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Luwian
Sign in to saveAlso known as Luwian language, Luvian, Luish
extinct ancient Indo-European language
Luwian was an ancient language spoken in what is now Turkey thousands of years ago, belonging to the same family of languages as English and most modern European languages. It matters to historians and linguists because studying it helps us understand how Indo-European languages evolved and how ancient civilizations in the Mediterranean region communicated.
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Luwian (/ˈluːwiən/ LOO-wee-ən), sometimes known as Luvian or Luish, is an ancient language, or group of languages, within the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The ethnonym Luwian comes from Luwiya (also spelled Luwia or Luvia) – the name of the region in which the Luwians lived. Luwiya is attested, for example, in the Hittite laws.
The two varieties of Luwian are known after the scripts in which they were written: Cuneiform Luwian (CLuwian) and Hieroglyphic Luwian (HLuwian). There is no consensus as to whether these were a single language or two closely related languages.