International scientific conference on Albanology and Historical Linguistics
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Classification of Italianisms in Old Albanian (16th-17th centuries): Learned vs. Vernacular Loanwords
The paper discusses the significant influence of Italian loanwords on the Albanian language, particularly in relation to Old Albanian from the 16th and 17th centuries. It focuses on classifying loanwords based on their mode of transmission, distinguishing between literary or learned loanwords and vernacular loanwords derived from spoken language.
Recent studies have identified almost 6,000 Italian loanwords, including both historical and contemporary entries.
Until the 1990s, there was a gap in systematic studies on Italianisms, partly due to linguistic purism in Albanian linguistics post-World War II. However, recent research, particularly from scholars like Jorgaqi, Lafe, and Dashi, as well as contributions from Landi, Vicario, and Di Giovine has renewed interest in this area. Studies have focused on 16th- and 17th-century Albanian texts, utilizing historical lexicons and concordances.
New technologies have greatly aided diachronic studies of Albanian, facilitating critical editions of ancient texts and electronic concordances. Projects such as the DPEWA (Digitales Philologisch-Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altalbanischen (15.-18. Jh.)) at the University of Munich have advanced this field of research by also examining the geographical distribution of lexemes in Albanian dialects. This provides valuable insight into the origin of Romanisms.
The DPEWA project identified around 950 Italianisms in Old Albanian, with 126 documented for the first time. However, the set of loanwords is heterogeneous in terms of status and origin and therefore requires more precise classification. This paper classifies these loanwords based on their mode of transmission, distinguishing between learned and vernacular loanwords. Çabej had already highlighted this distinction in his study of Latinisms in Albanian as an issue that had not received adequate attention until then.
First of all, among learned borrowings, it is necessary to distinguish the terms that were borrowed directly from Italian texts which served as models for translation. These are the so-called “foreign words” used momentarily without continuity. The Buzuku Missal, for instance, contains 350 Italianisms, with around 113 being literary in origin. After the Buzuku Missal, many of these borrowings disappeared, but many of them reappear in modern times as reborrowings, often in the form of internationalisms and with new meanings.
For many learned loanwords, it is necessary to distinguish between Italianisms and Latinisms depending on the model text. These cases of 'double etymology', as described by Alexandru Graur, still represent an open problem in Albanian linguistics today. As distinct from learned borrowings or cultisms, there are borrowings that have entered the language through spoken use. This paper attempts to outline some useful classification criteria in order to distinguish these borrowings. Vernacular loanwords, influenced by spoken language, are primarily Venetian in origin, dating back to the 13th-14th centuries. Examples include almise ‘tools’ < ven. armizo; avoj < ven. avolio ‘ivory’; baticë < ven. bataizza; fëdigë < ven. fadiga; kurtjelë ‘knife’ < ven. cortela; kusi ‘pot’ < ven. cusina; lexon ‘read’ < ven. lezer; rrufë ‘catarrh’ < ven. rufa; rrugë < ven. ruga; tratë ‘trawl’ < ven. trata. Other criteria for distinguishing vernacular loanwords include “intimate borrowings” from everyday bilingualism, as seen in the Buzuku Missal with terms like fashë, fior, mulë, maganjë 'defect', as well as functional elements such as adverbs, conjunctions and interjections. A fundamental criterion for identifying loanwords are phonological and semantic changes, and the presence of formal variants over time and across space, as well as their incorporation into derivational systems.
The text concludes that, although learned and vernacular loanwords are interconnected and cannot be clearly distinguished from one another, it is estimated that of the 950 Italianisms, 232 belong to the vernacular category and 718 to the learned category. Many of these loanwords declined amid the cultural and literary setbacks of the late 17th century, resulting from the political and social circumstances of this difficult period in Albanian history.
The cult of Alexander in Mirdita according to the narratives of the Franciscan missionaries of the XVII century
The author, relying on material recently discovered in an archive in Venice by prof. Lucia Nadin and recently published online in the journal Studime Filologjike 1-2 2021, which contains the recollections of the Franciscan missionary Cherubino da Trento from his stay in northern Albania, focused on his impressive description, in 1643, of a great feast held in the church of St. Alexander on Mount Orosh in Mirdita. On the basis of Father Cherubino's references to the patron saint of the Church, the author identifies him as Alexander of Drizipara, a Roman legionary who was martyred in Drizipara in Thrace around the year 300. The very widespread cult of Alexander in Albania, carried out in the many churches dedicated to this saint, may have an explanation, which the author puts forward as a hypothesis, establishing a link between the cult of Saint Alexander and the popular memory or subconscious of Alexander the Great as the ancestor of the Albanians. In support of this hypothesis, she presents numerous evidences of the existence of a popular tradition telling about the Albanian origin of Leka the Great, that reaches up to the beginning of the 20th century with the descriptions of the foreign travellers Karl Otten and Rose Lane about the stories of the highlanders about Alexander, and earlier with the data of the old Albanian and foreign authors about the connections of Alexander with the Albanians.
The author also raises the question of whether this is a tradition invented by intellectuals or an authentic popular tradition.
Analysing the thesis of the historians Hobsbawm and Ranger about the “invention of traditions”, she comes to the conclusion that in the case of the Albanian tradition about Alexander, none of the conditions defined by Hobsbawm for the invention of a tradition are fulfilled, and that the memory of the legendary hero of antiquity comes as a continuation over the centuries, based on historical facts as well as on the “general opinion of our nation” (Fr. Blanchus in his apology of Skanderbeg), on the basis of which, for example, our national currency is called lek in his honour and his image appears on several coins and banknotes of the independence period.
