Albanian Words Research Articles

Why are the Category of "Unnecessary" Borrowings or Parallel Lexical Units Still Present in Standard Albanian Language?

Language, as a complete system of units and rules and at the same time a system not isolated, but open to changes, is the property of the society that uses it. Linguistic development and social development are accompanied by a mutual relationship between them, it would even be right to express the well-known definition that: there is no development that takes place in a society that does not leave its traces in the language system, especially in the system its lexicon. The developments that Albanian society has undergone in recent decades have made it possible for a relatively large number of borrowings to enter the Albanian language, mainly anglicisms. This phenomenon has caused a good part of Albanian linguists to be involved in the so-called cleaning process of relatively new borrowings or borrowings of the last decades in the Albanian language. Although discussions about the category of borrowed in the Albanian language constitute a very early linguistic reality, it should be noted that in the publications and scientific conferences of recent years it still continues to be treated as a matter of primary importance and as a growing phenomenon of continuous. Naturally, the perspectives of Albanian linguists on this field of study are different: some see the issue of borrowings as a very big damage done to the Albanian language, others see it as a natural state of language development, but not dangerous. for her. Despite the sometimes similar and approximate attitudes, but sometimes even contradictory, the aspect that unites most of the linguists who have dealt with this issue is related to the context in which the borrowed word is used, while the Albanian language has her answer. The questions we would raise in this context are: Should we call the phenomenon of the presence of "unnecessary borrowings" common in the Albanian language? The deep penetration into Albanian of these "parallel lexical units" or "synonyms" with the Albanian word should be seen and accepted as a natural development of the language and as a result of linguistic interaction in the conditions of global development, or should it be considered as a phenomenon that should be observed, even monitored, to some extent controlling its trends and developments?The aim of the paper is to create a description and reflection of the real situation of borrowings in Albanian, the place they have occupied in relation to the Albanian word and the approach of Albanian linguists and linguistics to this phenomenon. In another perspective, the paper aims to emphasize the irreplaceable role of the state and propose the creation of the missing law for the Albanian language in the Albanian legislation, with the aim of preserving the language from unnecessary linguistic elements that overlap the linguistic elements of its substratum autochthonous. Received: 16 June 2024 / Accepted: 5 October 2024 / Published: 05 November 2024

Anglicisms Used in the Law on Higher Education in Kosovo (2011): Contrastive Analysis with the Law on Higher Education in Kosovo (1974)

English is one of the most widely used and influential languages worldwide. In Albanian, its influence is present in the entire lexis and almost all domains and styles of use, and anglicisms, defined as words borrowed from English, are frequent in contemporary Albanian. Today, it seems as if any obstacles to the penetration of foreign words have been removed, and the Albanian Law on Higher Education in Kosovo (2011) is not an exception. The main purpose of this paper is to research the use of anglicisms in the field of higher education in Kosovo with a special emphasis on the contrast between this law and the Law on Higher Education in Kosovo (1974), the first such law in Kosova. This study, the first of the 1974 Law, demonstrates the impact that English has had on the Albanian legal language since 1974, as many Albanian words have been displaced by anglicisms in the period since. To this end, we present an overview of all the anglicisms in the 2011 Law, focusing on the overall number of anglicisms used, their classification by word class, examples of morphological and phonological adaption, and a contrastive analysis with the language used in the Law on HE (1974). Specifically, we look at the Albanian words in the Law of 1974 that were later substituted with anglicisms and these anglicisms’ frequency of use. 
 
