THE ORIGINS OF THE RUMANIANS

F. The relationship between Rumanian and Albanian

Phonetics

Unstressed a > | , ë .

Modern Northern Rumanian | and Albanian ë are very similar, although not perfectly identical. This is verified also by X-ray studies.

The tendency towards the reduction of the distinction of the degree of opening in an unstressed syllable is found in all Romance languages, strongest in Spanish, Portuguese, and southern Italian dialects. Moreover, there are differences between Albanian and Rumanian in the use of this sound. Referring to these circumstances, the theory of an independent development of | in both languages was put forward. There is, however, extensive evidence of close connections between Rumanian and Albanian also in this respect.

In both languages, | developed from (1) unstressed a : Latin familia > N. Rumanian f | meie, femeie, Alb. fëmijë; Lat. camisia > N. Rum. c | ma Õ| , Arum. c | meaš | , Alb. këmishë; Lat. parens, parente(m) > N. Rum. and Arum. p | rinte; Alb. përint; etc.; (2) from an a in front of a nasal: Lat. canis > N. Rum. cîne, cîine, Arum. cîne, Alb. qën, qen; Lat. sanctus > N. Rum. sînt. sîn, Alb. shënt, shën, etc. (From the phonologic viewpoint, î was in Common Rumanian a variant of | .) (3) In both Albanian and Rumanian, | developed not only from a but also, in certain circumstances, from any other vowel (i, e, o and u ).

With certain exceptions, this sound does not appear in an initial position.

In a period corresponding to Common Rumanian, a appeared exclusively in a stressed syllable and | only in an unstressed in both Rumanian and Albanian. In both languages, later development created several exceptions to this rule. Thus, in Northern Rumanian, stressed | appears in the first person plural of the verbs in the first conjugation: lucr | m ´we are working´. The plural form of feminine nouns such as cetate, plur. cet |Û i, with stressed | , developed after the period of Common Rumanian.

It is interesting that the Gheg dialect of Albanian created a series of nasal vowels while Tosc, the southern dialect, A followed the same way as Rumanian, creating a stressed vowel ë , similar to Rumanian | . @

A

The phonemization of

|

occurred in relatively identical circumstances in Rumanian and Albanian.

@

Thus, the opposition a :

|

is found in the category of determination: N. Rum. fat

|

´girl´, fata ´the girl´; Alb. vajzë ´girl´, vajza ´the girl´. It also appears in gender: Common Rumanian cumnatu ´brother-in-law´, cumnat

|

´sister-in-law´; and in certain grammatical cases: N. Rum. nominative-accusative fat

|

, genitive-dative (unei) fete, Alb. (një) vajzë and (e, i, një) vajze, respectively. In Albanian, however, ë has some functions which have no counterpart in Rumanian: the ë : a opposition is used to express number, e.g., sing. vajzë, plur. vajza. This is most probably a later development because otherwise final unstressed a changed to ë . Further, ë is used in Albanian also in forming of nouns (abstract nouns derived from the participle): vdekë ´dying´, pritë ´waiting.´ Later development changed the Albanian ë in many cases, while the number of such cases in Rumanian is much less. Thus, regarding this sound, Rumanian is more conservative than Albanian. This is in accord with the idea that Albanian is a continuation of an ancient Balkan language and as such, continues the phonologic system of that language (of which ë was a part). The ancestors of the Rumanians, on the other hand, abandoned this language (adopting Latin), preserving only some elements, among which is the vowel

|

. In these circumstances, since most of the phonologic elements of Rumanian are of Latin origin,

|

A

borrowed

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sound in this language. The preservation of Latin

ß

Latin Albanian Rumanian Italian meaning: furca furkë furc | forca fork cruce(m) kryk cruce croce cross bucca ´cheek´ buc | ´cheek´ bocca mouth

The evolution of the Latin consonant groups ct and cs In spite of much research concerning this phonetic evolution, many problems, including such basic questions as the origin of the change (Greek? substratum? internal evolution? ) and its development (direct or through intermediary stages?) are still not sufficiently understood. Similarities between Rumanian and Albanian in the treatment of these consonant groups suggest an effect of the substratum: Latin ct > Rumanian pt, Latin cs > Rum. ps (when k was in a stressed syllable) and s in an unstressed syllable:

Latin: N. Rumanian: Arumanian meaning: pectus piept k´eptu breast directus drept d(i)reptu right, direct nocte(m) noapte noapte night luctare lupta alumtu to fight coxa coaps | C thigh maxilla m | sea m | seau | molar (tooth)

