Lecture | Comparative Indo-European Linguistics (CIEL) Seminars
The position of Lydian within Anatolian
- Date
- Friday 24 January 2025
- Time
- Series
- Comparative Indo-European Linguistics (CIEL) Seminars
- Location
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 1.21
Abstract
Lydian is generally classified as a member of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European family. Although a few dissenting voices have questioned that traditional classification (most recently Oreshko 2019: 228), the prevailing scholarly consensus (and the linguistic evidence) affirms the Anatolian pedigree of Lydian (e.g., Melchert 2003, 2008, 2017; Rieken 2017; Kloekhorst 2022). The precise position of Lydian within the Anatolian branch remains a contentious matter to this day, arguably one of the most pressing issues in the field of Anatolian historical linguistics. Reaching any decisive conclusion is severely hampered by the scarce textual evidence and our resultant poor understanding of the Lydian lexicon.
Whereas the theory that Lydian be more closely affiliated with Hittite seems to be largely abandoned (cf. for this “Lydo-Hittite” grouping Sommer 1947: 32–33; Carruba 1961), contemporary hypotheses on the position of Lydian can be assorted into three principal positions: (1) Lydian is an outlier within Anatolian (e.g., Hajnal 1999; hesitantly Melchert 2003: 267; essentially also Yakubovich 2022); (2) Lydian is an integral member of the well-established Luwic branch (e.g., Rieken 2017; Sasseville 2021); or (3) Lydian shares some but not all innovations with Luwic, implying an intermediary, higher-node “Lydo-Luwic” stage (e.g., Oettinger 1978; Gusmani 1995: 13; Kloekhorst 2022). The classification of Palaic within any of these scenarios is an open question on its own with numerous possible combinations.
The three current hypotheses can thus be distinguished by the claimed relationship of Lydian to the Luwic group (1 = no close relationship; 2 = full member; 3 = more closely related but not full member).
Consequently, this talk will focus on the precise relationship between Lydian and Luwic. First, I will assess Luwic phonological and morphological innovations and to what extent Lydian shares in them. Second, I will examine potential Lydian-Luwic lexical isoglosses and deliberate whether any demonstrate shared exclusive innovations vis-à-vis Hittite. In the end, the combined evidence points squarely in favour of one of the main hypotheses, asserting a genealogical classification of Lydian.
References
Carruba, O. 1961. Lydisch und Hethitisch. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 111, 458–463.
Gusmani, R. 1995. Zum Stand der Erforschung der lydischen Sprache. In: Forschungen in Lydien (ed. E. Schwertheim), 9–19. Bonn: Habelt.
Hajnal, I. 1999. Lydian: Late Hittite or Neo-Luwian?. Handout from the conference Licia e Lidia prima dell’Ellenizzazione, Rome 11–12 October 1999.
Kloekhorst, A. 2022. Anatolian. In: The Indo-European language family (ed. T. Olander), 63–82. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Melchert, H.C. 2003. The dialectal position of Lycian and Lydian within Anatolian. In: Licia e Lidia prima dell’ellenizzazione. Atti del convegno internazionale, Roma, 11-12 ottobre 1999 (eds. M. Giorgieri et al.), 265–272. Rome: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche.
Melchert, H.C. 2008. Lydian. In: Ancient Languages of Asia Minor (ed. R.D. Woodard), 56–63. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Melchert, H.C. 2017. Anatolian. In: The Indo-European languages (ed. M. Kapović), 171–201. London: Routledge.
Oettinger. N. 1978. Die Gliederung des anatolischen Sprachgebietes. KZ 92, 74–92.
Oreshko, R. 2019. Phonetic value of Lydian letter <d> revisited and development of PIE dentals in Lydian. Wekwos 4, 191–262.
Rieken, E. 2017. The dialectology of Anatolian. In: Handbook of comparative and historical Indo-European linguistics, vol. 1 (eds. J. Klein et al.), 298–308. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter.
Sasseville, D. 2021. Anatolian verbal stem formation: Luwian, Lycian and Lydian. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
Sommer, F. 1947. Hethiter und Hethitisch. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.
Yakubovich, I. 2022. The place of Lydian in the Anatolian family through the lens of recent research. Voprosy jazykovogo rodstva 20/3, 191–221.