FR: LYNGOS RE: VLACHS AND THE MEANING OF THE TERM (2)
George S. Tsapanos
Date: 7/14/02 13:59 Pacific Daylight Time
From: LYNGOS
Message-id: <20020714165952...@mb-fy.aol.com>
THE TERM "VLACH".
In the past, I wrote about a very ancient Hellenic word, the word being
VLHX(CH)H-(VLE^CHE^) and its Doric form VLAX(CH)A meaning BLEATING from the
verb VLHX(CH)AOMAI to bleat of sheep and goats, as Liddel and Scott
Greek-English Lexikon ( Albridged Edition page 131).
According to the Perseus project (
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/vor?lookup=blhxh/&lang=greek&group=bi
level) -there are four entries for such ancient Hellenic word:
1. ( Euripides, Cyclops line 46,
2. Aeschylus, Seven against Thedes, line 349,
3. Euripides, Cyclops line 58, and
4. Homer, Odyssey, book 12, line 264).
It is clear that the word VLACHA, which in Greek is the feminine for
VLACHOS=VLACH, was a Hellenic word known to the ancient writers, and used by
them, connected with the bleating of sheep or/and goats, which of course were
the main occupation of the native people speaking a semi-Latin idiom, known by
the Slavs as Vlachs.
Over a period of time and by many authors the word VLACH was indicative of
NOMADIC SHEPHERS.
Nomadic in a dual sense, moving from one place to another far away, like from
one country to another, or moving from the low lands ( at Saint George's
day-23rd of April ) to the higher elevations, and from there back to the lower
( the return was beginning October the 26th Saint Demetrios day).
Such Vlachs are the ones mentioned by KEKAYMENOS, ANNA KOMNENE, REFERENCES OF
VLACHIAN RYNCHINI, etc.etc.
There is another mention, (KEDRINOS II PAGE 434, EDITION BONN), actually the
first one DEFINING the VLACHS.
The word used was ODITES, and the occassion was the killing in 976 A.D. of
DAVID elderly brother of Tzar SAMUEL ( see George Ostrogorsky's "History of the
Byzantine State" pages 301-303, 307-310, 325, 346).
The word ODITES, is a very interesting and at the same time intricate but as
well intriguing.
The Bulgars are considering those ODITES VLACHS, simply as Nomadic sheperds,
moving around when they met David'sparty and killed him.
On the other hand our Greek authors, think that those ODITES , and their party
were PERMANENT POPULATION GUARDING THE MOUNTAINOUS PASS AROUND PRESPA AND
KASTORIA.
Since the author was closer to the ancient rather to our time, I searched for
the word in the Perseus project:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/vor?lookup=o(di/ths&lang=greek&group=
bilevel
and I found 8 entries
1.Homer Odyssey book 7 line 204
2.Homer Iliad book 16, line 263
3.Sophocles, Philoctetes, line 146
4.Homeric Hymns card 174
5.Homer,Odyssey, book 11, line 127
6.Homer, Odyssey, book 23, linwe 274
7.Homer, Odyssey, book 13, line 122 and
8.Homer, Odyssey, book 17, line 210.
I checked out each one of these except the one in homeric hymns, and I came up
with, TRAVELLER, WAYFARING, DREAD TRAVELLER, AND PASSER-BY, as the English
translations.
But then, checking again on the same Perseus project with the Greek-English
Lexicon, I came up with something that everybody had missed so far.
The word odites, means MERCHANT,BUSINESS MAN, DEALER, TRADER, in Greek being
translated as EMPOROS.
The VLACHS that killed David, Samuel's brother, weren't sheperds or permanent
quards of the pass above the city where i was born, they were MERCHANTS,
obviously a very large group if they took it with the Tzar's group.
They were a SOCIAL CLASS, AN EARLY UPPER SOCIAL CLASS OF BOURGEOISIE, as
actually are known the Vlachs to our days.
The AUTOCHTHONOUS of the land began as shepherds, they turned soldiers, owners
of land, merchants, rich, benefactors.
A natural proccess took place and naturally those Vlachs benefited the lands
where they born, those Hellenic ones.
BIRTH OF THE VLACHIAN LANGUAGE.
Today and for the first time I am going to introduce you to some new evidences
regarding the possible contemporary meaning of the word as well its origins.