 Received: 17 January 2024 / Accepted: 25 February 2024 / Published: 5 March 2024

The Definition and Typologies of Conversion and Compounding in Albanian Word Formation in a Crosslinguistic Approach

The Definition and Typologies of Conversion and Compounding in Albanian Word Formation in a Crosslinguistic Approach

Challenges of the Albanian Language in the Internet Era

Abstract Language is a live organism and as every other living being develops and is enriched with new words and terms, which enter the life of society together with the new tool, i.e. they enter in and mix with the order of Albanian words. Such a thing is inevitable and in some cases even useful, but every word that is lined up in the order of Albanian words must be well filtered. “The introduction of new words and exclusion of old ones is a natural process, and it happens in any language. This is what happened with the Greek borrowings in Latin, with the Arabic borrowings in Greek, with the Latin borrowings in many European languages, with the Persian borrowings in Turkish, with the Turkish borrowings in Albanian, etc.” - Prof. Hajri Shehu emphasizes in a scientific interview (Shehu, 2017). In recent decades, with the expansion of the Internet, many foreign words began to enter and be used in the Albanian language. English took up more space than expected; in addition to penetrating through various tool notions, it also replaced centuries-old native words of Albanian. The paper has been divided into three parts and in each part an issue has been dealt with: the first part talks about the use of foreign words and the existing words in Albanian; the second part deals with the use of emoticons used instead of words and the third part deals with writing errors in the Albanian language. These are some of the issues that have created a great concern for the Albanian language in this century and they certainly need to be addressed seriously to prevent the dangers that may threaten it.

Overview of Some Borrowed Terms from Romance Languages in Legal Terminology in Albanian

Looking at the lexicon of today's Albanian, in the terminologies of different fields of knowledge, we have all the lexical wealth, consisting of two main layers: the local lexicon and the foreign lexicon, introduced through borrowings and different calques from various languages, where modern developed languages occupy an important place, especially Italian and French. One of the Albanian terminologies where this influence stands out is the legal terminology, which really has a late development, which explains the fact of its influence from developed languages, reaching to the words of general use in the field of culture and various spheres of law. It is known that foreign words spoil the language, when accepted and used unnecessarily. Foreign words should be used in those cases when they bring a new meaning, a new meaning nuance, etc., which we cannot express with the tools of Albanian language itself. Only for more concrete borrowings, such as names of newly imported tools, equipment and facilities can be spoken of as an addition to an existing vocabulary. Many borrowed words, which seemed unavoidable, have been adopted as calques, a large number of Romance borrowings today have either been replaced, or have become substituted by Albanian words. Realistically, in legal terminology there is not only a relatively large number of borrowings, but also a range of lexical overlaps with Romance languages.

Use of Turkisms in the Register of Khutbahs in the Albanian Language

The present research deals with an important part of the Albanian lexicon known as Turkisms which has been the subject of numerous studies of the Balkan languages. Namely, this research aims at analyzing the presence and status of Turkisms in khutbahs as a specific register of the spoken language. The analysis of the use of this part of the Albanian lexicon is done based on the theory of corpus linguistics, the theory of languages in contact and the so­ciolinguistic approach to language varieties. The study relies on the linguistic multifunctionality and pluralism, on the basis of which we claim that the use of Turkisms in different registers and styles disables their replacement with Albanian words. The study was conducted in search of the answer to the ques­tion: Have Turkisms shifted from formal to in-formal registers?

The Albanian Words, the Morphemes and the Prefixes

The aim of this paper is to studies and to comparing words, morphemes and prefixes between Albanian and English language. During these studies I will analyze: The kinds of morphemes, the derived of prefixes and the negative prefixes. A number of words consist of a single morpheme. For the most part these Albanian or English words belong to such invariable parts of speech as adverbs, preposition, and conjunctions: lart – high, drejt – straight, afer – near, ne – in, me – with, por – but, une – I, ne – we, kush – who. The citation forms of the number of nouns and verbs also consist of a singular morpheme called a root: mal – mountain, mik – friend, pune – work, hap – open, pi – drink, etc. In terms of its grammatical function, the root acts as the central stem of the word, i.e. the part to which affixed morphemes (= affixes ), if any, may be attached… The morphemes in a word that are attached to stems are affixes – prefixes if they precede the root, or suffixes if they come after it. Affixes that create new stems are called derivational or word-forming; affixes which mark the syntactic formation of a word are called inflectional.

