1. The history
of the Lydian language.
2. The Lydian Phonetics.
3. The Lydian Substantives.
4. The Lydian Verb.
5. The Lydian Auxiliary Forms.
6. The Lydian Texts and Dictionary.
§ 5. The Lydian Auxiliary Forms.
Here we will give a list of particles, conjunctions, prepositions and postpositions which existed and were found in the Lydian language. It is essential that these auxiliary parts of speech were quite important in the language, their number is great and their role in the sentence was really vital. Practically every word was shaped by a particle or several of them, and those proclitics and enclitics could be not only prepositional, but also pronominal (see infixed pronouns), meaning the subject, the object, etc. But most of them were just service affixes helping to understand the place of the word in the whole sentence.
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| ak- | an introductory prefix | ak-it (So...) |
| -aN | the pronoun pointing at a direct object | |
| -bu, buk | separatory conjunction "or", "either" | mru-L buk vâna-L (to a stele or a tomb) |
| do- | preposition "until", "till", "to" | |
| êt-, ên- | preposition or prefix "in", "in-", "inside" | ên-sarb- (to write in) |
| fa- | prefix meaning "along", "on", or the imperfective aspect meaning for verbs | fa-korfi- (to have done harm to smth) |
| fra- | through, by, with the help of | |
| -in- | a particle uniting two parts of speech | |
| -k | a postposition "and" (< *kwe) | es-t mru-d es'-s'-k vâna-s' (this stele and this tomb) |
| -L | a pronoun pointing at an object in dative case (do not mix with the case ending) | |
| nâ- | an introductory particle | |
| -nak- | a conjunction "also" (made of na- and -k) | |
| ni- | not, non- | ni-kantoru (I do not trust) |
| -ti, -Ta, -li | a possessive suffix | es'a-tis (grandson's), atas' tivdalis (Atas, son of Tivdas) |
| -Ta- | with the verb, meaning "to come to some condition" | |
| -t, -it, -T, -iT, -m, -in | different kinds of emphatic particles | fak-m-L (so to this - and not to that...) |
This is not the full list, but the basic one of the most widespread Lydian auxiliaries. Below in the given texts you will see their usage in the sentence. Some of them are clearly Indo-European, like -k (and) which is common among European tongues: Latin terra mari-que (on land and on sea), Greek hpeiron nhsous te (the continent and the islands), Lepontic Latumarui Sapsutaipe (for Latumaros and Sapsuta); this postposition was used in Proto-Indo-European to link nominal forms. Some of those particles are derived from Hittite: such as -m from -ma, a Hittite emphatic postfix, fra- from Hittite paran, the negative particle ni- from Indo-European *n- via Luwian and Palaic ni-. Some are unique, or their cognates are not found yet.
In whole, the Lydian sentence construction had some strict rules which
stress its Indo-European character. The pronoun es- was always
used before the noun, having the functions similar to those of the English
definite article. The attribute stood usually before the subject or the
object, though some predicative adjectives, following thier nouns, were
found. The possessive pronouns could be used only before the substantive.
The verb is placed mostly at the end of the sentence. That's all for the
Lydian syntax.
§ 6. The Lydian
Texts and Dictionary.
The Lydian lexical composition is known very
poorly - just for you to be happy with two short texts we can offer. The
most part of Lydian epitaphias written in the 6-4 centuries BC were deciphered
and translated easily, but sacral texts and particularly Lydian verses
are less understandable. The vocabulary of the language contained only
about 10% of Indo-European words, the rest were borrowings from native
languages or simply of unknown origin. We will give texts with translation,
and after them a short glossary with the etymological explanations for
those words we found Indo-European by origin.
1. borl-L X artaks'assa-L qaLmLu-L dâN
ora-L isl-L bakill-L es-t mru-d es'-s'-k
vâna-s'
laqrisa-k qela-k kud-ki-t ist es-L vâna-L
bL tarvo-d ak-a-d maneli-d kumlili-d silukali-d
ak-it nãqi-s
es-L mru-L buk es-L vãna-L buk esNa-N
laqirisa-N buk-it kud ist es-L vãnaL
bL tarvo-d
ak-t-in nãqi-s qel-L-k fênsLifi-d
fak-m-L artimu-s'
ibs'imsi-s artimu-k kulumsi-s aara-L bira-L-k
kLida-L kofu-L-k qira-L qel-L-k bil-L vDbaqênt
In the year X of Artaxerxes the king was given
In the month this Bacchus's this stele and this
tomb
And this wall and the area and where to this
tomb
belonging and this is Manes's Kumlis's son's
from Silukas's clan and-so if anyone
To this stele or this tomb or this
Wall or-here where to this tomb belonging
And-so if anyone to anything harm does and-so-to-him
Artemis
Of Ephesus and of Kolos the yard his and the
house
Land and water and property and everything that
is his will destroy.
(The translation given is literary for better
understanding of the text word by word. The sense is:
This tomb belongs to Manes, son of Kumlis,
and who touches it, will have a little unpleasant conversation with Artemis
goddess, who will easily destroy every property of him.)
2. ak-it qed fas'fênu ak-at qL fakantrov ak-m-L-is qis Ditollad
bitad fak-m-L-it-in qLdãn-k artimu-k katsarlokid ak-it edkok êtqratad
kot-ad amu mitridastas' fêtamNidN ak-s' qis êmN êtamN
uN bavDnas'od buk in mêtrid buk
bidêN qik int akmL qed êmed êtams' uN ak-ad artimus'
bifers't.
So-here, what I have and-this to whom trust and-so-to-him-who harm
does and-so-him and Kildans and Artemis will revenge, and will be-done
as-this I, Mitridast, decide, and he, who my prescription to-be made, ignores
or breaks it, or any harm does, and-so-to-him the prescription to-be made,
will order and-this Artemis will-define.
(In normal words:
This is what I have and give to gods, and who takes it, will get
acquainted with Artemis, who will decide what to do with him.)
These two texts above are inscriptions on tomb-steles, so the contens
is like this. And here is the vocabulary
for you to learn every word we know from Lydian.
That's all we would like to tell here about the grammar of the Lydian
language. We apologize for the lack of materials, but the literature about
the subject is still scarce, and the sources from where we can extract
more knowledge are not numerous. Anyway, this grammar has no analogues
on the Web yet. We hope it will be welcomed by our guests. And we will
work under the next grammars, and hope that they will be looked forward
to.
Welcome,
Cyril Babaev
1. The history
of the Lydian language.
2. The Lydian Phonetics.
3. The Lydian Substantives.
4. The Lydian Verb.
5. The Lydian Auxiliary Forms.
6. The Lydian Texts and Dictionary.