If we call as Vlachs the native populations (the model of the Vlachs arriving
from the North has no merrit at all in my opinion),speaking Latin-idioms, it
means also that those populations learned such a language after coming into
contact with the Romans when they invaded the Balkans and they moved from
Illyria to Dacia and Moesia.
Or maybe is not so?
When was the Vlachian idiom originated? After the arrival of the Romans in
Makedonia ? What about before? It is well known that the people of Italy and
Hellas were in contact since Mythological times. What languages were speaking
then? Could they understand each other? To what extent-extend? How Latin was
Latin and how Hellenic is Latin.
By opening today any dictionary, one can have thousand of words originated
"from Latin.....from Greek".
Is there a certain percentage ? Was Aeneas speaking the Hellenic language or
one of its dialects back in 1250-1250 B.C.?
Was he speaking a Latin dialect or what became known as Latin language? did
Latin became known to the Hellenes and especially to those epirotan-Makedonian
Hellenes when people from Italy went to Asia Minor, or when returning from
there.
Those questions and few more bother me for many years, and obviously can not
have easy answers. Today I am going to look into another possibility of how
things might have be done long ago.
Virgil in his "Aeneiad" (book 7), wants Dardanus to be from Italy. He is one of
the three known "Dardanus" the other ones being from Crete and Athens.
He is suppost to be the son of Zeus and Electra, the mythical ancestor of the
Trojans and through them of the ROMANS.
According to the Italian traditions, he was the son of Corythus an Etruscan
prince of Corythus (Cortona) and as in the Greek tradition, he afterwards
emigrated to Phrygia, from:
Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities
(1898)(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A199
9.04.0062%3Aid%3Ddardanus)
Some of those descendants of Dardanus, after the destruction of Troy left the
destroyed city and with Helenus and Aeneas went to the West.
Helenus, Perseus Encyclopedia
(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0
004%3Ahead%3D%234163),
sets out with Neoptolemus from Troy Perseus
Encyclopedia(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext
%3A1999.04.0004%3Ahead%3D%235985 ) and he is getting married to Neoptolemu's.
This Neoptolemos is the son of Achilles who together with his Myrmidones were
the PRECISELY THE FIRST HELLENES ( Thukididis Book one-3).
Neoptolemos returns to Epirus to meet his tribesmen the MOLLOSIANS, meaning
that the MOLLOSIANS were HELLENES.
Aeneas, Perseus Encyclopedia
(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0
004%3Ahead%3D%23212), is visiting him while he is wondering from place to place
carrying the Palladium with him and his people before reaching Italy.
But what kind of LANGUAGE those people were speaking those days? Was
Neoptolemus speaking the Doric-Aeolic dialect? What about Helenus and Aeneas?
Thukididis clearly states (book one-3) that there was NOT one distinct Hellenic
language before the Trojan War, and / or an Hellenic Nation.
Aeneas arrived in Italy, in a land known as LATIUM,
(http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0
004%3Ahead%3D%23212) Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical
Antiquities (1898) , where:
"Notwithstanding this apparent discrepance, it is pretty evident that under
these different names of Umbri, Opici, and Oenotri, the same people are
designated whom Dionysius and the Roman historians usually term Aborigines
(Ant. Rom. i. 10). The Aborigines, intermixing with several Pelasgic colonies,
occupied Latium, and soon formed themselves into the several communities of
Latini, Rutuli, Hernici, and Volsci, even prior to date of the supposed arrival
of Aeneas."
A little farther up are the Umbrians
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.00
62%3Aid%3Dumbria
Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898) where,
"The name Ombrikoi (shorter Ombroi) is first met in Herodotus as an undefined
title for the Italic tribes in the region of the Po, of which the Etruscans
took possession. The ancients derived the name from ombros, imber, making the
people as old as the Deluge; the Umbrian-Roman comedian Plautus, with more
probable correctness, in a joke (Most. 770) connects the word with umbra. The
name probably designated the tribes of the western mountains from the
standpoint of some of the Greeks.Most nearly related to the Latins and the
Sabellian tribes, the Umbrians were the ruling race of Northern Italy until the
Romans, in the extension of their power, about B.C. 300, brought them also
under their
sway. The Sarsinates were the last to submit to the Roman imperium in the year
266, after a vain attempt to recover their freedom; the Sarsinate Plautus, who
wrote for the Roman stage even before 200, is so completely Latinized that his
ancient commentators had trouble to discover a single Umbrian word in his
comedies. The historical importance of the Umbrians, therefore, belongs to an
undefined period prior to the end of the fourth century B.C., when they formed
a powerful barrier for the Italic peoples against the tribes of another race
pushing on from the North. The elder Cato had placed the founding of the
Umbrian city of Ameria"
But who are these Umbrians and what language do they speak? From the same site
as above we learn:
"Among the smaller tribes of Central Italy the Paeligni spoke a dialect
occupying a place about midway between Umbrian and Oscan; but in spite of the
greater separation in their positions, in historic times, the language of the
Volsci comes near to the Umbrian. See Italia."
