Lycian Alphabet Table
| Letter | Unicode name | Transliteration | Sound (IPA) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ๐ | a | a | [a] |
| ๐ | b | b | [ฮฒ] |
| ๐ | g | g | [ษฃ] |
| ๐ | d | d | [ð] |
| ๐ | i | i | [i], [ĩ] |
| ๐ | w | w | [w] |
| ๐ | z | z | [t͡s] |
| ๐ | h | h | [h] |
| ๐ | th | th | [θ] |
| ๐ | j | j / y | [j] |
| ๐ | k | k | [kʲ] — [ษกʲ] after nasals |
| ๐ | l | l | [l] and [l̩]~[əl] |
| ๐ | m | m | [m] |
| ๐ | n | n | [n] |
| ๐ | u | u | [u], [ū] |
| ๐ | p | p | [p] — [b] after nasals |
| ๐ | kk | kk | [k]? [kʲ]? [h(e)] — Unicode name: LETTER KK; one of the nine letters with no Greek ancestor |
| ๐ | r | r | [r] and [r̩]~[ər] |
| ๐ | s | s | [s] |
| ๐ | t | t | [t] |
| ๐ | e | e | [e] |
| ๐ | an | an | [ã] — nasal vowel, own letter |
| ๐ | en | en | [ẹ] — nasal vowel, own letter |
| ๐ | mm | mm | [m̩], [əm] — syllabic-type nasal; Unicode name: LETTER MM |
| ๐ | nn | nn | [n̩], [ən] — syllabic-type nasal; Unicode name: LETTER NN |
| ๐ | tt | tt | [tʲ]? [t͡ʃ]? — Unicode name: LETTER TT |
| ๐ | q | q | [k] — [ษก] after nasals |
| ๐ | bh | bh | [k]? [kʲ]? — Unicode name: LETTER BH; voiced after nasals |
| ๐ | x | x | [q] — [ษข] after nasals; Unicode name: LETTER X |
The Lycian alphabet was used to write the Lycian language of Lycia, the region of Asia Minor now known as the Turquoise Coast of southwest Turkey. It was an extension of the Greek alphabet, with half a dozen additional letters for sounds not found in Greek, and it was largely similar to the Lydian and the Phrygian alphabets - the three great indigenous scripts of Iron Age Anatolia. The alphabet contains letters for 29 sounds; some sounds are represented by more than one symbol, which scholars count as one “letter”. The six vowel letters cover the four oral vowels of Lycian plus separate letters for two of the four nasal vowels - a typographic nicety few alphabets bother with - and nine of the letters do not appear to derive from the Greek alphabet at all, which makes this chart equal parts familiar and exotic for anyone who can read Greek.
The chart above is verified letter-by-letter against the Unicode Lycian block (U+10280), where the script has lived since version 5.1 of the Unicode Standard (April 2008) on the Supplementary Multilingual Plane. Lycian survives in stone inscriptions - funerary, dedicatory and official - and the most famous of them, the trilingual decree of the Letoon sanctuary (Lycian beside Greek and Aramaic), is the standard starting point for learners because the Greek column lets you check every sign of the Lycian one. Work through this table in the block’s own order and you have the complete inventory a reader of Lycian needs.
How to use
- Read the table top to bottom in the Unicode block’s order. Each row gives the letter, its official Unicode name, the transliteration scholars use, and the sound in IPA. Start with the rows whose transliteration matches a Greek letter you know (a, b, g, d, i, w...) - those are the inherited core. Then study the odd ones: the rows with question-marked values (KK, TT, BH) are letters whose exact sound is still debated, and the two nasal-vowel rows (ã, ẹ) plus the syllabic nasal pair (MM, NN) have no Greek counterpart at all. The notes column flags pronunciation behavior - several consonants voice after nasals, a sound pattern Lycian inherited but Greek never wrote.
- Next, practice the numerals, because Lycian numbers are a miniature lesson in tallying: I (a vertical stroke) = 1, the less-than sign < = 5, O (a circle) = 10, a horizontal stroke = one half, and an H-like symbol that may mean 100. Convert a few dates and quantities from transliterated inscriptions - a tomb number, a year - and the system sticks. Note the honesty in the details: the horizontal stroke halves values, so a price of O-- reads 10 and a half, not 11.
- Finally, read with direction in mind. Lycian inscriptions mostly run left to right like Greek, but the corpus is small enough that monument-specific quirks matter, and the standard learning loop is: pick a line from the Letoon trilingual, match its Greek column, then verify each letter against this chart. Ten minutes a day with that loop and the 29 signs of this table become reading knowledge - and the nine non-Greek letters, which look stranger every time you come back, become the letters you recognize fastest, because no other alphabet competes with them in memory.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Lycian alphabet just the Greek alphabet?
No - it is an extension of the Greek alphabet, with about half a dozen additional letters for sounds Greek lacked, and nine of its letters do not appear to derive from Greek at all. The base (a, b, g, d, i, w, and so on) will look instantly familiar to readers of Greek, but the nine non-Greek letters - including the debated KK, TT and BH rows - are where the Lycian language demanded signs Greek never needed, and they are the chart’s most distinctive rows.
What are the nasal vowels in Lycian?
Vowels pronounced partly through the nose, and Lycian gives two of them their own letters: the rows for ã and ẹ. The scholars’ count says there are six vowel letters - one for each of the four oral vowels (a, e, i, u) plus separate letters for two of the four nasal vowels. Beyond the vowels, Lycian also has syllabic-type nasal consonants (the MM and NN rows) that stand as a syllable’s core without a separate vowel - features that make the script unusually precise about nasal sounds.
How do Lycian numerals work?
The system is tally-style and compact: a vertical stroke I = 1, the less-than sign < = 5, a circle O = 10, a horizontal stroke = one half, and a symbol resembling our letter H that may mean 100. So a stroke-stroke-circle sequence reads 12, and adding a horizontal stroke halves the value it follows. It is one of the more approachable ancient number systems - you can count coins and tomb numbers in it within minutes, which is fitting for a coast full of harbors and trade.
What is the Letoon trilingual?
A famous inscription from the Letoon sanctuary near Xanthos that repeats the same decree in three scripts - Lycian, Greek and Aramaic. For learners it is the standard first text, because the Greek column lets you verify the Lycian letter by letter against this chart; for scholars it is a cornerstone of Anatolian historical linguistics. Trilingual monuments work like keys: the readable member of the set unlocks the other two, the same principle that cracked Egyptian and Old Persian.
How is Lycian related to Lydian and Phrygian?
They are the three great indigenous scripts of Iron Age Anatolia, and the Lycian alphabet was largely similar to both. All three belong to the family of Asia Minor alphabets that grew out of the Phoenician tradition with heavy Greek contact. This site has charts for the trio’s inland members: the Lydian alphabet of king Croesus and the Old Persian cuneiform of Darius - comparing the three tables side by side shows how one coastline produced several competing solutions to writing local languages Greek could not spell.