In Albanian, the situation is partly similar but more complicated: Latin ct > Albanian it (after a and after pre-palatal vowels): Lat. directus Albanian dreite, tractare > traitoj. Lat. ct > Alb. ft (in other cases): lucta > luftë, cotoneum > ftua. Lat. cs > Alb. fs (when k was in a stressed syllable): coxa > kofshë, koshë, laxa > lafshë, lash. Lat. cs > Alb. s (when k was in an unstressed syllable): axungia > ashung , fraxinus > frashër, laxare > lëshonj. It appears that Albanian treated Latin ct as this group was treated in the western Romance languages when kt was preceded by a and e , and according to the way it was treated in Rumanian in other cases: directa > drejtë, but lupta > luftë. The following evolution may be assumed: ct > Xt > ft > pt. M. Sala tried to explain the developments of Latin ct and cs in Rumanian by internal evolution, without the influence of the substratum. This theory is based on general considerations. According to B.Malmberg, the changes of Latin pt, ct, and cs in the Romance languages are the result of a tendency towards an open syllable. Sala considers that Rumanian may present the first stage of this evolution, the second stage would be found in Italian and the third, in the languages which have i . E.g.: Latin lactem, Rum. lapte, Ital. latte, French lait. Poghirc (ILR 1969, p. 323) explains the ct > pt change by the substratum: the groups pt, ps were, in the Romance languages in general, as weak as was the group ct: in Late Latin, there are ipse > isse, optimo, scriptum, septembre > otimo, scritum, setembre, while in Rumanian, this group is resistent: Lat. septem > Rum.

Õ

eapte. It appears that the consonant group kt was eliminated from the speech of the ancestors of the Albanians and Rumanians: in the Rumanian words from the substratum, it does never appear, nor is it found among Daco

B

Moesian words, and Albanian has natë, in contrast to Latin noctem, Lithuanian naktìs. There are also examples of ks > ps among ancient Balkan placenames: Axyrtos

B

Apsyrtos, Crexi

B

Krepsa, Kokkyx

B

Kokkyps. Latin -lv-, -rv-, > Rum., Alb. -lb-, -rb-

Latin N. Rum. Albanian Italian meaning salvare shelbuem salvare to save silvaticus s | lbatec C selvatico wild pulvis pulbere pluhur polvere powder servire Õ erb shërbenj servire to serve

There is a

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE PHONETIC STRUCTURE OF ALBANIAN AND RUMANIAN,

especially regarding end-vowels: -e was preserved; a >

|

, ë; and -u, -o, -i disappeared. Rhotacism (the change of intervocalic n to r) In Latin, n had a strong and a weak form. During the early development of the Romance languages, in several areas, this consonant became de-nasalized, as a consequence of the decrease of pressure of the tongue during its pronunciation. Weak -n- disappeared often, e.g., in Portuguese and in Rumanian dialects. In the southern (Tosc) dialect of Albanian and in Northern Rumanian it changed to -r-. In N. Rum., this can be shown in words as c

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runt ´grey(ish)´, m

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runt ´small´, etc. In contrast to this, Arumanian has minut and c

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nut. Earlier, much more words in N. Rum. were affected by rhotacism. Thus, at least until the 16th century, Rumanian spoken in Moldavia as well as by the Rumanian inhabitants of adjacent Máramaros (Rum. Maramure

Õ

), and those of the region of the Mun

Û

ii Apuseni, was rhotacized. In other areas, the weak -n- disappeared. Today rhotacism is only found among speakers of N. Rum. living in the region of the Mun

Û

ii Apuseni. Also Northern Rumanian spoken in the Balkan peninsula has varied and is still varying in this respect. Rhotacism is found in the Rudnik

B

Drinjaca area while it is absent in the valleys of the Timok and the Morava. Also Istro-Rumanian is rhotacized. (Today, the situation once existing can in many cases only be reconstructed on the basis of placenames.) It is interesting that in Albanian, this phenomenon is only found in the southern (Tosc) dialect: zëri, gjuri, Shqiperi, as opposed to Gheg zâni, gjuni, and Shqypni (´the voice´, ´the knee´, and ´Albania´, respectively). Rhotacism appeared after the an, am > în, îm change, and does not affect the words of Slavic origin in Rumanian. The question whether its development in Albanian and Rumanian is connected is not yet settled. Rosetti does not believe in a connection and denies also the role of the substratum in this case. Morphology The postposition of the definite article In classic Latin, the demonstrative pronoun is mostly put before the noun which it determines. In the Late Latin text

A

Peregrinatio Aethereae

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, ille is proclitic in 194 cases and enclitic in 80. In Rumanian and in Albanian, as also in Bulgarian, the definite article is enclitic; e.g., N. Rum. cal ´horse´, calul ´the horse´, fat

