Illyrien

Illyriens are people protohistoric Balkans, of origin Indo-European, parents of the Thraces and Daces (Thraco-illyriens). Their language, the illyrien known only through traces is left to us in the Onomastique of the area, in particular in the Toponymie.

Drifts of linguistics

The language illyrienne was the object of one of largest the drifts than knew the historical linguistics, which led the linguists to erect scaffolding of the theories resting only on conjectures.

The Romains called Illyricum the whole of Balkans Western, which led certain linguists of the beginning of the 20th century (Julius Pokorny, for example) to suppose a linguistic unit of this area, whereas nothing concrete made it possible to suppose it. To give more consistency to this theory, the Vénète and the Messapien were stated illyriens.

All this theory crumbled when the Philologue and German Linguiste Hans Krahe (1898 - 1965), specialist in the languages illyriennes, analyzed the toponymy of the area systematically, while trying to release from it a homogeneous Substrat Indo-European. He discovered one well of them, but this one extended well beyond the Illyrie, to cover most of the Central and Western Europe. Refusing to extend the settlement illyrien to all this zone, it named this substrate Alteuropäisch (old-European). The theory illyrienne had lived.

The illyrien today

Today, one calls illyrien a language which would have been spoken in a part only of Balkans Western, corresponding roughly to the Albania, the Kosovo, the Macedonia, the Montenegro. It would be a language thraco-illyrienne (Indo-European). One finds of them traces in the toponymy of this area. Its relationship with the Messapien is rather clear. The language would be also close to the Albanian, but would not be the direct ancestor.

The illyrien and Albanian

One established the link between Albanian and the illyrien there is long enough: dice 1709 Leibnitz calls Albanian “the language of old Illyriens”. Other partisans of this theory are G. Meyer, which stated “To call the new Albanians Illyriens is as right as to call the current Greeks " Greeks modernes". ” The Albanian language constituted for him the most recent stage of the one of the Illyriens dialects.

Various arguments support this thesis: on the linguistic level, certain Albanian loans with the very former Greek (dorien especially) and with very former Latin prove the seniority of the establishment of the Albanians in areas known to be inhabited by Illyriens. Some Albanian anthroponymes current also seems to have their correspondent illyrien: thus to Albanian Dash ( Ram ) would correspond the illyrien Dassius, Dassus ; in the same way Albanian Bardhi ( White ) would correspond to Bardus, Bardullis, Bardyllis . And some ethnonymes of tribes illyriennes also seems to have their Albanian correspondent: thus the name of the Dalmates would correspond to Albanian Delmë ( ewe ); in the same way the name of the Dardaniens would correspond to Albanian Dardhë ( pear, pear tree ).

Lastly, the Albanian terminology relating to the flora and fauna, navigation and fishing is sufficiently rich to confirm the seniority of the installation of the Albanians on the Adriatique coast. Thus for example the Albanian word Deti which indicates the sea derives from Téthys, the wife of Océan and goddess of the seas and the rivers in the Greek Mythologie. In the same way the Albanian words Peshk ( Poisson ) and Ranë ( Sand ) correspond to the Latin Piscis and Arena . Below, two examples of toponyms illyriens having an Albanian correspondence.

* DRE, word meaning Albanian stag, also tends to be found through the following places: Drin (Albania), White Drin (Albania, Kosovo), Black Drin (Albania, Macedonia), Drina (Bosnia, Montenegro, Serbia), Drenica (Kosovo) .

However, according to Bernard Sergent, some facts seem to contradict the theory illyrienne Albanian language. First of all, Albanian seems to hold most of his maritime vocabulary of loans with Latin and the Greek, which makes suppose that the ancestors of the Albanians lived initially inside the grounds. Then, the oldest loans of Albanian to the Latin languages seem not to come from the Dalmate, but from the Rumanian , which makes suppose a rather Eastern former establishment.

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