Albanian dialects Gheg, Tosk. Communities of Arbëreshë- and Arvanitika-speakers

Albanian is spoken by over 8 million people primarily in Albania, Kosovo, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, but also by smaller numbers of ethnic Albanians in other parts of the Balkans, along the eastern coast of Italy and in Sicily, as well other emigrant groups.

The Albanian language has no living close relatives among the modern IE languages. There is no consensus over its origin and dialectal classification, although some scholars derive it from Illyrian, and others claim that it derives from Thracian.

While it is considered established that the Albanians originated in the Balkans, the exact location from which they spread out is hard to pinpoint. Despite varied claims, the Albanians probably came from farther north and inland than would suggest the present borders of Albania, with a homeland concentrated in the mountains.

NOTE. Given the overwhelming amount of shepherding and mountaineering vocabulary as well as the extensive influence of Latin, it is more likely the Albanians come from north of the Jireček line, on the Latin-speaking side, perhaps in part from the late Roman province of Dardania from the western Balkans. However, archaeology has more convincingly pointed to the early Byzantine province of Praevitana (modern northern Albania) which shows an area where a primarily shepherding, transhumance population of Illyrians retained their culture.

The period in which Proto-Albanian and Latin interacted was protracted and drawn out over six centuries, 1^st c. AD to 6^th or 7^th c. AD. This is born out into roughly three layers of borrowings, the largest number belonging to the second layer. The first, with the fewest borrowings, was a time of less important interaction. The final period, probably preceding the Slavic or Germanic invasions, also has a notably smaller amount of borrowings. Each layer is characterized by a different treatment of most vowels, the first layer having several that follow the evolution of Early Proto-Albanian into Albanian; later layers reflect vowel changes endemic to Late Latin and presumably Proto-Romance. Other formative changes include the syncretism of several noun case endings, especially in the plural, as well as a large scale palatalization.

A brief period followed, between 7^th c. AD and 9^th c. AD, that was marked by heavy borrowings from Southern Slavic, some of which predate the o→a shift common to the modern forms of this language group. Starting in the latter 9^th c. AD, a period followed of protracted contact with the Proto-Romanians, or Vlachs, though lexical borrowing seems to have been mostly one sided – from Albanian into Romanian. Such a borrowing indicates that the Romanians migrated from an area where the majority was Slavic (i.e. Middle Bulgarian) to an area with a majority of Albanian speakers, i.e. Dardania, where Vlachs are recorded in the 10^th c. AD. This fact places the Albanians at a rather early date in the Western or Central Balkans, most likely in the region of Kosovo and Northern Albania.

References to the existence of Albanian as a distinct language survive from 14^th c. AD, but without recording any specific words. The oldest surviving documents written in Albanian are the Formula e Pagëzimit (Baptismal formula), Un’te paghesont’ pr’emenit t’Atit e t’Birit e t’Spirit Senit, “I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit”, recorded by Pal Engjelli, Bishop of Durres in 1462 in the Gheg dialect, and some New Testament verses from that period.

A. Phrygian

The Phrygian language was the IE language spoken by the Phrygians, a people that settled in Asia Minor during the Bronze Age. It survived probably into the 6^th century AD, when it was replaced by Greek

Phrygian region and expanded Kingdom.

Ancient historians and myths sometimes did associate Phrygian with Thracian and maybe even Armenian, on grounds of classical sources. Herodotus recorded the Macedonian account that Phrygians migrated into Asia Minor from Thrace (7.73). Later in the text (7.73), Herodotus states that the Armenians were colonists of the Phrygians, still considered the same in the time of Xerxes I. The earliest mention of Phrygian in Greek sources, in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, depicts it as different from Trojan: in the hymn, Aphrodite, disguising herself as a mortal to seduce the Trojan prince Anchises, tells him:

“Otreus of famous name is my father, if so be you have heard of him, and he reigns over all Phrygia rich in fortresses. But I know your speech well beside my own, for a Trojan nurse brought me up at home”. Of Trojan, unfortunately, nothing is known.

Phrygian is attested by two corpora, one, Palaeo-Phrygian, from around 800 BC and later, and another after a period of several centuries, Neo-Phrygian, from around the beginning of the Common Era. The Palaeo-Phrygian corpus is further divided geographically into inscriptions of Midas-city, Gordion, Central, Bithynia, Pteria, Tyana, Daskyleion, Bayindir, and “various” (documents divers). The Mysian inscriptions show a language classified as a separate Phrygian dialect, written in an alphabet with an additional letter, the “Mysian s”. We can reconstruct some words with the help of some inscriptions written with a script similar to the Greek one.

Phrygian inscription in Midas City.

