Editing Dacian language (section)

=== Dacian as an Italic language ===
Another theory maintains that the Dacians spoke a language akin to Latin and that the people who settled in the Italian Peninsula shared the same ancestors.

The Romanian philologist [[Nicolae Densușianu]] argued in his book ''Dacia Preistorică'' (Prehistoric Dacia), published in 1913, that Latin and Dacian were the same language or were mutually intelligible. His work was considered by mainstream linguists to be [[pseudoscience]]. It was reprinted under the regime of [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]]. The first article to revive Densușianu's theory was an unsigned paper, "The Beginnings of the History of the Romanian People", included in ''Anale de istorie'',{{sfn|Anale de Istorie|1976}} a journal published by the [[Romanian Communist Party]]'s Institute of Historical and Social-Political Studies.{{sfn|Boia|2001|pp=103–105}} The article claimed that the Thracian language was a pre-Romance or Latin language. Arguments used in the article include for instance the absence of [[Interpreting|interpreters]] between the Dacians and the Romans, as depicted on the bas-reliefs of [[Trajan's column]].{{sfn|Boia|2001|pp=103–105}} The bibliography mentions, apart from Densușianu, the work of French academician [[Louis Armand]], an engineer who allegedly showed that "the Thraco-Dacians spoke a pre-Romance language". Similar arguments are found in [[Iosif Constantin Drăgan]]'s ''We, the Thracians'' (1976).{{sfn|Boia|2001|pp=103–105}} About the same time [[Ion Horațiu Crișan]] wrote "Burebista and His Age" (1975).{{sfn|Boia|2001|pp=103–105}} Nevertheless, the theory didn't rise to official status under Ceaușescu's rule.

Opinions about a hypothetical latinity of Dacian can be found in earlier authors: Sextus Rufus (Breviarum C.VIII, cf. Bocking Not, Dign. II, 6), Ovid (Trist. II, 188–189) and Horace (Odes, I, 20).

[[Iosif Constantin Drăgan]] and the [[New York City]]-based physician [[Napoleon Săvescu]] continued to support this theory and published a book entitled ''We Are Not Rome's Descendants''.{{sfn|''Noi nu suntem urmașii Romei''}} They also published a magazine called ''Noi, Dacii'' ("Us Dacians") and organised a yearly "International Congress of Dacology".{{sfn|Congrese Dacologie: Dacia Revival}}

Less radical theories have suggested that Dacian was either [[Italic languages|Italic]] or [[Celtic languages|Celtic]], like the speakers of those Indo-European languages in Western Europe who became Latinized and now speak Romance languages.