Konferencë shkencore “kontributi i Prof. Seit Mansakut në gjuhësinë shqiptare”
Më 27 maj 2022 Instituti i Gjuhësisë dhe i Letërsisë i ASA-s në bashkëpunim me Universitetin “Eqrem Çabej” të Gjirokastrës organizuan një konferencë kushtuar kontributit shkencor të prof. Seit Mansakut në 80-vjetorin e lindjes së tij. Në konferencë morën pjesë aktive një numër i madh kumtuesish, profesorë në pension por aktivë në jetën shkencore, kolegë të vjetër e më të rinj të prof. Mansakut, ish studentë të tij dhe sot studiues të albanologjisë. Ishin të pranishëm edhe të afërm, miq e dashamirës të prof. Mansakut. Fjalën e hapjes e mbajti prof.as.dr. Adelina Çerpja, përgjegjëse e Departamentit të Gramatikës në IGJL, e cila mbasi përshëndeti pjesëmarrësit dhe u uroi mirëseardhjen,vlerësoi lart figurën shkencore dhe njerëzore të prof. Seitit dhe ndikimin e tij në studimet albanologjike.
Konferencë përkujtimore për veprën e Albanologut Norbert Jokl
Më 6 maj 2022 u mbushën 80 vjet nga vdekja tragjike e albanologut të shquar Norbert Jokl si pasojë e mizorisë naziste. Me këtë rast Instituti i Gjuhësisë i Universitetit të Vjenës organizoi në datën 5 maj 2022 një konferencë përkujtimore për veprën e tij. Në konferencë ishin ftuar specialistë nga fusha e gjuhësisë historike dhe albanologjia, për të ndriçuar aspekte të ndryshme të veprës shkencore të Joklit dhe të ndikimit të saj në albanologjinë e mëvonshme. Konferenca u mbajt në një nga sallat e pallatit perandorak Hofburg, në qendrën historike të Vjenës.
The component of the lexicon of gheg origin in standard Albanian
The aim of the article is to show that a large part of the lexicon of standard Albanian, which is based on the Tosk dialect, has its origins in the Gheg literature. The author has tried, with the linguistic tools at her disposal, to determine the Gheg origin of the spread of some categories of lexemes in standard Albanian and in the literary language. However, as researchers in the field have also noted, the paths of transition from the regional lexicon to that of the literary language are very difficult to follow, and she does not pretend to have the last word in this endeavour. The author has undertaken a research for the identification of lexemes of Gheg origin in the common literary Albanian, defining some criteria for the definition of the Gheg origin of lexemes that are considered common to the language from the present viewpoint. These lexical groups represent only a small part of the Geg lexicon in Common Albanian. A comprehensive study of the portion of the Geg lexicon in the standard language would confirm the koine concept formulated by Kostallari with regard to the field of the lexicon.
Jokl's contribution to albanian ethnogenesis in a critical analysis of Seliščev's work
At the beginning of the XXth century, the approach to the autochthony of the Albanians in their present territories, which was not in doubt in the XIXth century, was revised. Especially with the studies of the Romanist and Balkanologist G. Weigand, the Thracian thesis of the origin of the Albanians spread among linguists, meaning an immigration from the eastern parts of the Balkan peninsula, a thesis that suited the nationalistic politics of the neighbouring Slavic countries. It is in this context that the work of the Russian Slavist A. M. Seliščev, Slavjanskoe naselennie v Albanii (The Slavic Population in Albania), Sofia 1930, should be placed, in which, as a result of his efforts to discover and comprehensively investigate the vanished Slavic population of Albania, he came to the conclusion that the Albanians migrated to their present homeland after the Slavs and assimilated them. The article focuses on the extensive critical study that the prominent Albanologist and Slavist N. Jokl undertook of Seliščev's work, in which he first of all demolished some of Weigand's arguments used by Seliščev to prove the late arrival of the Albanians in their lands. Jokl's study is of particular importance for Albanian-Slavic historical-linguistic relations, as it examines them from an Albanological point of view, correcting the deficiencies resulting from Seliščev's incomplete knowledge of the history of the Albanian language.
The regional spread of albanian slavisms and their place in the standard albanian lexicon
The Slavic elements of Albanian reflect, among other things, the way the Slavs settled in the Albanian-speaking territories. Field research of Slavic borrowings shows that their geographical spread has a regional character, thus coinciding with the areas of more intensive contacts of Slavic and Albanian populations. These are generally the border areas of the Albanian territory, in which we find a relatively large number of Slavisms, while in the interior areas Slavisms are rarer. Additionally, it is important to note here that the lexical meaning of Albanian Slavisms indicates that this corpus is mostly connected to aspects of rural life in the villages across the border areas. Despite their local and rural character, a significant number of Slavisms have become part of the fund of the common language and the standard Albanian language. Some of these lexemes that have been generalized in the language were originally of a specific dialect. The study of the language of old Gheg Albanian texts helps us to obtain the earliest written evidence of the entry of certain Slavisms into Albanian. By comparing these Slavisms with the state of their dialectal distribution in the territory of Albanian, we can determine the dialectal origin of the spread of a Slavism in other dialects. In this way we can specify the northern Gheg origin of some Slavisms that today are widespread in the territory of Albanian and are part of the standard language. The paper analyses a corpus of several different words of the standard language whose presence in old Albanian texts (XVI-XVII centuries) indicate that they originally belonged to the north Gheg dialect, showing thus the path of the spread of Slavisms in the literary written language up to the standard Albanian language . These results show that the Slavic element of Albanian should not be viewed as being undifferentiated, but based on its specific weight in the Albanian lexicon, with some of it having penetrated in the general use of the language and some being limited in restricted local use.