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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 northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ...
. 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 (also known as Luvians) were an ancient people in Anatolia who spoke the Luwian language. During the Bronze Age, Luwians formed part of the population of the Hittite Empire and adjoining states such as Kizzuwatna. During the Hittite ...
lived. Luwiya is attested, for example, in the Hittite laws. The two varieties of Luwian are known after the scripts in which they were written: Cuneiform Luwian (''CLuwian'') and
Hieroglyphic Luwian Luwian (), sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian languages, Anatolian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from ''Luwiya ...
(''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, Lycian, and Milyan (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. 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 northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
(''IE'') in general, the other Anatolian languages, and the
Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
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. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Eu ...
(''PIE'') had three distinct sets of
velar consonant Velar consonants 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 (also known as the "velum"). Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relativel ...
s: plain velars,
palatovelars Velar consonants are consonants place of articulation, articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (also known as the "velum"). Since the velar region of the roof of th ...
, 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 rotating component (typically circular in shape) that is intended to turn 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 machin ...
", 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 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, and 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, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
. The earliest Luwian texts in cuneiform transmission are attested in connection with the Kingdom of Kizzuwatna 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 Hattuşa, Ḫattuša, Hattusas, or Hattusha, was the capital of the Hittites, Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age during two distinct periods. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey (originally Boğazköy) within the great ...
. It appears that by the time of the collapse of the
Hittite Empire The Hittites () were an Anatolian peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...
''ca''. 1180 BC, the Hittite king and royal family were fully bilingual in Luwian. Long after the extinction of the
Hittite language Hittite (, or ), also known as Nesite (Nešite/Neshite, Nessite), is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites, a people of Bronze Age Anatolia who created an empire centred on Hattusa, as well as parts of the northern ...
, Luwian continued to be spoken in the Neo-Hittite states of
Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...
, such as Milid and Carchemish, as well as in the central Anatolian kingdom of Tabal 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, 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 () is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality in northwestern Turkey. Its area is 13,960 km2, and its population is 906,617 (2022). Its adjacent provinces are B ...
) in
Phrygia In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; , ''Phrygía'') was a kingdom in the west-central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Ph ...
c. 3000 BC. They were allegedly ancestors of the
Luwians The Luwians (also known as Luvians) were an ancient people in Anatolia who spoke the Luwian language. During the Bronze Age, Luwians formed part of the population of the Hittite Empire and adjoining states such as Kizzuwatna. During the Hittite ...
who inhabited
Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...
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 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 is a syllabary, syllabic script that was used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest Attested language, attested form of the Greek language. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries, the earliest known examp ...
, 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'' 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 (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...
(''
Wilusa Wilusa () or Wilusiya was a Late Bronze Age city in western Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) known from references in fragmentary Hittites, Hittite records. The city is notable for its identification with the archaeological site of Troy, and thus its ...
''), 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 was rejected or doubted. In the post-Hittite era, the region of Arzawa came to be known as
Lydia Lydia (; ) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom situated in western Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Later, it became an important province of the Achaemenid Empire and then the Roman Empire. Its capital was Sardis. At some point before 800 BC, ...
(Assyrian ''Luddu'', Greek Λυδία), where the Lydian language 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, 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
cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...
that had been adapted for the
Hittite language Hittite (, or ), also known as Nesite (Nešite/Neshite, Nessite), is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites, a people of Bronze Age Anatolia who created an empire centred on Hattusa, as well as parts of the northern ...
. 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. According to Hittitologist Alwin Kloekhorst, Hieroglyphic Luwian may also be known as Empire Luwian or Iron Age Luwian, and is "closely related" to Cuneiform Luwian. Similarly, Alice Mouton and Ilya Yakubovich separate Luwian into two distinct varieties: cuneiform and hieroglyphic – the latter of a more prestigious and elite use.


