Lost Voices of Lydia: A New Edition of the Lydian Inscriptions
Name of applicant
Tobias Søborg
Title
Postdoctoral Fellow
Institution
Leiden University
Amount
DKK 1,878,208
Year
2024
Type of grant
Reintegration Fellowships
What?
Lydian was the language of Lydia, a major Iron Age kingdom in what is today Turkey. It remains one of the least understood members of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family, which includes Danish and English. This project will create a new edition of all known Lydian inscriptions, alongside a dictionary and grammar, making it the definitive reference for the language.
Why?
The current edition is 60 years old and lacks nearly half of the texts known today. A new edition is crucial for advancing research on Lydian and ancient Anatolian history. As the first branch to diverge from the Indo-European family, Anatolian—including Lydian—is essential for reconstructing Proto-Indo-European, the ancestor of all Indo-European languages.
How?
Using philology, epigraphy and the comparative-etymological method, the project will analyze and—for the first time—translate the Lydian texts, undertake fieldwork in Turkey to document inscriptions, and compile a grammar and dictionary of all attested words. The results will be published as a comprehensive handbook of the Lydian language that will serve as the new reference work in the field.