Liburnian language
| Liburnian | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Southwestern Croatia |
| Region | Northwestern Balkans |
| Ethnicity | Liburnians |
| Extinct | Late Antiquity |
|
Indo-European
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
|
Linguist list
|
xli |
| Glottolog | None |
The Liburnian language is an extinct language which was spoken by the ancient Liburnians, who occupied Liburnia in classical times. Classification of the Liburnian language is not clearly established; it is reckoned as an Indo-European language with significant proportion of the Pre-Indo-European elements from wider area of the ancient Mediterranean.
No writings in Liburnian are known. The only Liburnian linguistic remains are Liburnian toponyms and some family and personal names in Liburnia, in Latinized form from the 1st century AD. Smaller differences found in the archaeological material of narrower regions in Liburnia are in a certain measure reflected also in these scarce linguistic remains. This caused many speculations about their language.
Studying onomastics of Roman province of Dalmatia, Géza Alföldy has concluded that the Liburni and Histri belonged to the Venetic language area. In particular, some Liburnian anthroponyms show strong Venetic affinities, a few similar names and common roots, such as Vols-, Volt-, and Host- (< PIE *ghos-ti-, "stranger, guest, host"). Liburnian and Venetic names sometimes also share suffixes in common, such as -icus and -ocus.
Jürgen Untermann was focused more to Liburnian onomastics and has linked only Liburnians at the eastern Istrian coast to Veneti; he has defined three groups of names: one in northern Liburnia structurally similar to those of Histri and Veneti; another linked to the Dalmatae, Iapodes and other Illyrians in the Liburnian mainland in the south of their territory; and a third group of names common throughout all Liburnian territory without any relations to their neighborhood.
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Wikipedia