Sidetic language

File:Sidetic language inscriptions.jpg

Coins from Side were first discovered in the 19th century, which bore legends in a then-unknown script. In 1914, an altar came to light in Side with a Greek inscription and a Sidetic one, but the latter could not be deciphered. It was only after the discovery of a second Greek-Sidetic bilingual inscription in 1949, that Hellmut Theodor Bossert was able to identify 14 letters of the Sidetic script using the two bilinguals.{{cite journal|last1=Bossert|first1=H. T.|title=Scrittura e lingua di Side in Pamfilia|journal=PDP|date=1950|volume=13|pages=32–46}} In 1964 a large stone block was unearthed near the east gate of Side, with two longer Sidetic texts, including loan words from Greek (istratag from στρατηγός, 'commander' and anathema- from ἀνάθημα, 'votive offering'). In 1972, a text was found outside Side for the first time, at the neighbouring town of Lyrbe-Seleukia. Currently, eleven Sidetic coins and several coins with Sidetic legends are known.

In addition to the inscriptions, two Sidetic words are known from ancient Greek texts: {{lang|xsd-Grek|ζειγάρη}} for cicada,Hesychius says the Greek equivalent is {{lang|grc|τέττιξ}}, or cicada: {{cite web |last1=Liddell |first1=Henry George |last2=Scott |first2=Robert |title='Tettix', in: A Greek-English Lexicon |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=te/ttic |website=Perseus.Tufts |access-date=2021-05-02}} mentioned by the ancient lexicographer Hesychius, and {{lang|xsd-Grek|λαέρκινον}} for Valeriana, cited by Galen. In addition, it is believed that some incomprehensible characters in the third book of Hippocrates' Epidemics were originally quotations of the doctor Mnemon of Side, which might have been in the Sidetic script.{{cite journal|last1=Nolle|first1=Johannes|title=Die "Charaktere" im 3. Epidemienbuch des Hippokrates und Mnemon von Side|journal=Epigraphica Anatolica|date=1983|volume=2|page=8.85–98}}

The designated number and date of discovery are given:

• S1 = S I.1.1 Artemon bilingual from Side (1914).
• S2 = S I.1.2 Apollonios bilingual from Side (1949).
• S3 & S4 = S I.2.1-2 Strategos dedications from Side (1964).
• S5 = S II.1.1 Palimpsest bronze voting tablet (1969).
• S6 = S I.1.3 Euempolos bilingual from Lyrbe-Seleukia (1972).
• S7 = S I.2.3 Inscription on fragment of the rim of a pot (1982).
• S8 = S I.2.4 Inscription on stone Heraldes relief (1982).
• S9 = S I.2.5 A list of names, also interpreted as the "Athenodoros memorial" - at six complete lines (and traces of two more lines), this is the longest Sidetic inscription (1995).
• S10 = S III 5th century BC coins with around twenty different legends (since 19th century).
• S11 Words possibly from Mnemon,{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=William |title=Mnemon (A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology) |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DM%3Aentry+group%3D28%3Aentry%3Dmnemon-bio-1 |website=Perseus Tufts |access-date=2021-04-12}} a physician of Side (1983), who added notes in Sidetic to a Greek Hippocrates manuscript.{{cite journal |last1=Nollé |first1=Johannes |title=Die "Charaktere" im 3. Epidemienbuch des Hippokrates und Mnemon von Side |journal=Epigraphica Anatolica |date=1983 |volume=1 |pages=85–98 |url=https://www.academia.edu/8335264}}
• S12 = S II.2.1 A steatite scarab, of uncertain provenance ("acquired in Turkey"); on its underside three (?) hardly identifiable signs have been carved, possibly Sidetic (2005).{{cite journal|last1=Rizza|first1=Alfredo|title=A new epigraphic Document with Sidetic(?) signs|journal=Kadmos|date=2005|volume=44|issue=1–2|pages=60–74|doi=10.1515/KADM.2005.010|s2cid=162036788}}
• S13 = S I.2.6 Graffito from Lyrbe-Seleukia (2014).

In addition a few Sidetic words have been handed down via classical authors, though not written in Sidetic script: "laerkinon" (λαέρκινον, = the herb valerian), "zeigarê" (ζειγάρη, a cricket, cicada).Nollé (1983) p. 95.

