Albanoid | |
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Albanic, Adriatic Indo-European, Illyric, Illyrian complex, Western Paleo-Balkan | |
Geographic distribution | Balkans, Italy |
Linguistic classification | Indo-European
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Proto-language | Proto-Albanoid |
Subdivisions |
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Linguasphere | 55 (phylozone) |
Part of a series on |
Indo-European topics |
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Albanoid or Albanic is a branch or subfamily of the Indo-European languages, of which Albanian language varieties are the only surviving representatives. Albanian is grouped in the same IE branch with Messapic, an ancient extinct language of Balkan provenance that is preserved in about six hundred inscriptions from Iron Age Apulia. [1] This IE subfamily is alternatively referred to as 'Albanoid', 'Illyric', 'Illyrian complex', 'Western Paleo-Balkan', or 'Adriatic Indo-European'. [2] Concerning "Illyrian" of classical antiquity, it is not clear whether it is actually one language and not material from several languages, but if "Illyrian" is defined as the ancient precursor to Albanian it is automatically included in this IE branch. [3] Albanoid is also used to explain pre-Romance features found in Eastern Romance languages. [4]
The IE subfamily that gave rise to Albanian and Messapic is alternatively referred to as 'Albanoid', 'Illyric', 'Illyrian complex', 'Western Palaeo-Balkan', or 'Adriatic Indo-European'. [2] 'Albanoid' is considered more appropriate as it refers to a specific ethnolinguistically pertinent and historically compact language group. [5] Concerning "Illyrian" of classical antiquity, it is not clear whether it is actually one language and not material from several languages. [3] However, if "Illyrian" is defined as the ancient precursor language to Albanian, for which there is some linguistic evidence, [6] and which is often supported for obvious geographic and historical reasons, [7] Illyrian is automatically included in the IE branch of Albanian. [3] 'Albanoid' is also used to explain pre-Romance features found in Eastern Romance languages. [4]
The term 'Albanoid' for the IE subfamily of Albanian was firstly introduced by Indo-European historical linguist Eric Pratt Hamp (1920 – 2019), [8] and thereafter adopted by a series of linguists. [9] A variant term is 'Albanic'. [10] The root ultimately originated from the name of the Illyrian tribe Albanoi , [11] early generalized to all the Illyrian tribes speaking the same idiom. [12] The process was similar to the spread of the name Illyrians from a small group of people on the Adriatic coast, the Illyrioi . [13]
Albanoid and other Paleo-Balkan languages had their formative core in the Balkans after the Indo-European migrations in the region. [14]
Although research is ongoing, in current phylogenetic tree models of the Indo-European language family, the IE dialect that gave rise to Albanian splits from "Post-Tocharian Indo-European", that is the residual Indo-European unity ("Core Indo-European") which remained after Tocharian's splitting from "Post-Anatolian Indo-European". [17] The transition between the Basal IE and Core IE speech communities appears to have been marked by an economic shift from a mainly non-agricultural economy to a mixed agro-pastoral economy. The lack of evidence for agricultural practices in early, eastern Yamnaya of the Don-Volga steppe does not offer a perfect archaeological proxy for the Core IE language community, rather western Yamnaya groups around or to the west of the Dnieper River better reflect that archaeological proxy. [18]
Yamnaya steppe pastoralists apparently migrated into the Balkans about 3000 to 2500 BCE, and they soon admixed with the local populations, which resulted in a tapestry of various ancestry from which speakers of the Albanian and other Paleo-Balkan languages emerged. [19] The Albanoid speech was among the Indo-European languages that replaced the pre-Indo-European languages of the Balkans, [20] which left traces of the Mediterranean-Balkan substratum. [21] On the other hand, Baltic and Slavic, together with Germanic, as well as possibly Celtic and Italic, apparently emerged on the territory of the Corded Ware archaeological horizon of the late 4th and the 3rd millennium BCE. The distinction between the southern European languages (in particular Albanian and Greek) and the northern and western European languages (Baltic, Slavic, Germanic, Celtic, and Italic) is further reflected by the frequently shared lexical items of northwest pre-Indo-European substratum among the latter languages. [22]
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 |
Recent IE phylogenetic studies group the Albanoid subfamily in the same IE branch with Graeco-Phrygian and Armenian, labelled '(Palaeo-)Balkanic Indo-European', [23] based on shared Indo-European morphological, lexical, and phonetic innovations, archaisms, as well as shared lexical proto-forms from a common pre-Indo-European substratum. [24] [note 1] 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. [26]
Shortly after they had diverged from one another, Pre-Albanian, Pre-Greek, and Pre-Armenian undoubtedly also underwent a longer period of contact, as shown by common correspondences that are irregular for other IE languages. Furthermore, intense Greek–Albanian contacts certainly have occurred thereafter. [27]
Messapic is an extinct Indo-European Paleo-Balkanic language of the southeastern Italian Peninsula, once spoken in Salento by the Iapygian peoples of the region: the Calabri and Salentini, the Peucetians and the Daunians. Messapic was the pre-Roman, non-Italic language of Apulia. It has been preserved in about 600 inscriptions written in an alphabet derived from a Western Greek model and dating from the mid-6th to at least the 2nd century BC, when it went extinct following the Roman conquest of the region.
