Po redaktohet Illyrians (paragraf)

==== Linguistic evidence and subgrouping ====
{{Indo-European topics}}
Modern studies about Illyrian onomastics, the main field via which the Illyrians have been linguistically investigated as no written records have been found, began in the 1920s and sought to more accurately define Illyrian tribes, the commonalities, relations and differences between each other as they were conditioned by specific local cultural, ecological and economic factors, which further subdivided them into different groupings.{{sfn|Stipčević|1977|p=15}}{{Sfn|Fine|1983|pp=9–10}} This approach has led in contemporary research in the definition of three main onomastic provinces in which Illyrian personal names appear near exclusively in the archaeological material of each province. The southern Illyrian or south-eastern Dalmatian province was the area of the proper Illyrians (the core of which was the territory of ''Illyrii proprie dicti'' of the classical authors, located in modern Albania) and includes most of [[Albania]], [[Montenegro]] and their hinterlands. This area extended along the Adriatic coast from the [[Aoos|Aous valley]]<ref name="Wilkes92"/> in the south, up to and beyond the [[Neretva]] valley in the north.<ref name="Wilkes92">{{harvnb|Wilkes|1992|p=92}}</ref>{{sfn|De Simone|2017|p=1869}} The second onomastic province, the central Illyrian or middle Dalmatian-Pannonian province began to its north and covered a larger area than the southern province. It extended along the Adriatic coast between the [[Krka (Croatia)|Krka]] and [[Cetina]] rivers, covered much of [[Bosnia]] (except for its northern regions), central Dalmatia ([[Lika]]) and its hinterland in the central Balkans included western [[Serbia]] and [[Sandžak]]. The third onomastic province further to the north defined as North Adriatic area includes [[Liburnia]] and the region of modern [[Ljubljana]] in [[Slovenia]]. It is part of a larger linguistic area different from Illyrian that also comprises [[Venetic language|Venetic]] and its [[Istria]]n variety. These areas are not strictly defined geographically as there was some overlap between them.{{Sfn|Wilkes|1992|p=70}}{{sfn|Polomé|1982|p=867}}{{sfn|De Simone|2017|p=1869}} The region of the [[Dardani]] (modern Kosovo, parts of northern [[North Macedonia]], parts of eastern Serbia) saw the overlap of the southern Illyrian and Dalmatian onomastic provinces. Local Illyrian anthroponymy is also found in the area.{{sfn|Wilkes|1992|p=86}}

In its onomastics, southern Illyrian (or south-east Dalmatian) has close relations with [[Messapic language|Messapic]]. Most of these relations are shared with the central Dalmatian area.{{sfn|Polomé|1983|p=537}}  In older scholarship (Crossland (1982)), some [[toponyms]] in central and northern Greece show phonetic characteristics that were thought to{{according to whom|date=August 2020}} indicate that Illyrians or closely related peoples were settled in those regions before the introduction of the [[Greek language]].{{dubious|date=August 2020}}{{sfn|Crossland|1982|pp=841–842}} However, such views largely relied on subjective ancient testimonies and are not supported by the earliest evidence (epigraphic etc.).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Giannakis|first1=Georgios|last2=Crespo|first2=Emilio|last3=Filos|first3=Panagiotis|title=Studies in Ancient Greek Dialects: From Central Greece to the Black Sea|date=2017|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG|isbn=9783110532135|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UrxGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA224|language=en |quote=Crossland posited a posited (partial) Hellenization of pre-classical Epirus, with Greek elites ruling over non-Greek populations; cf. Nilsson (1909). A very brief synopsis of older works and views is available in Kokoszko&Witczak (2009,112) who in turn also favor a 'Hellenization' scenario Nonetheless, such views, which rely largely on some subjective ancient testimonies, are no supported by the earliest (and not only) epigraphic evidence.|page=222}}</ref>