Relationship To Preceding Languages
Luwian has numerous archaisms, and so is important both to Indo-European linguists and to students of the Bronze Age Aegean.
Craig Melchert used Luwian to support the view that the Proto-Indo-European language had three distinct sets of velar consonants:
- Plain velars
- Palatovelars
- Labiovelars
For Melchert, PIE *ḱ > Luwian z (probably ); *k > k; and *kʷ > ku (probably ).
Luwian has also been enlisted for its verb kalut(t)i(ya)-, which means "make the rounds of" and is probably derived from *kalutta/i- "circle". It has been argued that this derives from a proto-Anatolian word for "wheel", which in turn would have derived from the common word for "wheel" found in all other Indo-European families. The wheel was invented in the 5th millennium BCE and, if kaluti does derive from it, then the Anatolian branch left PIE after its invention (so validating the Kurgan hypothesis as applicable to Anatolian). However kaluti need not imply a concrete wheel, and so need not have derived from a PIE word with that meaning. The IE words for a wheel may well have arisen in those other IE languages after the Anatolian split.
Read more about this topic: Luwian Language
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