Paleo-Balkan languages

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 Early 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]}

Classification

• Proto-Indo-European
  • Paleo-Balkan linguistic area^[15]
    • 'Albanoid', 'Illyric', 'Illyrian complex', 'Western Paleo-Balkan', or 'Adriatic Indo-European'^[16]
      • Albanian^[17]
      • Messapic^[18]
      • (?) Illyrian (onomastic areas)^[19]
        • Illyrian proper (or Southeast Dalmatian)^[19][20]
        • Central Dalmatian (or Dalmatian-Pannonic)^[19][20]
        • (?) Liburnian^[19][20]
    • (?) Daco-Thracian ('Daco-Thraco-Moesian complex')^[21][22]
      • Thracian
      • (?) Daco-Moesian^[23][24]
        • Dacian, Moesian and Getic^[25]
    • (?) Mysian
    • (?) Paeonian
    • Graeco-Phrygian^[26]
      • Hellenic^[27]
        • (?) Ancient Macedonian^[28][29][30]
        • Greek
          • Ancient Greek (esp. northern dialects)^[15]
            • Modern Greek
      • Phrygian

Subgrouping hypotheses

Illyrian is a group of reputedly Indo-European languages whose relationship to other Indo-European languages as well as to the languages of the Paleo-Balkan group, many of which might be offshoots of Illyrian, is poorly understood due to the paucity of data and is still being examined. The centum or satem character of Illyrian is difficult to detect due to the paucity of the available 'Illyrian' linguistic material and to the dual nature of its interpretation. Today, the only source of information about the Illyrian language consists of a handful of Illyrian words cited in classical sources, and numerous examples of Illyrian anthroponyms, ethnonyms, toponyms and hydronyms.^[31]

Messapian was spoken on the Italian peninsula, but is generally regarded an offshoot from the Paleo-Balkan language area. A grouping of Messapian with Illyrian has been proposed for about a century, but remains an unproven hypothesis due to the fragmentary attestation of Illyrian. The theory is based on classical sources, archaeology, as well as onomastic considerations. Messapian material culture bears a number of similarities to Illyrian material culture. Some Messapian anthroponyms have close Illyrian equivalents.^[32]

A grouping of Illyrian with Venetic and Liburnian, once spoken in northeastern Italy and Liburnia respectively, is also proposed. The consensus now is that Illyrian was quite distinct from Venetic and Liburnian,^[33] but a close linguistic relation has not been ruled out and is still being investigated. Philistine had been linked to many different Indo-European languages; by Milan Budimir to a pre-Greek substrate of the Pelasgians,^[34] Mycenaean Greek,^[35] and Illyrian but these theories are mostly speculation.^[36]

Another hypothesis would group Illyrian with Dacian and Thracian into a Thraco-Illyrian branch,^[37] and a competing hypothesis would exclude Illyrian from a Daco-Thracian grouping in favor of Mysian.^[38] The classification of Thracian itself is a matter of contention and uncertainty.

The place of Paeonian remains unclear.^[39] Not much has been determined in the study of Paeonian, and some linguists do not recognize a Paeonian area separate from Illyrian or Thracian. Phrygian, on the other hand, is considered to have been most likely a close relative of Greek.^[40]

The classification of Ancient Macedonian and its relationship to Greek is also under investigation. Sources suggest that Macedonian is in fact a variation of Doric Greek, or alternatively a closely related sister language grouped together with Greek in a family called Hellenic.^[41][42][43]

Balkanic Indo-European

Balkanic Armenian Graeco-Albanian Graeco-Phrygian Greek Phrygian (extinct) Illyric Messapic (extinct) Albanian

The Palaeo-Balkanic Indo-European branch based on the chapters "Albanian" (Hyllested & Joseph 2022) and "Armenian" (Olsen & Thorsø 2022) in Olander (ed.) The Indo-European Language Family

While "Paleo-Balkan" languages are conventionally understood as a linguistic areal grouping, in recent historical linguistic research scholars propose a distinct "Balkanic" (or "Paleo-Balkanic") Indo-European branch based on shared Indo-European morphological, lexical, and phonetic innovations, as well as shared lexical proto-forms from a common pre-Indo-European substratum.^[44] The Balkanic subgroup comprises three branches of modern and well-attested ancient languages, viz. Armenian, Graeco-Phrygian (= Greek + Phrygian) and "Illyric" (= Albanian + Messapian).^[45] Some scholars further propose that innovations exclusively shared by Greek and Albanian point to a closer link between the latter two branches, which can thus be unified to a "Graeco-Albanian" branch.^[46][47]

Shared innovations include the first person singular mediopassive ending *-mai, and lexical innovations such as *ai̯ĝ- 'goat', dʰeh₁s- 'god'.^[48][49] The word for "goat" is a remarkable common proto-form of non-Indo-European origin exclusively shared between Albanian, Armenian, and Greek. It could have been borrowed at a pre-stage that was common to these languages from a pre-Indo-European substrate language that in turn had loaned the word from a third source, from which the pre-IE substrate of the proto-form that is shared between Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian could also have borrowed it. Hence it can be viewed as an old cultural word, which was slowly transmitted to two different pre-Indo-European substrate languages, and then independently adopted by two groups of Indo-European speakers, reflecting a post-Proto-Indo-European linguistic and geographic separation between the "Balkanic" group consisting of Albanian, Armenian, and Greek, and a group to the North of the Black Sea consisting of Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian.^[50][51]

A remarkable PIE root that underwent in Albanian, Armenian, and Greek a common evolution and semantic shift in the post PIE period is PIE *mel-i(t)- 'honey', from which Albanian bletë, Armenian mełu, and Greek μέλισσα, 'bee' derived.^[52] However, the Armenian term features -u- through the influence of the PIE *médʰu 'mead', which constitutes an Armenian innovation that isolates it from the Graeco-Albanian word.^[53] Innovative creations of agricultural terms shared only between Albanian and Greek were formed from non-agricultural PIE roots through semantic changes to adapt them for agriculture. Since they are limited only to Albanian and Greek, they could be traced back with certainty only to their last common IE ancestor, and not projected back into Proto-Indo-European.^[54]

See also

• Balkan sprachbund
• Graeco-Armenian
• Origin of the Albanians
• Paleo-Balkan mythology
• Prehistory of Southeastern Europe
• Armeno-Phrygians