Editing Messapic language (section)

== History ==
[[File:Illyrian_colonies_in_Italy_550_BC_(English)_(simple_map).svg|alt=|thumb|220px|Iapygian migrations in the early first millennium BC.{{sfn|Wilkes|1992|p=68|ps=: "...the Messapian language recorded on more than 300 inscriptions is in some respects similar to Balkan Illyrian. This link is also reflected in the material culture of both shores of the southern Adriatic. Archaeologists have concluded that there was a phase of Illyrian migration into Italy early in the first millennium BC."}}{{Sfn|Matzinger|2015|p=60|ps=: "Per questi motivi lo sviluppo della propria cultura messapica, rispettivamente iapigia è oggi ampiamente considerato come il risultato di una confluenza di tradizioni culturali oltreadriatiche (cioè balcaniche, ma anche micenee in una fase anteriore e poi greco-ellenistiche) con tradizioni culturali locali già esistenti prima di questo nuovo insediamento."}}{{Sfn|Fortson|2004|p=407|ps=: "They are linked by ancient historians with Illyria, across the Adriatic sea; the linkage is borne out archeologically by similarities between Illyrian and Messapic metalwork and ceramics, and by personal names that appear in both locations. For this reason, the Messapic language has often been connected by modern scholars to Illyrian; but, as noted above, we have too little Illyrian to be able to test this claim."}}]]
The development of a distinct [[Iapygians|Iapygian]] culture in southeastern Italy is widely considered to be the result of a confluence of local Apulian material cultures with Balkanic traditions following the cross-[[Adriatic Sea|Adriatic]] migrations of proto-Messapic speakers in the early first millennium BC.{{sfn|Wilkes|1992|p=68|ps=: "...the Messapian language recorded on more than 300 inscriptions is in some respects similar to Balkan Illyrian. This link is also reflected in the material culture of both shores of the southern Adriatic. Archaeologists have concluded that there was a phase of Illyrian migration into Italy early in the first millennium BC."}}{{Sfn|Matzinger|2015|p=60|ps=: "Per questi motivi lo sviluppo della propria cultura messapica, rispettivamente iapigia è oggi ampiamente considerato come il risultato di una confluenza di tradizioni culturali oltreadriatiche (cioè balcaniche, ma anche micenee in una fase anteriore e poi greco-ellenistiche) con tradizioni culturali locali già esistenti prima di questo nuovo insediamento."}}{{Sfn|Fortson|2004|p=407|ps=: "They are linked by ancient historians with Illyria, across the Adriatic sea; the linkage is borne out archeologically by similarities between Illyrian and Messapic metalwork and ceramics, and by personal names that appear in both locations. For this reason, the Messapic language has often been connected by modern scholars to Illyrian; but, as noted above, we have too little Illyrian to be able to test this claim."}}{{sfn|Boardman|Sollberger|1982|p=231|ps=: "Apart from the spears and spear-heads of 'South-Illyrian' type (...), a connexion can be traced between Albania and Italy through various features in the pottery (shapes, handles; later on also painted geometric decoration); for although in Albania they derive from an earlier local tradition, they seem to represent new elements in Italy. In the same way we can account for the fibulae – typically Illyrian – arching in a simple curve with or without buttons, which one finds in southern Italy and in Sicily, and also some in which the curve is decorated with ' herring-bone' incisions, like examples from the eastern coast of the Adriatic. These influences appear finally in the rites of burial in tumuli in the contracted position, which are seen at this period in southern Italy, especially in Apulia. There is also evidence, as we have seen elsewhere, for supposing that in the diffusion of these Illyrian influences in Italy the Illyrian tribes which were displaced at the beginning of this period from the South-Eastern sea-board of the Adriatic and passed over into Italy may have played a significant role."}}