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´girl´, fata ´the girl´. Sandfeld presented a survey of the possible explanations of this phen- omenon which may be summarized as follows: The suffixed article is found also in the Scandinavian languages and in Armenian. Starting from the idea that it must be very unusual, one has assumed connections between all languages in which this phenomenon appears. Thus, a connection between the Scandinavian and the Balkan languages was assumed by B.P. Hasdeu; others evoked Thracian or Armenian influence to explain the definite article in Rumanian. However, this phenomenon is not extremely rare and one has also started from the idea that the Balkan languages may have developed it independently from each other. On the basis of certain peculiarities in Russian dialects, it was assumed that the definite article of Bulgarian developed independently from Rumanian. None of these theories can with certainty be disproved, because the feature developed entirely in an age from which no written records are known. It existed certainly in Common Rumanian. In Bulgarian, it developed later, after the 10th century. However, as pointed out by Sandfeld, Albanian, Rumanian, and Bulgarian have so many elements in common that it is scarcely possible that they would have developed just this feature independently from each other. Moreover, as stated by abej: It is known that in Albanian and in Rumanian, as also in Bulgarian, the definite article is enclitic and that only these languages have also a proclitic article. It is worth noticing that these two languages coincide in the use of this element of speech in the smallest details of its syntactic position, which contradicts the assumption of a spontaneous (separate from each other) evolution in these languages. It is of interest to review this problem in some detail: (a) The article is not used when the noun is reigned by a preposition: N. Rum. au mers la p

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dure ´they have gone to the forest´, Alb. vate në pallát ´he has gone to the palace´. (b) the use of a double article: Rum. omul cel bun, Alb. njeriu i mire ´the good man´. (c) the use of a possessive article with the possessive determiners when these are used without a noun: Rum. un frate al meu ´a brother of mine´ (d) The correspondence of the possessive article in gender and number with the preceding noun (denoting the person or thing possessed): Rum. o fat

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a vecinului ´a girl of the neighbour´, Alb. kopshti i luleve ´the flower-garden´. (e) The article used with the possessive determiners also appears as the determinative before a genitive: Rum. ai palatului, Alb. të pallatit ´those of the palace, the people from the palace´; Rum. a cui e aceast

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cas

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? Alb. e kujt është ajó shtëpi? ´whose is this house?´ The differencies are the result of later development. For instance, in Albanian, the determinative is also used before a genitive or a possessive pronoun which follows the suffixed article: Alb. shtëpia e plakut ´the house of the old man´, shtëpia e mia ´my house, the house of mine´. In modern Northern Rumanian, this is not the case: casa b

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trînului ´the house of the old man´, p

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mântul grîului ´the earth of wheat´, popa s

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u ´his priest´, etc. In Arumanian, as well as at an earlier stage of Northern Rumanian, however, as shown by old texts, the construction still present in Albanian is the rule: N. Rum. p

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mîntul al grîului, popa al s

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u, etc. Similarly, while modern N. Rum. has al, a, and lui (with the function of the genitive) and cel, cea (with adjectival function), Albanian has only i, e, but in the earliest N. Rumanian texts, al, a, often appear before adjectives instead of modern cel, cea. Adjectives In Rumanian as well as in Albanian, the feminine plural of the adjectives is used in a neutre sense: Rum. toate, Alb. te gjitha ´all´. N. Rum. e cinstit în toate ´he is honest in everything´. The indefinite pronouns Rumanian and Albanian have similar systems of creating indefinite pronouns: Rumanian forms pronouns by adding -va (from Latin volet), Alb. by adding duaj, dua (´will; love´): N. Rum. careva ´someone´, cineva ´somebody´, undeva ´somewhere´, cumva ´somehow´, etc. Alb. kude ´wherever´, kurdo ´whenever´, kushdò ´whoever, everybody´, sado ´any amount´, etc. Also adverbs may be formed in the same way in the two languages: Rum. niciodat

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´never´, tot a

Õ

a ´in the same way´; Alb. asnjëherë ´never´, gjithashtu ´in the same way´, etc. The personal pronoun The personal pronoun (eu, tu, el, ea, ´I, you, he, she´) in the accusative (mine, tine, sine ´me, you, him, her´) contains the particle -ne. This has a counterpart in Albanian (-ne) and in Greek

(e)mena

. There is a perfect parallelism among these three languages as regards the absolute and the conjunct forms. The feminine forms of the pronoun may be used in a neutre sense in Rumanian: o cunosc means both ´I know her´ and ´I know that, I know it´; una means ´one (feminine)´ and ´one thing´, for instance: una e s-o vrei

Õ

i alta s-o faci ´it is one thing to want (will) it and another to do it´. Also asta means both ´this (feminine)´ and ´this one, this thing´. Albanian ajo ´she´ and ketó, kejó ´this one (feminine)´are used in the same way, e.g., tsh do nga ketó ´what do you want for this´. The ordinal numbers are in Rumanian formed in a way which is different from that used in the other Romance languages. Arumanian ntîn

ß

,, Northern Rumanian dialectally and in old texts întânu; modern literary language întâi ´first´, from Vulgar Latin *antaneus (cf. ante ´in front of, before´). This is similar to Albanian: parë ´first´, from para ´in front of, before´. Word formation Several ways of forming of words are common to Rumanian, Albanian and Bulgarian, for instance:

Rumanian Albanian Bulgarian meaning nici un asnjë nieden ´no one´, lit. ´neither one´ nicicând askurrë nikoga ´never´, lit. ´neither when´

