Një rrugë, dy kode, dy gjuhë
One road, two codes, two languages

Kosovo-Albania: The "codified" language of road traffic legislation

Summary/Abstract: Professor Rexhep Ismajli tells an anecdote in which he recounts the difficulty he had communicating with a mechanic in Albania, all because they couldn’t understand each other when it came to a part of the car that needed replacing. Two different terms were used to refer to the aforementioned car part, one in Albania and another in Kosovo. Even foreign tourists that cross through Albania on their way to Kosovo, or vice versa, are surprised by the two “kartonët” [insurance cards] (kartoni jeshil in Albania and kartoni i gjelbër in Kosovo). Not only do they pay a different fee for each of them, but they’re also given two very different documents written in non-standard language. Thus, we find ourselves dealing with the same “official” language (standard Albanian?) “delineated” differently within and beyond the border between the two Albanian speaking countries. But, if we go even further, and observe the legal packet concerning the regulation of traffic and the use of modes of transportation, whether they be motor or others of the like, what is the current situation like today? This is the question our work seeks to answer. The Republic of Albania and that of Kosovo have two different traffic codes (officially: Kodi rrugor in Albania and Ligji për sigurinë në komunikacionin rrugor in Kosovo), each with its own history and origin; each with its own language, its own distinctive terminology. Having studied and identified the features and problems of the current Albanian traffic code (Belluscio and Koleci, Substrati i italishtes në Kodin rrugor shqiptar, 2017), we turn our attention to Kosovo’s equivalent legislation, applying the same model of analysis as in our previous work. Thus, the following shall be discussed: the origin and inner structure of the current traffic code in Kosovo; its respective linguistic features, mainly, the terminology used, as well as its morphological and syntactical features. Lastly, the two texts will be juxtaposed for the sake of highlighting their similarities and differences, without disregarding the intention of arriving to a concrete proposal for bringing these two texts in a trajectory of convergence. These two texts are another reflection of the linguistic isogloss between Kosovo and Albania, as are today’s doublets: “lavazho-autolarje” (or merimangë-karrotrec), that the traveler encounters as he travels within and beyond the border between these two countries.

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