Old Germanisms in the Balkans and in Other Parts of Europe
Old Germanisms in the Balkans and in Other Parts of Europe

Summary/Abstract: Old Germanisms – that is, mainly, borrowings from Old Germanic idioms into non-Germanic ones (during the period between ca. 2nd century BC and 7th century AD) – have been detected and discussed all over Europe, from Spain to Russia, and from Finland to Italy. However, for various reasons and due to various academic or non-academic biases, the number and importance of those elements have been diminished or even utterly dismissed by certain philological schools, or by authoritarian scholars. This author – firstly as specialist in Germanic studies and secondly as Romanian linguist – has gathered, analyzed and published sufficient material that proves (1) that the already traditional (mainstream) idea that Romanian does not contain Old Germanisms is utterly wrong and (2) that the Old Germanic elements (OGEs) preserved in Southeast European languages – Romanian, Albanian and Greek, as well as South Slavic languages – deserve to be compared to cognates that have been recorded in non-Germanic languages of practically all parts of Europe.

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