writing system of the Lycian people of southwest Asia Minor, dating from the 5th–4th centuries BC. The Lycian alphabet is clearly related to the Greek, but the exact nature of the relationship is uncertain. Several letters appear to be related to symbols of the Cretan and Cyprian writing systems. The script has 29 letters (6 vowels), with several sounds not represented in Greek. The most important inscription in Lycian occurs on a pillar discovered at Xanthus; it is as yet undeciphered. Other inscriptions, often bilingual in Greek and Lycian, concern funerary materials.