In his latest book, Eric Hamp supports the thesis that the Illyrian language belongs to the Northwestern group, that the Albanian language is descended from Illyrian, and that Albanian is related to Messapic which is an earlier Illyrian dialect (Comparative Studies on Albanian, 2007).
Anthony 2010:5 I sin seneste bog støtter Eric Hamp teorien om at det illyriske sprog tilhører den nordvestlige gruppe, at det albanske sprog nedstammer fra illyrisk, og at albansk er relateret til messapic, der er en tidlig illyrisk dialekt (Comparative Studies on Albanian, 2007).