Prof. Shaban Demiraj - The Albanian Language

The Albanian Language
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(Excerpts from the work of Prof. Shaban Demiraj)
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Albanian Language belongs to the family of Indo-European Languages, along with Indo-Iranian languages, Greek language, Roman languages, Slavonic languages, Germanic languages, etc. It constitutes a separate branch in this family of languages and is not originally associated to any of the modern Indo-European languages. The Indo-European origin of the Albanian language and the place it occupies in the family of Indo-European languages was determined and proved in the middle of the 19th century, following studies in the comparative historical linguistics. It was primarily the merit of one of the leading founders of this linguistic direction, the eminent German scholar Franz Bopp, who proved scientifically that the Albanian language belonged to the family of the Indo-European languages. Franz Bopp dedicated to this issue a special work entitled “Ueber das Albanesische in sinen verwandtschaft lichen Bezichungen”, published in 1854.

The Indo-European languages are divided into two groups: Eastern languages, or satem and Western languages, or centum. The Albanian language belongs to the eastern group (satem), along with the Indo-Iranian languages, Balto-Slavonic languages and the Armenian language.

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Origins

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The origins of the Albanian language are one of the most debatable issues in the linguistic science. Its roots are found in one of the ancient languages of the Balkan Peninsula, Illyrian or Thracian. Two main theories have circulated in the linguistic literature with regard to the Albanian language: its origin in the Illyrian language and the one in the Thracian language. The Illyrian theory has had a broader historical and linguistic support. It took shape in the 18th century among the historians of the time and is further elaborated and supported from linguists.

The first attempt at explaining the origins of the Albanians and the Albanian language was made by the Swedish historian Hans Erich Thunmann in his work “ Undersuchunger liber di Geschichte der Östlichen europäischen Völker” Leipzig, 1774. Based on Latin and Byzantine historical sources as well as on linguistic and onomatopoeic documents, he came to the conclusion that the Albanians are autochthonous descendants of the ancient Illyrian population, who were not romanised, as was the case with the Thraco-Dacian population, the predecessors of the Romanians.

The theses of Illyrian origin theory of the Albanian people was defended by well known Austrian albanologue Johannas Georges von Hahn in his work Albanesische Studien, published on 1854.

Since that time on, a number of eminent scholars, such as historians, archaeologists and linguists have brought a number of historical and linguistic complementary arguments in support of the theory concerning the origin of Albanians and their language. The complete synthesis of overall studies on Albanian Language was made by out standing linguist Prof. Eqrem Çabej, which brought in the ground full scientific arguments which verify the Illyrian thesis instead of the Thracian one Some of these arguments are as follows:

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1. Albanians are currently living in some of the territories, which were inhabited by Illyrians in ancient times; on the other hand, historical sources do not speak of any Albanian migration from other territories to the present ones.

2. A number of linguistic elements such as names of things, tribes, people, etc., of Illyrian origin, are explained in the Albanian language.

3. The ancient toponymic forms of the Illyrian Albanian territories, as compared to the corresponding present-day forms, prove that they have evolved in conformity with the rules of the historical phonetics of the Albanian language.

4. Relationships between the Albanian language and the ancient Greek and Latin suggest that the Albanian language took shape and developed side by side with these two neighbouring languages on the shores of the Adriatic and Ionian seas.

5. Both archaeological documents and documents belonging to the material and psychological heritage testify to the cultural continuity from the ancient Illyrians to the present-day Albanians.

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In view of these arguments, presented in a concise way, it results that the theory of the Illyrian origin of the Albanian language is the most plausible theory, judging by historical and linguistic evidence.

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The beginnings of the written Albanian language

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Albanian is one of the ancient languages of the Balkans, but its written records, just like the Romanian language, date back only to the 15th century. The first written record in the Albanian language is what is known as the “ The Formula of Baptism” of 1462 AD. It is a short sentence in Albanian “Un te paghesont premenit Atit et birit et spertit senit” (I bless you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit), which is found in a circular (pamphlet) written in Latin by the Archbishop of Durrës, Pal Ëngjëlli, a close associate of Skanderbeg.

