Also, I see desperate claims of Albanians on here to prove that they are descend ends of Illyrians .hmmm…simplke not true ..Albanians are not Illyrians…!
…..The modern Albanian lexicon is full of Greek, Slavic and Latin words. In 1990 I heard a lecture at the University of Ljubljana by a Kosovo Albanian professor from the University of Pristina : he demonstrated that Albanian is of northern origin since it shares with Rumanian, up on the Danube , and only with Rumanian, a set of some 60 vocabulary items that are not found in other languages of the region. Tsar Dushan was emperor of the Slavs and “Albanians”, but medievalists know that this term is geographical, not ethnic or linguistic. In Greek dialects of recent times the word can stand for Greeks and Albanians of the region. Lists of the soldiery of Venice designate as “Albanians” names that are mostly Greek, less often Albanian and Slavic. A Street behind the Doge’s Palace is still known for these troops – Via degli Albanesi.
In 1389 Albanians made up 2% of the population of Kosovo. Millennia before the Indo-European Slavs, Romans, Greeks, Albanians and others (e.g. Celts and Goths) arrived there, the Balkans had been inhabited by settlers from the eastern Mediterranean and, in addition, surviving (if any) late Ice Age hunters. Professor Marija Gimbutas [1921-1994], pre-historian, demonstrated that agricultural “Old European” civilizations go back to 7000 BC in the Balkans. No Indo-Europeans were there, hence no Illyrians, no Albanians, no Greeks, no Latins and no Slavs, regarding the languages involved. – However, DNA from the pre-Indo-Europeans is probably to be found yet among Balkan peoples, inherited from ancestors who intermarried with the newcomers.
Previous to Old European civilizations the Balkans were thinly inhabited by hunting bands, e.g. at the whirlpool of Lepenski Vir on the Danube in Serbia. A fairly up-to-date reference work, the Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture summarizes:
“The Albanians occupy part of the former territory of the Illyrians. [So does Austria: JPM]. It is a possibility that today’s Albanian language continues the earlier Illyrian.” However, it continues, “such a connection is NOT DEMONSTRABLE. Illyrian is too little known and Albanian is first attested only in the fifteenth century, already having undergone very substantial phonological changes.” [J. P. Mallory and D. Q. Adams, Editors. 1997.. London & Chicago : Fitzroy Dearborn.]
Logically, it is equally possible that that the modern language called Albanian is NOT descended from ancient “Illyrian”. From all evidence, this is the only probable case.