It is the second time we are encountering the people known as VOLSCI and their
language.
VOLSCI:
:http://perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A199
9.04.0062%3Aid%3Dvolsci Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical
Antiquities (1898)
"An ancient people in Latium, originally distinct from the Latins. They dwelt
on both sides of the river Liris, and extended down to the Tyrrhene Sea.
Their language was nearly allied to the Umbrian. (See Umbria.) They were from
an early period engaged in almost unceasing hostilities with the Romans, and
were not completely
subdued by the latter till B.C. 338, after which time they disappear from
history. See Italia."
Livy is very familiar with them, he has pages and pages about them in his
"Early History of Rome" ( both books) as well as one entry into his "Rome and
the Mediterranean", they are the "HILL PEOPLE".
Shakespeare wrote his CORIOLANUS tragedy back in 1623 A.D., based upon these
VOLSCI people with Caius Marcius Coriolanus, Cominus, Titus Lartius, Young
Marcius, Junius Brutus, etc.etc. ( Shakespeare complete, Volume three, page
126).
Let's go back to their language from the same site of the Perseus project ( by
the way........my thanks again and again to these people their work is
EXCELLENT, I'll keep mentioning them and propagandize their sites any time to
everyone).
.....................
"the writing separates the Umbrians from the Latins and Faliscans, and places
them in a closer relation, produced probably by longer living together, with
the Samnites (Oscans), who, together with the Umbrians, adopted the same
Etruscan alphabet. In this alphabet, to which the sign [Figure]
for the Italic fricative f is peculiar, the character for the vowel o was
wanting (so in Umbrian puplum is written for poplom), as were also the
characters for medial
g (for which Ikuvina and Ijuvina are written), and d, which is supplied partly
by t (tekuries for the Latin decuries). But the Umbrians compensated for this
by incorporating two new characters in their alphabet, both modifications of an
older r-sign, as the sound represented by the
first letter had really relationship with the r-sound. The second letter was
then arbitrarily formed in imitation of the first. The first is [Figure]
, represented [p. 1628] in Latin writing by rs, in general etymologically
corresponding to the Greek d--e. g., persu, for poda, pedem; sometimes to l, as
in karsitu for kaleitô, calato. The fact that the Latin transcription employed
r as well as s indicates a dental sound,
such as the rubbing of the tongue between the teeth produces. The other letter
is [Figure]
, rendered s' in the Latin writing, etymologically corresponding to k before i
and e: fas'ia for
Latin faciat, pas'e for Latin pace. This fact, that the Umbrian, in agreement
with the Romance languages, changes the original guttural into the sibilant
before light vowels, is the more remarkable since in related dialects no trace
of this is found, nor in Latin before the time of Constantine. But this is one
of many indications that important linguistic processes of the Romance
languages have their beginning in the far-distant past of the Italic, but,
pushed aside and restrained by the development and predominance of literary
Latin, only with its decadence after the time of the
Antonines come to the surface and into use again. The language of the Umbrians,
as we know it from the monuments, embraces approximately the second century
B.C. The inscriptions written in the Latin alphabet may be assigned on
palaeographic and other grounds to the time of Sulla , roughly to B.C. 100;
those
written in Umbrian characters, therefore, tablets written from right to left as
among the Etruscans, must be as much older as is required for certain changes
in the language, shown in later tablets, to have become fixed. Among these
changes the progress of rhotacism in place of an original s is especially
prominent, as e. g. in the older tablets we find the genitive singular totas
like sophias, paterfamilias, but in the later, totar. From this difference we
distinguish Old Umbrian, written in the national alphabet, and New Umbrian,
written in Latin; the former reaches scarcely beyond the war with Hannibal, but
may perhaps, as appears from the older tablets (I. to V.), have been produced
in different decades of the second century, since even in them slight
differences in language appear.On the whole, the Umbrian more nearly resembles
the Oscan than the Latin, the reason for which has been already
indicated in its phonology (Umbr.-Osc. pantam, Lat. quantam), in inflection
(nominative plural Umbr.-Osc. viros, Lat. viri; Umbr.-Osc. frateer, Lat.
