Re: OT (?) Balkan Sprachbund (was: Relative clauses)

There was indeed a period in which Greece was severely depopulated,
namely the Dark Ages. Whence did Toynbee infer the immigration of
Slavs? It sounds like a very intriguing topic, much like the ethnic
history of the Japanese.

Eugene

On 6/29/06, Roger Mills <rfmilly@...> wrote:
> Eldin Raigmore wrote:
>
> > Naturally.  Modern Greek is in that [Balkan] Sprachbund, but before the
> > fall of the
> > Roman Empire that Sprachbund wouldn't have existed, at least not in its
> > present form.
> >
> An interesting question: What is really known about the ethnic makeup of the
> Balkans prior to the Slavic influx-- aside from a few vague names
> "Dalmatians, Illyrians, Dacians, Macedonians" et al.-- and, I gather, some
> inscriptions difficult to interpret. (The Romanians and the occasional
> Albanian on Cybalist get very excited about these questions :-)) ).  Were
> even the Albanians indigenous to the area, or later arrivals (late Roman
> period, or even later, Byzantine?).
>
> Apparently the pre-Slavic population of Bulgaria was Turkic (Central Asian?)
> in origin (leftovers from the Hunnic invasions? Who was there before that?).
> One statement in Toynbee really surprised me (assuming he's correct)-- viz.,
> that the present-day population of Greece is something like 50% Slavic in
> origin. (There was, according to him, a period when Greece or at least the
> Peloponnese, became severely depopulated; Slavic immigrants moved in.) I
> wonder if modern DNA analysis bears this out in any way?
>
> In any case the Slavic movement into the entire area must have been massive,
> no?
>