The Illyrian languages are a group of Indo-European languages that were spoken in the western part of the Balkans in pre-Roman times. Around 230 BC the speakers of these languages were romanized (in some cases completely, as in the case of Dalmatian speakers).
From the 7th century onwards, the surviving Illyrian languages began to lose ground to other languages spoken in the area, largely Slavic languages in the rural areas and the languages descended from vernacular Latin such as Dalmatian and Venetian in the urban areas.
Today, the main source of authoritative information about the Illyrian languages consists of a few cited words and numerous examples of proper names, toponyms, and hydronyms. Since so little is known about these languages, when linguists encounter what they consider to be anomalies in their data, they humorously blame them on "Illyrian influences".
Messapian, an extinct language of South-eastern Italy is believed by some scholars to be a dialect of Illyrian, based on the personal names found on the tomb inscriptions.
Some linguists believe the modern Albanian language to be a derivative of an Illyrian language, but the Messapian inscriptions and other known words from records suggest that Albanian and Illyrian lie on different branches of the Indo-European linguistic tree.
Some examples of Illyrian names are Epicadus, Bato, Gentius, Temus, Pinnes/Pinnius, Monounios, Grabus, Epidius, Verzo, Zanatis.
The myriad differences between the dialects and languages in phonetics, grammar, and above all vocabulary may cause misunderstandings even in the simplest of conversations; and the difficulties are greater in the language of journalism, technical usage, and belles lettres, even in the case of closely connected languages.
The Slovak literary language was formed on the basis of a Central Slovak dialect in the middle of the 19th century.
The comparatively early rise of the West Slavic (and the westernmost South Slavic) languages as separate literary vehicles was related to a variety of religious and political factors that resulted in the decline of the western variants of the Church Slavonic language.
There are Illyrians who represent the main population, there are evident traces of a Thracian tribe in the area of Shkoder, and there is also good evidence even for a Celtic presence (the Skordisk tribe, if I am not mistaken).
The Messapes were an Illyrian tribe, who had migrated to that area to escape from the Turkish invasion (certainly not, but they moved to the Italic peninsula somewhere between VII and V century B.C., though I have no exact reference at the moment).
Therefore, Illyrianonomastics CANNOT be of great help in shedding light in the mysteries of Illyrian, even if we take it for granted that Albanian descends from Illyrian, because we do NOT know, first of all, that the onomastic material in our possession really belongs to the Illyrian linguistic heritage.
Feeds |
Contact