Editing Lycia (section)

==Ancient language==
{{main|Luwian language|Lycian language}}
{{multiple image
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| image1   = Tomb_Payava_south_BM_950.jpg
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| caption1 = The Lycian [[Tomb of Payava|Payava]] as depicted on his tomb, with inscription. 
| image2   = Payava tomb front inscription.jpg
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| caption2 = The inscription on the front of the tomb of Payava.
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| footer=The Lydian inscription runs: “Payava, son of Ed[...], acquired [this grave] in the sacred [burial] area of the acropolis(?) of [[Artumpara|A[rttumba]ra]] (a Lycian ruler), when Lycia saw(?) S[alas](??) [as governor(?)]. This tomb I made, a 10 year ''iti'' (project?), by means of Xanthian ''ahama''s.”<ref>{{cite web |last1=Schürr |first1=Diether |title=Der lykische Dynast Arttumbara und seine Anhänger |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274519945 |publisher=Akademie Verlag |access-date=2021-04-07}} = ''Klio'' 94/1 (2012) 18-44.</ref> 375–360 BC.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Payava Tomb |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=461543&partId=1}}</ref>
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The eponymous inhabitants of Lycia, the [[Lycians]], spoke Lycian, a member of the [[Luwian]] branch of the [[Anatolian languages]], a subfamily of the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] family. Lycian has been attested only between about 500&nbsp;BC and no later than 300&nbsp;BC, in a [[Lycian alphabet|unique alphabet]] devised for the purpose from the Greek alphabet of Rhodes. However, the Luwian languages originated in Anatolia during the 2nd millennium BC. The country was known by the name of [[Lukka]] then, and was sometimes under Hittite rule.

At about 535&nbsp;BC, before the first appearance of attested Lycian, the [[Achaemenid Empire]] overran Lycia. Despite its resistance, because of which the population of Xanthos was decimated, Lycia became part of the Persian Empire. The first coins with Lycian letters on them appeared not long before 500 BC.<ref>{{harvnb|Keen|1998|p=11}}.</ref> Lycia prospered under a monarchy set up by the Persians. Subsequently, the Lycians were verbose in stone, carving memorial, historical and governmental inscriptions. Not all of these can yet be entirely understood, due to remaining ignorance of the language. The term "dynastic period" is used. If the government was any sort of federal democracy, there is no evidence of it, as the term "dynastic" suggests.

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| image1   = Lycian tomb relief at Myra 4th century BCE.jpg
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| caption1 = Warrior in Lycian tomb relief at [[Myra]], 4th century BC.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fant |first1=Clyde E. |last2=Reddish |first2=Mitchell G. |title=A Guide to Biblical Sites in Greece and Turkey |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199881451 |page=485 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cPDXFPxKBzIC&pg=PT485}}</ref>
| image2   = Myra tomb relief.jpg
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| caption2 = Drawing of the complete tomb relief, Myra.
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Lycia hosted a small enclave of Dorian Greeks for some centuries and [[Rhodes]] was mainly inhabited by Dorians at the time. After the defeat of the Persians by the Greeks, Lycia became open to further Greek settlement. During this period, inscriptions in Lycian diminished, while those in Greek multiplied. Complete assimilation to Greek occurred sometime in the 4th century, after Lycia had come under the control of [[Alexander the Great]] and his fellow Macedonians.<ref>{{harvnb|Keen|1998|p=49}}.</ref> There is no agreement yet on which inscription in the Lycian language is the very last, but nothing dated after the year 300 BC has yet been found.

Subsequently, the Lycians were vassalized by the [[Roman Republic]], which allowed the Lycians home rule under their own language, which at that point was Greek. Lycia continued to exist as a vassal state under the [[Roman Empire]] until its final division after the death of [[Theodosius I]] at which point it became a part of the [[Byzantine Empire]] under [[Arcadius]]. After the fall of the Byzantines in the 15th century, Lycia fell under the control of the [[Ottoman Empire]]; Turkish colonization of the area soon followed. Turkish and Greek settlements existed side-by-side, each speaking their own language.

All Greek-speaking enclaves in Anatolia were exchanged for Turkish speakers in Greece during the final settlement of the border with Greece at the beginning of the [[Turkey|Turkish Republic]] in 1923. The Turks had won wars against both Greece and Armenia in the preceding few years, settling the issue of whether the coast of Anatolia was going to be Greek or Turkish. The intent of the [[Treaty of Lausanne (1923)]] was to define borders that would not leave substantial populations of one country in another. Some population transfers were enforced. Former Greek villages still stand as ghost towns in Lycia.