Lycian
Script details
See all script details: code, region, status and more
| Code | Lyci |
| Script type | alphabet |
| Region | European |
| Status | Historical |
| Direction | LTR |
| Baseline | bottom |
| Case | no |
| White space | none |
| Complex behaviors | |
| OpenType code | lyci |
| ISO 15924 Numeric Code / Key | 202 (left-to-right alphabetic) |
Script description
The Lycian alphabet was used during the 5th to 3rd centuries BC for writing the Lycian language, an Indo-European language spoken in what is now Southern Turkey.
There were twenty-nine letters in the Lycian script, six representing vowels and twenty-three representing consonants and semi-vowels.
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The shapes of the letters were based on those of the archaic Greek alphabet, but visually similar letters did not necessarily represent the same sounds in both scripts.
Lycian was almost always written from left to right, although there are some examples in which it was written from right to left. Spaces were not left between words, but a two-dot word divider was often used.
Languages that use this script
| Language | Writing System Code | Writing System Status | SLDR/CLDR locale | Regional variants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lycian | xlc-Lyci | in use | xlc-Lyci-TR (Turkey) | |
| Milyan | imy-Lyci | in use | imy-Lyci-TR (Turkey) |
Unicode status
In The Unicode Standard, Lycian script implementation is discussed in Chapter 8 Europe-II — Ancient and Other Scripts
.
Resources
- ScriptSource page for Lycian - all about scripts, languages, and writing systems
- Wikipedia article on Lycian