Cypriot | |
---|---|
Script type | Syllabary |
Time period | 11th–4th centuries BCE |
Direction | Right-to-left script |
Languages | Arcadocypriot Greek, Eteocypriot |
Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Linear A
|
ISO 15924 | |
ISO 15924 | Cprt(403),Cypriot syllabary |
Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Cypriot |
U+10800–U+1083F | |
The Cypriot or Cypriote syllabary (also Classical Cypriot Syllabary) is a syllabic script used in Iron Age Cyprus, from about the 11th to the 4th centuries BCE, when it was replaced by the Greek alphabet. A pioneer of that change was King Evagoras of Salamis. It is thought to be descended from the Cypro-Minoan syllabary, in turn, a variant or derivative of Linear A. Most texts using the script are in the Arcadocypriot dialect of Greek, but also one bilingual (Greek and Eteocypriot) inscription was found in Amathus.
It has been established that the Cypriot syllabary is derived from the Cypro-Minoan syllabary; the latter is supposed to be derived from the Linear A script, and certainly belongs to the circle of Aegean scripts. The most obvious change is the disappearance of ideograms, which were frequent and represented a significant part of Linear A. The earliest inscriptions are found on clay tablets. Parallel to the evolution of cuneiform, the signs soon became simple patterns of lines. There is no evidence of a Semitic influence due to trade, but this pattern seemed to have evolved as the result of habitual use. [1]
The structure of the Cypriot syllabary is very similar to that of Linear B. This is due to their common origin and underlying language (albeit different dialects). [1] The Cypriot script contains 56 signs. [2] Each sign generally stands for a syllable in the spoken language: e.g. ka, ke, ki, ko, ku. Hence, it is classified as a syllabic writing system. [3] Because each sign stands for an open syllable (CV) rather than a closed one (CVC), the Cypriot syllabary is also an 'open' syllabary. [2]
-a | -e | -i | -o | -u | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
𐠀 | 𐠁 | 𐠂 | 𐠃 | 𐠄 | |
w- | 𐠲 | 𐠳 | 𐠴 | 𐠵 | |
z- | 𐠼 | 𐠿 | |||
j- | 𐠅 | 𐠈 | |||
k-, g-, kh- | 𐠊 | 𐠋 | 𐠌 | 𐠍 | 𐠎 |
l- | 𐠏 | 𐠐 | 𐠑 | 𐠒 | 𐠓 |
m- | 𐠔 | 𐠕 | 𐠖 | 𐠗 | 𐠘 |
n- | 𐠙 | 𐠚 | 𐠛 | 𐠜 | 𐠝 |
ks- | 𐠷 | 𐠸 | |||
p-, b-, ph- | 𐠞 | 𐠟 | 𐠠 | 𐠡 | 𐠢 |
r- | 𐠣 | 𐠤 | 𐠥 | 𐠦 | 𐠧 |
s- | 𐠨 | 𐠩 | 𐠪 | 𐠫 | 𐠬 |
t-, d-, th- | 𐠭 | 𐠮 | 𐠯 | 𐠰 | 𐠱 |
To see the glyphs above, you must have a compatible font installed, and your web browser must support Unicode characters in the U+10800–U+1083F range.
The main difference between the two lies not in the structure of the syllabary but the use of the symbols. Final consonants in the Cypriot syllabary are marked by a final, silent e. For example, final consonants, n, s, and r are noted by using ne, re, and se. Groups of consonants are created using extra vowels. Diphthongs such as ae, au, eu, and ei are spelled out completely. However, nasal consonants that occur before another consonant are omitted completely. [1]
Compare Linear B 𐀀𐀵𐀫𐀦 (a-to-ro-qo, reconstructed as * [án.tʰroːkʷos] ) to Cypriot 𐠀𐠰𐠦𐠡𐠩 (a-to-ro-po-se, read right-to-left), both forms related to Attic Greek : ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos) "human".
One other minor difference involves the representation of the manner of articulation. In the Linear B script, liquid sounds /l/ and /r/ are covered by one series, while there are separate series for the dentals /d/ and /t/. In the Cypriot syllabary, /d/ and /t/ are combined, whereas /l/ and /r/ are distinct. [3]
There are minor differences in the forms of the signs used in different sites. [1] However, the syllabary can be subdivided into two different subtypes based on area: the "Common" and the South-Western or "Paphian". [3]
The script was deciphered in the 19th century by George Smith due to the Idalion bilingual. Egyptologist Samuel Birch (1872), the numismatist Johannes Brandis (1873), the philologists Moritz Schmidt, Wilhelm Deecke, Justus Siegismund (1874) and the dialectologist H. L. Ahrens (1876) also contributed to decipherment. [4]
About 1,000 inscriptions in the Cypriot syllabary have been found throughout many different regions. However, these inscriptions vary greatly in length and credibility. [3] Most inscriptions found are dated to be around the 6th century. There are no inscriptions known to be before the 8th century. Most of the tablets found are from funerary monuments and contained merely names of the deceased. A few dedicatory inscriptions were also found but of very little contribution to decipherment. The most important tablets are mainly found in Enkomi and Paphos.
