Should the Illyrian language be brought back? *if possible*

[geb]

Let us consider for a moment that it were possible to effortlessly revive and imminently reinstate the Illyrian language(s) throughout its former area of presence :
i.e.: to the obvious cost of Serbo-Croatian

Would this be a valuable idea or not?

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The Illyrian languages were a continuum of ancient paleo-balkanic languages distantly related to Greek and Albanian, once spoken throughout the Balkans, before being regularly displaced by Dalmatian and southern Slavic...

Sadly we have no records of it - therefore we can only refer to Greek and limited Messapian scriptures (a related language spoken in SE Italy) as well as our keen and well-grounded intuition in order to render ourselves an impression of what the language could have resembled...


* this question has no political or propagandic orientation *

 

[Tulun]

i don't see any particular value in it why should it be done, there is no objective advantage of it over the currently spoken languages in the area.

and of course intended or not, this is a political question since it would mean getting rid of the ethnic/national identities and cultures of the speakers of Serbo-Croatian language(s).

 

[Scaeva]

Albanian is *probably* a modern descendant of Illyrian, in the same way that Italian is basically modern Latin.

Languages evolve.

 

[geb]

^Albanian would only be a sister language though, comparable to Portugese and Italian.

in the same way that Italian is basically modern Latin

No-one knows, really. Only in Rome do people believe Italian to be a pure descendant of Latin...
Italian also shares similarities with other Italic languages.

 

[Scaeva]

^Albanian would only be a sister language though, comparable to Portugese and Italian.


No-one knows, really. Only in Rome do people believe Italian to be a pure descendant of Latin...
Italian also shares similarities with other Italic languages.

There is no doubt that Italian is a direct descendant of Latin. That is widely accepted, and not just in Rome.

The other Italic languages had all but disappeared by the time Rome fell, centuries of Romanization having eliminated them. Pompeii for example was founded by Oscan speakers, but by the time Vesuvius erupted the population appears to have been primarily Latin-speaking. Most of the thousands of inscriptions and graffiti are in Latin. By 100 AD Oscan appears to have died, with it no longer showing up in writing. It is a similar story with the other Italic languages.

The only language from ancient Italy that survived the Roman conquest was a dialect of Greek. (Griko)

 

[geb]

I find it regrettable that many paleo-Balkanic languages no longer exist and that only two branches remain: Greek and Albanian.
How interesting it would be, were there any daughter languages of Dacian, Thracian (eventhough there influence is apparent in Romanian and Bulgarian to some extent) and Illyrian, spoken today...

I doubt that Albanian can be considered a true descendant of Illyrian, given it has strongly been influenced by other language families and that their areas of distribution do not correspond.

By 100 AD Oscan appears to have died, with it no longer showing up in writing.

What about Umbrian?

 

[Tsar]

There is no real reason for doing that. Besides, you can't just force language upon multiple nations.

 

[Shtajerc]

I thought noone even knows what Illyrian was like, if it was a single language or were there several. People also wouldn't accept it.

And from a different perspecive, imagine an ancient language being brought back and used in daily converstation. Do you know how much vocabulary it would lack? Traffic lights, roundabout, car, TV, computer, light bulb. These are just a few words for objects we meet every day. One'd have to make up a big amount of words out of thin air to make it even usable.

Btw, Štokavian (the base for Serbo-Croatian) was called Illyrian in the 19th century, so in a way people are (still/already) speaking it.

 

[Swagganaut]

The only language from ancient Italy that survived the Roman conquest was a dialect of Greek. (Griko)

Cool, never heard of that language before. Sadly, I wouldn't wonder if its dead in an other 100 years though.

 

[geb]

I thought noone even knows what Illyrian was like, if it was a single language or were there several.

We know it was similar to Greek and presumably even more so to Messapian, which we also have written records of.
There is also nothing to suggest that the dialectal contrast within the Illyrian continuum was any greater e.g. than that of Serbo-Croatian.

People also wouldn't accept it.

A small but important amount of speakers would embrace it and prompt its revival... a bit like the Celtic languages in western Europe today.

And from a different perspecive, imagine an ancient language being brought back and used in daily converstation. Do you know how much vocabulary it would lack? Traffic lights, roundabout, car, TV, computer, light bulb. These are just a few words for objects we meet every day. One'd have to make up a big amount of words out of thin air to make it even usable.

via neologisms aso.

Btw, Štokavian (the base for Serbo-Croatian) was called Illyrian in the 19th century, so in a way people are (still/already) speaking it.

The term was hijacked and wrongly applied to another language that bears no relation to Illyrian whatsoever.