Editing Anatolian Languages (section)

== Lydian (Western Anatolia; 700-200 BCE) ==
<u>Lydian</u> is an extinct language spoken in the region of <u>Lydia</u>, in <u>western Anatolia</u>. The language is attested in graffiti and in coin legends from 700s-200s BCE, but well-preserved inscriptions of significant length are so far limited to the 400s-300s BCE, during the period of <u>Persian</u> domination. Thus, <u>Lydian</u> texts are effectively contemporaneous with those in <u>Lycian</u>. '''Strabo''' mentions that around his time (1st century BCE), the <u>Lydian</u> language was no longer spoken in <u>Lydia</u> proper but was still being spoken among the multicultural population of '''Kibyra''' (now Gölhisar) in <u>southwestern Anatolia</u>, by the descendants of <u>Lydian</u> colonists who founded the city.

Nouns and adjectives distinguish singular and plural forms; words in the texts are predominantly singular. Plural forms are scarce, and a dual has not been found in <u>Lydian</u>. There are two genders (animate/common and inanimate/neuter); only three cases are securely attested: nominative, accusative, and dative-locative. A genitive case seems to be present in the plural, but in the singular usually a possessive is used instead, which is similar to the <u>Luwic</u> languages. Just as in other <u>Anatolian</u> languages, verbs in <u>Lydian</u> were '''conjugated''' in the present-future and preterite tenses with three persons singular and plural. The basic word order is subject-object-verb, but constituents may be extraposed to the right of the verb. Like other <u>Anatolian</u> languages, <u>Lydian</u> features '''clause-initial particles''' with '''enclitic pronouns''' attached in a chain. It also has a number of '''preverbs''' and at least one '''postposition'''. Modifiers of a noun normally precede it.

Though the language is extinct, there are arguably still words of Lydian origin in use today. '''Labrys''' (Greek: λάβρυς, lábrys) is the term for a symmetrical double-bitted axe originally from <u>Crete</u>, one of the oldest symbols of <u>Greek</u> civilization. The priests at '''Delphi''' were called '''Labryades''' (the men of the double axe). The term ''labrys'' "double-axe" is not found in any surviving <u>Lydian</u> inscription, but on the subject, Plutarch states that "the Lydians call the axe ''labrys''" (Λυδοὶ γὰρ ‘λάβρυν’ τὸν πέλεκυν ὀνομάζουσι).

Another possibly <u>Lydian</u> loanword may be ''tyrant'' "absolute ruler", which was first used in <u>Ancient Greek</u> sources, without negative connotations, from ~800s BCE. It is possibly derived from the native town of King '''Gyges''' of <u>Lydia</u>, founder of the '''Mermnad dynasty''', which was '''Tyrrha''' in classical antiquity and is now <u>Tyre, Türkiye</u>. Yet another is the element '''molybdenum''', borrowed from <u>Ancient Greek</u> ''mólybdos'', "lead", from Mycenaean Greek ''mo-ri-wo-do'', which in Lydian was ''mariwda-'' "dark". All of those loanwords confirm a strong cultural interaction between the <u>Lydians</u> and the <u>Greeks</u> since the <u>Creto-Mycenaean</u> era (~2000s BCE).