Ancient historians and myths sometimes did associate Phrygian with Thracian and maybe even Armenian, on grounds of classical sources. Herodotus recorded the Macedonian account that Phrygians migrated into Asia Minor from Thrace (7.73). Later in the text (7.73), Herodotus states that the Armenians were colonists of the Phrygians, still considered the same in the time of Xerxes I. The earliest mention of Phrygian in Greek sources, in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, depicts it as different from Trojan: in the hymn, Aphrodite, disguising herself as a mortal to seduce the Trojan prince Anchises, tells him

“Otreus of famous name is my father, if so be you have heard of him, and he reigns over all Phrygia rich in fortresses. But I know your speech well beside my own, for a Trojan nurse brought me up at home”. Of Trojan, unfortunately, nothing is known.

Its structure, what can be recovered from it, was typically Indo-European, with nouns declined for case (at least four), gender (three) and number (singular and plural), while the verbs are conjugated for tense, voice, mood, person and number.

Phrygian seems to exhibit an augment, like Greek and Armenian, as in Phryg. eberet, probably corresponding to PIE *é-b^her-e-t (cf. Gk. epheret).

A sizable body of Phrygian words are theoretically known; however, the meaning and etymologies and even correct forms of many Phrygian words (mostly extracted from inscriptions) are still being debated.

Phrygian words with possible PIE origin and Graeco-Armenian cognates include:

·  Phryg. bekos, “bread”, from PIE *b^heh₃g-; cf. Gk. p^hōgō, “to roast”.

·  Phryg. bedu, “water”, from PIE *wed-; cf. Arm. get, “river”.

·  Phryg. anar, “husband”, “man”, PIE *h₂ner-, “man”; cf. Gk. aner-, “man, husband”.

·  Phryg. belte, “swamp”, from PIE root *b^hel-, “to gleam”; cf. Gk. baltos, “swamp”.

·  Phryg. brater, “brother”, from PIE *b^hreh₂ter-; cf. Gk. p^hrāter-.

·  Phryg. ad-daket, “does, causes”, from PIE stem *d^hē-k-; cf. Gk. et^hēka.

·  Phryg. germe, “warm”, from PIE *g^wher-mo-; cf. Gk. t^hermos.

·  Phryg. gdan, “earth”, from PIE *d^hg^hom-; cf. Gk. k^ht^hōn.

NOTE. For more information on similarities between Greek and Phrygian, see Neumann Phrygisch und Griechisch (1988).

B. Illyrian

The Illyrian languages are a group of Indo-European languages that were spoken in the western part of the Balkans in former times by ethnic groups identified as Illyrians: Delmatae, Pannoni, Illyrioi, Autariates, Taulanti.

Roman provinces in the Balkans, 2nd century AD: A. Spalatum (Split); 1. Raetia; 2. Noricum; 3. Pannonia; 4. Illyricum; 5. Dacia; 6. Moesia; 7. Tracia.

The main source of authoritative information about the Illyrian language consists of a handful of Illyrian words cited in classical sources, and numerous examples of Illyrian anthroponyms, ethnonyms, toponyms and hydronyms. Some sound-changes and other language features are deduced from what remains of the Illyrian languages, but because no writings in Illyrian are known, there is not sufficient evidence to clarify its place within the Indo-European language family aside from its probable Centum nature.

NOTE. A grouping of Illyrian with the Messapian language has been proposed for about a century, but remains an unproven hypothesis. The theory is based on classical sources, archaeology, as well as onomastic considerations. Messapian material culture bears a number of similarities to Illyrian material culture. Some Messapian anthroponyms have close Illyrian equivalents. A relation to the Venetic language and Liburnian language, once spoken in northeastern Italy and Liburnia respectively, is also proposed. A grouping of Illyrian with the Thracian and Dacian language in a “Thraco-Illyrian” group or branch, an idea popular in the first half of the 20^th century, is now generally rejected due to a lack of sustaining evidence, and due to what may be evidence to the contrary. Also, the hypothesis that the modern Albanian language is a surviving Illyrian language remains very controversial among linguists.

B. Thracian

Excluding Dacian, whose status as a Thracian language is disputed, Thracian was spoken in what is now southern Bulgaria, parts of Serbia, the Republic of Macedonia, Northern Greece – especially prior to Ancient Macedonian expansion –, throughout Thrace (including European Turkey) and in parts of Bithynia (North-Western Asiatic Turkey). Most of the Thracians were eventually Hellenized (in the province of Thrace) or Romanized (in Moesia, Dacia, etc.), with the last remnants surviving in remote areas until the 5^th century AD.

NOTE. As an extinct language with only a few short inscriptions attributed to it (v.i.), there is little known about the Thracian language, but a number of features are agreed upon. A number of probable Thracian words are found in inscriptions – most of them written with Greek script – on buildings, coins, and other artifacts. Some Greek lexical elements may derive from Thracian, such as balios, “dappled” (< PIE *b^hel-, “to shine”, Pokorny also cites Illyrian as possible source), bounos, “hill, mound”, etc.

C. Dacian

The Dacian language was an Indo-European language spoken by the ancient people of Dacia. It is often considered to have been either a northern variant of the Thracian language, or closely related to it.