fratres; fut. Umbr.Osc. fust, Lat. erit, etc.), in vocabulary (Umbr.Osc.
heriom, Lat. velle). The discoveries of Oscan remains in recent years have
confirmed the presumption of a very
close agreement between Oscans and Umbrians in matter as well as in language
(e.g. in the pentadic family order). But the Oscan gives the impression of a
more vigorous plant, as though unfolded in the sunlight of Magna Graecia. It
has more genuine, transparent, elegant forms, while with the Umbrians
even their language reflects the pressure of their political relations,
narrowing and stunted. All the diphthongs have disappeared (oktur, Lat. auctor,
kvestur); the endings are mangled (nome for nomen, emantu for emantur, etc.);
in composition four prepositions, appearing in Latin as ab, ad, an, and in, are
reduced to the bare a-vowel.If we bring Latin into comparison, the Umbrian has
most similarity in its general structure with the Latin of two periods--the
first, before it had been elaborated on literary lines, the second after the
decline of the literature at its vulgarization and breaking up into provincial
idioms. It is therefore not probable that a national literature preceded or
accompanied the Umbrian which we know. Among the smaller tribes of
Central Italy the Paeligni spoke a dialect occupying a place about midway
between Umbrian and Oscan; but in spite of the greater separation in their
positions, in historic times, the language of the Volsci comes near to the
Umbrian. See Italia.The principal authority is Aufrecht and Kirchhoff, Die
Umbrischen Sprachdenkmäler (Berlin, 1849); Huschke, Die Iguv. Tafeln (Leipzig,
1859), chiefly for the facts; Bréal, Les Tables Eugubines (Paris, 1875, with
photo-lithographic atlas),
especially useful as an introduction to the language; Bücheler, Umbrica (Bonn,
1883); Von Planta, Grammatik der Osk.-Umbr. Dialekte, i. (Strassburg, 1893).
For the history and geography, Nissen, Italische Landeskunde, i. p. 502 foll.,
and, above all, Borrmann in the Corpus Inscript.
Latinarum, xi. 2, in which are collected the Latin inscriptions of Umbria. Cf.
Osci. "
Now..........I am not a linguist or have any special training about
linguistics, but the experts out there better if they consider a possible
connection between the VLACHIAN language and that of the VOLSCI.
Why?
Because if they made a case of the name VLACH possibly being originated from
the people known as VOLCAE or from all those German-Celtic-Belgian words
meaning Roman speaking people, what about the VOLSCI?
After all with a simple transportation the word from VOLSCI becomes VLOSCI, and
no matter how hard one might try, once you repeat the name a couple times fast
you are coming with the sound VLASCI, the VLACHS!
VLOSCI = VLACHS?
Regards to all ..................L.
"Vlachs, The Autochthonous
Of the Hellenic Peninsula".
++
"George S. Tsapanos" wrote:
> Was he speaking a Latin dialect or what became known as Latin language?
Albanian is a "latin" language, i.e. it is an early IE language related to whatever
was the forrunner of Latin.
> did
> Latin became known to the Hellenes and especially to those epirotan-Makedonian
> Hellenes when people from Italy went to Asia Minor, or when returning from
> there.
>
>
> Neoptolemos returns to Epirus to meet his tribesmen the MOLLOSIANS, meaning
> that the MOLLOSIANS were HELLENES.
no, not necessarily
>
> Aeneas, Perseus Encyclopedia
> The Aborigines, intermixing with several Pelasgic colonies,
> occupied Latium, and soon formed themselves into the several communities of
> Latini, Rutuli, Hernici, and Volsci, even prior to date of the supposed arrival
> of Aeneas."
better
>
>
>
>
> "Among the smaller tribes of Central Italy the Paeligni spoke a dialect
> occupying a place about midway between Umbrian and Oscan; but in spite of the
> greater separation in their positions, in historic times, the language of the
> Volsci comes near to the Umbrian. See Italia."
