Slawisch-albanischer Sprachkontakt in vormoderner Zeit, ein kurzer Abriss

Abstract

Slavic-Albanian language contact in premodern times, a sketchy overview. As a consequence of the arrival of Slavic in the Balkans, intensive language contact with the pre-Slavic local languages in the Balkans began. One of these local pre-Slavic languages is Albanian which is attested in written documents only since the 16th century AD. As a matter of fact, language contact between Albanian and Slavic must have been very close in the preceding centuries. This is confirmed by two factors. On the one hand the numerous Slavic loanwords which have been integrated into the Albanian lexicon. On the other hand, the equally numerous place-names in all of Albania, which are formed with Slavic lexical components. For the modern periods, the various linguistic contacts between Albanian and Slavic have been thoroughly investigated and presented, but there is no comprehensive account of the older periods. In this article, therefore, an attempt is made to sketch the Slavic influences on Albanian in the premodern periods, at least in the essential points. The focus is on the influences of Slavic on Albanian. The influence of Albanian on the neighboring Slavic languages, however, will be the subject of other investigations.