Survival of the Anatolian Languages

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I've been thinking about the survival of the Anatolian Languages, one of the Indo-European Languages that is not extinct but during its time the language stretched across pretty much the whole of the Anatolian Peninsula. The reason for the extinction of the Anatolian languages would be the marginalization of the local culture to helenization and the reason for this would also be the total marginzalization and lack of any major Anatolian independent country, the last being the Lydian Empire (Pontus doesn't count because it was all Persian-Greek).

Post-Lydians the Anatolia was conquered by the Persians and shortly after was dominated by Hellenic nations up to the point of the Turkish invasions of the 14th and 15th centuries (roughly a period of over two thousand years). This period no oubt about totally wipes out the Anatolian culture and language group to aggressive neighbors.

Though I would like to have the survival of the 'Anatolians' and by the seems of it the best chance would be the Lydian Empire. The Lydians would either have to stay a major power for sometime or whatever successors are assimilated and pick up the language. The most obvious POD would be that Croseus does not invade the Persians-at least this might be a suitable POD for survival.

Input and comments for survival of the Lydians, therego the Anatolian nation group and more independent Anatolian nations?
 
Did Hittites count as "Anatolians"...?
If yes, then you should look to Robert's TL about Third Hittite Empire...

I can't see why not, they spoke an Anatolian language after all. I'd say that they would be the best bet, since they were the most powerful.
 
Anatolian Languages.

Possibly Phyrgia because of it's more remote location and mountainous terrain. I can't see a more powerful Lydia being able to dominate the entire Anatolian peninsula and holding out against both Persia and Rome. Also the rise and spread of Christianity contributed significantly to the linguistic Hellenization of Anatolia.
 
Possibly Phyrgia because of it's more remote location and mountainous terrain. I can't see a more powerful Lydia being able to dominate the entire Anatolian peninsula and holding out against both Persia and Rome.

Phrygian really wasn't an "Anatolian" language...it was a Balkan language related to Greek and Thracian. The Anatolian Languages are those of the same family as Hittite, such as Hittite, Luwian, Lycian, Lydian, Carian, Palaic, and Pissidian. Of these, Hittite or Luwian probably had the best chance to survive, although it would be entirely possible for one or more of the others to survive in the way Aramaic survives today...spoken by the people of a few villages in very isolated mountain regions (there are lots of those in Anatolia).

The problem is that Anatolia is one of those invasion routes which gets swept over by conquerors over and over throughout history. Any state which is limited territorially to Anatolia is going to eventually succumb at one point or another. And with each conquest, the chances that the language will survive gets less and less.

One possibility is a surviving Hittite state after the Bronze Age Collapse of 1200 BC. Or possibly a scenario in which the Hittites after the Hittite collapse take on the role which historically fell to the Aramaeans...that of being trade facilitators all over the Near East, with their language becoming the language spoken as a lingua franca by most people in the region by the time of the Persian Empire. Given a sufficiently wide spread of the Hittite or Luwian language as a result of conquest or trade into areas beyond Anatolia itself, it is much more likely to survive in the long-term.
 
Well, if you considered the language of the Isaurians as the living descendant of Anatolian languages, that would be best chance to wank them, although I admit that this is remotely implausible, considering their existence.

(The Great Moderator will close this thread in 3.... 2.... 1....)
 
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