Ancient Languages of the Balkans

ANCIENT LANGUAGES OF THE BALKANS b y RADOSLAV KATICIC Part one 1976 MOUTON THE HAGUE • PARIS © Copyright 1976 in The Netherlands. Mouton & Co. N.V., Publishers, The Hague. No part o f this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publishers. Printed in Hungary PREFACE In a short introductory outline such as the present one it is impos sible to handle a complex and delicate subject in any exhaustive and balanced manner. The presentation will always be eclectic and must thus remain the responsibility of the author. In this survey, the selection of data and of scholarly opinions that are treated at some length is the result of personal experience with the field of study. In some way, it is the book the author wishes he could have had at his disposal when, eleven years ago, he began the study of the languages of the ancient Balkans. This is the spirit in which he would like it to be accepted. Another person’s presen tation would be different. It cannot be otherwise in a field in which the body of universally shared opinions and received doctrines is small and the approaches of those concerned with it vary considerably. More space has been given to the literary sour ces than one would expect in such a series; however, for this subject it was vital to provide the appropriate philological and: historical basis. The bibliography, too, is selective, and here again a personal note could not be avoided. The list includes those works which were judged to be fundamental in the field and also those which contain some data or opinions relevant for the course of the main presen tation. All authors are quoted in the text and thus connected with some topics in the survey. Some titles occur only in the bibliography without reference in the text. They have no special bearing on any 6 PREFACE one of the subjects treated there, but are proposed as useful addi tional reading. Finally, I want to express my cordial thanks to Professor W. Winter, the editor of this series, for his interest in my Balkanic studies and to all colleagues who have helped me in my work by sending me their publications. Among them I am most obliged to G. Alfoldy, M. Budimir, E. £abej and the State University of Tirana, I. Duridanov, V. Georgiev, L. A. Gindin, O. Haas, D. A. Hester, H. Krahe, W. Merlingen, F. Papazoglu, G. B. Pellegrini, A. L. Prosdocimi, D. Rendic-Miocevic, M. Suic, J. Untermann and K. Vlahov. My sincerest thanks are due to them, because without their help my work would have been much more difficult. Thanks are also due to the French School of Archaeology in Athens where I was, summer after summer, given full opportunities of work in the rich library. Another debt of gratitude is to the Linguistic Circle of Zagreb where all the subjects concerned with the linguistic past of the Balkan met with much interest and aroused fruitful discussions which helped the author to arrive at clearer ideas about many of the topics discussed in this book. Thanks are due to Swantje Koch who spared no efforts to bring the bibliography up to the high standard of this series, and to Mate Krizman who prepared the indexes. Zagreb, January 1971 R adoslav K atiCic TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface.............................................................................................. 5 1 Introduction................................................................................ 9 2 Pre-G reek................................................................................... 16 2.1 The Greek historical records........................................... 16 2.2 The historical setting......................................................... 27 2.3 The Pre-Greek linguistic stratum ................................... 39 2.3.1 Opinions as to the affiliations of the ancient languages of Asia M inor................................... 39 2.3.2 The language indicated by Pre-Greek suffixes 2.3.3 Non-Indo-European substratum words in the Eastern Mediterranian....................................... 55 2.3.4 “Protindogermarisch” ....................................... 57 2.3.5 Pelastic................................................................. 63 2.3.6 Pelasgian............................................................. 71 2.3.7 Anatolian............................................................. 87 2.3.8 Preserved texts..................................................... 95 2.3.9 Aegean and Mediterranean................................ 96 3 The northern border area......................................................... 98 3.0 Introduction....................................................................... 98 3.1 Macedonia........................................................................... 100 3.2 Paeonia............................................................................... 116 3.3 E p iru s................................................................................. 120 8 TABLE OF CONTENS 4. The Thracian com plex................. 128 4.1 Geographic and historical background .......................... 128 ■ 4.2 The language ..................................................................... 137 5. The Illyrian complex ............. 154 5.1 Historical and geographical background........................ 154 5.2 The language ..................................................................... 165 5.3 Recent studies in Illyrian anthroponymy ...................... 178 5.4 The origin of Albanian..................................................... 184 6. Bibliography............................................................................ 189 1 INTRODUCTION The subject of this survey are the languages that in ancient times were spoken on the Balkan Peninsula and now are known only from indirect sources while their texts are lost, completely and irretrievably, or nearly so. In German, such languages are very appropriately called Restsprachen. Their study is an unrewarding undertaking since it requires a sharp and painstakingly elaborate methodology which even in the most favorable cases can yield only meagre results. The intricacies of such research are in no way pro portionate to the progress in knowledge it promises and, were it not for the inherent importance and interest of the subject, one would be tempted to leave it alone altogether for lack of sources. And yet, such an attitude is unacceptable because the available data about the lost languages of the ancient Balkans are of the greatest interest to all students of the various and important lan guages of that area. No history of either Greek or a South-Slavic language, of Albanian or Rumanian can be conceived without an introductory chapter containing the essential information about the languages which existed earlier in the respective areas and with which they established their first contacts there. It is impossible to speak about Greek without elucidating, as well as possible, its relation to the Pre-Greek linguistic stratum in the Aegean. The same holds true for Albanian or Serbo-Croatian and Illyrian, for Bulgarian andThracian, and for Rumanian and Dacian. It is mainly for such reasons that the study of the lost languages 10 INTRODUCTION of the ancient Balkans remains an important field of linguistic research and cannot be left for enthusiasts and amateurs to play with it, who are fascinated by the thrill of lifting the veil of mystery from the awe-inspiring depths of a remote past which for some reason or other has aroused their curiosity. Since the beginning of its history, the Balkan Peninsula has been very complex and extremely interesting from the linguistic point of view. The sources, as scarce as they may be, show beyond the slightest doubt that from the oldest times it was an area of great linguistic diversity in which a variety of different languages has always been in close contact. In this respect, the picture has not changed till the present day. Unity in diversity, and affinity irrespec tive of cognation have remained outstanding features of the lin guistic picture of the peninsula. In order to understand the linguistic variety of the Balkans and the distribution of its languages in ancient and modern times, it is necessary to have at least some general notions of the geomorpho logy of that part of Europe.1 The Mediterranean coast of the continent protrudes into the sea, forming three peninsulas that are all clearly distinct from one an other. The westernmost, called Pyrenean or Iberic, is a continental block with Mediterranean and Oceanic influences only in the coastal regions. The middle one, called Apennine or Italic, is completely exposed to the all-pervading influence of the mild Mediterranean Sea. Both peninsulas have one thing in common: sharply drawn mountain ranges, the Pyrenees and the Alps respectively, separate them from the rest of continental Europe. The third and easternmost peninsula, divided only by the Straits from Asia Minor, is a continental block too, open to Mediterranean influences only on the coasts and in its extreme south, where a rich and manifold articulation of the narrow mainland and the many islands allow the mild climate of the sea to pervade the whole of the country. 1 Cf. for what follows Cvuid (1918, 1902) and R ogli<5 (1970). INTRODUCTION 11 However, this eastern peninsula contrasts with the other two in having no clear-cut boundary with continental Europe. Its moun tain ranges are connected with an orographic system that extends over a wide

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