Messapian Personal Anthroponyms

Abstract

This article follows two previous publications dedicated respectively to the Venetic and Illyrian personal anthroponyms. This article investigates the Messapian personal anthroponyms from the Monumenta Linguae Messapicae. The meaning of their roots was identified by comparing each one of them with corresponding lexemes in the present surviving Slavic languages. The result is that the Messapian personal anthroponyms having Slavic roots is 52.91%, which permits us to estimate that in the period from the VI to the I cen. BC roughly 53% of the Messapian population had Slavic ascendancies. This highlights that Slavs were already present in Europe well before the VII cen. A.D. date, according to the generally accepted theory, of the Slav late arrival. The logical consequence of this is that this theory is wrong and should be rejected.