NeoLuwian

Neo-Luwian is the term used in historical linguistics for the later varieties of the Luwian language, spoken in southwestern Anatolia during the first millennium BCE. Luwian belongs to the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European family, and Neo-Luwian represents developments that followed the earlier Old Luwian stage attested in the second millennium BCE. The Neo-Luwian period is known from texts produced by multiple polities in the region, including remnants of the Hittite cultural sphere and the later Neo-Hittite kingdoms.

Neo-Luwian is not a single standardized form but a family of related dialects. It is traditionally divided by script: cuneiform Luwian, used in inscriptions written with adapted Hittite-style cuneiform, and Hieroglyphic Luwian, the native script used in monumental inscriptions in southwestern Anatolia. These varieties show regional variation but share core grammar and lexicon with other Luwian varieties.

Linguistically, Neo-Luwian is an agglutinative language with extensive nominal and verbal morphology. It retains a case-based noun system and uses suffixal markers for number, definiteness, tense, mood, and aspect on verbs. It shares many phonological and morphological traits with other Anatolian languages such as Hittite, and it provides crucial evidence for the evolution of Luwian from Old Luwian to later forms.

Geographically, Neo-Luwian was spoken in southwestern Anatolia, including regions such as Arzawa and the Seha River area, during roughly the late Bronze Age into the early Iron Age. It coexisted with other Anatolian languages and with Aramaic, Phoenician, and later Greek influences as political landscapes changed under Assyrian and Persian rule.

Scholars use the term Neo-Luwian to distinguish later Luwian varieties from Old Luwian and to study the linguistic and historical links among Anatolian languages. Ongoing work includes philological analysis of inscriptions and comparison with Hittite and other related tongues to reconstruct the development of the Luwian branch.