Efforts to collect and publish the known corpus began in the 1800s. [5] [6] [7] In the 1900s the work was taken up by T. B. Mitford and Olivier Masson. [8] Over the years a number of inaccuracies and duplications crept into the collects corpus. In 2015, Massimo Perna published a consolidated and corrected corpus totaling 1,397 inscriptions. [9]
The earliest dated inscription from Cyprus was discovered at Enkomi in 1955. It was a part of a thick clay tablet with only three lines of writing. Epigraphers immediately saw a resemblance. Because the date of the fragment was found to be around 1500 BCE, considerably earlier than Linear B, linguists determined that the Cypriot syllabary was derived from Linear A and not Linear B. Several other fragments of clay tablets were also found in Enkomi. They date to a later period, around the late 13th or 12th century BCE. The script found on these tablets has considerably evolved and the signs have become simple patterns of lines. Linguists named this new script as Cypro-Minoan syllabary. [1]
Idalium was an ancient city in Cyprus, in modern Dali, Nicosia District. The city was founded on the copper trade in the 3rd millennium BCE. Its name in the 8th century BCE was "Ed-di-al" as it appears on the Sargon Stele of 707 BCE. From this area, archeologists found many of the later Cypriot syllabic scripts. In fact, Idalium held the most significant contribution to the decipherment of Cypriot syllabary – the Tablet of Idalium. It is a large bronze tablet with long inscriptions on both sides. [1] The Tablet of Idalium is dated to about 480–470 BCE. Excluding a few features in morphology and vocabulary, the text is a complete and well-understood document. It details a contract made by the king Stasicyprus and the city of Idalium with the physician Onasilus and his brothers. [3] As payment for the physicians' care for wounded warriors during a Persian siege of the city, the king promises them certain plots of land. This agreement is put under the protection of the goddess Athena. [3]
Recent discoveries include a small vase dating back to the beginning of the 5th century BCE and a broken marble fragment in the Paphian (Paphos) script. The vase is inscribed on two sides, providing two lists of personal names with Greek formations. The broken marble fragment describes a fragment of an oath. This inscription often mentions King Nicocles, the last king of Paphos and includes some important words and expressions. [3] Four inscribed objects were found in the British Museum stores, a silver cup from Kourion, a White Ware jug, and two limestone tablet fragments. [10]
The number of discoveries of new inscriptions has increased. However, most of the new discoveries have been short, or bear only a few signs. One example is a small clay ball. [1]
The Cypriot syllabary was added to the Unicode Standard in April 2003 with the release of version 4.0.
The Unicode block for Cypriot is U+10800–U+1083F. The Unicode block for the related Aegean Numbers is U+10100–U+1013F.
Cypriot Syllabary [1] [2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
U+1080x | 𐠀 | 𐠁 | 𐠂 | 𐠃 | 𐠄 | 𐠅 | 𐠈 | 𐠊 | 𐠋 | 𐠌 | 𐠍 | 𐠎 | 𐠏 | |||
U+1081x | 𐠐 | 𐠑 | 𐠒 | 𐠓 | 𐠔 | 𐠕 | 𐠖 | 𐠗 | 𐠘 | 𐠙 | 𐠚 | 𐠛 | 𐠜 | 𐠝 | 𐠞 | 𐠟 |
U+1082x | 𐠠 | 𐠡 | 𐠢 | 𐠣 | 𐠤 | 𐠥 | 𐠦 | 𐠧 | 𐠨 | 𐠩 | 𐠪 | 𐠫 | 𐠬 | 𐠭 | 𐠮 | 𐠯 |
U+1083x | 𐠰 | 𐠱 | 𐠲 | 𐠳 | 𐠴 | 𐠵 | 𐠷 | 𐠸 | 𐠼 | 𐠿 | ||||||
Notes |
Aegean Numbers [1] [2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
U+1010x | 𐄀 | 𐄁 | 𐄂 | 𐄇 | 𐄈 | 𐄉 | 𐄊 | 𐄋 | 𐄌 | 𐄍 | 𐄎 | 𐄏 | ||||
U+1011x | 𐄐 | 𐄑 | 𐄒 | 𐄓 | 𐄔 | 𐄕 | 𐄖 | 𐄗 | 𐄘 | 𐄙 | 𐄚 | 𐄛 | 𐄜 | 𐄝 | 𐄞 | 𐄟 |
U+1012x | 𐄠 | 𐄡 | 𐄢 | 𐄣 | 𐄤 | 𐄥 | 𐄦 | 𐄧 | 𐄨 | 𐄩 | 𐄪 | 𐄫 | 𐄬 | 𐄭 | 𐄮 | 𐄯 |
U+1013x | 𐄰 | 𐄱 | 𐄲 | 𐄳 | 𐄷 | 𐄸 | 𐄹 | 𐄺 | 𐄻 | 𐄼 | 𐄽 | 𐄾 | 𐄿 | |||
Notes |
In philology, decipherment is the discovery of the meaning of texts written in ancient or obscure languages or scripts.
