Quote Originally Posted by phoenix[illusion] View Post
there is no recorded dukljans as large tribe which came, it could be only sub group of one of two large tribe which came: serbs and croats.
What are the sources for Serbs and Croats being the only two large Slavic tribes which came to the Balkans? Because, you know, the DAI was written at a time when those two groups had already established themselves quite well and thus more likely represents the contemporary view rather than the view from the times of the Slavic settlement.
In my view, although it's certainly not categorical, when the Slavs came here, they were all divided to their own relatively small tribes, with no idea of persistent political unity (beyond the idea of the war-chieftain gathering "all" tribes for a great raid etc.) And in time only the tribes of the Serbs and the Croats managed to form an actual state organization, which expanded over the other Slavic tribes in the region and "assimilated" them, while obviously keeping their old identities (regional and Slavic) as well. Similar is with the Bulgarian Slavs, with the difference that they owe their state organization to the non-Slavic Bulgars. F.e. when the Bulgarian state imposed its rule, culture etc. over Thrace and Macedonia, the various Slavic tribes there eventually became Bulgarians (particularly in Christian Bulgarian times where state language was Slavic) besides being f.e. Berzitis (regional) and Slavs (general). But before that they weren't Bulgarians (they were just Slavs from this or that region; the main reason why Slavicists put them into the "Bulgarian Slavs" category is because they eventually became such, just as the other tribes eventually would have become Serbian and Croatian Slavs or would've assimilated into the Byzantine Romans).