How it works
The Lycian alphabet to copy, letter by letter: the 29 letters in the order of the Unicode chart, then the two-dot word divider. It was written from left to right.
Read the full guide
Close to Greek, not Greek
The Lycian alphabet is closely related to the Greek one and probably an adaptation of it, with extra letters for sounds Greek lacked; nine of the 29 do not appear to derive from Greek. It was largely similar to the Lydian and Phrygian alphabets.
Six vowels, two of them nasal
𐊀 a, 𐊁 e, 𐊆 i and 𐊒 u are the four oral vowels; 𐊙 ã and 𐊚 ẽ write two of the four nasal ones. After a nasal, 𐊓 p, 𐊗 t and 𐊌 q sound [b], [d] and [ɡ]. 𐊐 m̃ and 𐊑 ñ were perhaps a syllabic m and n at first.
- Three sounds are not settled, and their tiles carry a question mark: 𐊃 β, 𐊔 κ and 𐊘 τ.
- Words were often parted by ⁚, two dots. Some texts run on with no divider, and modern editions sometimes use a space.
- Where a device has no font for Lycian the tiles show empty boxes; the letters under them still read.
Questions and answers
How many letters are in the Lycian alphabet?
29. A sound drawn with more than one symbol still counts as one letter. Unicode has all 29 in the Lycian block, U+10280 to U+1029F, since version 5.1 of April 2008.
When was the Lycian alphabet used?
From around 500 BCE to about 200 BCE, in what is now Turkey. It survives on some 150 stone inscriptions, more than 200 coins and a few other objects.
What language is written in the Lycian alphabet?
Lycian, an ancient Indo-European language of Lycia, a region of Asia Minor. What was once called Lycian A is now simply Lycian; a dialect attested in two texts is called Lycian B, or Milyan.
How did the Lycians write numbers?
With signs of their own, not letters: a vertical stroke for 1, an angle like a less-than sign for 5, a circle for 10 and a horizontal stroke for one half. The Lycian block of Unicode has no characters for them.