The incorporation of loanwords from the Latin third declension into the Proto-Albanian nominal system
The incorporation of loanwords from the Latin third declension into the Proto-Albanian nominal system

Author(s): Gerard Spaans
Subject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
Published by: Факултет по славянски филологии, Софийски университет »Св. Кл. Охридски«
Keywords: Albanian language; Proto-Albanian
Summary/Abstract: Language contact usually results in the borrowing of loanwords from at least one language into another. The adaptation of these loanwords to the phonology of the recipient language is often well-described, but the role of the morphological incorporation in the borrowing process is sometimes overlooked. This paper aims to use this method to explain some long-lasting phonological problems of loanwords from the Latin third declension into Proto-Albanian. It is argued that some of these loanwords were borrowed as masculine o-stems, probably for semantic reasons, whilst the rest were borrowed as feminine i-stems.

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