Lycian became extinct around the beginning of the first century BC, replaced by the Ancient Greek language during the Hellenization of Anatolia.

The Lukka, as they were referred to in ancient Egyptian sources, which mention them among the Sea Peoples, probably also inhabited the region called Lycaonia, located along the next headland to the east, also mountainous, between the modern cities of Antalya and Mersin.

From the late eighteenth century Western European travellers began to visit Asia Minor to deepen their acquaintance with the worlds of Homer and the New Testament.

[6] Though much remains unclear, comprehensive dictionaries of Lycian have been composed since by Craig Melchert[7] and Günter Neumann.

[8] Lycian is known from these sources, some of them fairly extensive:[9][10][11] 𐊁𐊂𐊚𐊑𐊏𐊚:ebẽñnẽ𐊓𐊕𐊑𐊏𐊓𐊇𐊒:prñnawu𐊎𐊚𐊏:mẽn.𐊁𐊓𐊕𐊑𐊏𐊀𐊥𐊀𐊗𐊚:e prñnawatẽ𐊛𐊀𐊏𐊀𐊅𐊀𐊈𐊀:hanadaza𐊛𐊕𐊓𐊓𐊆𐊍𐊀𐊅𐊆:hrppi ladi𐊁𐊛𐊂𐊆:ehbi𐊖𐊁𐊗𐊆𐊅𐊁𐊆𐊎𐊁setideime𐊁𐊂𐊚𐊑𐊏𐊚: 𐊓𐊕𐊑𐊏𐊓𐊇𐊒: 𐊎𐊚𐊏: 𐊁𐊓𐊕𐊑𐊏𐊀𐊥𐊀𐊗𐊚: 𐊛𐊀𐊏𐊀𐊅𐊀𐊈𐊀: 𐊛𐊕𐊓𐊓𐊆𐊍𐊀𐊅𐊆: 𐊁𐊛𐊂𐊆: 𐊖𐊁𐊗𐊆𐊅𐊁𐊆𐊎𐊁ebẽñnẽ prñnawu mẽn.

"A Lycian epitaph (shown right): 𐊁𐊂𐊚𐊑𐊏𐊚: 𐊓𐊕𐊑𐊏𐊓𐊇𐊒: 𐊎𐊚𐊏: 𐊁𐊓𐊕𐊑𐊏𐊀𐊥𐊀𐊗𐊚: 𐊛𐊀𐊏𐊀𐊅𐊀𐊈𐊀: 𐊛𐊕𐊓𐊓𐊆𐊍𐊀𐊅𐊆: 𐊁𐊛𐊂𐊆: 𐊖𐊁𐊗𐊆𐊅𐊁𐊆𐊎𐊁 Transliteration: Ebẽñnẽ prñnawu mẽn e prñnawatẽ hanadaza hrppi ladi ehbi setideime.

[15] The pre-alphabetic forms of Luwian extended back into the Late Bronze Age and preceded the fall of the Hittite Empire.

These vanished at about the time of the Neo-Hittite states in southern Anatolia (and Syria); thus, the Iron Age members of the subgroup are localized daughter languages of Luwian.

Some endings have many variants, due to nasalization (-a- → -añ-, -ã-; -e- → -eñ-, -ẽ-), lenition (-t- → -d-), gemination (-t- → -tt-; -d- → -dd-), and vowel harmonization (-a- → -e-: prñnawãtẽ → prñnewãtẽ).

About a dozen conjugations can be distinguished, on the basis of (1) the verbal root ending (a-stems, consonant stems, -ije-stems, etc.

Example:[27] In line 1 mẽti = m-ẽ-ti is the initial particle cluster, where m- = me- is the neutral "steppingstone" to which two suffixes are affixed: -ẽ- = "it", and the relative pronoun -ti, "who, he who".

[28] mexisttẽnMegasthenes.NOMẽ-ep[i]tuwe-teit-set.up.PRET-3sgmexisttẽn ẽ-ep[i]tuwe-teMegasthenes.NOM it-set.up.PRET-3sgMegasthenes set it up…In spite of McCone's alternative analysis, the assumption that verb-subject-object was Lycian's unmarked word order went unchallenged until the 2010s, when Alwin Kloekhorst independently formulated and adopted the SVO hypothesis.