On 2006-05-23 16:14, Rick McCallister wrote:
> Please tell me what the link is between Balto-Slavic, Albanian and the
> extinct Balkan IE languages (Dacian, Thracian, Illyrian). I've seen
> allusions to this. Is it just speculation or can it be backed up?
Balto-Slavic and Albanian are both Satem languages, so _if_ the Satem
development of the *k^ series is a homologous feature derived from a
common ancestor, they are closer to each other phylogenetically than
either is to, say, Celtic, Tocharian or Greek. Proto-Albanian, or a
language very close to it, was also the source of substratal loans in
the Balkan Latin dialect ancestral to Romanian. If we identify the
Romanian substrate with Dacian/Getic (which is a bit risky, given how
little Dacian material has survived), that would make Dacian an early
stage of Albanian, i.e. a Satem language.
Thracian was Satem as well, but it seems to have had no special affinity
to Albanian, or to any other Satem branch. Scanty as the attestation of
Thracian is, there are some identifiable consonantal changes not shared
with the neighbouring groups.
Illyrian has traditionally been regarded as the ancestor of Albanian,
but our knowledge of it is so fragmentary that even its Satem character
is difficult either to prove or to disprove. According to a tradition
reported by Roman authors the Messapii in the Salentine Peninsula
regarded themselves as immigrants from across the Adriatic, related to
the Illyrians. Inscriptions in the Messapic language, however, are few
and hard to understand, so its connections with other IE languages
remain obscure.
Leaving aside the most doubtful cases, it seems that Albanian, Thracian
and Armenian are independent "basal" members of Satem, only loosely
related to the two major branches forming the core of the group,
Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic.
Piotr