Suffixes The following suffixes may originate from the substratum of Rumanian: -a, -ac, -andru, -esc, -e

Õ

te, -e

Õ

, (-a

Õ

, o

Õ

), -

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ni, -îrl

|

, -man, -oane, -(o)ma, -un

Û

(

|

), -(u)

Õ

(

|

), -z(

|

) . Six of these 14 suffixes are also found in Albanian: (1) -a, an enclitic, deictic and emphatic particle used in demonstrative pronouns and adverbs, may be of Latin origin. It is interesting that in Albanian, it only exists in the southern (Tosc) dialect, which also in several other aspects is more closely related to Northern Rumanian than the northern Albanian (Gheg) dialect. (2) -esc is a very important suffix, which forms adjectives: firesc ´natural´, from fire ´nature´; b

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rb

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tesc ´masculine´, from b

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rbat ´man´; românesc ´Rumanian´, etc. The variant of this suffix, -e

Õ

te, forms adverbs: fire

Õ

te ´naturally´ române

Õ

te ´like a Rumanian, after the manner of Rumanians´, etc. In Albanian, the corresponding suffixes are -ish and -isht, e.g., obanisht ´like a shepherd´. (3) -e

Õ

, (-a

Õ

, o

Õ

) may originate from the substratum but other etymologies have been proposed, among others, from Hungarian. However, a Hungarian borrowing is not possible in Albanian. (4) -oane: N. Rum. lupoa(n)e, (from lup ´wolf´) and Albanian ujkonje (from ujk ´wolf) ´she-wolf´. (5) -(u)

Õ

(

|

): in Albanian, -sh forms diminutives. This may have been the case once also in Rumanian. (6) -z

|

, -

Û|

, Alb. -zë, -cë, form diminutives and collective nouns: Rum. coac

|

z

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´black currant; gooseberry´; Alb. kokazë ´sweetmeat, from kokë ´berry, fruit´. The verb In certain constructions, the infinitive is replaced by a verbal noun derived from the perfect participle:

Northern Rumanian Albanian: meaning: trebuie f | cut duhet bërë ´it must be done´ e de mirat është për t´u uditur ´it is to be surprized at´ am de legat kam për të lidhur ´I have to bind´

This construction is always used in the Tosc dialect; in Gheg, the verbal noun, preceded by me, developed into a regular infinitive: me fjet ´to sleep´, me hangr ´to eat´, etc. In Northern Rumanian, the counterpart of this form is a dormi, a mînca, etc., i.e., the Rumanian infinitive, which is different from the infinitive in all other Romance languages. In Arumanian, the infinitive is always long, it is in most cases used as a substantive: cîntári, beári, acupiríri, etc. There are similiarities between Rumanian and Albanian also in the use of the infinitive. Phraseology Rumanian has a series of expressions in common with Albanian:

Rumanian Albanian meaning: n-am când lit.: ´I have not when´ nuk kam kur lit.: ´I have not when´ ´I have no time´ e cu cale lit.: ´it is with way´ ishtë me udhë lit.: ´it is with way´ ´it is proper, it is convenient´ îmi vine r | u lit.: ´it comes me bad´ i erdhi keq lit.: ´it comes me bad´ ´that hurts me´

To strengthen the sense of a noun, ´great thing´ may be added: Rum. mare lucru, Alb. pun´e madhe: Rum. am o poft

|

de

Û

ig

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ri mare lucru ´I have a great desire for cigarettes´, Alb. i bënet një kal pun´e madhe ´a huge horse appeared before him´. Also in Macedonian, ´great thing´ may be added with the same effect. Latin uvula, the diminutive of uva ´grape´, is in both Rumanian and Albanian called ´little man´: Rum. omu

Õ

or, ´little man, dwarf; uvula´, a diminutive of om ´man´. Alb. njerith ´uvula´, from njeri ´man´. This is found also in Bulgarian: m

|ñ

ec ´little man; uvula´, from m

|ñ

´man´. Several Latin words are in Rumanian used with a changed meaning, according to the meaning of their Albanian counterpart: Latin *albina ´bee hive, bee swarm´, > N. Rum. and Meglenorum. albin

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, Arum. algin

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´bee´. The shift of sense in Rumanian to ´bee´ seems to have been induced by Alb. bletë, which has both the sense of ´bee´ and of ´beehive´. Latin dolor ´pain´, N. Rum. dor ´pain; sorrow, grief; love, torment of love; longing, yearning; striving´. The extension of sense in Rumanian is also found in the Albanian word for pain: Alb. dhëmp ´pain´, dhëmbem ´I am regretted´, dhëmshurë ´loved´. Latin habere, Rum. a avea ´to have´. The participle of this verb is used in Rumanian to express the notion of ´rich, wealthy´: avut. In Albanian, i pásurë ´rich´ is the past participle of the verb ´to have´. In early N. Rum. texts, the past participle of a

