Milyan, also known as Lycian B and previously Lycian 2, is an extinct ancient Anatolian language. It is attested from three inscriptions: two poems of 34 and 71 engraved lines, respectively, on the so-called Xanthian stele (or Xanthian Obelisk, found at

Xanthos Xanthos or Xanthus, also referred to by scholars as ''Arna'', its Lycian name, (, Lycian: 𐊀𐊕𐊑𐊏𐊀 ''Arñna'', , Latin: ''Xanthus'') was an ancient city near the present-day village of Kınık, in Antalya Province, Turkey. The ru ...

(which was known to the Lycians as ''Arñna''), and another, shorter, inscription (nine lines) on a sarcophagus at Antiphellus (''Habessus''). All three poems are divided in strophes.

The name of the language

The contemporaneous

endonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

of the language is unknown. The name Milyan was given to it by modern scholars, who believed that it was the language of the Milyae (Μιλύαι), or Milyans, also known by the exonyms ''Sólymoi'' (Σόλυμοι), Solymi and Solymians. The Milyae were believed to have preceded the Lycians, Pisidians and Phrygians as the main inhabitants of Milyas. "Milyan" may be regarded as a misnomer, because Milyas proper was an isolated, inland part of Lycia, whereas all known "Milyan" language inscriptions are from the near-coastal cities of Xanthos and Antiphellos. The alternate name, "Lycian B", stresses the close likeness to Lycian A. Diether Schürr characterizes the Lycian B as "poetical Lycian, with some conservative traits, a few idiosyncratic developments, and some elements that it shares with Carian". Regardless of the name used, the consensus view is that Milyan/Lycian B is a dialect of Lycian.

Sample text

Text in Milyan: Eχssñtawñta prñnawẽ wãna ebẽ eχssñtaẽ stta mẽbrẽ

The inscriptions

On the Xanthian stele are two Milyan texts: * On the lower half of the northern side of the stele are 34 engraved lines, a poem of 14 strophes. Its leitmotiv seems to be how the Lycian king Kheriga received his orders for military activities as well as divine help from the gods, especially from Natri (the Lycian equivalent of

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

) and the Weather god Trqqiz (

Tarḫunz Tarḫunz (stem: ''Tarḫunt-'') was the weather god and chief god of the Luwians, a people of Bronze Age and early Iron Age Anatolia. He is closely associated with the Hittite god Tarḫunna and the Hurrian god Teshub. Name The name of the Pro ...

). Below the last strophe there is an empty space, which shows that the poem is complete and that the text on the west side of the stele (formerly thought to be a continuation of the north side text) is a separate poem. It has also been argued that the poem takes place widely on the mythological level, in which the assembly of gods discusses the military offenses of the Lycian king as well as his generous amendments towards the gods. * The west side has 71 engraved lines. The text is not complete: it breaks off in the middle of the 23rd strophe. This seems to be due to miscalculation of the engraver, who also made the mistake to engrave one strophe twice. Again, this poem is about the relation of Kheriga and Trqqiz, but Natri is absent and instead the "

Nymphs A nymph (; ; sometimes spelled nymphe) is a minor female nature deity in ancient Greek folklore. Distinct from other Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature; they are typically tied to a specific place, land ...

of Phellos" make their appearance. A certain Muni is mentioned, possibly the widow of Kheriga who ordered the poem to be written on the west side of the monument. Dieter Schürr suspects that the central theme of the poem may be the legitimization of Muni's regency, possibly after a murder case. The third text is the so-called Pixre poem on a grave monument from Antiphellos (a harbour city 30 kilometers east of Xanthos). Its nine lines make up thirteen strophes. Pixre apparently is the name of a Lycian poet buried here, who in the inscription tells of the "Nymphs of Phellos", who were his

Muses In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...

Milyan compared with Lycian

Though quite a few words in Milyan are the same as in Lycian, differences are also obvious, some of them systematic. Milyan seems to be the more archaic language, as it preserves several early Anatolian characteristics, where Lycian shows a more innovative stage. This may have to do with the subject of the Milyan texts: while texts in Lycian are quite mundane (military exploits, tomb building activities), the two Milyan inscriptions also refer to religious rituals, where a more archaic

sacred language A sacred language, liturgical language or holy language is a language that is cultivated and used primarily for religious reasons (like church service) by people who speak another, primary language in their daily lives. Some religions, or part ...

may have been deemed appropriate (cf. for example the continued use of the words ' amen' and ' hallelujah' by Christians, or the use of Latin in the Roman Catholic Church). Here are some differences between Lycian and Milyan, with examples (several examples show more than one phenomenon): (in Russian)

Grammar

Nouns

Nouns and adjectives distinguish singular and plural forms. A dual has not been found in Milyan. There are two genders: animate (or 'common') and inanimate (or 'neuter'). Instead of the

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...

singular case normally a so-called

possessive A possessive or ktetic form (Glossing abbreviation, abbreviated or ; from ; ) is a word or grammatical construction indicating a relationship of possession (linguistics), possession in a broad sense. This can include strict ownership, or a numbe ...

(or "genitival adjective") is used, as is common practice in the Luwic languages: a

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

-si- is added to the root of a substantive, and thus an adjective is formed that is declined in turn. Nouns can be divided in the same declension groups as in Lycian A: ''a''-stems, ''e''-stems, ''i''-stems, consonant stems, and mixed stems; in addition in Milyan there exist ''u''-stems. The differences between the groups are very minor. The declension of nouns goes as follows (endings marked in brown show differences from Lycian A; parentheses indicate analogous forms—the form given is not attested itself, but words from the same stem group with this ending are attested):

Verbs

Verbs in Milyan are conjugated exactly like those in Lycian A, endings are the same. There are two tenses, present-future and preterite, with three persons singular and plural: A

-s- (cognate with Greek, Latin -/sk/-), appended to the stem is thought to make a verb iterative: : stem ''as-'', iterative of ''a(i)-'' (attested in Lycian A), 'to do, to make'; (Preterite 1 Singular:) ''asxxa'', 'I always did, have made repeatedly'.

Milyan poetry

All known Milyan texts — the two poems on the North and West side of the Xanthian Obelisk and the so-called Pixre poem at Antiphellos — are in verse. Strophes are marked off by the use of . Dutch scholar Alric van den Broek and German linguist Diether Schürr (in German) (in German) (Abstract only; in German) also identify other structural features suggestive of poetry, such as ring composition, internal rhyme, and the use of certain key words repeated in the strophes. Each strophe has about 45 syllables. A poetic meter is evident according to van den Broek. Using Ivo Hajnal’s definitions of Lycian B syllables, van den Broek suggests that there are a significantly high number of word boundaries around the 11th, 22nd and 33rd syllables, before the phrase-ending sign <)> (that is, on the left side of the sign). Therefore, van den Broek argues, the text is a poem with four lines per verse – and the first line is either about seven (six to eight) syllables long, or about 11 (10–12) syllables long. The last three lines of each verse are also about 11 (10–12) syllables. Moreover, the meter may include a four-syllable pattern, with accents on the first, fifth, and ninth syllables of each verse. The phonological implications of van den Broek's model may also fit known features of accent in Lycian, Anatolian and Proto-Indo-European.

References

Bibliography

* Shevoroshkin, Vitaly. "Anatolian laryngeals in Milyan". In: ''The Sound of Indo-European: Phonetics, Phonemics, and Morphophonemics''. Edited by Benedicte Nielsen Whitehead. Museum Tusculanum Press, 2012. pp. 456-483. .

External links

* {{Anatolian languages Anatolian languages