I agree Albanians have NOTHING to do with Illyrians based on latest research, we can most probaly find their origin somewhere in the Caucasus.
Some facts to concider:
a)The Albanians were never mentioned in Byzantine, (not even of the works by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus), Arab, Armenian or any other texts before the 12th cent.
b)Language:
Albanian is classified as an IE language only because no one has been able to classify it into any other group, and this is because no one has yet studied all the Caucasus languages.
Albanian might have IE sounding words, but its basic structure and syntax are more similar to Chechen and Udish than to any IE language. Many Albanian words do sound Indo- European, because Albanian has borrowed over 80% of its vocabulary, more than any other European language.
The Chechen language is similar to Albanian. They both have similar grammar and similar sounds such as SQ, PSHQ, which are not common in any IE languages, but are very common in Caucasus languages like Chechenian.
The Albanians call themselves “Shqip-tari”. This name is not Indo-European in origin and contains in it the Ural-Altaic suffix “ar” or “tar”. Much like: “Khaz-AR”, “Av-AR”, “Magy-AR”, “Bulg-AR”, “Hung-AR”, “Ta-TAR” – “Ship-TAR”. see:
CHECHENIA=ICHQERIA
ALBANIA=SHQIPTERIA
c)Their alphabet interestingly enough, had Arabic letters untill 1908 when the alphabet they use today was adopted.
d)The most ancient loanwords from Latin in Albanian have the phonetic form of eastern Balkan Latin, i.e. of proto-Rumanian, and not of western Balkan Latin, i.e. of old Dalmatian Latin. Albanian, therefore, did not take its borrowings from Vulgar Latin as spoken in Illyria.
e)The Adriatic coast was not part of the primitive home of the Albanians, because the maritime terminology of Albanian is not their own, but is borrowed from different languages.
f)Another indication against local Albanian origin is the insignificant number of ancient Greek loanwords in Albanian. If the primitive home of the Albanians had been Albania itself, then the Albanian language would have to have many more ancient Greek loanwords.
g)Just a few, of the many identical place-names between Albania and Caucasus:
Albo-Arnauti -Caucasus- Arnauti
(Turks and Balkan peoples call Albanians by this name; likely from arch. Turk: Arran)
Albo-Bushati – Caucasus-Bushati (also the name of an Albanian tribe)
Albo-Baboti – Caucasus-Baboti
Albo-Baka -Caucasus-Bako
Albo-Ballagati – Caucasus-Balagati
Albo-Ballaj,Balli – Caucasus- Bali
Albo-Bashkimi – Caucasus-Bashkoi
Albo-Bathore- Caucasus- Batharia
Albo-Bater- Caucasus- Bataris
Albo-Geg – Caucasus-Gegi, Gegeni, Geguti (Term used by Albanians in their language to denote their brethre north of the Shkumbi R.)
Albo-Demir Kapia – Caucasus-Demir Kapia (Turkish term: “iron gates”; term by which Turks refered to the Caspian Sea or arch: Albanian Sea)
Albo-Kish, Kisha… – Caucasus-Kish (Eight different toponyms in Albania begin with “kish”)
Albo-Kurata,Kuratem,Kurateni(villages)-Caucasus-Kura (river) (Nine different toponyms in Albania begin with “Kura”)
Albo-Luginasi – Caucasus-Lugini
Albo-Rusani – Caucasus-Rusian
Albo-Sheshani, Shoshani, Shashani – Caucasus-Shashani
Albo-Sheshaj, Sheshi – Caucasus-Sheshleti
Albo-Skalla – Caucasus-Skaleri
Albo-Shiptari Shipyaki, Shkhepa, – Caucasus-Shkepi
Albo-Shkoder – Caucasus-Shkeder, Shked, Shkoda
Albo-Shekulli – Caucasus-Shekouli
Albo-Skuraj – Caucasus-Skuria
h) The fact that Albanian is totally alien to the Illyrian language based on the Messapic inscriptions found in tombs. So we must come to the conclusion that they either came from a different location (Caucasus theory) or the Illyrian tribes had absolutely NO ability of comunicating with eachother.
(that does sound stupid don’t you think?)
i) The Illyrian city names mentioned in ancient times that were kept do not follow the Albanian sound change laws, suggesting that they were late borrowing from an intermediary language (most likely Romance or Slavic), rather than inherited (for example ancient Aulona should have been inherited in modern Albanian as Alor? instead of Vlore.
j)Ptolemy in Book 5 chapter 15 titled “Location of Illyria or Liburnia, and of Dalmatia” (The Fifth Map of Europe)
Never mentions the alleged “albanopolis” that they support he has, and can be found at 46 degrees and 41 degrees 45′, but when you look up what he really has writen, you find the city of Thermidava
Ptolemy’s Goegraphy can be found at :
penelope.uchicago.edu/Tha…/home.html
k) Now, when we look at apostle Bartholomew’s life, we find he labored in the area around the south end of the Caspian Sea, in the section that was then called Armenia. The modern name of the district where he died is Azerbaijan and the place of his death, called in New Testament times ALBANOPOLIS!!!, is now Derbend which is on the west coast of the Caspian Sea.
l) Out of a list of 40-50 Illyrian city names known to us only 2-5 of the Albanian city names can be connected to them.
m) There is NO MEMORY!!! of the Illyrian past in the Albanian cultural heritage,before 19 century.