Cuneiform Luwian

Cuneiform Cuneiform is a Logogram, logo-Syllabary, syllabic writing system that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Near East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. Cuneiform script ...
Luwian (or Kizzuwatna Luwian) is the corpus of Luwian texts attested in the tablet archives of
Hattusa Hattusa, also Hattuşa, Ḫattuša, Hattusas, or Hattusha, was the capital of the Hittites, Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age during two distinct periods. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey (originally Boğazköy) within the great ...
; 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 Luwian, Ištanuwa Luwian, and Empire Luwian. The last dialect represents the
vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...
of
Hattusa Hattusa, also Hattuşa, Ḫattuša, Hattusas, or Hattusha, was the capital of the Hittites, Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age during two distinct periods. Its ruins lie near modern Boğazkale, Turkey (originally Boğazköy) within the great ...
n scribes of the 14th–13th centuries BC and is mainly attested through '' Glossenkeil'' words in Hittite texts. Compared to cuneiform Hittite,
logogram In a written language, a logogram (from Ancient Greek 'word', and 'that which is drawn or written'), also logograph or lexigraph, is a written character that represents a semantic component of a language, such as a word or morpheme. Chine ...
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

Hieroglyphic Luwian (''luwili'') 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 language, Luwian, not Hitt ...
. It is recorded in official and royal seals and a small number of monumental inscriptions. Once thought to be a variety of the
Hittite language Hittite (, or ), also known as Nesite (Nešite/Neshite, Nessite), is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken by the Hittites, a people of Bronze Age Anatolia who created an empire centred on Hattusa, as well as parts of the northern ...
, "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 earliest hieroglyphs appear on official and royal seals, dating from the early 2nd millennium BC, but only from the 14th century BC is the unequivocal evidence for a full-fledged writing system. Dutch Hittitologist Willemijn Waal has argued that Luwian Hieroglyphic was already used for writing on wooden writing boards from the early second millennium BC onwards, but the argument has not been widely accepted. The first monumental inscriptions confirmed as Luwian date to the Late Bronze Age, c. 14th to 13th centuries BC. After some two centuries of sparse material, the hieroglyphs resume in the Early
Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...
, c. 10th to 8th centuries BC. In the early 7th century BC, the Luwian hieroglyphic script, by then aged more than 700 years, falls into oblivion. The first report of a monumental inscription dates to 1850, when an inhabitant of Nevşehir reported the relief at Fraktin. In 1870, antiquarian travellers in
Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...
found another inscription built into the south wall of the Al-Qaiqan Mosque. In 1884, Polish scholar discovered an inscription near Köylütolu, in western
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
. The largest known inscription was excavated in 1946 in Karatepe. Luwian hieroglyphic texts contain a limited number of lexical borrowings from Hittite, Akkadian, and Northwest Semitic; the lexical borrowings from Greek are limited to proper nouns, although common nouns borrowed in the opposite direction do exist. A decipherment was presented by Emmanuel Laroche in 1960, building on partial decipherments proposed since the 1930s. Corrections to the readings of certain signs as well as other clarifications were given by David Hawkins, Anna Morpurgo Davies and Günther Neumann in 1973, generally referred to as "the new readings".


Script

A more elaborate monumental style is distinguished from more abstract linear or cursive forms of the script. In general, relief inscriptions prefer monumental forms, and incised ones prefer the linear form, but the styles are in principle interchangeable. Texts of several lines are usually written in
boustrophedon Boustrophedon () is a style of writing in which alternate lines of writing are reversed, with letters also written in reverse, mirror-style. This is in contrast to modern European languages, where lines always begin on the same side, usually the l ...
style. Within a line, signs are usually written in vertical columns, but as in
Egyptian hieroglyphs Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined Ideogram, ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct char ...
, aesthetic considerations take precedence over correct reading order. The script consists of the order of 500 unique signs, some with multiple values; a given sign may function as a logogram, a determinative or a syllabogram, or a combination thereof. The signs are numbered according to Laroche's sign list, with a prefix of 'L.' or '*'. Logograms are transcribed in Latin in capital letters. For example, *90, an image of a foot, is transcribed as PES when used logographically, and with its phonemic value ''ti'' when used as a syllabogram. In the rare cases where the logogram cannot be transliterated into Latin, it is rendered through its approximate Hittite equivalent, recorded in Italic capitals, e.g. *216 ''ARHA''. The most up-to-date sign list is that of Marazzi (1998). Hawkins, Morpurgo-Davies and Neumann corrected some previous errors about sign values, in particular emending the reading of symbols *376 and *377 from ''i, ī'' to ''zi, za''. Some signs are used as reading aid, marking the beginning of a word, the end of a word, or identifying a sign as a logogram. These are not mandatory and are used inconsistently.


