Editing Messapic language (section)

== Language contact ==
===Italic===
[[File:Samnium.jpg|thumb|250px|Southern [[Samnium]] and northern Apulia were major regions of Iapygian-Italic linguistic contact]]
Since its settlement, Messapic was in contact with the [[Italic languages]] of the region. In the centuries before Roman annexation, the frontier between Messapic and [[Oscan language|Oscan]] ran through Frentania-[[Irpinia]]-[[Lucania]]-Apulia. An "Oscanization" and "Samnitization" process gradually took place which is attested in contemporary sources via the attestation of dual identities for settlements. In these regions an Oscan/Lucanian population and a large Daunian element intermixed in different ways. [[Larinum]], a settlement which has produced a large body of Oscan onomastics is described as a "Daunian city" and [[Horace]] who was from [[Venusia]] in the transboundary area between the Daunians and the Lucanians described himself as  "Lucanian or Apulian". The creation of Roman colonies in southern Italy after the early 4th century BCE had a great impact in the Latinization of the area.{{sfn|Torelli|1995|pp=142-144}}

A small corpus of Messapic vocabulary did pass into Latin. They include ''baltea'' from ''balta'' (swamp), ''deda'' (nurse), ''gandeia'' (sword), ''horeia'' (small fishing boat), ''mannus'' (pony/small horse) from ''manda''. Messapic was an intermediary for the passing of several, mostly ancient Greek words, into Latin such as ''paro'' (small ship) from Greek ''paroon''. The Latin form of ''Odysseus'',  ''Ulixes'' might derive from a Messapic variant like the ethnonym ''Graeci'' which may have been used in its original form by Illyrians for their Greek neighbours in Epirus. A Messapic morphological intermediary has been proposed for Latin ''lancea'' (spear) and ''balaena'' (from Greek ''phallaina''). In literature, Horace and Ennius who came from the region are the only authors of Roman antiquity who have preserved the non-Italic word ''laama'' (swamp) which might be Messapic.{{sfn|Palmer|1988|pp=39-41}}

===Ancient Greek===
The Messapic verbal form ''eipeigrave'' ('wrote, incised'; variant ''ipigrave'') is a notable loanword from Greek (with the initial stem ''eipigra-'', ''ipigra-'' deriving from [[Epigraphy|''epigrá-phō'']], ἐπιγράφω, 'inscribe, engrave'), and is probably related to the fact that the Messapic alphabet has been borrowed from an Archaic Greek script.{{Sfn|De Simone|2017|p=1846}} Other Greek loanwords include ''argora-pandes'' ('coin officials', with the first part deriving from ἄργυρος),{{Sfn|De Simone|2017|p=1846}} and names of deities like ''[[Athena|Athana]]'' and perhaps ''Aprodita'',{{Sfn|De Simone|2017|p=1843}}{{Sfn|Krahe|1946|p=199–200}} however the latter name is considered to be a Messapic theonym of an [[Proto-Indo-European mythology|Indo-European]] goddess.{{sfn|Marchesini|2021|p=16}} It coincides with the [[Proto-Albanian]] ''*apro dītā'' 'come forth brightness of the day/dawn', which could be the original source of the Ancient Greek [[Aphrodite]], and which is preserved in the Albanian phrase ''[[Afrodita|afro dita]]'' 'come forth the day/dawn', referring to the planet [[Venus]],{{sfn|Dedvukaj|2023a|pp=1–4}} and also used to refer to [[Prende]], the dawn goddess, goddess of love, beauty, fertility, health and protector of women, in the [[Albanian paganism|Albanian pagan mythology]], the equivalent of Ancient Greek Aphrodite.

The origin of the Messapic goddess ''Damatura/Damatira'' is debated: scholars like [[Vladimir I. Georgiev]] (1937), [[Eqrem Çabej]], [[Shaban Demiraj]] (1997), or [[Martin Litchfield West|Martin L. West]] (2007) have argued that she was an Illyrian goddess eventually borrowed into Greek as [[Demeter]],{{Sfn|Orel|1998|p=80}}{{sfn|West|2007|p=176}} while others like [[Paul Kretschmer]] (1939), [[Robert S. P. Beekes]] (2009) and [[Carlo De Simone (linguist)|Carlo De Simone]] (2017) have argued for the contrary.{{sfn|Beekes|2009|p=324}}{{Sfn|De Simone|2017|p=1843}} More recently it is considered a Messapic theonym of an Indo-European goddess by Marchesini (2021).{{sfn|Marchesini|2021|p=16}}