Linear A is a writing system that was used by the Minoans of Crete from 1800 BC to 1450 BC. Linear A was the primary script used in palace and religious writings of the Minoan civilization. It was succeeded by Linear B, which was used by the Mycenaeans to write an early form of Greek. It was discovered by the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans in 1900. No texts in Linear A have yet been deciphered. Evans named the script "Linear" because its characters consisted simply of lines inscribed in clay, in contrast to the more pictographic characters in Cretan hieroglyphs that were used during the same period.
Linear B is a syllabic script that was used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of the Greek language. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries, the earliest known examples dating to around 1400 BC. It is adapted from the earlier Linear A, an undeciphered script potentially used for writing the Minoan language, as is the later Cypriot syllabary, which also recorded Greek. Linear B, found mainly in the palace archives at Knossos, Kydonia, Pylos, Thebes and Mycenae, disappeared with the fall of Mycenaean civilization during the Late Bronze Age collapse. The succeeding period, known as the Greek Dark Ages, provides no evidence of the use of writing.
The Ugaritic writing system is a Cuneiform Abjad with syllabic elements used from around either 1400 BCE or 1300 BCE for Ugaritic, an extinct Northwest Semitic language, and discovered in Ugarit, Syria, in 1928. It has 30 letters. Other languages were occasionally written in the Ugaritic script in the area around Ugarit, although not elsewhere.
Mycenaean Greek is the most ancient attested form of the Greek language, on the Greek mainland and Crete in Mycenaean Greece, before the hypothesised Dorian invasion, often cited as the terminus ad quem for the introduction of the Greek language to Greece. The language is preserved in inscriptions in Linear B, a script first attested on Crete before the 14th century BC. Most inscriptions are on clay tablets found in Knossos, in central Crete, as well as in Pylos, in the southwest of the Peloponnese. Other tablets have been found at Mycenae itself, Tiryns and Thebes and at Chania, in Western Crete. The language is named after Mycenae, one of the major centres of Mycenaean Greece.
The Celtiberian script is a Paleohispanic script that was the main writing system of the Celtiberian language, an extinct Continental Celtic language, which was also occasionally written using the Latin alphabet. This script is a direct adaptation of the northeastern Iberian script, the most frequently used of the Iberian scripts.
Idalion or Idalium was an ancient city in Cyprus, in modern Dali, Nicosia District. The city was founded on the copper trade in the 3rd millennium BC. Its name does not appear, however, on the renowned "Kition Stele", i.e., the Sargon Stele of 707 BC, but a little later on the Prism of Esarhaddon known as Niniveh A wherein the name is prefixed by the modifier URU (city) as URU.e-di-ʾi-il and in similar spellings in Ashurbanipal's annal while modified by KUR (land/kingdom).
Elamite cuneiform was a logo-syllabic script used to write the Elamite language. The corpus of Elamite cuneiform consists of tablets and fragments. The majority were created during the Achaemenid era, and contain primarily economic records.
Eteocypriot is an extinct non-Indo-European language that was spoken in Cyprus by a non-Hellenic population during the Iron Age. The name means "true" or "original Cypriot" parallel to Eteocretan, both of which names are used by modern scholars to mean the non-Greek languages of those places. Eteocypriot was written in the Cypriot syllabary, a syllabic script derived from Linear A. The language was under pressure from Arcadocypriot Greek from about the 10th century BC and finally became extinct in about the 4th century BC.
Cretan hieroglyphs are a hieroglyphic writing system used in early Bronze Age Crete, during the Minoan era. They predate Linear A by about a century, but the two writing systems continued to be used in parallel for most of their history. As of 2024, they are undeciphered.