Õ

ti ´to know´ was used in the sense of expert, learned, erudit.´ In Arumanian, this is still in use. The same is the case in Albanian: dij ´to know´, i diturë ´learned, erudite´. Latin talis ´such´. It is possible that Rumanian tare ´strong´ is the continuation of this Latin word, with a different sense. Albanian atillë (from talis) means ´such´, but in the dialect of Borgo Erizzo, it also has the sense of ´strong´. Vocabulary Changes of meaning of Latin words shared by Rumanian and Albanian:

Latin meaning Albanian N. Rum. meaning in Albanian & Rumanian: conventus district court, session, agreement kuvëndoj ´I discuss´ cuvânt word cuneus wedge kuj cui nail draco dragon dreq drac devil falx sickle, scythe felqinë falc | jaw, cheek horreo I fear, I am shocked urrej ur | sc I hate mergo I submerge mërgonj merg I go palus, padule marsh pyll p | dure forest sessum (sedeo, sedere, sessum est) sit shesh Õ es low-land sella chair shalet ´saddle´ Õ ale loins, small of the back

Remarks: conventus: Latin uerbum became in the Christian terminology the

correspondent of Greek

logoV

and was replaced by other terms, such as conuentum, fabula, parabola (ILR I, 1965, p. 62). Latin mergo: the change of meaning is old, as shown by the Latin text:

A

immargebam ... in quartum decimumque annum

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´I was in the 14s´; cf. Daicoviciu, C., Dacoromania V., Cluj, 1927/28, pp. 477

B

478; in Dacica, 1969, p. 585.

These are examples of parallel changes of sense of Latin words, not found in the other Romance languages but shared by Rumanian and Albanian. They must be considered in the following contexts: (a) changes of meaning in Vulgar Latin (for example, mergo and veteranus have been also used in the senses which now are the rule in Rumanian and Albanian); (b) of the geographic situation of Balkan Latin, which made a considerable Greek influence possible (e.g.,

omilew

has also in Greek the two senses ´meeting´ and ´conversation´). (c) In the background of these changes of meaning are also universal, generally human ways of thought and association, the socio-cultural and historical characteristics of the speakers, as well as general psychological aspects. These factors made the changes possible. Such factors are at work in all human societies and several single examples of similar development of sense may be found in other languages. In Rumanian and Albanian, however, there are not only single examples but a high number of parallel changes of sense, most of which are not known in Greek, Vulgar Latin or in the modern Romance languages and are not simple, readily explicable

A

common sense

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changes. Therefore, they cannot be explained by chance or by general socio-cultural or psychological factors only. As also stated by Sandfeld, they were created in a period of common and simultaneous development of the two languages. This must have been the period (or part of that period) of the Latin influence on Albanian and the Romanization of the ancestors of the Rumanians. The question of Albanian loanwords in Rumanian Before discussing this question, it must be emphasized again that the large majority of common elements in Albanian and Rumanian derive from an ancient language, spoken once by the ancestors of both populations. However, the extensive similarity between the two languages regarding the Latin influence (see above) can only be explained by contact during several centuries of Roman domination. A symbiosis between Vlachs and Albanians in the region of Ulcinj

B

Ragusa

B

Prizren in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries is documented in Serbian deeds of gift (cf. above, p. 38). ( From earlier periods, no deeds of gift are known.) There are also Rumanian loanwords in Albanian (cf. above, pp. 37- 38). Consequently, it would not be surprizing to find Albanian loanwords in Rumanian. This possibility is also admitted by Rosetti. One would not expect a large number of such words, because these peoples´ way of life and their level of civilization were similar. The important Northern Rumanian word sat ´village´ shows a phonetic peculiarity of Albanian, namely the loss of its first vowel : Latin fossatum ´ditch, entrenchment´ > Alb. fshat ´village´ > (modern) N. Rum. sat ´village´. In N. Rum. texts from the 16th century, there is fsat, with the sense in Codicele Vorone

Û

ean of ´l

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ca

Õ

în câmp´ ´dwelling, house in the field´. In contrast to the northern dialect, in the corresponding Arumanian word the vowel in the first syllable is preserved, because this dialect borrowed the Greek form: Latin fossatum > Greek (we give here the New Greek form)

jousato

´army´ > Arum. fusáti, fus

|Û

i

´trenchwork´. In the case of sat, the sound pattern proves its borrowing from Albanian. Otherwise, there are no certain criteria, and about a number of Rumanian lexical elements one may only assume with more or less probability a borrowing from Albanian: droaie ´great number, multitude; crowd, heap´ (Poghirc:

A

probably a recent loan from Albanian

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, not accepted by Russu); ghimpe ´thorn´ (Poghirc); grap

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´harrow´ (Pu

Õ

cariu; not accepted by Poghirc); mo

Õ

´old man, ancestor´ (G. Meyer and E. abej; not accepted by Poghirc). Rosetti mentions gresie, hame

Õ

, mo

Õ

, and pârâu, but adds:

A

We have no criteria to prove this; the possibility should not, of course, be excluded.

