08-01-2009, 07:46 PM
I am currently writing a little piece on Buthrotum, a Greek-Roman town in what is now called Albania. I have a good source on the archaeology of the town, written by Neritan Ceka, one of the excavators; someone who clearly knows what he's doing. However, there's one statement I would like to see verified: Ceka proposes that the name Buthrotum may be related to an Illyrian word (rendered in Greek as bouthos) that lives on in modern Albanian as buzë, "shore". I am willing to believe this; as I said, Ceka knows what he's doing, and it sounds plausible.
Yet, to the best of my knowledge, the ancient languages of the Balkan are poorly understood, and I read in the Neue Pauly that it is open to debate whether modern Albanian is derived from ancient Illyrian. It may descend from Thracian as well. And to be honest, I have seen too many modern nations claim a relation to civilizations from the distant past, based on bad etymologies, to believe everything.
So, I will give Ceka the benefit of the doubt, but is there someone over here who can confirm that Albanian is a modern form of Illyrian?
[Edit: link to site]
Yet, to the best of my knowledge, the ancient languages of the Balkan are poorly understood, and I read in the Neue Pauly that it is open to debate whether modern Albanian is derived from ancient Illyrian. It may descend from Thracian as well. And to be honest, I have seen too many modern nations claim a relation to civilizations from the distant past, based on bad etymologies, to believe everything.
So, I will give Ceka the benefit of the doubt, but is there someone over here who can confirm that Albanian is a modern form of Illyrian?
[Edit: link to site]