Lycian alphabet
| Lycian |
|
|---|---|
| Type | Alphabet |
| Languages | Lycian language |
| Time period | 500-330 BC |
| Parent systems |
Greek alphabet
|
| Sister systems | Lydian, Phrygian |
| ISO 15924 | Lyci, 202 |
| Direction | Left-to-right |
| Unicode alias | Lycian |
| Unicode range | U+10280 - U+1029F |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols. | |
The Lycian alphabet was used to write the Lycian language. It was an extension of the Greek alphabet, with half a dozen additional letters for sounds not found in Greek. It was largely similar to the Lydian and the Phrygian alphabets.
Contents |
[edit] The alphabet
The Lycian alphabet[1][2] contains letters for 29 sounds. Some sounds are represented by more than one symbol, which is considered one "letter". There are six vowel letters, one for each of the four oral vowels of Lycian, and separate letters for two of the four nasal vowels. Nine the Lycian letters do not appear to derive from the Greek alphabet.
| Lycian letter | Transliteration | Sound | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| π | a | [a] | |
| π | b | [Ξ²] | |
| π | g | [Ι£] | |
| π | d | [Γ°] | |
| π | i | [i], [Δ©] | |
| π | w | [w] | |
| π | z | [ts] | |
| π | h | [h] | |
| π | ΞΈ | [ΞΈ] | |
| π | j or y | [j] | |
| π | k | [kΚ²] | [Ι‘Κ²] after nasals |
| π | l | [l] and [lΜ©]~[Ιl] | |
| π | m | [m] | |
| π | n | [n] | |
| π | u | [u], [Ε©] | |
| π | p | [p] | [b] after nasals |
| π | ΞΊ | [k]? [kΚ²]? [h(e)] | |
| π | r | [r] and [rΜ©]~[Ιr] | |
| π | s | [s] | |
| π | t | [t] | [d] after nasals. Γ±t is [d] as in ΓtemuΟlida for Greek DΔmokleidΔs.[3] |
| π | e | [e] | |
| π | Γ£ | [Γ£] | LusΓ£tra for Greek Lusandros.[4] |
| π | αΊ½ | [αΊ½] | |
| π | mΜ | [mΜ©], [Ιm], [m.] | originally perhaps syllabic [m], later coda [m] |
| π | Γ± | [nΜ©], [Ιn], [n.] | originally perhaps syllabic [n], later coda [n] |
| π | Ο | [tΚ·]? [tΚ]? | |
| π | q | [k] | [Ι‘] after nasals |
| π | Ξ² | [k]? [kΚ·]? | voiced after nasals |
| π | Ο | [q] | [Ι’] after nasals |
[edit] Unicode
The Lycian alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in April, 2008 with the release of version 5.1. It is encoded in Plane 1 (Supplementary Multilingual Plane).
The Unicode block for Lycian is U+10280βU+1029F. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points:
| Lycian[1] Unicode chart (PDF) |
||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+1028x | π | π | π | π | π | π | π | π | π | π | π | π | π | π | π | π |
| U+1029x | π | π | π | π | π | π | π | π | π | π | π | π | π | |||
Notes
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[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Adiego, I. J.; Chris Markham, Translator (2007). "Greek and Lycian". In Christidis, A. F.; Arapopoulou, Maria; Chriti, Maria. A History of Ancient Greek From the Beginning to Late Antiquity. Cambridge University press. ISBN 0521833078. Translator Chris Markham.
- Bryce, Trevor R. (1986). The Lycians - Volume I: The Lycians in Literary and Epigraphic Sources. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. ISBN 87-7289-023-1.
- Roger D. Woodard, 2007, The Ancient Languages of Asia Minor.
[edit] External links
- Everson, Michael (2006-02-05). "Proposal to encode the Lycian and Lydian scripts in the SMP of the UCS" (PDF). DKUUG Standardization. Danish Unix User Group (DKUUG). http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3019.pdf. Retrieved 2008-03-18.
