Lydian alphabet

Lydian
Script type	Alphabet
Time period	700-200 BCE
Direction	right-to-left script
Languages	Lydian language
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphs[1] Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician Anatolian Lydian
Sister systems	Some other alphabets of Asia Minor
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Lydi, 116 , ​Lydian
Unicode
Unicode alias	Lydian
Unicode range	U+10920–U+1093F
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

This article contains uncommon Unicode characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of the intended characters.

Lydian script was used to write the Lydian language. Like other scripts of Anatolia in the Iron Age, the Lydian alphabet is based on the Phoenician alphabet. It is related to the East Greek alphabet, but it has unique features.

The first modern codification of the Lydian alphabet was made by in 1964, in a combined lexicon, grammar, and text collection.

Early Lydian texts were written either from left to right or from right to left. Later texts all run from right to left. One surviving text is in the bi-directional boustrophedon manner. Spaces separate words except in one text that uses dots instead. Lydian uniquely features a quotation mark in the shape of a right triangle.

Alphabet[]

The Lydian alphabet^[2][3] is closely related to the other alphabets of Asia Minor as well as to the Greek alphabet. It contains letters for 26 sounds. Some are represented by more than one symbol, which is considered one "letter." Unlike the Carian alphabet, which had an f derived from Φ, the Lydian f has the peculiar 8 shape also found in the Neo-Etruscan alphabet and in Italic alphabets of Osco-Umbrian languages such as Oscan, Umbrian, Old Sabine and South Picene (Old Volscian),^[4] and it is thought to be an invention of speakers of a Sabellian language (Osco-Umbrian languages).^[4]