>
> It is the second time we are encountering the people known as VOLSCI and their
> language.
> VOLSCI:
> :http://perseus.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A199
> 9.04.0062%3Aid%3Dvolsci Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical
> Antiquities (1898)
>
> "An ancient people in Latium, originally distinct from the Latins. They dwelt
> on both sides of the river Liris, and extended down to the Tyrrhene Sea.
> Their language was nearly allied to the Umbrian. (See Umbria.) They were from
> an early period engaged in almost unceasing hostilities with the Romans, and
> were not completely
> subdued by the latter till B.C. 338, after which time they disappear from
> history. See Italia."
Volk[h] - people - voltsi, plural of people - volosi, vlakh, vlasi
> in karsitu for kaleitв, calato. The fact that the Latin transcription employed
> Umbrischen SprachdenkmФler (Berlin, 1849); Huschke, Die Iguv. Tafeln (Leipzig,
> 1859), chiefly for the facts; BrШal, Les Tables Eugubines (Paris, 1875, with
> photo-lithographic atlas),
> especially useful as an introduction to the language; Bнcheler, Umbrica (Bonn,
> 1883); Von Planta, Grammatik der Osk.-Umbr. Dialekte, i. (Strassburg, 1893).
> For the history and geography, Nissen, Italische Landeskunde, i. p. 502 foll.,
> and, above all, Borrmann in the Corpus Inscript.
> Latinarum, xi. 2, in which are collected the Latin inscriptions of Umbria. Cf.
> Osci. "
>
> Now..........I am not a linguist or have any special training about
> linguistics, but the experts out there better if they consider a possible
> connection between the VLACHIAN language and that of the VOLSCI.
> Why?
> Because if they made a case of the name VLACH possibly being originated from
> the people known as VOLCAE or from all those German-Celtic-Belgian words
> meaning Roman speaking people, what about the VOLSCI?
> After all with a simple transportation the word from VOLSCI becomes VLOSCI, and
> no matter how hard one might try, once you repeat the name a couple times fast
> you are coming with the sound VLASCI, the VLACHS!
> VLOSCI = VLACHS?
yep
George S. Tsapanos
\
>Albanian is a "latin" language, i.e. it is an early IE language related t=
>o whatever>was the forrunner of Latin.>
Albanian is NOT a Latin language.According to the German linguist Gustav Heye
only a 28% of their vocabulary is of Latin origins with the rest being of
Greek, Turkish, Slav, etc.etc.
Of course what defines a language is its grammar, so if you bring us evidences
of Latin grammar in that Albanian language, you might have a point.
++
from some primordial root.
George S. Tsapanos
>well, it iso an original european language with latin being another one of
>those>from some primordial root.>
It can't be. It is a language as it was builded after the many occupiers of the
land, simple like that.
From the original occupiers of that land only three known words exist, few
toponyms and main names.
Few more hundred words are "suspected" as such and that it.
And this of course before the times of Phillip, alexander and the Romans.
Chances are that most of those possible Illyrian words were from legionaires of
the Roman- Illyrian legion, after their return from Moesia-Thrace, when they
brought back the Arvanite -Thracian language.
Once the slavs arrived in their lands and later the Ottomans they left their
marks and together with words of the Hellenic language constitute today's
so-called Albanian language, which by the way didn't have its own alphabet
until few decades back, still fighting in some places for it, till today.
One can find most likely more words associated with the original language of
the Illyrians in that so called Albanian - Vlachian language spoken in the
south of the country, rather in the Albanian proper.
But then........those people are regarded as Makedonians of the Illyrian
Makedonia, as it was called a big part of Southern Albania.
++
Read the Ethnologue on Albanian.
"George S. Tsapanos" wrote:
> It can't be. It is a language as it was builded after the many occupiers of the
> land, simple like that.
All languages of people who are not completely isolated have some loan words from
other languages but Albanian is a distinct language, uinrelated, as far as scholars
know, to any other.
>
>
> From the original occupiers of that land only three known words exist, few
> toponyms and main names.
>
> Few more hundred words are "suspected" as such and that it.
>
> And this of course before the times of Phillip, alexander and the Romans.
