RRETH PELLAZGËVE SIPAS ONOMASTIKËS ILIRE-SHQIPTARE
ON THE PELASGIANS ACCORDING TO ILLYRIAN-ALBANIAN ONOMASTICS

Summary/Abstract: On the Pelsagian problem there few studies. Ancient authors mention the Pelasgians and several later Albanian and foreign researchers starting from Hahn, and to the later Spiro N. Konda, Dhimitër Pilika, Nermin Vlora Falasci, Enzo Gatti, Mathieu Aref, Niko Stylo, and others, hold that the Pelasgians were the predecessors of Illyrians- Albanians in the Illyric (Balkan) Peninsula and wider. In throwing light on the Pelasgic issue, in the absence of written texts in the Pelasgian language, Illyrian or old Albanian, onomastics is of paramount importance (anthroponyms, patronyms, ethnonyms, or tribal names, oykonyms, oronyms, hidronyms, etc.), some of which are very ancient onoms may be explained through the present-day Albanian. Apart from the importance of onomastics in explaining difficult Pelasgic issues we have gathered from the field two toponyms indicating Pelasgians or the name Pelasg: Shkëmbi Pellazgut (Pelasgian Rock) in the village of Sëmuraj (Pellumbas) of Berat and Ledhi Pellazgjik (Pelasgian Bank) in the village of Vila in the vicinity of Athens, the latter toponym taken from the Arvanites-Albanian inhabitants of the vicinity of Athens who said that in Attics there existed over 100 villages inhabited mainly by native Albanians. Aside from the two above-mentioned toponyms the author took note also of two patronyms bearing the word pellazg: Pellazgu in the vicinity of Korçë and Pellazgos in the vicinity of the town of Lamia in Greece. According to ancient authors the divine temples in Athens too, the toponyms Acropolis and Parthenon were built by Pelasgians and that Greece was called Pelasgia, before the arrival of Greeks.

• Details
• Contents