{{Infobox writing system

| name=Sidetic

| sample=Inscription sideen.jpg

| type=alphabet

| languages=Sidetic

| direction=Right to left

| unicode=

| iso15924=Sidt

}}

Texts in the Sidetic language are written right to left in an alphabet of 31 distinct letters in inscriptions, plus another 4 characters found only on coins. Recent research is providing updates to the script: there are new letters and variantsMichaela Zinko & Alfredo Rizza (forth.). The new list is based on a forthcoming research (2025) by M. Zinko and A. Rizza part of which (about the list of letters and their values) was sent to the Unicode Script Encoding Working Group to take into consideration for Unicode 17.0

The values of two-thirds of the letters are now firmly established, but there are still significant uncertainties: for example, while the majority view is that the frequent vertical strokes (File:Sidetic 14 z.png or File:Sidetic 14 z-variant.png) are a character denoting a sibilant (z or s), that as a genitival ending would fit in nicely with the usual paradigms of the Anatolian languages,{{cite web |last1=Pérez Orozco |first1=Santiago |title=La lengua Sidética. Una actualización [The Sidetic language. An update]|url=https://www.academia.edu/43814581 |access-date=2021-11-13}} (in Spanish) others interpret the strokes as word dividers.{{cite journal |last1=Woudhuizen |first1=D. |title=On the Reading and Interpretation of the Two Longer Sidetic Inscriptions S I.2.1 and S I.2.5 |journal= Živa Antika|date=2020 |volume=70 |issue=1/2 |pages=17–34 |doi=10.47054/ZIVA20701-2017w |s2cid=245576848 |url=https://www.academia.edu/45107430 |access-date=2021-11-13|doi-access=free }}

The inscriptions show that Sidetic was already strongly influenced by Greek at the time when they were created. Like Lycian and Carian, it was part of the Luwian language family. However, only a few words can be derived from Luwian roots, like maśara 'for the gods' (Luwian masan(i)-, 'god', 'divinity'), and, possibly, malwadas 'votive offering' (Luwian malwa-; but alternative readings are possible, for example, Malya das, 'he dedicated to Malya [= Athena]'). It has been argued that there were also Anatolian pronouns (ev, 'this'; ab, 'he/she/it'), conjunctions (ak and za, 'and'), prepositions (de, 'for'), and adverbs (osod, 'there').

The declension of nouns basically follows a familiar Anatolian language pattern:{{cite web |last1=Касьян |first1=А.С. (Alexei S. Kassian)|title=Сидетский язык [The Sidetic language] (in: Языки Мира : Реликтовые индоевропейские языки Передней и Центральной Азии [Languages of the world : Relict Indo-European languages of Near- and Central-Asia], pp. 175-177) |date=January 2013 |url=https://www.academia.edu/5541696 |publisher=Moskva Academia |access-date=2021-04-14}}

No verbs have yet been securely identified. A promising candidate is ozad, 'he offered', dedicated' (twice attested with object anathemataz, 'sacrifices'), a 3rd person singular preterite with the common Anatolian ending -d.

Like the neighbouring Pamphylian language, aphaeresis is frequent in names in Sidetic (e.g. Poloniw for Apollonios, Thandor for Athenodoros), as is syncope (e.g. Artmon for Artemon).

{{Portal|Asia}}

• Pisidian language

{{Reflist}}

• Zinko, Christian, and Zinko, Michaela. "Sidetisch – Ein Update zu Schrift und Sprache". In: Hrozný and Hittite: The First Hundred Years. Editors: Ronald I. Kim, Jana Mynářová, and Peter Pavúk. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2019. pp. 416–432. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004413122_023 (In German)

• {{cite web | title=Digital etymological-philological Dictionary of the Ancient Anatolian Corpus Languages (eDiAna) | url=http://www.ediana.gwi.uni-muenchen.de | publisher=Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München | access-date=2017-03-14}}
• [http://tied.verbix.com/tree/anat/sidetian.html Indo-European Database]

{{Anatolian languages}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sidetic Language}}

Category:Anatolian languages

Category:Extinct languages of Asia

Category:Pamphylia

Category:Languages attested from the 5th century BC