Polski język w albańskim „damaskinie” z XIX w.

The Notebook of Simon Kazanxhiu comes from the first half of the nineteenth century. It is now preserved in the Albanian State Archives in Tirana. This Notebook, written primarily in Todhri script (the original Albanian alphabet), comes from Elbasan in central Albania where the Todhri alphabet was invented and used in the nineteenth century. It contains a variety of information: seemingly random lists of Albanian words and phrases, a one-page list of words and phrases in German with their Albanian translation, and more extensive glossaries of Venetian Italian-Albanian and of Polish-Albanian words and phrases, all written in Todhri. There are also financial records on the purchase and sale of merchandise, remedies for illnesses and recipes. The paper presents a preliminary analysis of the phonetics of the Polish words in the Notebook.

The Contrast of the Compound Words between English and Albanian Language

In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word) that consists of more than one stem. Compounding or composition is the word-formation that creates compound lexemes (the other word-formation process being derivation). Compounding or Word-compounding refers to the faculty and device of language to form new words by combining or putting together old words. In other words, compound, compounding or word-compounding occurs when a person attaches two or more words together to make them one word. The meanings of the words interrelate in such a way that a new meaning comes out which is very different from the meanings of the words in isolation. The contrast of the words between English to Albanian: Bus driver in English compound words in Albanian simple word (shofer ose shofer i autobusit) or housekeeper – amevise; schoolbook - liber shkolle; classroom – klase; homework - detyre shtepia.

Lexical Borrowings in Our Press and the Possibility of Their Replacement with Albanian Words

Abstract The present paper treats the influence of foreign words in our press and the possibility of their replacement with Albanian words. The Albanian Language used today in our press suffers from a reckless use of excessive borrowings that is significantly distorting its nature. Its natural that languages cooperate with one another through borrowing and loaning words but there must also be specific criteria and responsibilities for such borrowings. It is the duty of all subjects involved to give the right direction to this issue : Purification of Albanian language from foreign words and its enrichment with native words. Therefore, in this paper, we intend to identify non-Albanian words that wander in our language, and invite Albanian language writers how to write the Albanian language in Albanian. The methods implemented in this research are: historical method, the method of comparative analysis, gathering and selection of material (books, foreign language dictionaries and Albanian newspapers), analysis, comparison and description of the material. Results expected from this research are to bring into evidence borrowed words from other languages in our press, their identification and study, comparison of many words used today in our press, possibilities of replacement of such words with relevant Albanian words while using words from our country folk treasure, which is an inexhaustible source of enrichment of Albanian language.

The Formation Process of Terms from Common Albanian Words in Technical Terminologies (Mechanical, Electrical, Construction)

In this paper, in a more pronounced way we are exploring with priority the formation process of terms from Albanian common words in technical terminologies (mechanical, electrical, construction). The influence of the scientific-technical language on the general one will be further strengthened in future, because science and its language are beginning to play an increasingly more important role on the development of culture in general. Under the influence of these factors, the terminology lexicon and the general lexicon are getting every step closer, where, an intellectualized lexicon is serving as the basic interlink which exists in both macro-layers. On the other hand, this problem could be linked in a particular way with the formation in the course of the times, of the technical terminology built on the basis of words of the native language, which are raised to the level of terms for the nomination of specialized concepts of this field. Thus, for example, a range of words can be brought forward, which we come across as early as in Buzuk’s creation "Meshari’’ (“Missal”) (1555), which today are used as terms also, not only directly in today’s technical fields, like: fuqi, forcë, bosht, rrotë, rrotullohet (rrotulluem), (Engl. power, strength, axle, wheel, spinning (spinned) etc. As is evident, on this basis primarily Albanian terminology formations are created, alongside formations originating from foreign languages, as well as those built on the basis of authentic Albanian and of word formative models and types (term formative) thereof: boshtor, i rrotullueshëm (Engl. axial, rotating) etc.

