Lemnian | |
---|---|
Native to | Greece |
Region | Lemnos |
Era | attested 6th century BC |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | xle |
xle | |
Glottolog | lemn1237 |
Location of Lemnos |
The Lemnian language was spoken on the island of Lemnos, Greece, in the second half of the 6th century BC.[1] It is mainly attested by an inscription found on a funerary stele, termed the Lemnos stele, discovered in 1885 near Kaminia. Fragments of inscriptions on local pottery show that it was spoken there by a community.[2] In 2009, a newly discovered inscription was reported from the site of Hephaistia, the principal ancient city of Lemnos.[3] Lemnian is largely accepted as being a Tyrsenian language, and as such related to Etruscan and Raetic.[4][5][1] After the Athenians conquered the island in the latter half of the 6th century BC, Lemnian was replaced by Attic Greek.