The Sidetic language is a member of the extinct
Anatolian
Anatolian or anatolica may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the region Anatolia
* Anatolians, ancient Indo-European peoples who spoke the Anatolian languages
* Anatolian High School, a type of Turkish educational institution
* Anatol ...
branch of the
Indo-European language family
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, Dutch ...
known from legends of coins dating to the period of approximately the 5th to 3rd centuries BCE found in
Side
Side or Sides may refer to:
Geometry
* Edge (geometry) of a polygon (two-dimensional shape)
* Face (geometry) of a polyhedron (three-dimensional shape)
Places
* Side (Ainis), a town of Ainis, ancient Thessaly, Greece
* Side (Caria), a town of an ...
at the
Pamphylia
Pamphylia (; grc, Παμφυλία, ''Pamphylía'') was a region in the south of Asia Minor, between Lycia and Cilicia, extending from the Mediterranean to Mount Taurus (all in modern-day Antalya province, Turkey). It was bounded on the north by ...
n coast, and two Greek–Sidetic
bilingual inscription
In epigraphy, a multilingual inscription is an inscription that includes the same text in two or more languages. A bilingual is an inscription that includes the same text in two languages (or trilingual in the case of three languages, etc.). Mul ...
s from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE respectively. The Greek historian
Arrian
Arrian of Nicomedia (; Greek: ''Arrianos''; la, Lucius Flavius Arrianus; )
was a Greek historian, public servant, military commander and philosopher of the Roman period.
''The Anabasis of Alexander'' by Arrian is considered the best ...
in his
Anabasis Alexandri
''The Anabasis of Alexander'' ( grc-gre, Ἀλεξάνδρου Ἀνάβασις, ''Alexándrou Anábasis''; la, Anabasis Alexandri) was composed by Arrian of Nicomedia in the second century AD, most probably during the reign of Hadrian. The ...
(mid-2nd century CE) mentions the existence of a peculiar indigenous language in the city of Side.
Sidetic was probably closely related to
Lydian,
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, ...
and
Lycian.
The Sidetic script is an alphabet of the
Anatolian group. It has about 25 letters, only a few of which are clearly derived from Greek. Consensus is growing that the script has essentially been deciphered.
Evidence
Inscriptions and coins
![Sidetic language inscriptions](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Sidetic_language_inscriptions.jpg)
Coins from Side were first discovered in the 19th century, which bore legends in a then-unknown script. In 1914, an altar came to light in Side with a Greek inscription and a Sidetic one, but the latter could not be deciphered. It was only after the discovery of a second Greek-Sidetic bilingual inscription in 1949, that
Hellmut Theodor Bossert Hellmut is a given name. Notable people with the name include:
*Hellmut Andics (1922–1998), Austrian journalist, publicist, and writer
* Hellmut Bunge (1920–2006), Hauptmann in the Wehrmacht during World War II, recipient of the Knight's Cross ...
was able to identify 14 letters of the Sidetic script using the two bilinguals. In 1964 a large stone block was unearthed near the east gate of Side, with two longer Sidetic texts, including loan words from Greek (''istratag'' from στρατηγός, 'commander' and ''anathema-'' from ἀνάθημα, 'votive offering'). In 1972, a text was found outside Side for the first time, at the neighbouring town of
Lyrbe-Seleukia. Currently, eleven Sidetic coins and several coins with Sidetic legends are known.
Citations
In addition to the inscriptions, two Sidetic words are known from ancient Greek texts: ζειγάρη for
cicada
The cicadas () are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into two ...
, mentioned by the ancient lexicographer
Hesychius, and λαέρκινον for
Valeriana
''Valeriana'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Caprifoliaceae, members of which may by commonly known as valerians. It contains many species, including the garden valerian, ''Valeriana officinalis''. Species are native to all continen ...
, cited by
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be one of ...
. In addition, it is believed that some incomprehensible characters in the third book of
Hippocrates
Hippocrates of Kos (; grc-gre, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, Hippokrátēs ho Kôios; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of ...
' ''Epidemics'' were originally quotations of the doctor
Mnemon of Side
Arses ( grc-gre, Ἄρσης; 445 – 359/8 BC), known by his regnal name Artaxerxes II ( peo, 𐎠𐎼𐎫𐎧𐏁𐏂 ; grc-gre, Ἀρταξέρξης), was King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 405/4 BC to 358 BC. He was the son and s ...
, which might have been in the Sidetic script.