Property in the Province of Kardhiqi Idioms (Gjirokastra)

Albanian word is one of the creation of the immortal people who, having overcome centuries, have entered our time powerfully because the owner of the largest nation has put his love... The Albanian word expresses the entire life of centuries of our ancient and warrior people, his vast culture well preserved, a glorious history full of battles. (J. Thomas, Tirana 2001: p. 238). Every spiritual world of the people finds its own expression. Idioms are proof of a self-understanding and social, and our ethno-linguistic development. Most of the Albanian phraseology is seen as mostly popular, historical creation which is an indicator of psychology and mentality of our people. The wording of the user decorates discourse of a language, whether in the simple, conversational or artistic. Albanian compared with other languages, is very rich in idioms assessable units. (Memisha.V., Tirana, 2011: p. 81). Phraseologies through ideas get information about people, life, customs, history and culture of and moral behavior. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2016.v5n1p227

Lexical Values to Albanian Language and the Use of the Foreign Words in Albanian without Criteria

This paper aims to show that the Albanian language like all the other languages has great lexically values for all its users at all Albanian speaking territories. Languages evolve and refine in all systems, giving and taking from each - other, when it is necessary . While from the irresponsible users of the Albanian language is noticed an excessive use of uncontrolled foreign word instead of Albanian word , while it is being faded more and more the significance and the beauty of Albanian word . The method used is that of the research on theoretical material and the use of living resources. In this study I have concluded that the Albanian language is an important lexical value and the Albanians should use a foreign word instead of Albanian word, only when it is necessary and required. So, in Albanian we can not have an extreme purification, but neither excessive use of foreign words.

Common Cultural Turkish Words in Albanian and Greek Languages

The Balkans has a very important place in human civilization. In history, the Balkans has been the cradle of many cultures and hosted many nations. Greeks and Albanians living in these lands are oldest nations. Then, by the arrival of the Turks, these three nations became neighbors in the Balkans. Turkish, Greek and Albanian nations where influenced by each other. This interaction is to be seen mostly in cultural area. This interaction was more effective in the field of language, especially during the Ottoman period. Many words were transferred from Turkish to Greek and Albanian during this period. Some Greek words were also transferred to Turkish and Albanian. Many words are commonly used, particularly in cultural areas and they are still used. Common words used in these areas Kitchen, tailoring, shipping, customs, weddings and other cultural aspects are indicators of a common culture. In our study, Turkish, Albanian and Greek common Turkish words which reflect the common cultural elements will be handled. We will also discuss the words which reflect the common cultural elements. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n2p262

Kadare's Work , an Emancipating Factor in the Albanian Literature

In the Albanian literature, Kadare with his genius encompassed the Albanian thinking and culture. Based on real events to which he gave universal proportions, he has added new characters in the family of great archetypes of world literature, that of Judas Iscariot, Agamemnon, Marcus Brutus, Joseph K, etc,. In the case of Kadare the Albanian word found a great master or a virtuous wizard of its artistic elaboration, as a foreign critic has said about him. Seen in its entirety, his work shows us an impressive array of characters, like a universe which shocks us infinitely with the grotesque and the human tragedy, epic rumbles and fine lyricism. His work is a challenge to isolation, which is a standard of traditional proportions. His work served a model where, except other things at that time, was also a moral act. Kadare's work is great character-wise but also because of its values, is a wok which has become an inseparable part of the entire Albanian nation and has even become part of the cultural fund of mankind. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v3n7p585

Anglicisms in Italian and Albanian Language in the Field of Telecommunication and Informatics

