| Revision as of 12:41, 23 August 2005 editAlex '05 (talk | contribs)15,289 edits picking up a thread from Dab and adding IE peoples cat← Previous edit | Revision as of 06:14, 2 September 2005 edit undoNascigl (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users633 editsNo edit summaryNext edit → | ||
| Line 13: | Line 13: | ||
| ] | ] | ||
| ] | ] | ||
| ] | |||
Revision as of 06:14, 2 September 2005
The Illyrians were an Indo-European people who inhabited the western Balkans (from Epirus up into Pannonia) and parts of Southern Italy in ancient times into the Common era. They spoke languages grouped in the Illyrian languages, a separate branch of Indo-European.
The Illyrians may have appeared in the western part of the Balkan peninsula about 1000 BC, a period coinciding with the end of the Bronze age and the beginning of the Iron age. The Illyrians were not a unified body but a group of many different tribes. These tribes however had a common culture and spoke related languages.
Whether the Albanian language descends from an Illyrian language is disputed among scholars (see Origin of Albanians). The only attested Illyrian language is Messapian, which is not closely related to Albanian.