Messapic and Albanian: Linguistic Affiliation and the Age of Albanian

Messapic is an Indo-European language attested in inscriptions from pre-Roman Apulia. Its possible relationship with the prehistoric ancestor of Albanian remains disputed. Messapic bilia and Albanian bijë, both meaning “daughter”, offer a noteworthy comparison, but the limited corpus does not yet support a secure classification based on regular sound correspondences and shared morphological innovations. This review considers three claims often presented together: that Messapic and Albanian are related, that Messapic was Albanian’s closest ancient relative, and that Messapic can establish the age of Albanian. The first is uncontroversial at the broad Indo-European level; a particularly close relationship is plausible but not established; the third claim does not follow. The earliest surviving Albanian texts are late medieval, whereas the spoken language has a much older prehistory.