>
> Chances are that most of those possible Illyrian words were from legionaires of
> the Roman- Illyrian legion, after their return from Moesia-Thrace, when they
> brought back the Arvanite -Thracian language.
>
> Once the slavs arrived in their lands and later the Ottomans they left their
> marks and together with words of the Hellenic language constitute today's
> so-called Albanian language, which by the way didn't have its own alphabet until
> few decades back, still fighting in some places for it, till today.
>
> One can find most likely more words associated with the original language of the
> Illyrians in that so called Albanian - Vlachian language spoken in the south of
> the country, rather in the Albanian proper.
possibly.
>
>
> But then........those people are regarded as Makedonians of the Illyrian
> Makedonia, as it was called a big part of Southern Albania.
by whom?
George S. Tsapanos
>Dear George,
>
>Read the Ethnologue on Albanian.>
Galina
There is notheing mystic about their language.
Here are the percentages of the origins of the Albanian language, as such is
perceived the common language used by all three major tribes ( Ghegs, Tosks,
Midrites).source: linguist, Gustav Heye.
1. 27,7%...............Latin
2. 23,09%.............Turkish
3. 16.4%...............Neo-Hellenic
4. 10,5% ..............Slav
5. 7,82%..............Indo-German
6. 14,2%..............Uknown (possibly few of Illyrian origins.
++
Who is GUstav Heye?
++
LANGUAGE: CLASSIFICATION
That Albanian is of clearly Indo-European origin was recognized by the German
philologist, Franz Bopp, in 1854; the details of the main correspondences of
Albanian with Indo-European languages were elaborated by another German
philologist, Gustav Meyer, in the 1880s and 1890s. Further linguistic
refinements were presented by the Danish linguist Holger Pedersen and the
Austrian Norbert Jokl. The following etymologies illustrate the relationship of
Albanian to Indo-European (an asterisk preceding a word denotes an unattested,
hypothetical Indo-European parent word, which is written in a conventionalized
orthography): pes▒ "five" (from *p▌nk e); zjarm "fire" (from *g hermos); nat▒
"night" (from *nok t-); dh▒nd▒r "son-in-law" (from * gem ter-);gjarp▒r "snake"
(from *s▌rpon-); bjer "bring!" (from *bhere); djeg "I burn" (from *dheg ho); kam
"I have" (from *kapmi); pata "I had" (from *pot-); pjek "I
roast" (from * peko); thom, thot▒ "I say, he says" (from *k'emi, *k'et . . .).
The verb system includes many archaic traits, such as the retention of distinct
active and middle personal endings (as in Greek) and the change of a stem vowel
e in the present to o (from *e) in the past tense, a feature shared with the
Baltic languages. For example, there is mbledh "gathers (transitive)" as well as
mblidhet "gathers (intransitive), is gathered" in the present tense, and mblodha
"I gathered" with an o in the past. Because of the superficial
changes in the phonetic shape of the language over 3,000 years and because of
the borrowing of words from neighbouring cultures, the continuity of the
Indo-European heritage in Albanian has been underrated.
Albanian shows no obvious close affinity to any other Indo-European language; it
is plainly the sole modern survivor of its own subgroup. Of ancient languages,
both Dacian (or Daco-Mysian) and Illyrian have been tentatively considered its
ancestor or nearest relative.
Also check out numerous things on the following website:
http://www.geocities.com/albanohellenica/
See also, a fine paper on Albanian dialects, The Role of Neighboring Languages
in Dialectical Creation: the Case of Albanian By Matthew Coulson:
http://ac.clubs.byu.edu/mfcoulson.htm
June R Harton
"++" <arch...@erols.com> wrote in message
news:3D334754...@erols.com...
"George S. Tsapanos" wrote:
>> Was he speaking a Latin dialect or what became known as Latin language?
>Albanian is a "latin" language, i.e. it is an early IE language related to
whatever was the forrunner of Latin.
No, not at all.
>Volk[h] - people - voltsi, plural of people - volosi, vlakh, vlasi
No, not necessarily.
>> After all with a simple transportation the word from VOLSCI becomes
VLOSCI, and
> no matter how hard one might try, once you repeat the name a couple times
fast
> you are coming with the sound VLASCI, the VLACHS!
> VLOSCI = VLACHS?
>yep
Ok.
from: Spirit of Truth
(using June's e-mail to communicate to you)!