Lemnian language

Lemnian
Native toGreece
RegionLemnos
Eraattested 6th century BC
Tyrsenian
Language codes
ISO 639-3xle
xle
Glottologlemn1237
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.


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