n) One of the interesting facts that connect the Albanians to the Caucasus and that they are not the descendants of the Ancient Illyrians is the Turkish name for the Albanians. “Arnauti”, which means “those who have not returned” in Arabic, for the Turks were aware of the origins of the Albanians. And they truly did not return, they stayed in Serbian and Byzantine lands.
o) Hard evidence is the Turkish censuses carried out in 1455, they indicate that Albanian names are found in only 80 of the 600 villages listed in the area, and that they did not constitute territorial groups, ruling out any assumptions that zones evenly and continuously inhabited by Albanians existed at the time.
p) The first Albo dictionary was published in 1635 and contained only 5,000 words, when today any pocket dictionary contains at least 250.000 proving that their language was still under development.
q) The most interesting fact is our knowledge of the Arab conquer of the Albanian Caucasus sometime around the 7th cent based on Byzantine, Arab and Armenian sources.
They were converted to Islam and used as military troops to attack Sicily, dividing it into two parts, (hence there was the kingdom of the two Sicilies). In order to populate their part of Sicily, the Arabs brought with them Old Albanians from the Caucasus.
Then in 1042, the Byzantine Empire attacked the young Serbian state after having defeated the Arabs in Sicily and having brought the Sicilian Albanians under their command and Christianizing them. The leader of the Byzantines who led the Albanians was named Georgius Maniakos. Maniakos brought Albanian mercenaries from Sicily to fight the Serbs and they settled in two waves in modern day Albania, first the mercenaries came, and then came the women and children. After the defeat of Maniakos, the Byzantines would not let the Albanians return, thus the Albanians requested that the Serbs let them stay on the land. They settled under mount Raban and the city of Berat and from this, the Serbs called them “Rabanasi” or “Arbanasi”. The city of Berat was known as Belgrad also, before the Albanians came to settle there. They mostly tended sheep and cattle and lent themselves out to Serbian nobles as brave soldiers.
A fact to support this except the texts them selfs is their flag. I’m sure you know that the Byzantine war flag was a double headed eagle on a red background.
Now to get to the topic, the Serbs propably too aren’t descendants of the Illyrians simply because we know they came from Caucasus.
See:
The Serbs were mentioned by Plinius the Younger in the first century BC (69-75) as living on the Black sea and the Sea of Azov as Serboi in his Geographica.
Herodotus writes in his Persian Wars that Serbs live behind the Caucasus, near the hinterland of the Black Sea.
We also can find the Roman emperor Licinius calling the Carpathians ‘Serb mountains’ so we have proof of the Serbs living in the Caucasus.
Also,the shiptars have been mentioned in Byzantine chronicles for the first time in 1043, over 400 years after the Illyrians have been mentioned for the last time. Historic evidence suggests that they were brought from the Caucasus by Georgios Maniakos, a Byzantine general, that they fought for him (mostly in Sicily), but, when the Sicilians didn’t want them around, he let them inhabit what is now central Albania, which was sparsely inhabited (mostly by Aromanians, ie. Romanized Illyrians, but also by Serbs, who were the enemies of Byzantium) at the time.
The shiptars are even mentioned by the Serbian emperor Dushan, and he calls them “the simple, illiterate Arbanasi”. He made it illegal for Serbs and Greeks to marry shiptars, as can be read in his code (zakonik).
In summary, The shiptars are not descended from Illyrians, and that claim can be refuted in several ways.
- First of all, there is absolutely no proof, historic, linguistic or archaeological, that they are descended from Illyrians. The Illyrian origin of the shiptars was first suggested by Austria-Hungary, and for purely practical reasons. The southern Slavs considered themselves descendants of Illyrians prior to WWI (Ilirski pokret), and the Austro-Hungarian empire wanted to preserve its Slavic provinces by convincing Slavs that they are not Illyrians, that some other people (shiptars) are Illyrians.
- The Illyrian language was centum (as is evident by the Messapian fragments), but the shiptar language is satem.
- Modern Greeks can (at least partially) understand ancient Greek. Italians can understand Latin. Slavs can understand old church Slavonic. shiptars, however, cannot understand a single word of Illyrian.
- All old toponyms in Albania are either Slavic (Serbian) or Greek. The few shiptar toponyms in Albania sound very much like certain toponyms in the Caucasus region, and there’s even a longish list of such toponyms here at SF, made by Slavo-Celtic.
- There is no evidence of any ancient Greek or Latin borrowings in the shiptar language, suggesting that they were not in contact with these ancient civilizations, which is an impossibility considering their location.
- The Illyrians were well known seafarers and fishermen, yet ALL words related to the sea in the shiptar language are borrowed either from Slavic or from (modern) Greek.
How can I help you today about valid source about origin of Albanians (western term) or Squipetharians (their own term) ?
Two theoriies of origin is optimal: arab origin and caucasian origin..
About arab origin :
text by Evlija Čelevija ,from 17.century..
Quote:
… Jabal-i Alhama, ancestor of the Albanian people..since they are descended from the Quraysh tribe of the Arabs. Accordingly, the Albanian people boast that they are from the Quraysh, the companions of the Prophet
http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts/AH1670.html
Whole site was made by Robert Elsi, adorare of Albanians, and good reference for danmark professors..
Quote:
1038, 1042, 1078
Michael Attaleiates:
The First Byzantine References
http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts/AH1038.html
http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts/AH_texts1.html
http://www.albanianphotography.net/
