or to start a clause.
Relative clause
A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the arguments ...
s are normally before the
antecedent, but they sometimes follow the antecedent. Dependent words and adjectives are normally before their
head word. Enclitic particles are often attached to the first word or conjunction.
Various
conjunction
Conjunction may refer to:
* Conjunction (grammar), a part of speech
* Logical conjunction, a mathematical operator
** Conjunction introduction, a rule of inference of propositional logic
* Conjunction (astronomy), in which two astronomical bodies ...
s with temporal or conditional meaning are used to link clauses. There is no coordinating conjunction, but main clauses can be coordinated with the
enclitic
In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a w ...
''-ha'', which is attached to the first word of the following clause. In narratives, clauses are linked by using the prosecutive conjunctions: ''a-'' before the first word of the following clause means 'and then', and ''pā'', can be an independent conjunction at the start of a clause and the enclitic ''-pa'' indicates contrast or a change of theme.
The following example sentence demonstrates several common features of Luwian: a final verb, the particle chain headed by the conjunction ''a-'', the quotative clitic ''-wa'', and the
preverb
Although not widely accepted in linguistics, the term preverb is used in Caucasian (including all three families: Northwest Caucasian, Northeast Caucasian and Kartvelian), Caddoan, Athabaskan, and Algonquian linguistics to describe certain elem ...
''sarra'' adding directionality to the main verb ''awiha''.
Vocabulary and texts
The known Luwian vocabulary consists mostly of words inherited from
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-E ...
.
Loan word
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
s for various technical and religious concepts derive mainly from
Hurrian
The Hurrians (; cuneiform: ; transliteration: ''Ḫu-ur-ri''; also called Hari, Khurrites, Hourri, Churri, Hurri or Hurriter) were a people of the Bronze Age Near East. They spoke a Hurrian language and lived in Anatolia, Syria and Northern ...
, and were often subsequently passed on through Luwian to Hittite.
The surviving corpus of Luwian texts consists principally of cuneiform ritual texts from the 16th and 15th centuries BC and monumental inscriptions in hieroglyphs. There are also some letters and economic documents. The majority of the hieroglyphic inscriptions derive from the 12th to 7th centuries BC, after the fall of the
Hittite empire
The Hittites () were an Anatolian people who played an important role in establishing first a kingdom in Kussara (before 1750 BC), then the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom (c. 1750–1650 BC), and next an empire centered on Hattusa in north-centra ...
.
Another source of Luwian are the hieroglyphic seals which date from the 16th to the 7th centuries BC. Seals from the time of the Hittite empire are often
digraphic, written in both cuneiform and hieroglyphics. However, the seals nearly always are limited to
logogram
In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced ''hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, as ...
s. The absence of the syllabic symbols from the seals makes it impossible to determine the pronunciation of names and titles that appear on them, or even to make a certain attribution of the text to a specific language.
History of research
After the decipherment of Hittite, cuneiform Luwian was recognised as a separate, but related language by
Emil Forrer
Emil Orgetorix Gustav Forrer (also Emilio O. Forrer; ; 19 February 1894, Straßburg, Alsace-Lorraine – 10 January 1986, San Salvador) was a Swiss Assyriologist and pioneering Hittitologist.
Moreover, Emil Forrer developed a deviant interdiscip ...
in 1919. Further progress in the understanding of the language came after the Second World War, with the publication and analysis of a larger number of texts. Important work in this period was produced by
Bernhard Rosenkranz
Bernhard is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include:
Given name
* Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar (1604–1639), Duke of Saxe-Weimar
* Bernhard, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen (1901–1984), head of the House of Saxe-Meiningen 19 ...
,
Heinrich Otten Heinrich may refer to:
People
* Heinrich (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
* Heinrich (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name)
*Hetty (given name), a given name (including a list of peo ...
and
Emmanuel Laroche. An important advance came in 1985 with the reorganisation of the whole text-corpus by
Frank Starke
Frank or Franks may refer to:
People
* Frank (given name)
* Frank (surname)
* Franks (surname)
* Franks, a medieval Germanic people
* Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang
Cur ...
.
