Lydian alphabet
| Lydian | |
|---|---|
| Script type | Alphabet
|
Period | 700-200 BCE |
| Direction | Right-to-left script |
| Languages | Lydian language |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Sister systems | Some other alphabets of Asia Minor |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Lydi (116), Lydian |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Lydian |
| U+10920–U+1093F | |
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 Roberto Gusmani 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 triangle.