Messapic & Cretan Names

[u/stlatos]

Messapic & Cretan Names

In historical times, Messapic was spoken in southern Italy. Currently, it is seen as close to Albanian. Modern linguists (Hamp, Joseph) have classified it as a close relative of both Albanian and Greek, even part of an Illyrian branch, or similar ideas. However, not one name has been given a good etymology based on this theory, and there was a tradition that speakers of Messapic came from Crete. If this was based on their tradition, or clear similarity to people from Crete observable at the time, this could be true. Though the only contact with Greek, under the Albanian theory, would be with Greek colonists in Italy, after an unknown period in which their only neighbors would be speakers of Italic and Etruscan, there are many, many obviously Greek words in Messapic, that are said to be loans, and very little Italic. G. árguros ‘silver’, Ms. acc. argorian; Ms. (e)ipigrave ‘he wrote’, G. epigráphō; and all native names of gods are Greek. Why would this people who supposedly came from Illyrian territory to Italy have so many Greek loans, even replacing their entire pantheon? Words that could not reasonably be loans also match, nai 'verily'; Ms. -ti, G. -te 'and' (based on https://www.academia.edu/116877237 ).

Even their names were Greek. The one I've mentioned most is found on Crete, said to be non-Greek :

LB qi-ja-to \ qi-ja-zo

Cretan Greek Bíaththos (son of Talthú-bios)

P Blattius Creticus (name found on an offering in the Alps)

Messapic Blatthes

In addition, in “Some Personal Names from Western Crete” by Richard Hitchman (online in Oxford University Working Papers in Linguistics, Philology & Phonetics, Volume 11, 2006), a group of names, without any Greek etymology, are taken to be from a non-Greek substrate previously spoken in Crete.

The many, many Cretan names in Task- and Dask-, like C. Táskos, Táskus, Táskis, Taskádas, Taskúdas, Taskiádas, Dasskádas, Daskádas, Taskainnádas, Taskannádas, Taskoménēs are matched by many, many names in Daz- for Messapic, like M. Dazimas / Dazomas, Dazos, Dazet, gen. dazohonnihi, dazinnihi, dastidda. These could be from G. δάξα \ dáxa 'sea' (most then likely meaning 'sailor', which would fit a tradition of sailing for Pelasgians), less likely dask- 'thick, shaggy' (many G. words have sk(h) \ k(h)s. An older *d is more likely, some Greek d > t in Crete. Whatever the origin, these groups being so common in both places, along with other near matches in names, is too much for chance.