"The Formula of Baptism” was found in the Laurentiana Library of Milan by the well-known Romanian historian Nikolla Jorga and was published by him in 1915 “).

The French philologist, Mario Rogues, made a philological publication of this document and also its photographic reproduction in “Recherches sur les anciens textes albanais”, Paris 1932 .

The second document written in the Albanian language is a Glossary by Arnold von Harf of 1496 . In autumn of 1496 the German traveller Arnold von Harf from the village of Cologne set out on a pilgrimage tour of the “holy countries”. The tour brought him along the coast, to our country as well, where he stopped at Ulqin, Durrës and Sazan. In the course of the journey, for practical needs, he wrote down 26 words, 8 phrases and the numerals from 1 to 10 and from 100 to 1000, along with their equivalents in German. E. von Grote published this Glossary for the first time in Cologne in 1860.

Another text written in the Albanian language that dates back to the late 15th and early 16th centuries was found in a Greek manuscript of the 16th century in the Ambrosiana Library of Milan. It contains extracts translated from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, etc., and is written in the dialect of the South, in the Greek alphabet. This text written in Albanian is known in the Albanian literature by the name “The Easter Testament”.

The first book known to date to be written in the Albanian language is the “ Missal” (Meshari) (the Prayer Book) by Gjon Buzuku in AD 1555, which marks the beginning of the early Albanian literature. Only one copy of this book has survived and currently is in the Library of the Vatican. The book contains 220 pages and is written in two columns. “Missal” by Gjon Buzuku is the translation of the main parts of the catholic liturgy into Albanian. Obviously, it is an attempt by the author to introduce the Albanian language in the catholic religious services. Hence, the literary period of the Albanian language, as is the case with many other languages, has its beginnings in the translation of religious texts. Gjon Buzuku's “Missal”, the first book in the Albanian language, was discovered in Rome by one of the writers from the north of Albania, Gjon Nikollë Kazazi; but the book was lost and recovered again in 1909 by the bishop Pal Skeroi, researcher and explorer of antique.

Prof. Eqrem Çabej, who had made a thorough study of Gjon Buzuku's book, has reached the conclusion that its language “is not an uncultivated land”. “ Looking at this text objectively – he states – and judging by the fluent language that permeates it from top to bottom and by the consistent style of writing, one is convinced that a literary tradition in liturgical writings had existed earlier in Albania, at least since the late Middle Ages”. According to this author, the cultural level of Albania in the Middle Ages also supports this theory. “The cultural level of the Albanian people at that time had not been much different from the neighbouring countries and from those along the Adriatic coast in particular.”

There is also additional indirect evidence that speaks of a tradition in the writing of the Albanian language before the 15th century. The French priest Guillaume Adae(1270-1341), who for a long time served as Archbishop of Tivar (1270-1341) and came to know the Albanians well, in a report entitled “ Directorium ad passagium faciendum ad terrom sanctam” sent to the king of France Philip VI, Valua, wrote among others: “Although Albanians speak a different language from Latin, they use and write their books in the Latin alphabet”. This author speaks of books in the Albanian language, thus testifying that Albanian had been written well before the 15th century. In his work “De obsi dione scodrensi” (On the siege of Shkodër), published in Venice in 1504, the renowned humanist Marin Barleti also speaks of excerpts written in Vernacular lingua, i.e. in the language of the country, which deal with the reconstruction of the town of Shkodër.

The literature in the Albanian language among the Arbëresh of Italy also has its beginnings in the 16th century. The first work of the Arbëresh literature in the Albanian language and the second earliest work, after that of Buzuku, is the one by the Arbëresh priest Lekë Matrenga “E mbesuame e krishterë” ("The Christian Faith") published in 1592. It is a booklet of 28 pages, the translation of a catechism. The book is written in the southern dialect, in Latin alphabet, and is provided with some special letters representing the s ounds of the Albanian language that are missing in Latin.

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Dialects of the Albanian language

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The Albanian language has two dialects, the northern dialect or "gegërisht" and the southern dialect or "toskërisht". The natural boundary that separates these dialects is the river Shkumbin that runs through Elbasan, in central Albania. To the right of Shkumbin lies the northern dialect (gegërisht) and to the left lies the southern dialect (toskërisht).