The Byblos script, also known as the Byblos syllabary, Pseudo-hieroglyphic script, Proto-Byblian, Proto-Byblic, or Byblic, is an undeciphered writing system, known from ten inscriptions found in Byblos, a coastal city in Lebanon. The inscriptions are engraved on bronze plates and spatulas, and carved in stone. They were excavated by Maurice Dunand, from 1928 to 1932, and published in 1945 in his monograph Byblia Grammata. The inscriptions are conventionally dated to the second millennium BC, probably between the 18th and 15th centuries BC.
The Cypro-Minoan syllabary (CM), more commonly called the Cypro-Minoan Script, is an undeciphered syllabary used on the island of Cyprus and at its trading partners during the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age. The term "Cypro-Minoan" was coined by Arthur Evans in 1909 based on its visual similarity to Linear A on Minoan Crete, from which CM is thought to be derived. Approximately 250 objects—such as clay balls, cylinders, and tablets which bear Cypro-Minoan inscriptions, have been found. Discoveries have been made at various sites around Cyprus, as well as in the ancient city of Ugarit on the Syrian coast. It is thought to be somehow related to the later Cypriot syllabary.
Linear Elamite was a writing system used in Elam during the Bronze Age between c. 2300 and 1850 BCE, and known mainly from a few extant monumental inscriptions. It was used contemporaneously with Elamite cuneiform and records the Elamite language. The French archaeologist François Desset and his colleagues have argued that it is the oldest known purely phonographic writing system, although others, such as the linguist Michael Mäder, have argued that it is partly logographic.
The Southwest Script or Southwestern Script, also known as Tartessian, South Lusitanian and Conii script is a Paleohispanic script used to write an unknown language usually identified as Tartessian. Southwest inscriptions have been found mainly in the southwestern quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula, mostly in the south of Portugal, but also in Spain.
In epigraphy, a multilingual inscription is an inscription that includes the same text in two or more languages. A bilingual is an inscription that includes the same text in two languages. Multilingual inscriptions are important for the decipherment of ancient writing systems, and for the study of ancient languages with small or repetitive corpora.
Many undeciphered writing systems exist today; most date back several thousand years, although some more modern examples do exist. The term "writing systems" is used here loosely to refer to groups of glyphs which appear to have representational symbolic meaning, but which may include "systems" that are largely artistic in nature and are thus not examples of actual writing.
The northeastern Iberian script, also known as Levantine Iberian or Iberian, was the main means of written expression of the Iberian language, but has also been used to write Proto-Basque as seen in the Hand of Irulegi. The Iberian language is also expressed by the southeastern Iberian script and the Greco-Iberian alphabet. To understand the relationship between northeastern Iberian and southeastern Iberian scripts, one should point out that they are two different scripts with different values for the same signs. However, it is clear they have a common origin and the most accepted hypothesis is that northeastern Iberian script was derived from the southeastern Iberian script. Some researchers have concluded that it is linked to the Phoenician alphabet alone, but others believe the Greek alphabet also had a role.
The southeastern Iberian script, also known as Meridional Iberian, was one of the means of written expression of the Iberian language, which was written mainly in the northeastern Iberian script and residually by the Greco-Iberian alphabet. About the relation between northeastern Iberian and southeastern Iberian scripts, it is necessary to point out that they are two different scripts with different values for the same signs; however it is clear that they had a common origin and the most accepted hypothesis is that northeastern Iberian script derives from southeastern Iberian script. In fact, the southeastern Iberian script is very similar, both considering the shape of the signs or their values, to the Southwestern script used to represent an unknown language usually named Tartessian. The main difference is that southeastern Iberian script does not show the vocalic redundancy of the syllabic signs. Unlike the northeastern Iberian script the decipherment of the southeastern Iberian script is not yet complete, because there are a significant number of signs on which scholars have not yet reached a consensus. Although it is believed that the southeastern Iberian script does not show any system to differentiate between voiced and unvoiced occlusives, unlike the northeastern Iberian script, a recent paper defends the existence of a dual system also in the southeastern Iberian script.
Trojan script is a series of signs of unknown origin found on vessels from Troy excavated by Heinrich Schliemann's expedition. Their status is disputed.
The Idalion bilingual is a bilingual Cypriot–Phoenician inscription found in 1869 in Dali, Cyprus. It was the key to the decipherment of the Cypriot syllabary, in the manner of the Rosetta Stone to hieroglyphs. The discovery of the inscription was first announced by Paul Schröder in May 1872. It is dated to 388 BCE. The Phoenician inscription is known as KAI 38 and CIS I 89.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}
: |website=
ignored (help){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)