| Group | Single |
| Geography | Messapic tribes of Yapigi and Yapodi lived in south-eastern Italy (Apulia). |
| History | Messapic was spoken by Illyrian tribes who crossed the Adriatic and settled in Italy, from the 8th to the 1st century BC, until Rome conquered this territory and Latin colonists assimilated aboriginal languages. Though Messapic was originally an Illyrian dialect, it possessed several peculiar features. |
| Phonetics | Messapic phonetics includes the transition of Indo-European a, e, o to e, a - the same way as in Illyrian. Diphthongs were all preserved: ai, au, eu, oi, ei, as well as sonant vowels l, r, m, n and a lot Indo-European consonants. |
| Morphology | Messapic used 5 cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and instrumental). Several case forms show similarity to Italic: dative plural -bos, instrumental plural -bis. Some forms of perfect, aorist and optative mood were discovered. The studies of Messapic are complicated due to the lack of lexical data - too many personal names and little morphological material. |
| Writing | Messapic alphabet |
| Close Contacts | Illyrian; of Italic languages, Messapic ontacted much with Oscan, later Latin. |
| Sample | klohi zis thotoria marta pido vastei basta
veinan aran in daranthoa vasti staboos xohedonas daxtassi vaanetos inthi trigonoxo a staboos xohetthihi dazimaihi beiliihi inthi rexxorixoa kazareihi xohetthihi toeihithi dazohonnihi inthi vastima daxtas kratheheihi inthi ardannoa poxxonnihi a imarnaihi. Undeciphered. |
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