There are no great differences between Albanian dialects and people can understand each other without difficulty. Nevertheless, there are some differences in the phonetic system and in the grammatical structure and lexicon, of which the most important are: the northern dialect has mouth and nasal vowels, whereas the southern dialect has only mouth vowels; the diphthong ua in toskërisht has the equivalent ue in gegërisht (grua ~ grue); the initial cluster va in toskërisht has the equivalent vo in gegërisht (vatër ~ votër); the distinct nasal â in gegërisht has the distinct equivalent ë in toskërisht (nânë ~ nënë).

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Standard Albanian

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The formation of the unified national literary language (standard language), as the most elaborated variant of the Albanian language, has gone through a long process, which began in 16th and 17th centuries, but this process entered a new stage in the 19th century, during the National Renaissance During the period of National Renaissance, two literary variants of the Albanian language developed, which are the southern literary variant and the northern literary variant. Attempts were made to bring the two variants together and unify the literary language. An issue that required immediate solution was the unification of the alphabet.. This issue was resolved at the Congress of Manastir, held in November 14-22, 1908, in the town of Manastir, which is currently situated in Macedonia. The Congress decided on the introduction of a new alphabet based entirely on the Latin alphabet . .

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In 1967, the Institute of History and Linguistics published the new draft on “ Orthography Rules of the Albanian Language“. This draft was applied in all the Albanian territories, the Republic of Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro. Meanwhile, efforts were also made in Kosovo for the unification of the literary language and its orthography.

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In 1968, a linguistic conference was held in Prishtina, Kosova, guided by the principle “one nation-one literary language“. It decided that once the orthography draft was approved and took official form, it would be applied in Kosovo as well. the Congress on orthography of the Albanian language held in Tirana in 1972. It has gone down in the history of the Albanian language and culture as the Congress of the unification of the national literary language. Delegates attended the Congress on orthography of the Albanian language from all of the Orthography Rules of the Albanian Language“ of 1967 was submitted for disc regions of Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Arberësh from Italy. The Congress adopted a resolution which, among others, stated that "the Albanian people now have a unified literary (standard) language“. The unified national literary language (standard language) was mostly based on the literary variant of the south, especially with regard to the phonetic system, but it also encompasses elements from the literary variant of the north.

Typological features of present-day standard Albanian Albanian language is structurally an analytical-synthetic language, with a dominance of synthetic elements tending towards being analytical. Part of its phonetic and grammatical features date back from the ancient Indo-European period, others have developed later.

Albanian language has its own phonological system, which comprises 7 vowel phonemes and 29 consonant phonemes. It is written in the Latin alphabet decided upon in 1908 at the Congress of Manastir.

The Albanian language has an elaborated system of grammatical forms, a binary declension system: definite and indefinite, it retains the case forms (it has five cases), three genders (masculine, feminine and neutral); the latter is going out of use and is used only with a certain category of verbal nouns .

Word order is generally free but the most common form is subject + verb + object. The vocabulary of the Albanian language consists of certain layers. Native words date back from an ancient Indo-European period (dite, Nat, dimer, moter, etc.), or are formed in a later period out of Albanian words (ditor, dimëror, i përnatshëm). Another layer consists of words borrowed from other languages as a result of the contacts the Albanian people have had with other nations over the centuries. Words have been borrowed from Greek, both ancient and modern, from Latin and Romance languages, from Slavonic and Turkish. Despite the numerous borrowings, Albanian language has retained its originality as a separate Indo-European language.

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The spread of the Albanian language

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Albanian is currently spoken by over six million people in the Republic of Albania, in Kosovo, by the Albanians of Macedonia, Montenegro and south Serbia as well as in the territory of Çamëri in Greece. Albanian is also spoken in the Albanian settlements in Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, the Ukraine and by Albanians who have migrated to various parts of the world before the Second World War and over the last decade. The Albanian language is being taught and studied in several universities and Albanological centres abroad, as in Paris, Rome, Naples, Cosenza, Palermo, Petersburg, Beijing, Munches, Bucharest, Salonika, Sophia, etc.

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