The origin of the Albanians has been the subject of historical, linguistic, archaeological and genetic studies. The first mention of the ethnonym Albanoi occurred in the 2nd century AD by Ptolemy describing an Illyrian tribe who lived around present-day central Albania. The first certain attestation of medieval Albanians as an ethnic group is in the 11th century, when they continuously appear in Byzantine sources.
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.
Gheg or Geg is one of the two major varieties of Albanian, the other being Tosk. The geographic dividing line between the two varieties is the Shkumbin River, which winds its way through central Albania. Gheg is spoken in northern and central Albania, Kosovo, northwestern North Macedonia, southeastern Montenegro and southern Serbia by the Albanian dialectal subgroup known as Ghegs.
Prende or Premte is the goddess of dawn, love, beauty, fertility, health and protector of women, in the Albanian pagan mythology. She is also called Afër-dita, an Albanian phrase meaning "near day", "the day is near", or "dawn", in association with the cult of the planet Venus, the morning and evening star. Her sacred day is Friday, named in Albanian after her: e premte, premtja. In Albanian mythology Prende appears as the daughter of Zojz, the Albanian sky and lightning god.
The Shkumbin, also known as Shkembi, is a river in Southern Europe. It is 181.4 km (112.7 mi) long and its drainage basin is 2,444 km2 (944 sq mi). Its average discharge is 61.5 m3/s (2,170 cu ft/s).
Shqiptar is an Albanian ethnonym (endonym), by which Albanians call themselves. They call their country Shqipëria.
Proto-Albanian is the ancestral reconstructed language of Albanian, before the Gheg–Tosk dialectal diversification. Albanoid and other Paleo-Balkan languages had their formative core in the Balkans after the Indo-European migrations in the region. Whether descendants or sister languages of what was called Illyrian by classical sources, Albanian and Messapic, on the basis of shared features and innovations, are grouped together in a common branch in the current phylogenetic classification of the Indo-European language family. The precursor of Albanian can be considered a completely formed independent IE language since at least the first millennium BCE, with the beginning of the early Proto-Albanian phase.
The term Thraco-Illyrian refers to a hypothesis according to which the Daco-Thracian and Illyrian languages comprise a distinct branch of Indo-European. Thraco-Illyrian is also used as a term merely implying a Thracian-Illyrian interference, mixture or sprachbund, or as a shorthand way of saying that it is not determined whether a subject is to be considered as pertaining to Thracian or Illyrian. Downgraded to a geo-linguistic concept, these languages are referred to as Paleo-Balkan.
The linguistic classification of the ancient Thracian language has long been a matter of contention and uncertainty, and there are widely varying hypotheses regarding its position among other Paleo-Balkan languages. It is not contested, however, that the Thracian languages were Indo-European languages which had acquired satem characteristics by the time they are attested.
