Editing Dacian language (section)

==== Baltic languages ====
There is significant evidence of at least a long-term proximity link, and possibly a genetic link, between Dacian and the modern Baltic languages. The Bulgarian linguist [[:bg:Иван Дуриданов|Ivan Duridanov]], in his first publication claimed that Thracian and Dacian are genetically linked to the Baltic languages{{sfn|Duridanov|1969}}{{sfn|Dėl žynio Žalmokšio vardo kilmės}} and in the next one he made the following classification:<blockquote>"The Thracian language formed a close group with the Baltic (resp. Balto-Slavic), the Dacian and the "[[Pelasgian]]" languages. More distant were its relations with the other Indo-European languages, and especially with Greek, the Italic and Celtic languages, which exhibit only isolated phonetic similarities with Thracian; the Tokharian and the Hittite were also distant."{{sfn|Duridanov|1976}}</blockquote>Duridanov's cognates of the [[List of reconstructed Dacian words|reconstructed Dacian words]] are found mostly in the Baltic languages, followed by Albanian without considering Thracian. Parallels have enabled linguists, using the techniques of [[comparative linguistics]], to decipher the meanings of several Dacian and Thracian placenames with, they claim, a high degree of probability. Of 74 Dacian placenames attested in primary sources and considered by Duridanov, a total of 62 have Baltic cognates, most of which were rated "certain" by Duridanov.{{sfn|Duridanov|1969|pp=95–96}} Polomé considers that these parallels are unlikely to be coincidence.{{sfn|Polomé|1982}} Duridanov's explanation is that proto-Dacian and proto-Thracian speakers were in close geographical proximity with [[Proto-Baltic language|proto-Baltic]] speakers for a prolonged period, perhaps during the period 3000–2000 BC.{{sfn|Duridanov|1969|p=100}} A number{{sfn|Vyčinienė|p=122}} of scholars such as the Russian Topоrov{{sfn|Toporov|1973|pp=51–52}} have pointed to the many close parallels between Dacian and Thracian placenames and those of the [[Baltic languages|Baltic]] language-zone&nbsp;– [[Lithuania]], [[Latvia]] and in [[East Prussia]] (where an extinct but well-documented Baltic language, [[Old Prussian]], was spoken until it was displaced by [[German language|German]] during the Middle Ages).{{sfn|Duridanov|1969|pp=9–11}}

After creating a list of names of rivers and personal names with a high number of parallels, the Romanian linguist Mircea M. Radulescu classified the Daco-Moesian and Thracian as Baltic languages of the south and also proposed such classification for [[Illyrian language|Illyrian]].{{sfn|Rădulescu|1987}} The German linguist Schall also attributed a southern Baltic classification to Dacian.<ref name="Schall H. 1974" /> The American linguist Harvey Mayer refers to both Dacian and Thracian as Baltic languages. He claims to have sufficient evidence for classifying them as Baltoidic or at least "Baltic-like," if not exactly, Baltic dialects or languages{{sfn|Mayer|1992}}{{sfn|Mayer|1996}} and classifies [[Dacians]] and [[Thracians]] as "Balts by extension".{{sfn|Mayer|1997}} According to him, [[Albanian language|Albanian]], the descendant of [[Illyrian language|Illyrian]], escaped any heavy Baltic influence of Daco-Thracian.{{sfn|Mayer|1997}} Mayer claims that he extracted an unambiguous evidence for regarding Dacian and Thracian as more tied to Lithuanian than to Latvian.{{sfn|Mayer|1996}}{{sfn|Mayer|1999}} The Czech archaeologist Kristian Turnvvald classified Dacian as [[Danube|Danubian]] Baltic.{{sfn|Turnvvald|1968|p={{Page needed|date=October 2021}}}} The Venezuelan-Lithuanian historian Jurate de Rosales classifies Dacian and Thracian as Baltic languages.{{sfn|de Rosales|2015}}{{sfn|de Rosales|2020}}

It appears from the study of hydronyms (river and lake names) that Baltic languages once predominated much farther eastwards and southwards than their modern confinement to the southeastern shores of the Baltic sea, and included regions that later became predominantly Slavic-speaking. The zone of Baltic hydronyms extends along the Baltic coast from the mouth of the [[Oder]] as far as [[Riga]], eastwards as far as the line [[Yaroslavl]]–[[Moscow]]–[[Kursk]] and southwards as far as the line Oder mouth–[[Warsaw]]–[[Kyiv]]–[[Kursk]]: it thus includes much of northern and eastern [[Poland]], [[Belarus]] and central [[European Russia]].{{sfn|Gimbutas|1963|pp=30–31 (fig. 2)}}{{sfn|Heather|2009|loc=map 16}}