Editing Anatolian Languages (section)

== Pisidian (~200-1 BCE) ==
<u>Pisidian</u> is an extinct language of the <u>Anatolian</u> branch of the <u>Indo-European</u> language family, spoken in Pisidia, in <u>Anatolia</u>. <u>Pisidia</u> was north of <u>Pamphylia</u>, northeast of <u>Lycia</u>, west of <u>Isauria</u> and <u>Cilicia</u>, and south of <u>Phrygia</u> (roughly equivalent to the province of <u>Antalya, Türkiye</u>). <u>Pisidia</u> appears to have been part of the region the <u>Hittites</u> called <u>Arzawa</u>.

There can be little doubt that the <u>Pisidians</u> and <u>Pamphylians</u> descended from the same people, but a distinction between the two seems to have been established at an early period. '''[[Herodotus]]''', who does not mention the <u>Pisidians</u>, enumerates the <u>Pamphylians</u> among the nations of <u>Asia Minor</u>, while '''[[Ephorus]]''' mentions them both, correctly including one among the nations on the interior and the other among those of the coast.

Known from some fifty short inscriptions dating from ~0-200 CE, it appears to be closely related to <u>Lycian (A and B)</u> and <u>Sidetic</u>. Pisidian is known from about fifty funeral inscriptions, most of them from Sofular (classical Tymbrias). The first were discovered in 1890; five years later sixteen of them were published and analyzed by Scottish archaeologist William Mitchell Ramsay. The texts are basically of a genealogical character (strings of names) and are usually accompanied by a relief picturing the deceased. Recently inscriptions have also been found at Selge, Kesme (near Yeşilbağ), and Deḡirmenözü. Four inscriptions from the Kesme region seem to offer regular text, not merely names. By far the longest of them consists of thirteen lines. The specific form of '''patronymics''', with an ''-s'' suffix matching that of <u>Luwian</u>, <u>Lycian</u>, <u>Carian</u>, and <u>Sidetic</u>, points to <u>Pisidian</u> being a close relation.