Dr. Grorrrenn on Inscriptions found in Lycia and Phrygia. 319 
racters to those of the others, and the similarity of its import, are manifest ; 
and thus, although we may be unable to explain this particular inscription 
itself in a satisfactory manner, the resemblance which it bears to the rest 
may lead to their clearer elucidation. If we deduct the characters which 
occur but once, and which may be mistakes of the artist, this inscription 
will still contain all the characters found in the others, with the exception 
of the single y, and therefore appearsto be of much the same age with 
them. But their antiquity must not be supposed extremely great on account 
of the letters and language of the Greek translation, although the Lycian 
alphabet dates from a period when the Greek had a y, but hardly an and 
w3 at least there are no traces of these letters in the Lycian writing, 
though, as we shall soon see, it distinguished between long and short 
vowels, and thus enriched the Greek alphabet, which it had taken as its 
basis, with several vowels. That the Lycian alphabet itself was more 
ancient than the Greek translation above quoted, is evident, from the 
different forms of the S in the name Swartios, which is the fifth word in 
the first Lycian inscription. A comparison of the p’s of the eighth word 
will shew, that the alphabet of the Znscriptio bilinguis belongs to a some- 
what earlier date ; while the other inscriptions, on the contrary, as is proved 
especially by the first letter of the fourth word, gradually give such a form 
to the p, that, in the fourth inscription, this letter is written precisely as in 
the Greek translation. If we may rely on the copy of the Carian inscrip- 
tion, we there find the p formed exactly as in the Latin alphabet. Thus 
much, at least, appears to result from a comparison of the p’s in the several 
inscriptions, viz. that they in the order of time succeeded each other, 
according to the arrangement above given; and that the Lycians not only 
in their writing originally took the Greek alphabet for a basis, but also 
altered particular characters after the Greek. Still other characters retain 
so very ancient a form, that we may from them infer a comparatively early 
origin for the Lycian alphabet. 
The import of those characters which the Lycian alphabet has in common 
with the Greek, may be easily determined: but that of the rest can only be 
discovered by their being substituted for others ; for the orthography of the 
Lycians was so little settled, that one and the same word (as, for instance, 
the fourth) was not unfrequently written in forms distinctly different. But 
before we seek to determine the value of each separate letter, it will be 
advisable to explain as far as possible, with the assistance of the Greek 
Vor. III. 2T 
