Paleo-Balkan languages

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The Paleo-Balkan languages were the Indo-European languages which were spoken in the Balkans in ancient times:

Mycenean language

Ancient Greek

Because of the fragmentary evidence that has survived, it is unknown how closely related these languages were, i.e., whether they belonged to a common branch of the Indo-European language family or merely a Sprachbund. However, no linguist proposes that the Liburnian language---which is generally considered to have been closely akin to the Venetic language---is part of the same IE branch as the Greek language.

The modern languages descending from Paleo-Balkan languages include Greek and Albanian.

Dacian, Thracian, or Illyrian have all been proposed as the language from which Albanian may have evolved, but it is still disputed which language was its ancestor. Many substratum words of Paleo-Balkan origin are found in Romanian, and in some South-Slavic languages; such as Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Serbo-Croatian.

The Greek language and Phrygian language derive from the same group. It is known that the Hellenes migrated to the Greek mainland from the Northern part of Balkans in several waves between 2000 BC and 1000 BC, and also the Phrygians are known to have moved to Anatolia from Thrace, in around 1200 BC.

Paleo-Balkan languages

See also