Re: Odp: Tocharian, Illyrian

----- Original Message -----

From: John Croft

Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2000 10:18 AM

Subject: [cybalist] Re: Tocharian, Illyrian

Piotr, you wrote
> 2. We know very little about Illyrian proper. Still, I'm absolutely
sure of
> one thing: if Messapic (as usually assumed) represents the Illyrian
branch, 
> then Albanian can't have anything to do with Illyrian, no matter what
modern
> Albanians believe. Their belief in autochthony since time out of mind
is a 
> nationalist remedy for the understandable feeling of territorial
insecurity 
> (aggravated by the Kosovo conflict) but it cannot be substantiated 
> linguistically. 

Hmmm. I'd be interested to see this.  True, modern Alanian seems to
have nothing to do with ancient Illyrian, but then modern Armenian
seems to have nothing to do with ancient Phrygian, and yet from what
I've seen they were sister (and very close) languages at the end of the
Hittite Empire when the moved into Anatolia together.

> I think Albanian is related to the extinct Dacian (or Getic)
languages spoken
> more or less in what is now Romania (the southern Carpathian region).
If you
> need any arguments in favour of THAT position, I'll be happy to
oblige you 
> early next year ;-)

Yes please.  I have seen the ancestral language of this area mentioned
as Thraco-Illyrian.  Isn't Dacian a version of Thracian?

Hope you can help

John

John,

I've already discussed these things at more length (Cybalist #746, UTF-8-encoded). Please have a look at that posting and if you need any more information, I'll be happy to be of help.

Piotr