@

Weigand considered that the following Northen Rumanian dialectal words used in certain areas in Transylvania may have been borrowed from Albanian:

Albanian meaning N. Rum. dial. meaning ëma mother îm | mother (16th century) dhëndër, dhândër son-in-law dand | r foreign man farë* family far | (in Ha Û eg) family gjymture band; link ghiutur | band; link shtezë the lowest place in a ship Õ teaz | trough

*

This word, also existing in Greek and in Bulgarian, is of Old Germanic origin (fara); cf. Sandfeld LB 1930, p. 97.

Rumanian words inherited from the substratum The numerous correspondences between Rumanian and Albanian derive mainly from the same ancient language, once spoken by the ancestors of the Albanians and the Rumanians. The Albanians have largely preserved their original language, although they borrowed very many elements from Latin during six centuries of Roman domination in the Balkan peninsula. The ancestors of the Rumanians, on the other hand, changed their language to Latin, preserving only some elements from the ancient idiom. The correspondences regarding Latin elements, however

B

numerous expressions in common, changes of meaning of Latin words, etc.

B

must have been created during a period of close contact between the two populations, during the age of Latin influence. Regarding vocabulary, these same possibilities exist, but it is difficult to decide for each word whether it was present in the ancestral language (i.e., in the substratum of Rumanian) or borrowed at a later period. There are no reliable criteria in this respect. However, it is most probable that

THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF THE LEXICAL ELEMENTS SHARED BY RUMANIAN AND ALBANIAN DERIVE FROM THE SUBSTRATUM,

and are not loans. As stated by Treimer: die alban. Wörter zeigen erbwörtliche Behandlung im Rumänischen, sind also so alt wie seine romanischen Elemente, ein anderer Standpunkt kann sagen als bodenständig, noch älter. Poghirc (in ILR vol. II, 1969, pp. 327

B

356) discussed the lexical elements of Rumanian which may derive from the substratum, a total of 142. Russu gave an extensive presentation of such elements (Etnogeneza românilor, 1981), listing 198 words. Not a single of the etymologies from other idioms than the ancient Balkan language whose continuation is Albanian is certain, however. The only reliable criterion remains the presence of the word in question in Albanian. Rosetti (ILR 1986, pp. 240

B

255) presents

A

the common elements of the Rumanian and the Albanian vocabulary

@

, without referring to the substratum. (In the index, p. 794, as

A

substratum languages

@

, Dacian, Illyrian, and Thracian are given.) In the following list, we use a similar approach. It must be stated that with our present knowledge, it is not possible to create a complete list of Rumanian words which unquestionably originate from the substratum. It is, however, probable that most of the words in the list belong to this group of words, but with the following reservations: (1) It cannot be excluded that a few of them may be borrowings from Albanian. (Those which have been considered probable or possible loanwords, above, pp. 71

B

72, are not taken up in this list.) (2) It is scarcely probable that all lexical elements inherited from the substratum of Rumanian still exist in Albanian. In the course of time, words disappear and may be replaced by synonyms or by loanwords. Therefore, a number of words which no longer are found in Albanian may derive from the substratum. The chance that this is so is greatest for lexical elements pertaining to the same semantic categories to which most of the words shared with Albanian belong: shepherd terms, animals and plants with which a shepherd population may be familiar. Future research will probably add a number of such lexical elements to this list. (3) A few etymologies are not quite certain: thus, Alb. baltë and mágulë and corresponding Rumanian balt

|

, m

|

gur

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, may be early Slavic loanwords, bollë may have been borrowed from Serbo-Croatian. The connection of Rum. noian and Alb. ujanë may also be questioned. Although only about half of these lexical elements are found in the southern dialects of Rumanian, they must have existed in Common Rumanian. Of all dialects, Northern Rumanian is best known and the southern dialects may have lost a number of ancient words and replaced them with loanwords. A list of words which have been assumed to originate from the substratum of Rumanian (Poghirc in ILR vol. II 1969, and Russu, Etnogeneza 1981) is presented in Illyés Ethnic Continuity 1992, pp. 231

B

239. In order to facilitate the comparison of the Rumanian words with their Albanian counterparts (which in many cases are identical or very similar), we give here a list of those sounds which, although existing in both languages, are written differently:

Albanian Rumanian the corresponding English pronunciation c Û as ts in ´curtsy´ c(i), c(e) as ch in ´church´ ë | as e in ´term´ (approximately) sh Õ as sh in ´she´

Albanian dh is pronounced as th in English ´they´; Alb. th as th in ´three´; Alb. j as ´year´ (or i in Rum. iad); Alb. xh as j in ´jester´, Alb. y as u in French mur (cf. Nelo Drizari, Albanian

B

English and English

B

Albanian Dictionary, New York, 1957, p. IV.) WORDS SHARED BY ALBANIAN AND RUMANIAN PRESENTED BY SEMANTIC CATEGORIES 1. Man: parts of the human body

Rumanian meaning: Albanian meaning: buz | lip; rim, edge buzë id. ceaf | nape (of the neck), backhead qafë neck, throat, windpipe, gullet ciuf, ciof tuft (of hair), shock; crest (of birds), hair ufkë, xhufkë upë tuft, fringe long hair grumaz neck; nape; back, throat gurmas (grumas), -zi id.

