Luwian Language

The Luwian language (and civilization) is one that remains relatively mysterious to scholars in the twenty-first century. Deeply connected to the Hittite civilization, the Luwian language was originally mislabeled as Hieroglyphic Hittite when it was discovered in modern-day Boğazkale (formerly Boğazköy) in the ruins of the Hittite capital of Hattusa. Little historical information exists about the Luwians; however, they are referenced in Hittite texts. While the Hittites adapted Sumerian cuneiform, evidence suggests that Luwian was an invented indigenous writing system.

The Luwian-speaking population intermingled with and formed its own communities within the Hittite Empire. The two cultures and groups eventually became so intertwined that the Semitics and Urartians referred to the overall region as Hittite. The earliest known example of the Luwian hieroglyphic script is on a sixteenth-century BCE seal impression. The majority of Luwian texts, both cuneiform and hieroglyphic, date to the Neo-Hittite period. Hittite has many Luwian loanwords, but Luwian does not use many loanwords from other languages. A few Luwian words are Semitic loanwords. These include halāl(i)-, meaning pure, from West Semitic and hazz(iy)ani-, meaning mayor, from Akkadian.

The collapse of the Hittite Empire corresponds to a lack of Luwian records and evidence for a period of nearly two hundred years. The language again rose to prominence in Neo-Hittite city-states, but their subsequent absorption by the Assyrians signaled the end of Luwian literacy. The language lingered for a time longer, and some scholars surmised that it had a role in developing other tongues such as Phrygian, Lydian, and Lycian.

History and Classification

The Luwians were one of three population groups in the Anatolia region who shared an Indo-European language family. The others were Hittite (Nesite) and Palaic speakers. The Luwian language and writing system is logophonetic, which means symbols represent syllables, and semanto-phonetic, meaning symbols represent both sounds and meanings. Also known as Hieroglyphic Luwian or Anatolian hieroglyphics, the language uses both syllabograms and logograms. Syllabograms are used to represent the phonetic values that create words through vowels or consonant-vowel combinations. Logograms are pictographs, or pictures that represent a word or phrase, however, very few Luwian words are logograms. The script has many homophonous signs, which are different in appearance or spelling but share phonetic values. An inflected language, Luwian uses different endings attached to a stem, or basic form of a word, to modify meaning. Logograms are often used to represent the stem word while phonetic components follow to spell out these inflectional endings.

Luwian is written in the boustrophedon style, which means words are written similar to the way an ox plows a field—the direction of the writing alternates from right to left and left to right, combining vertically along horizontal lines. In Hittite cuneiform texts, the language is referred to as luwili, the tongue spoken by the region of Luwiya. Empire Luwian refers to the dialect used in Hattusa and the surrounding area and is preserved in both cuneiform and hieroglyphics.

Bronze Age Luwian cuneiform and hieroglyphics excavated from Hattusa and the Hittite royal archives were recorded between 1500 and 1200 BCE. They included religious writings, prayers, and magical incantations. Luwian was later used for inscriptions, monuments, and transaction records.

Luwian was used in the Hittite Empire between 1400 and 1200 BCE alongside the Hittite cuneiform script. After the fall of the empire in the early twelfth century, several Neo-Hittite kingdoms arose, led by surviving branches of the Hittite royal family in northern Syria and southern Anatolia. In these Neo-Hittite city-states, Luwian was used for inscribing monuments, letters, economic texts and for administrative purposes.

The Neo-Hittite city-states were not politically unified, which left them vulnerable to attack. By the tenth century BCE, the Aramaeans had begun to move against them, followed by both the Assyrian Empire and the Urartians. By 708 B.C.E., all the Neo-Hittite states had been conquered and absorbed into the Assyrian Empire; however, the Luwian writing system survived in southwestern Anatolia with the Lycians and Cilicians.

Translating Luwian scripts became a difficult feat. The cuneiform tablets uncovered at Hattusa contained texts in seven different languages: Hittite, Akkadian, Sumerian, Hattic, Hurrian, Luwian, and Palaic. Researchers in the 1930s identified logograms based on context but were unable to make progress with the language. In 1946, a bilingual text was discovered in southern Turkey that was written in Luwian and Phoenician, with subsequent finds in Ugarit that offered greater insight into the Luwian language. As of 2015, deciphering Luwian scripts continues to be an ongoing process.

Geographic Distribution and Modern Usage

Although Hittite texts refer to the Luwiya people, no geographic description is offered. Scholars have determined that Luwian originates in Anatolia, modern-day Turkey in west Asia, specifically the central Anatolian plateau. The conquest of Purušhanda by Anitta, King of the Neša (Hittites) unified Hittite- and Luwian-speaking areas. Luwian-speaking populations were integrated into the Hittite Empire, often forming the majority population.

Luwian-speakers were most likely neighbors of the Hittites from Arzawa in western and southern Anatolia. By the middle of the second millennium BCE, Luwian-speaking groups occupied the majority of southern Anatolia, spreading through the region of Classical Lycia in the southwest through Pamphylia, Pisidia, Isauria, and Lycaonia to Cilicia in the southeast. In the Neo-Hittite period, several principalities, including Hama, Kummuh, Masuwari, and Tabal, utilized Luwian for official purposes. The reach of Luwian spanned from central Anatolia to central Syria.

Luwian is an extinct language and no longer used. Scholars have theorized that Luwian may have evolved into the Lycian language and impacted the ancient Greek language. In the twenty-first century, scholars continue to study the Luwian language, the origins of the civilization, and the kinship the Luwians shared with the Hittites.

Bibliography

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"Hieroglyphic Luwian - 1300 B.C.–600 B.C." Mnamon. Laboratory of Computer Sciences for Ancient Languages, Scuola Normale Superiore. http://lila.sns.it/mnamon/index.php?page=Scrittura&id=46&lang=en

The Homer Encyclopedia. Ed. Margalit Finkelberg. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Print.

"Luwian." Omniglot. Omniglot. Web. 2 Sept. 2015. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/luwian.htm

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