Catalogue of Sidetic texts
![Map Pamphylian inscriptions](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Map_Pamphylian_inscriptions.png)
The designated number and date of discovery are given:
* S1 = S I.1.1 Artemon bilingual from Side (1914).
* S2 = S I.1.2 Apollonios bilingual from Side (1949).
* S3 & S4 = S I.2.1-2 Strategos dedications from Side (1964).
* S5 = S II.1.1
Palimpsest
In textual studies, a palimpsest () is a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document. Parchment was made of lamb, calf, or kid skin an ...
bronze altar table or voting tablet (1969).
* S6 = S I.1.3 Euempolos bilingual from
Lyrbe-Seleukia (1972).
* S7 = S I.2.3 Inscription on fragment of the rim of a pot (1982).
* S8 = S I.2.4 Inscription on stone Heraldes relief (1982).
* S9 = S I.2.5 A list of names,
also interpreted as the "Athenodoros memorial"
- at six complete lines (and traces of two more lines), this is the longest Sidetic inscription (1995).
* S10 = S III 5th century BC coins with around twenty different legends (since 19th century).
* S11 Words possibly from
Mnemon, a physician of Side (1983), who added notes in Sidetic to a Greek Hippocrates manuscript.
* S12 = S II.2.1 A
steatite
Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in the zo ...
scarab, of uncertain provenance ("acquired in Turkey"); on its underside three (?) hardly identifiable signs have been carved, possibly Sidetic (2005).
* S13 = S I.2.6 Graffito from Lyrbe-Seleukia (2014).
In addition a few Sidetic words have been handed down via classical authors, though not written in Sidetic script: "laerkinon" (λαέρκινον, = the herb
valerian), "zeigarê" (ζειγάρη, a cricket, cicada).
Characteristics of Sidetic
The Sidetic script
Texts in the Sidetic language are written right to left in an alphabet of about 25 characters. Since the 2010s consensus has grown with regard to the transliteration of the characters:
The meaning of two-thirds of the characters is now firmly established, but there are still severe uncertainties: for example, while the majority view is that the frequent vertical strokes (
![Sidetic 14 z](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Sidetic_14_z.png)
or
![Sidetic 14 z-variant](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Sidetic_14_z-variant.png)
) are a character denoting a sibilant (''z'' or ''s''), that as a genitival ending would fit in nicely with the usual paradigms of the Anatolian languages,
[ (in Spanish)] others interpret the strokes as word dividers.
The Sidetic language
The inscriptions show that Sidetic was already strongly influenced by Greek at the time when they were created. Like
Lycian and
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, ...
, it was part of the
Luwian language
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'') – ...
family. However, only a few words can be derived from Luwian roots, like ''maśara'' 'for the gods' (Luwian ''masan(i)-'', 'god', 'divinity'), and, possibly, ''malwadas'' 'votive offering' (Luwian ''malwa-''; but alternative readings are possible, for example, ''Malya das'', 'he dedicated to Malya
Athena). It has been argued that there were also Anatolian pronouns (''ev'', 'this'; ''ab'', 'he/she/it'), conjunctions (''ak'' and ''za'', 'and'), prepositions (''de'', 'for'), and adverbs (''osod'', 'there').
The declension of nouns basically follows a familiar Anatolian language pattern:
No verbs have yet been securely identified. A promising candidate is ''ozad'', 'he offered', dedicated' (twice attested with object ''anathemataz'', 'sacrifices'), a 3rd person singular preterite with the common Anatolian ending ''-d''.
Like the neighbouring
Pamphylian language,
aphaeresis is frequent in names in Sidetic (e.g. ''Poloniw'' for Apollonios, ''Thandor'' for Athenodoros), as is
syncope (e.g. ''Artmon'' for Artemon).
See also
*
Pisidian language
The Pisidian language is a member of the extinct Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family spoken in Pisidia, a region of ancient Asia Minor. Known from some fifty short inscriptions from the first to second centuries CE, it appears ...
References
Further reading
* Zinko, Christian, and Zinko, Michaela. "Sidetisch – Ein Update zu Schrift und Sprache". In: ''Hrozný and Hittite: The First Hundred Years''. Editors: Ronald I. Kim, Jana Mynářová, and Peter Pavúk. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2019. pp. 416–432. doi: https://doi-org.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1163/9789004413122_023 (In German)
External links
*
Indo-European Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sidetic Language
Anatolian languages
Extinct languages of Asia
Pamphylia