2. Man: sex, age, family relations

Rumanian meaning Albanian meaning copil child, infant kopil knight; bastard ghiuj (peior.) gaffer, old fogey gjysh old; grandfather mo Õ old man mishë, motshë age spîrc, spîrci (1) beardless (2) boy, kid spërk beardless; raw, callow youth

3. Clothes

Rumanian meaning Albanian meaning brâu girdle, belt brez (< bren-zë) band, bundle, connection c | ciul | (high) fur cap (fig.) head kësuljë id.

4. Words pertaining to animal husbandry (sheep stock)

Rumanian meaning Albanian meaning baci shepherd in charge of a sheepfold ba id. baleg | dung, manure baigë, bagjë, bagëljë (<baljëgë) id. basc | sheep´s wool bashkë, baskë (Gheg): mashkë id. bâr interjection with which the shepherd urges on the sheep berr sheep, small cattle curs | trap, snare, pitfall kurthë trap, ´Fang- eisen´ c | pu Õ| sheep louse/tick (Me-lanophagus ovinus) këpushë louse ciut, Õ ut hornless, poll; single-horned shut hornless ciut | (zool.:) hind, female hart shutë id. fluier, fluier | little whistle pipe, shepherd´s flute flojere flute da Õ lamb of the house dash ram g | lbeaz | , c | lbeaz | sheep pox; liverworts (Hepaticae) gëlbazë, këlbazë id. mânz foal, colt (Tosc:)mës, mëzi (Gheg:) mâz, maz id. mu Õ coi, mâ Õ coi mule mushk id. rânz | stomach (of ruminants) rrënd, rrâ, rrëndës id. sarb | d sour (about milk) tharbët, tharptë, thartë sour spânz, spânt, spâns (1) horses´ disease with enlargement of the spleen (2) Hellebore shpendër hellebore strepede cheese maggot shtrep worm strung | sheepfold shtrungë id. Õ tir | sterile shtjerrë lamb, young cow Û ap he-goat, billy-goat cap, cjap, sqap, cqap, etc. id. Û arc fold, pen cark, thark id. urd | soft cow cheese urdha cheese viezure, viezune, viezine common badger (Meles taxus or vulg.) vjedhullë, vjetullë, vjedull, vidhëzë id.

zar | the whitish, sourish liquid which remains of milk after the forming of butter dhallë sour milk zgard | dog collar shkardë dog chain

Remark: brânz

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, without an Albanian counterpart, is, however, connected with rânz

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(Rosetti ILR 1986, p. 253, referring to Bari

ƒ

). 5. Human dwelling

Rumanian meaning Albanian meaning argea room (made in the earth) ragal hut c | tun hamlet, small village (Tosc:) katund (Gheg:) katun, kotun id. gard fence; enclosure, pilework gardh, gard hedge, fence vatr | hearth, fireplace; house, dwelling (Tosc:) vatër, vatra (Gheg:) votër id.

6. Tools

Rumanian meaning Albanian meaning burduf (-h) skin, a primitive leather bag made of the hide of oxen, sheep, etc., or a bladder burdhë bag, sack gresie (dial.): gre(a)s | grit stone; whet-stone gërresë grater, shredder; drawing knife Û eap | stake; point of a pile thep peak

7. Animals

Rumanian meaning Albanian meaning barz | stork bardhë i bardhë ´white´ the white one (feminine) cioar | crow (Corvus) rook (C. Frug- ileus) sorrë id. cioc beak; rostrum ok beak ghionoaie (ghion + oaie /motional suffix/) woodpecker (Picus) gjon little owl (Athene noctua) gu Õ| coop, maw, gizzard (of birds); med.: goitre, wen gushë neck, comb of the cock m | gar ass, donkey (Equus asinus) magar, margac magjar, gomar, gumar id. murg dark-bay horse murk, murgu dark n | pârc | (common) adder, viper (Pelias berus) nepërkë, nepkërë, nepërtkë adder (Viperina) snake, viper pup | z | (pup | + -z | /diminutive suffix/) hoopoe, hoopoo (Upupaepops) pupë, pupzë, pupcë, pupa ´Wiedehopf´ upupa Õ opârl | lizard (Lacerta) shapi id.