The two branches, that of telecommunication and informatics, are lately introduced in Albania. Since these branches are largely developed in English speaking countries, the terms used even in Albanian textbooks are English ones. This phenomenon in also viewed in Italian language. But apart from what is mentioned above, another reason why anglicisms have entered both these languages is because of the lack of native words, thus Italian and Albanian words for certain items, devices or services in these fields of study. An approach of anglicisms that function as terms in both languages. How much do they differ? E.g. both languages use the term ‘plotter’, ‘baseband’ but there are cases where one of the languages uses a native term instead of an anglicism. For the English term ‘pointer’, the Italian equivalent is ‘puntatore’, whereas in Albanian it is used either ‘pointer’ or ‘pikëzues’. For the term ‘jacket’, in Italian it is used the term ‘custodia’ whereas in Alabanian it is used the English term‘ jacket’ or the Albanian equivalent ‘këllëf’ ‘mbulesë’. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n10p689

SUBTLEX- AL: Albanian word frequencies based on film subtitles

Recently several studies have shown that word frequency estimation based on subtitle files explains better the variance in word recognition performance than traditional words frequency estimates did. The present study aims to show this frequency estimate in Albanian from more than 2M words coming from film subtitles. Our results show high correlation between the RT from a LD study (120 stimuli) and the SUBTLEX- AL, as well as, high correlation between this and the unique existing frequency list of a hundred more frequent Albanian words. These findings suggest that SUBTLEX-AL it is good frequency estimation, furthermore, this is the first database of frequency estimation in Albanian larger than 100 words.

The Study of Univocal and Polisemantic Words from “The Albanian Nowdays Language Dictionary” 1980 to “The Albanian Language Dictionary” 2006

The lexical structure of the word is open and changeable, which is always associated by the different of the time. These changes don’t include only special word, but the whole fond of Albanian words reflected to the dictionary. So, for this study it has been necessary the support of the two biggest work of Albanian language: “The Albanian language dictionary of nowadays” 1980 and “The Albanian language dictionary” 2006. It’s evident that language is enriched by new entry of lexical units, but the linguistic enrichment it is not seen only at the number of lexical units, which enter or get out the uses. We are trying to argue that the linguistic development is preceded from the relation between the words, which produces changes at many linguistic phenomena as mono semantism and polisemantism. The words give special types, so they create relationships between speaking and writing speech, create relationships between active and passive lexis, and at the semantic structure of the words, which is reflected at the changes of semantic versions of the words. So, they bring a qualify development of the Albanian semantic structure. There are estimated and brought out from the two dictionaries all the univocal words, ambiguity words and polisemantic words, the changes of this kind words during these years and the percent that mark them at the fond of the Albanian words. This numbering it makes us possible to give dates for the effects that give the increase of polisemantic and monosemantic words to Albanian language. The study of the changes at lexical structure of Albanian words gives help at the improvement of data for lexicological and semantic. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n4p311

ENGLISH LANGUAGE INFLUENCE IN THE 21st CENTURY ALBANIA AND ENGLISH LOANS IN THE ALBANIAN LANGUAGE

The intake of English lexis in the Eastern Europe countries has been increasing considerably since the end of their political, social and cultural isolation. Having one of the most severe and violent political systems Albania was probably more eager to accelerate the exchanges with the ‘outer world’ and its integration in Europe. Thus adapting to the international context English language was, and still is, one of the mediators to achieve this integration. From the linguistic perspective what results from this languages contact are the loans, neologisms, and even ‘pseudo – loans’ (Albanian words with the form or the pronunciation of the donor language - English in this case, but that do not exist in the donor language). In this context this paper states some of the extra-linguistic factors (historical, social, political and other factors) which conditioned and determined the language contact between English and Albanian and that would further lead to a considerable number of borrowings from English. Pseudo loans and other new Albanian words created under the influence of English language are briefly discussed under the title of ‘Language shifting’. The study also describes Albanians’ attitude toward English language, which is found to be definitely a positive attitude. Based on the above overview of English-Albanian contact and on some of the linguistic outcomes deriving from it, is concluded that the impact of English language and culture in the Albanian context is of a considerable degree, and that the outcomes of this impact are only at the primary stages of identification and examination. Key words: Albanians’ attitude to English, English-Albanian contact, language shifting.

