Albanian in the Balkan Linguistic League: A Reconsideration of Theoretical Implications
Albanian in the Balkan Linguistic League: A Reconsideration of Theoretical Implications

Summary/Abstract: It is a fundamental principle of Albanian dialectology that the Geg/Tosk split represents the oldest and most significant dialectological division in the transition from Common Albanian to Albanian as it is historically attested. It is likewise a common place that Geg is the less “Balkanized” of the two dialects. On the one hand, the preservation of a distinct optative mood, the remnants of the ablative and, dialectally, the locative, and the complex expression of possessives are pan-Albanian features that are in contrast to general Balkan developments. On the other hand, for example, while classic Balkanisms such as the conditional based on the future-in-the-past, the postposed definite article (which Hamp 1982 argues was already in place during the period of contact with Latin), the analytic comparative, the expression of teens by means of ‘on ten’ (which Hamp 1992:918 connects to pre-Slavic/pre-Albanian areal contact, which would have had to have been in northern Europe given the pan-Slavic but non-Baltic nature of the construction), the development of an analytic subjunctive, and also the use of ‘one’ as an indefinite marker (see Friedman 2003), are pan-Albanian Balkanisms. The Geg infinitive in me + short participle (vs the Tosk lack of such a construction) and the future using kam ‘have’ + infinitive (vs the Tosk use of a particle derived from ‘will’ + subjunctive) are among the distinctions most commonly cited as non-Balkan characteristics of Geg.[...]

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