Gjuhësi Ballkanike

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Chapter II
The Linguistic Situation of the Balkan Peninsula in Antiquity
The archeological and historical data demonstrate that the Balkan Peninsula has been an
inhabited area even before the immigration of the I.E. tribes. The pre-I.E. substratum or
substrata have left traces in the ancient I.E. languages of this area, which should have been
transmitted to the sctual Balkan languages.(1). The evolution of these languages is, of course,
connected with the inheritance they have had from the ancient I.E. languages, which superseded
the former ones beginning from the second millennium before the New Era, that is: Greek,
Illyrian, Thracian etc. But the influence exerted by the pre-I.E. languages on Greek, Illyrian,
Thracian etc. presents comprehensible difficulties, which remain to be further investigated.(2-3).
Before describing the linguistic situation of the Balkan Peninsula in the Antiquity, it is
necessary to define what is generally meant with Balkan peninsula and Balkan languages.
Geographically this peninsula comprises the countries south of the rivers Sava and Danub. From
this point of view, Rumanian should be excluded from balkanology. But it is one of the
principal Balkan languages, whereas Serbo-Croatian contains less Balkan traits and should
therefore be considered only as a language of the Balkans.(4).
The gradual indo-europeanization of the Balkans should have been a rather long process.(5).
The southern part of the peninsula was occupied since early by Greek tribes. The Greeks
established also colonies outside of Greece during the last millennium before the New Era. (6).
Ancient Greek was divided into various dialects. During the V-VI centuries the Attic dialect
became gradually a common language (koin§) for all the Greeks. Hence the actual dialectal
division of Greek is a relatively recent phenomenon.(7).
Greek has an early written documentation. Although it makes part of the centum group, it has a
particular position among the I.E. languages (8). Ancient Greek had a system of 6 vowels and
15 consonants. Its accent was a free and rather musical one. (9). It had a three-gender system
and developed a prepositive definite article since relatively early times.(10). It had developed a
complex verbal system, including some inherited phenomena as the quantitative apophony, the
e-augment etc. (see the Albanian version).(11). Despite our relatively sufficient information
about ancient Greek, there still remain various questions to be further investigated concerning
its pre-historic and historical evolution as well as its geographical extension.(12).
Much more difficult is to describe the linguistic situation of the other areas of the Balkans in the
antiquity. Who were the immediate northern neighbours of the Greeks? What languages were
spoken in the western and eastern parts of the Balkans? (13). Concerning the northern
neighbours of the Greeks, not only the Thracians, but also the ancient Macedonians and the
inhabitants of the Northern Epirus should have spoken languages different from, but deeply
inlfluenced by, the Greek. (14). The ancient Macedonian seems to have been a centum language
like Greek, but if differed from Greek regarding the evolution of the aspirated I.E. consantants
bh, gh, dh and, partly, of the laboivelars. The ancient Macedonians wers since early hellenized.
(15). The inhabitans of Epirus were considered as barbars by the Greeks, i.e. they spoke a
different language. One cannot, however, establish with certainty what kind of language did
they speak. But one can suppose that they should have spoken a language akin to Illyrian. (16-
17).
Concerning the Illyrians, in general, there still remain various questions to be further
elucidated, because our informations about their language and territorial extension are
insufficient. At any rate, it has become evident that the ancient Venetians were not Illyrians and
that one should distinguish the southern Illyrians as Illyrioi proprie dicti. (18-19). Regarding the
linguistic character of Illyrian one should take into consideration chiefly the material inherited
from the southern Illyrians (ethnonyms, place names and proper nouns). (20-21). The
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