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The Paleo-Balkan languages are a geographical grouping of various Indo-European languages that were spoken in the Balkans and surrounding areas in ancient times. In antiquity, Dacian, Greek, Illyrian, Messapic, Paeonian, Phrygian and Thracian were the Paleo-Balkan languages which were attested in literature. They may have included other unattested languages.
Paleo-Balkan studies are obscured by the scarce attestation of these languages outside of Ancient Greek and, to a lesser extent, Messapic and Phrygian. Although linguists consider each of them to be a member of the Indo-European family of languages, the internal relationships are still debated. A Palaeo-Balkanic or Balkanic Indo-European branch has been proposed in recent research, comprising the Albanoid or Illyric (Albanian-Messapic), Armenian, and Graeco-Phrygian (Hellenic-Phrygian) subbranches. Regardless of the name, there is no direct evidence to support the location for the hypothetical common ancestor of these languages in the Balkan peninsula itself.[1] Τhe common stage between the Late Proto-Indo-European dialects of Pre-Albanian, Pre-Armenian, and Pre-Greek, is considered to have occurred in the Late Yamnaya period, after the westward migrations of Eary Yamnaya across the Pontic–Caspian steppe; also remaining in the western steppe for a prolonged period of time, separated from the Indo-European dialects that later gave rise to the Corded Ware and Bell Beaker cultures in Europe.[2]
Due to the processes of Hellenization, Romanization and Slavicization in the Balkans, the only surviving representatives of the ancient languages of the region are Greek and Albanian. The Albanian language evolved from either Illyrian, often supported for obvious geographic and historical reasons as well as for some fragmentary linguistic evidence,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] or an unmentioned language that was closely related to Illyrian and Messapic.[11][12][13][14]
- ^ Thorsø 2019, p. 252.
- ^ Nielsen 2023, pp. 225, 231–235.
- ^ Friedman 2022, pp. 189–231: "On the other hand, there is some evidence to argue that Albanian is descended from the Illyrian complex."
- ^ Coretta et al. 2022, p. 1122: "Though the origin of the language has been debated, the prevailing opinion in the literature is that it is a descendant of Illyrian (Hetzer 1995)."
- ^ Matasović 2019, p. 5: "Much has been written about the origin of the Albanian language. The most probable predecessor of Albanian was Illyrian, since much of the present-day Albania was inhabited by the Illyrians during the Antiquity, but the comparison of the two languages is impossible because almost nothing is known about Illyrian, despite the fact that two handbooks of that language have been published (by Hans Krahe and Anton Mayer)... examination of personal names and toponyms from Illyricum shows that several onomastic areas can be distinguished, and these onomastic areas just might correspond to different languages spoken in ancient Illyricum. If Illyrians actually spoke several different languages, the question arises -from which 'Illyrian' language did Albanian develop, and that question cannot be answered until new data are discovered.The single "Illyrian" gloss preserved in Greek (rhínon 'fog') may have the reflex in Alb. (Gheg) re͂ 'cloud' (Tosk re)< PAlb. *ren-."
- ^ Parpola 2012, p. 131: "The poorly attested Illyrian was in antiquity an important Indo-European language in the Balkans, and it is widely believed to survive in the Albanian language (cf. Mallory 1989: 73–76; Fortson 2004: 405–406 and 390)."
- ^ Beekes 2011, p. 25: "It is often thought (for obvious geographic reasons) that Albanian descends from ancient Illyrian (see above), but this cannot be ascertained as we know next to nothing about Illyrian itself."
- ^ Fortson 2010, p. 446: "Albanian forms its own separate branch of Indo-European; it is the last branch to appear in written records. This is one of the reasons why its origins are shrouded in mystery and controversy. The widespread assertion that it is the modern–day descendant of Illyrian, spoken in much the same region during classical times ([...]), makes geographic and historical sense but is linguistically untestable since we know so little about Illyrian."
- ^ Holst 2009, p. 65–66: ""Illyrisch" möchte ich nicht klassifizieren, da hierüber nicht einmal klar ist, ob es sich tatsächlich um eine Sprache handelt und nicht Ma-terial aus mehreren Sprachen, die auf albanischem Boden Spuren hinterlassen haben. Falls man jedoch Illyrisch als die Vorläufersprache des Albanischen definiert (wofür einiges spricht), ist Illyrisch automatisch im Zweig des Albani-schen enthalten." ["I don't want to classify "Illyrian" because it is not even clear whether it is actually one language and not material from several languages that have left traces on Albanian soil. However, if Illyrian is defined as the precursor language to Albanian (which there is some evidence for), Illyrian is automatically included in the branch of Albanian."]
- ^ Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 11: "Although there are some lexical items that appear to be shared between Romanian (and by extension Dacian) and Albanian, by far the strongest connections can be argued between Albanian and Illyrian. The latter was at least attested in what is historically regarded as Albanian territory and there is no evidence of any major migration into Albanian territory since our records of Illyrian occupation. The loan words from Greek and Latin date back to before the Christian era and suggest that the ancestors of the Albanians must have occupied Albania by then to have absorbed such loans from their histori-cal neighbors. As the Illyrians occupied Albanian territory at this time, they are the most likely recipients of such loans."
- ^ Friedman 2020, p. 388.
- ^ Matzinger 2017, p. 1790.
- ^ Ismajli 2015, p. 45.
- ^ Hamp & Adams 2013, p. 8.