The Iapygians most likely left the eastern coasts of the Adriatic for the [[Italian Peninsula]] from the 11th century BC onwards,{{sfn|Boardman|Sollberger|1982|p=229, 231}} merging with pre-existing [[Italic peoples|Italic]] and [[Mycenean civilisation|Mycenean]] cultures and providing a decisive cultural and linguistic imprint.{{sfn|Salvemini|Massafra|2005|pp=7–16}} Throughout the second half of the 8th century, contacts between Messapians and Greeks must have been intense and continuous; they began to intensify after the foundation of [[Taranto|Taras]] by [[Sparta]]n colonists around the end of the century. Despite its geographical proximity with [[Magna Graecia]], however, Iapygia was generally not encompassed in [[Greek colonies|Greek colonial]] territories, and with the exception of Taras, the inhabitants were evidently able to avoid other Greek colonies in the region.{{sfn|Salvemini|Massafra|2005|pp=7–16}}{{sfn|Graham|1982|pp=112–113}} During the 6th century BC Messapia, and more marginally Peucetia, underwent Hellenizing cultural influences, mainly from the nearby Taras. The use of writing systems was introduced during this period, with the acquisition of the Laconian-Tarantine alphabet and its progressive adaptation to the Messapic language.{{sfn|Salvemini|Massafra|2005|pp=7–16}}{{Sfn|De Simone|2017|p=1840}} The oldest known Messapic texts date to the 6th century–early 5th century BCE.{{Sfn|de Simone|2016}}

[[File:Apulia Calabria et Lucania - Shepherd-c-030-031.jpg|thumb|left|upright|320px|''Apulia et Calabria'', cropped from "Map of Ancient Italy, Southern Part", by [[William R. Shepherd]], 1911.]]
The relationship between Messapians and Tarantines deteriorated over time, resulting in a series of clashes between the two peoples from the beginning of the 5th century BC.{{sfn|Salvemini|Massafra|2005|pp=7–16}} After two victories of the Tarentines, the Iapygians inflicted a decisive defeat on them, causing the fall of the aristocratic government and the implementation of a democratic one in Taras. It also froze relations between Greeks and the indigenous people for about half a century. Only in the late-5th and 6th centuries did they re-establish relationships. The second great Hellenizing wave occurred during the 4th century BC, this time also involving Daunia and marking the beginning of [[Peuceti]]an and [[Dauni]]an epigraphic records, in a local variant of the Hellenistic alphabet that replaced the older Messapic script.{{sfn|Salvemini|Massafra|2005|pp=7–16}}{{Sfn|Marchesini|2009|p=|pp=139–141}}{{Sfn|De Simone|2017|p=1841}}

Along with Messapic, [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] and [[Oscan language|Oscan]] were spoken and written during the Romanization period all over [[Apulia]],{{sfn|Salvemini|Massafra|2005|pp=17–29}} and bilingualism in Greek and Messapic was probably common in southern Apulia at that time.{{Sfn|Adams|2003|pp=116–117}} Based upon the legends of the local currencies promoted by Rome, Messapic appears to have been written in the southern zone, Oscan in the northern area, while the central sector was a trilingual area where Messapic, Greek and Oscan co-existed in inscriptions.{{sfn|Salvemini|Massafra|2005|pp=17–29}} Messapic epigraphic records seem to have ended by the 2nd century BC.{{Sfn|Marchesini|2009|ps=: "L'orizzonte cronologico più antico dell'epigrafia messapica, almeno allo stato attuale della documentazione, è da collocare quindi alla metà circa del VI secolo, stando alla cronologia dei testi più antichi di cui abbiamo parlato sopra. Più difficile è invece formulare ipotesi per quanto riguarda il limite cronologico inferiore. Per il momento l'evidenza ci mostra che non si hanno iscrizioni messapiche databili oltre il II sec. a.C."|pp=80, 141}} During the 1st century BCE, the language was replaced by Latin, which is the origin of the modern Italian Sallentine dialects of the region.{{Sfn|de Simone|2016}}