Reversing a One-Way Bilingual Dictionary

Reversing a One-Way Bilingual Dictionary* Leonard Newmark "One day we will go back to Kosov[a] . That's our land." — Ramada Shaqiri, 30 March 1999 Afi fter completing a ten-year project to write an Albanian dicLtionary , published in March 1998 by Oxford University Press as the Oxford Albanian-English Dictionary and designed specifically for users who want to read Albanian and whose access language is English , I decided to prepare a companion English-Albanian dictionary for users who want to write Albanian, but I did not want to devote another ten years to that compilation. I wondered whether I could produce a useful bilingual dictionary with the reverse orientation by automatic conversion of the entries in the data files from which the first dictionary was generated. This paper is a report on the degree to which the attempt succeeded and the degree to which human intervention was required . Examples are provided to illustrate some rather surprising results, and a general conclusion is drawn for bilingual lexicography. For languages of limited worldwide commercial importance, like Albanian, it seems particularly important to use computational techniques to derive new dictionaries from lexical data files compiled for some other purpose, especially if those files are extensive and have information otherwise difficult to come by in machine-readable form. The richness of the lexical data files from which my Albanian-English dictionary was generated is evidenced by that dictionary's 75,000 entries and subentries, more than are found in any other dictionary of Albanian. Those files already provide a number of features that dis- *This paper is a reworked and expanded version of the paper I presented at the 8th EURALEX International Congress (4-8 August 1998) and published in the proceedings of that congress. 38Leonard Newmark tinguished this dictionary from many other bilingual dictionaries: 1) inclusion of large numbers of nonstandard items (marked by asterisks ) as well as all attested standard stems; 2) marking of morpheme boundaries in Albanian words; 3) inclusion of some 16,700 phrasal expressions , in particular, phrasal names, collocations, idioms, and proverbs; 4) use of large numbers of bipartite definitions with a discursive description of the sense followed, after a colon, by English synonyms exemplifying that sense; 5) inclusion of large numbers of terms for grasses, flowers, birds, and fish with their scientific definitions; 6) inclusion of a modest amount of encyclopedic information to explain words whose strictly lexical meaning would not make their use in Albanian contexts intelligible; 7) listing of the various stem forms of lexemes as separate entries in their own alphabetical position to enable readers to decipher otherwise mystifying forms encountered in actual texts; 8) indication of the specific limits of variation that leave idiomatic senses intact (e.g., in phrasal expressions, marking a verb that can appear in any of its inflected forms by giving it in citation form with a symbol (·) at the end of the stem); 9) elaborate labeling of Albanian distinctions in domain and register; 10) rendition of phrasal expressions by stylistically similar English expressions, frequently supplemented by literal translations (enclosed in quotation marks) to enable more nuanced understanding. Each entry in the plain text, flat data files from which the Albanian-English dictionary was generated is a line consisting of an Albanian word or phrase followed by a definition in English (or by a cross-reference to another line) . Each line is embedded with simple visible two-letter formatting codes (e.g., HW [headword], DF [definition], TK [technical name] , CO [collocation] ) immediately preceded by a period (.) and immediately followed by what will get the formatting assigned by that code. The easily redefinable codes are later translated by a set of UNIX scripts into formatting instructions in TeX, which can go directly to a printer or indirectly by translation into Post-Script files. The simplicity of such transparent and flexible coding for entering the data, in contrast with elaborate schemes requiring complex coding by experts into predefined structures,1 was initially dictated by limits typical of languages that attract little commercial interest and 'For example, those used in the architecture described by Willy Martin and Anne Tamm in "OMBI: An editor for constructing reversible lexical databases ," EURALEX '96 Proceedings...