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The Illyrian languages are a group of Indo-European languages that were spoken in the western part of the Balkans in pre-Roman times. Around 230 BC the speakers of these languages were romanized (in some cases completely, as in the case of Dalmatian speakers).
From the 7th century onwards, the surviving Illyrian languages began to lose ground to other languages spoken in the area, largely Slavic languages in the rural areas and the languages descended from vernacular Latin such as Dalmatian and Venetian in the urban areas.
Today, the main source of authoritative information about the Illyrian languages consists of a few cited words and numerous examples of proper names, toponyms, and hydronyms. Since so little is known about these languages, when linguists encounter what they consider to be anomalies in their data, they humorously blame them on "Illyrian influences".
Messapian, an extinct language of South-eastern Italy is believed by some scholars to be a dialect of Illyrian, based on the personal names found on the tomb inscriptions.
Some linguists believe the modern Albanian language to be a derivative of an Illyrian language, but the Messapian inscriptions and other known words from records suggest that Albanian and Illyrian lie on different branches of the Indo-European linguistic tree.
Some examples of Illyrian names are Epicadus, Bato, Gentius, Temus, Pinnes/Pinnius, Monounios, Grabus, Epidius, Verzo, Zanatis.
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