The decipherment and classification of Hieroglyphic Luwian was much more difficult. In the 1920s, there were a number of failed attempts. In the 1930s some individual logograms and syllabic signs were correctly identified. At this point the classification of the language was not yet clear and, since it was believed to be a form of Hittite, it was referred to as ''Hieroglyphic Hittite''. After a break in research due to the Second World War, there was breakthrough in 1947 with the discovery and publication of a
Phoenician-Hieroglyphic Luwian
bilingual text by
Helmuth Theodor Bossert
Helmuth Theodor Bossert (September 11, 1889 – February 5, 1961) was a German art historian, philologist and archaeologist. He is best-known for his excavations of the Hittite fortress city at Karatepe, Turkey, and the discovery of bilingual insc ...
. The reading of several syllabic signs was still faulty, however, and as a result it was not realised that the cuneiform and hieroglyphic texts recorded the same language.
In the 1970s, as a result of a fundamental revision of the readings of a large number of hieroglyphs by
John David Hawkins
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
,
Anna Morpurgo Davies
Anna Elbina Morpurgo Davies, (21 June 1937 – 27 September 2014) was an Italian philologist who specialised in comparative Indo-European linguistics. She spent her career at Oxford University, where she was the Professor of Comparative Philolo ...
, and
Günter Neumann, it became clear that both cuneiform and hieroglyphic texts recorded the same Luwian language. This revision resulted from a discovery outside the area of Luwian settlement, namely the annotations on
Urartian
Urartian or Vannic is an extinct Hurro-Urartian language which was spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu (''Biaini'' or ''Biainili'' in Urartian), which was centered on the region around Lake Van and had its capital, Tushpa, ...
pots, written in the
Urartian language
Urartian or Vannic is an extinct Hurro-Urartian languages, Hurro-Urartian language which was spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu (''Biaini'' or ''Biainili'' in Urartian), which was centered on the region around Lake Van and ...
using the hieroglyphic Luwian script. The sign
![Hieroglyph luwian za](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Hieroglyph_luwian_za.jpg)
, which had hitherto been read as ''ī'' was shown to be being used to indicate the sound ''za'', which triggered a chain reaction resulting in an entirely new system of readings. Since that time, research has concentrated on better understanding the relationship between the two different forms of Luwian, in order to gain a clearer understanding of Luwian as a whole.
Trojan hypothesis
Luwian has been deduced as one of the likely candidates for the
language spoken by the
Trojans
Trojan or Trojans may refer to:
* Of or from the ancient city of Troy
* Trojan language, the language of the historical Trojans
Arts and entertainment Music
* '' Les Troyens'' ('The Trojans'), an opera by Berlioz, premiered part 1863, part 189 ...
.
After the 1995 finding of a Luwian biconvex seal at Troy VII, there has been a heated discussion over the language that was spoken in Homeric Troy. Frank Starke of the
University of Tübingen
The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...
demonstrated that the name of
Priam, king of Troy at the time of the
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has ...
, is connected to the Luwian compound ''Priimuua'', which means "exceptionally courageous". "The certainty is growing that Wilusa/Troy belonged to the greater Luwian-speaking community," but it is not entirely clear whether Luwian was primarily the official language or it was in daily colloquial use.
See also
*
Pre-Greek substrate
Notes
Sources
*Beekes, R. S. P. "Luwians and Lydians", ''Kadmos'' 42 (2003): 47–9.
*Gander, Max. "Asia, Ionia, Maeonia und Luwiya? Bemerkungen zu den neuen Toponymen aus Kom el-Hettan (Theben-West) mit Exkursen zu Westkleinasien in der Spätbronzezeit". ''Klio'' 97/2 (2015): 443-502.
*Gander, Max "The West: Philology". ''Hittite Landscape and Geography'', M. Weeden and L. Z. Ullmann (eds.). Leiden: Brill, 2017. pp. 262–280.
*Hawkins, J. D. "Tarkasnawa King of Mira: 'Tarkendemos', Boğazköy Sealings, and Karabel", ''Anatolian Studies'' 48 (1998): 1–31.
*Hawkins, J. D. "The Arzawa letters in recent perspective", ''British Museum Studies in Ancient Egypt and Sudan'' 14 (2009): 73–83.
*Hawkins, J. D. "A New Look at the Luwian Language". ''Kadmos'' 52/1 (2013): 1-18.
*Laroche, Emmanuel. ''Catalogue des textes hittites''. Paris: Klincksieck, 1971.
*Matessi, A. "The Making of Hittite Imperial Landscapes: Territoriality and Balance of Power in South-Central Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age". ''Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History'', AoP (2017).
