Editing Anatolian Languages (section)

== Sidetic (~400-200 BCE) ==
Sidetic was an extinct Anatolian language, spoken in the ancient city of '''Side''' on the coast of <u>Pamphylia</u>. The language is known from a few coins and some half-dozen inscriptions, which appear to be votive in nature, which date from 200-100s BCE; the coins are probably somewhat older. Patronymics with an ''-s'' suffix, and a word for ‘god’ that is likely cognate with that of <u>Luwian</u>, <u>Lycian</u>, and <u>Carian</u>, argue that <u>Sidetic</u> is closely related.

The <u>Greek</u> historian '''[[Arrian]]''' in his ''Anabasis Alexandri'' (~150 CE) mentions the existence of a peculiar indigenous language in the city of '''Side'''. Texts in <u>Sidetic</u> are written right to left in an alphabet of about 25 characters. The inscriptions show that <u>Sidetic</u> was already strongly influenced by <u>Greek</u> at the time when they were created. Like <u>Lycian</u> and <u>Carian</u>, it was part of the <u>Luwian</u> language family, and a few words can be derived from <u>Luwian</u> roots, like ''maśara'' 'for the gods' (<u>Luwian</u> ''masan(i)-'', 'god', 'divinity'), and possibly ''malwadas'' 'votive offering' (<u>Luwian</u> ''malwa-).'' Like the neighboring <u>Pamphylian Greek</u> dialect, '''aphaeresis''' (a sound-change in which a word-initial vowel is lost) is frequent in names in <u>Sidetic</u> (''Poloniw'' for Apollonios, ''Thandor'' for Athenodoros), as is '''syncope''', the loss of one or more sounds from the interior of a word, especially the loss of an unstressed vowel (''Artmon'' for Artemon).
[[Category:Linguistics]]