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, one 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 speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...
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, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ...
as ''ānnan'' ('underneath') but as a
preposition Adpositions are a part of speech, class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in, under, towards, behind, ago'', etc.) or mark various thematic relations, semantic roles (''of, for''). The most common adpositions are prepositi ...
, 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 fricatives 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; in some cases, ''d'', ''l'', and ''n'' become ''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. Denta ...
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, a grammatical gender system is a specific form of a noun class system, where nouns are assigned to gender categories that are often not related to the real-world qualities of the entities denoted by those nouns. In languages wit ...
s: animate and inanimate/neuter. There are two
grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a Feature (linguistics), feature of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement (linguistics), agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and many other ...
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 E ...
#
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 ...
# dative/ locative # accusative # ablative/
instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...
# vocative 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 ...
from Hurrian. Because of the prevalence of ''-assa'' place names and words scattered around all sides of the
Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...
, the possessive suffix was sometimes considered evidence of a shared non-Indo-European language or an Aegean
Sprachbund A sprachbund (, from , 'language federation'), also known as a linguistic area, area of linguistic convergence, or diffusion area, is a group of languages that share areal features resulting from geographical proximity and language contact. Th ...
preceding the arrivals of Luwians and
Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...
. 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. An example is the word ''which'' in the sentence "This is the house which Jack built." Here the relative pronoun ''which'' introduces the relative clause. The relative clause modifies th ...
, 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 pronouns 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 or persons, depending on context) is a being who 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 ...
. 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 sentence Dec ...
and imperative but no
subjunctive The subjunctive (also known as the conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of an utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude toward it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unrealit ...
. There are two tenses: the
present The present is the period of time that is occurring now. The present is contrasted with the past, the period of time that has already occurred; and the future, the period of time that has yet to occur. It is sometimes represented as a hyperplan ...
, 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 p ...
. The following 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 produ ...
endings have been attested: The conjugation is very similar to the Hittite ''ḫḫi'' conjugation. For the mediopassive, the following endings are attested: A single
participle In linguistics, a participle (; abbr. ) 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 a verb and used as an adject ...
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 that do not show a tense. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all ...
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 phrase and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the arguments in the relative clause refers to the noun or noun phrase. For example, in the sentence ''I met a man who wasn ...
s are normally before the antecedent, but they sometimes follow the antecedent. Dependent words and adjectives are normally before their
head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...
word. Enclitic particles are often attached to the first word or conjunction. Various conjunctions with temporal or conditional meaning are used to link clauses. There is no coordinating conjunction, but main clauses can be coordinated with the enclitic ''-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 ''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. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...
.
Loan word A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing (linguistics), borrowing. Borrowing ...
s for various technical and religious concepts derive mainly from Hurrian, 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 peoples, Anatolian Proto-Indo-Europeans, Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of the Bronze Age in West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in mo ...
. 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 (from Ancient Greek 'word', and 'that which is drawn or written'), also logograph or lexigraph, is a written character that represents a semantic component of a language, such as a word or morpheme. Chine ...
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 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, Heinrich Otten and Emmanuel Laroche. An important advance came in 1985 with the reorganisation of the whole text-corpus by Frank Starke. 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. 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, Anna Morpurgo Davies, 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 pots, written in the Urartian language using the hieroglyphic Luwian script. The sign , 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. 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 (; ), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German Excellenc ...
demonstrated that the name of
Priam In Greek mythology, Priam (; , ) was the legendary and last king of Troy during the Trojan War. He was the son of Laomedon. His many children included notable characters such as Hector, Paris, and Cassandra. Etymology Most scholars take the e ...
, king of Troy at the time of the
Trojan War The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Ancient Greece, Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris (mytho ...
, 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 The pre-Greek substrate (or substratum) consists of the unknown pre-Greek language or languages (either Pre-Indo-European languages, Pre-Indo-European or other Indo-European languages) spoken in prehistoric Greece prior to the emergence of the Pr ...