*Melchert H. Craig. "Greek ''mólybdos'' as a loanword from Lydian", in ''Anatolian Interfaces: Hittites, Greeks and their Neighbours'', eds. B. J. Collins et al. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2008, pp. 153–7.
*Melchert, H. Craig. 'Lycian', in ''The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor'', ed. R. D. Woodard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 46–55, esp. 46.
*Melchert, H. Craig, ed. ''The Luwians''. Boston: Brill, 2003. .
*Melchert, H. Craig. ''Anatolian Historical Phonology''. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1994.
*Melchert, H. Craig. ''Cuneiform Luvian Lexicon''. Chapel Hill: self-published, 1993.
*Melchert, H. Craig. "PIE velars in Luvian", in ''Studies in memory of
Warren Cowgill
Warren Cowgill (; December 19, 1929 – June 20, 1985) was an American linguist. He was a professor of linguistics at Yale University and the Encyclopædia Britannica's authority on Indo-European linguistics. Cowgill was unusual among Indo-Europea ...
(1929–1985): Papers from the Fourth East Coast Indo-European Conference,
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, June 6–9, 1985'', ed.
C. Watkins.
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
: Walter de Gruyter, 1987, pp. 182–204.
*
*Otten, Heinrich. ''Zur grammatikalischen und lexikalischen Bestimmung des Luvischen''. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1953.
*Rieken, Elisabeth. "Luwier, Lykier, Lyder—alle vom selben Stamm?", in ''Die Ausbreitung des Indogermanischen: Thesen aus Sprachwissenschaft, Archäologie und Genetik; Akten der Arbeitstagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, Würzburg, 24–26 September 2009'', ed. H. Hettrich & S. Ziegler.
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
: Reichert, 2012.
*Rosenkranz, Bernhard. ''Beiträge zur Erforschung des Luvischen''. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1952.
*Sasseville, David
Anatolian Verbal Stem Formation Leiden / New-York: Brill, 2021.
*Singer, I. 2005. 'On Luwians and Hittites.' ''Bibliotheca Orientalis'' 62:430–51. (Review article of Melchert 2003).
*Starke, Frank. 'Troia im Kontext des historisch-politischen und sprachlichen Umfeldes Kleinasiens im 2. Jahrtausend. ''Studia Troica'' 7:446–87.
*Starke, Frank. ''Die keilschrift-luwischen Texte in Umschrift'' (
StBoT Studien zu den Bogazköy-Texten (abbreviated StBoT; lit. Studies in the Bogazköy (Hattusa) Texts) edited by the German ''Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur'' (Academy of Sciences and Literature), Mainz, since 1965, is a series of editio ...
30, 1985)
*Starke, Frank. ''Untersuchungen zur Stammbildung des keilschrift-luwischen Nomens'' (
StBoT Studien zu den Bogazköy-Texten (abbreviated StBoT; lit. Studies in the Bogazköy (Hattusa) Texts) edited by the German ''Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur'' (Academy of Sciences and Literature), Mainz, since 1965, is a series of editio ...
30, 1990)
*Watkins, C. 1995. ''
How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics''. New York and Oxford.
*Watkins, C.1994. 'The Language of the Trojans.' In ''Selected Writings'', ed. L. Oliver et al., vol. 2. 700–717. Innsbruck. ='' Troy and the Trojan War. A Symposium held at Bryn Mawr College, October 1984'', ed. M. Mellink, 45–62. Bryn Mawr.
*Widmer, P. 2006. 'Mykenisch ru-wa-ni-jo, "Luwier".' ''Kadmos'' 45:82–84.
*Woudhuizen, Fred. ''The Language of the Sea Peoples''. Amsterdam: Najade Pres, 1992.
*Yakubovich, Ilya.
Sociolinguistics of the Luvian Language'. Leiden: Brill, 2010
*Yakubovich, Ilya.
The Origin of Luwian Possessive Adjectives. In ''Proceedings of the 19th Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference, Los Angeles, November 3–4, 2007'', ed. K. Jones-Bley et al., Washington: Institute for the Study of Man, 2008.
* ''Luwian Identities: Culture, Language and Religion between Anatolia and the Aegean''. Brill, 2013. (Hardback) (e-Book)
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
Luwian Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words(from Wiktionary'
Swadesh list appendixAlekseev ManuscriptGenitive Case and Possessive Adjective in AnatolianMelchert's homepage on the UCLA website
{{list of writing systems
Cuneiform