Sidetic language

Sidetic is a member of the extinct Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. It is known from legends of coins, found in Side at the Pamphylian coast, that date to the period of approximately the 5th to 3rd centuries BCE, and from two Greek–Sidetic bilingual inscriptions from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE. The Greek historian Arrian in his Anabasis Alexandri (mid-2nd century CE) mentions the existence of a peculiar indigenous language in the city of Side, which is assumed to be the language of the coins and inscriptions.
Sidetic was probably closely related to Lydian, Carian and Lycian.

Sidetic was written with a script of the Anatolian group. The Sidetic alphabet has 31 identified letters, a few of which are clearly derived from Greek. The script has been partially deciphered, though the phonetic values of many letters are uncertain.

Evidence

Inscriptions and coins

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 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: for cicada, mentioned by the ancient lexicographer Hesychius, and for Valeriana, cited by Galen. In addition, it is believed that some incomprehensible characters in the third book of Hippocrates' ''Epidemics'' were originally quotations of the doctor Mnemon of Side, which might have been in the Sidetic script.

Catalogue of Sidetic texts

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 bronze 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 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 31 distinct letters in inscriptions, plus another 4 characters found only on coins. Recent research is providing updates to the script: there are new letters and variants

The values of two-thirds of the letters are now firmly established, but there are still significant uncertainties: for example, while the majority view is that the frequent vertical strokes ( or ) 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.

Grammar

The inscriptions show that Sidetic was already strongly influenced by Greek at the time when they were created. Like Lycian and Carian, it was part of the Luwian language 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

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/10.1163/9789004413122_023 (In German)

External links

*
Indo-European Database

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sidetic Language
Anatolian languages
Extinct languages of Asia
Pamphylia
Languages attested from the 5th century BC