Albanian folk beliefs and mythological stories comprise the beliefs expressed in the customs, rituals, myths, legends and tales of the Albanian people. The elements of Albanian mythology are of ancient Paleo-Balkanic origin and almost all of them are pagan. Albanian folklore evolved over the centuries in a relatively isolated tribal culture and society. Albanian folk tales and legends have been orally transmitted down the generations and are still very much alive in the mountainous regions of Albania, Kosovo, western North Macedonia, Montenegro and South Serbia and among the Arbëreshë in Italy and the Arvanites in Greece.
The Illyrian language was an Indo-European language or group of languages spoken by the Illyrians in Southeast Europe during antiquity. The language is unattested with the exception of personal names and placenames. Just enough information can be drawn from these to allow the conclusion that it belonged to the Indo-European language family.
Albanian is an Indo-European language and the only surviving representative of the Albanoid branch, which belongs to the Paleo-Balkan group. Standard Albanian is the official language of Albania and Kosovo, and a co-official language in North Macedonia and Montenegro, as well as a recognized minority language of Italy, Croatia, Romania and Serbia. It is also spoken in Greece and by the Albanian diaspora, which is generally concentrated in the Americas, Europe and Oceania. Albanian is estimated to have as many as 7.5 million native speakers.
The Albanian language is composed of many dialects, divided into two major groups: Gheg and Tosk. The Shkumbin river is roughly the geographical dividing line, with Gheg spoken north of the Shkumbin and Tosk south of it.
The Albanians and their country Albania (Shqipëria) have been identified by many ethnonyms. The native endonym is Shqiptar. The name "Albanians" Latin: Albanenses/Arbanenses) was used in medieval Greek and Latin documents that gradually entered European languages from which other similar derivative names emerged. Linguists believe that the alb part in the root word originates from an Indo-European term for a type of mountainous topography, meaning "hill, mountain", also present in Alps. Through the root word alban and its rhotacized equivalents arban, albar, and arbar, the term in Albanian became rendered as Arbëreshë for the people and Arbëria for the country.
The Lab Albanian dialect is a Tosk Albanian dialect associated with the wider definition of the ethnographic region of Labëria, spoken by Lab Albanians. Under this wider definition of Labëria, Lab Albanian stretches from Vlorë and Mallakastër south and east up to Gjirokastër, Lunxhëria and Sarandë. Notable aspects of Lab in Albanian and wider Balkan areal linguistics include its peculiar mix of conservative and innovative features, the lack of typical Albanian Balkanisms like the admirative, and the presence of features typical of Northern Gheg dialects despite it being a Southern dialect.
The Albanian–Eastern Romance linguistic parallels are subject of historical and contact linguistic research applied to the Albanian and Eastern Romance languages. It has also been studied to understand the history of Albanian and Eastern Romance speakers. The common phonological, morphological and syntactical features of the two language families have been studied for more than a century. Both are part of the Balkan sprachbund but there are certain elements shared only by Albanian and Eastern Romance languages that descended from Common Romanian. Aside from Latin, and from shared Greek, Slavic and Turkish elements, other characteristics and words are attributed to the Palaeo-Balkan linguistic base. Similarities between Eastern Romance and Albanian are not limited to their common Balkan features and the assumed common lexical items: the two language families share calques and proverbs, and display analogous phonetic changes, some of the latter especially shared between Tosk Albanian and Common Romanian.
Zojz is a sky and lightning god in Albanian pagan mythology. Regarded as the chief god and the highest of all gods, traces of his worship survived in northern Albania until the early 20th century, and in some forms still continue today.
The vatër is the domestic hearth in Albanian folklore. The fire of the domestic hearth, zjarri i vatrës, holds divine attributes in folk beliefs, being considered the sustainer of the continuity between the world of the living and that of the dead, and ensuring the continuity of the tribe (fis) from generation to generation.
Graeco-Albanian or Albano-Greek is a proposed Indo-European subfamily – in the broader linguistic family known as (Palaeo-)Balkanic Indo-European – of which the only surviving representatives are Albanian and Greek. This Indo-European subfamily encompasses the Albanoid (Illyric) subbranch, and the Graeco-Phrygian subbranch. Within the Palaeo-Balkan branch this IE subfamily is separated from Armenian.
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