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, Emil. 1960. ''Les hiéroglyphes hittites, Première partie, L'écriture''. Paris. *Laroche, Emmanuel. ''Catalogue des textes hittites''. Paris: Klincksieck, 1971. * *Marazzi, M. 1998. ''Il Geroglifico Anatolico, Sviluppi della ricerca a venti anni dalla "ridecifrazione"''. Naples. *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. ''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 (1929–1985): Papers from the Fourth East Coast Indo-European Conference,
Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
, June 6–9, 1985'', ed. C. Watkins.
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
: Walter de Gruyter, 1987, pp. 182–204. *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. . * . * Melchert, H. Craig. 2004. "Luvian". In: ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages''. Ed.: Roger D. Woodard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * *Otten, Heinrich. ''Zur grammatikalischen und lexikalischen Bestimmung des Luvischen''. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1953. *Payne, A. 2004. ''Hieroglyphic Luwian'', Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. *Plöchl, R. 2003. ''Einführung ins Hieroglyphen-Luwische''. Dresden. *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 the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...
: 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 30, 1985) *Starke, Frank. ''Untersuchungen zur Stammbildung des keilschrift-luwischen Nomens'' ( StBoT 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. *Woudhuizen, F. C. 2004. ''Selected Hieroglyphic Texts''. Innsbruck. . * Woudhuizen, F. C. 2004. ''Luwian Hieroglyphic Monumental Rock and Stone Inscriptions from the Hittite Empire Period''. Innsbruck. . *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)


Inscriptions

* Cambel, Halet. ''Corpus of hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions''. Volume 2: Karatepe-Aslantas - The Inscriptions: Facsimile Edition. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 2011 999 https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110879759 * Hawkins, John David. ''Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions''. Volume 1: Inscriptions of the Iron Age - Part 1: Text, Introduction, Karatepe, Karkamis, Tell Ahmar, Maras, Malatya, Commagene. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2012 000 pp. 1-360. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110804201 * ______. ''Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions''. Volume 1: Inscriptions of the Iron Age - Part 2: Text, Amuq, Aleppo, Hama, Tabal, Assur Letters, Miscellaneous, Seals, Indices. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2012 000 pp. 361-641. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110804201 * ______. ''Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions''. Volume 1: Inscriptions of the Iron Age - Part 3: Plates. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2012 000 pp. 642-1007. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110804201 * Hawkins, John David. ''Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions''. Volume III: Inscriptions of the Hettite Empire and New Inscriptions of the Iron Age. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2024. , * Payne, Annick. ''Iron Age Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions''. Writings from the Ancient World 29. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012. * Peker, Hasan. ''Texts from Karkemish I: Luwian Hieroglyphic Inscriptions from the 2011–2015 Excavations''. OrientLab Series Maior, Vol. 1. Bologna: Ante Quem, 2016. .


Further reading

* * * *Simon, Zsolt, "Once Again on the Distribution of Cuneiform Luwian= ša/za", Journal of Cuneiform Studies 76.1, pp. 191-197, 2024

imon, Zsolt, "On the origins of the Hieroglyphic Luwian writing system: the chronological problem", 2020 *

oudhuizen, Fred, "Luwian hieroglyphic texts in late Bronze Age scribal tradition", Harrassowitz Verlag, 2021


External links

*
Luwian Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words
(from Wiktionary'
Swadesh list appendix

Alekseev ManuscriptGenitive Case and Possessive Adjective in AnatolianMelchert's homepage on the UCLA website
* {{Authority control Luwian language, Cuneiform Anatolian languages Languages extinct in the 7th century BC