How did bilingual inscriptions help scholars study ancient Anatolian languages?

Bilingual and multilingual inscriptions have been essential to the study of ancient Anatolian languages by providing a known linguistic key to decipher previously unintelligible texts. When a language is otherwise unknown, scholars rely on these parallel versions—where at least one language is already understood—to identify vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure.1

Key examples of this process include:

• Hieroglyphic Luwian: The 1947 discovery of the Karatepe bilingual inscriptions, written in Phoenician and Hieroglyphic Luwian, was a breakthrough. It enabled a radical revision of sign readings and confirmed that Hieroglyphic and Cuneiform Luwian were dialects of the same language.23
• Hittite: The interpretation of Hittite was aided by the presence of Akkadian-Hittite bilingual texts, which allowed scholars to analyze linguistic structures against the known Akkadian language.14
• Lycian: Early identification of Lycian vocabulary began with short Lycian-Greek bilingual texts. Later, a trilingual text (Lycian-Greek-Aramaic) discovered in 1973 provided critical confirmation for previous scholarship and allowed for significant refinements in understanding the language.5

By providing a bridge between the unknown and the known, these inscriptions have been fundamental to recovering the history and social context of these ancient cultures.1