The Lydian language: essence, state and impact

Name: The Lydian language: essence, state and impact
Start: 2025-06-12T15:00:00+01:00
Location: NETCULT/CEHUM; ELACH - Escola de Letras, Artes e Ciências Humanas da Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal

Schedule

Thu, 12 Jun, 2025 at 03:00 pm

UTC+01:00

Location

NETCULT/CEHUM; ELACH - Escola de Letras, Artes e Ciências Humanas da Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal | Braga, BR

"The Lydian language: essence, state and impact", por David Sasseville
12 de Junho
The Lydians have had a remarkable influence on the Greek culture, as evidenced by the high praise that poets such as Sappho and Pindar heaped on Lydia. However, their language has never really been appreciated, not even from an Anatolian perspective, where it has long had the image of the black sheep. In this talk, I will give an introduction to the Lydian language and outline its main connections with other Anatolian languages. I will then consider some of its peculiarities and compare them with similar features found in Ancient Greek, arguing for areal diffusion on the western coast of Asia Minor, particularly in the multilingual cities of Smyrna, Ephesus, Colophon and Miletus.