Milyan language

Milyan, also known as Lycian B and previously Lycian 2, is an extinct ancient Anatolian language and was the language of the Milyae (Μιλύαι),[2] or Milyans, also known by the exonyms Sólymoi (Σόλυμοι), Solymi and Solymians. The Milyae are believed to have preceded the Lycians, Pisidians and Phrygians as the main inhabitants of Milyas (now known as Kaş). As the alternate names suggest, Milyan is now accorded the status of a separate language, but was formerly regarded as a variety of Lycian.

Milyan
Lycian B
RegionMilyas, Anatolia
EraFirst millennium BCE
Lycian script
Language codes
ISO 639-3imy
imy
Glottologmily1238[1]

It is attested from two inscriptions: one of 45 syllables on the so-called Xanthian stele (or Xanthian obelisk, found at Xanthos (which was known to the Lycians as Arñna) and another, shorter, inscription on a sarcophagus at Antiphellus (Habessus).

Xanthian stele
Main article: Xanthian Obelisk

The Xanthus inscription in Lycian B (Milyan) is in verse; strophes are marked off by the use of ⟨)⟩. The Dutch scholar Alric van den Broek also identifies other structural features suggestive of poetry.

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.[3]

gollark: Oh, phones, of course.
gollark: Unfortunately, things.
gollark: Anyway, what would be quite cool is if consumer AR glasses ever actually happened, so you could get a convenient overlay from infrared cameras and time of flight sensors when it was dark.
gollark: It's not pizza, it's hyperbolic geometry.
gollark: In fact, I don't even eat pizza, because that would involve purchasing it, a commercial relation.

References
  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Milyan". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  2. Herod. vii. 77 ; Strab. xiv. p. 667; Plin. v. 25, 42.
  3. Pedersen, Holger; Caroline C. Henriksen; E. F. K. Koerner (1983). A glance at the history of linguistics: with particular regard to the historical study of phonology: Holger Pedersen (1867-1953). studies in the history of the language sciences 7. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 27.

Further reading
  • Shevoroshkin, Vitaly. "Milyan Accusative Constructions Lijeiz Lupeliz and Pleliz Lijaiz." Historische Sprachforschung / Historical Linguistics 128 (2015): 193-204. Accessed August 4, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/44114688.
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