8. Plants

Rumanian meaning Albanian meaning brad fir (tree) (Abies alba) bredh (primary form: brad) id. brustur(e) common bur(dock) (Arctium Lappa) brushtull(ë) Calluna vulgaris coac | z | black currant koqë koqëzë berry, fruit, grain sweetmeat copac tree kopac knot (in wood) stump, stub ciump, ciomp knot in wood, stump thump, thumbi thorn curpen, curp | n tendril; stem; species of Clematis kulpër(ë), kur- pul, kurpën, kurpër wild Clematis ghimpe thorn gjëmp, gljimp, gljëmbë id. leurd | garlic (of the forest) hudh(ë)rë, hurdhë id. m | rar dill (seed) (Ane-tum graveolus) maraj, mëraje Foeniculum officinale maz | re pea (Pisum sativum) modhullë id. mugur(e) bud, burgeon; med: small ex- crescence, fig.: offspring mugull cutting graft, offshoot sâmbure (bot.:) kernel; stone; main sub-stance, nucleus sumbull, thumbull, thumbëz button

9. Agriculture

Rumanian meaning Albanian meaning: buc (dialectal) chaff, husk byk id. grap | harrow grep hook

10. Nature, geography

Rumanian meaning Albanian meaning balt | marsh, moor, morass baltë mud, mire, bog swamp, marsh bar | swampy ground bërrak(ë) id. bâlc swamp, bog, marsh; narrow and swampy valley in the mountains pellk, pellgu swamp, bog, marsh; puddle, plash, mud hole groap | hollow, cavity; grave gropë id. ciuc | peak, summit ukë id. mal lakeside, border shore; coast, beach, bank mal mountain m | gur | hill, hillock mágulë hill, hillock; pile noian multitude, sea; immensity; abyss ujanë ujë ocean water pârâu, pâr | u brook, rivulet p(ë)rrua id.

11. Popular mythology

Rumanian meaning Albanian meaning bal | , balaur dragon, monster (bal | also: beast) bollë large serpent (< Serbo-Croatian? gog | (dialectal, in Oltenia) ghost, hobgob- blin; old hag gogë phantom, ghost; spectre

12. Miscellaneous

Rumanian meaning Albanian meaning abur(e) steam, vapour; breeze avull vapour bumb bumb | reaz | button coccyx bumbrëk kidney druete (dialectal /Oltenia/) wood dru, plur: drutë id. f | râm | small piece; morsel, bit; jot thërrimë (Gheg also: tërrimë) id. grunz lump, clod grundë, krundë bran, pollard; sawdust lete (pe) îndelete free time, leisure leisurely leh(ë)të light weight scrum ash shkrum id spuz | (1) burning ash (2) eczema shpuzë burning ash

13. Adjectives and adverbs

Rumanian meaning Albanian meaning b | l, b | la Õ fair, blonde balash, balosh white, with a white spot on the forehead gata ready, finished, completed gat gatuaj id. finish, prepare, cook

14. Verbs

bucura to gladden, to please bukuronj (Bukurisht: placename in Albania). to make beautiful ciupi to pinch, nip upis id. sc | p | ra to strike, throw; sparkle, lighten shrep shkrepës id. flint

Out of these 89 words, 24 are specifically related to shepherding. To the shepherd terminology in the strict sense of the word must be added the names of plants and animals encountered by a population living in high mountains, as well as adjectives of general significance but which also have a distinct sense pertaining to shepherding: Albanian balash, balosh means ´white´, but also ´with a white spot on the forehead´ obviously pertaining to animals. Also words such as c

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tun and argea denote basic conditions for a shepherd population. The total number of words of significance for the everyday life of shepherds among these 89 words common to Rumanian and Albanian is at least 60 = 66 % of all. Of the rest, most denote basic human notions and conditions, such as parts of the human body and family relations. The number of these words is considerable. I.I. Russu, after rigorous control, estimated the number of inherited Latin words in Rumanian (excluding derivations) to be 1550; those 89 words from the substratum, shared with Albanian, make up about 6% of the inherited (pre-Slavic) word stock. Many of these lexical elements are among the most important words of the Rumanian language. Estimations can only be approximative because of the uncertainty as regards the substratal origin of a number of words. The following studies may give some idea about the issue: studying the main word stock of Rumanian (

A

fondul lexical principal

@

) A. Graur considered that 22 of the words assumed to derive from the substratum belong to this set of words. (This may not apply exactly to the words presented here, where only those existing in Albanian are taken into consideration.) Another indicaton of the great significance of these words was given by Macrea, who stated that they were most productive, giving each an average of 4 derivations (as compared to words of Latin origin, somewhat more than 3, and of Slavic origin, about 2 derivations). Semantic groups: Number of words: Popular mythology 2 Adjectives 2 Agriculture 2 Clothes 2 Unspecific verbs 3 Tools 3 nature Human dwelling 4 animals Unspecific nouns 8

C

9% Man 8

C

9% plants Nature, geography 9

C

10% Animals 10

C

11% terms of Plants 12

C

13.5% shepherding Terms of shepherding 24

C

27% Total: 89 Fig. 1. The number and proportion of lexical elements shared by Rumanian and Albanian according to semantic groups.

G. The relationship between Rumanian and Dalmatian

Dalmatian, whose last speaker died on the island of Veglia in 1898, is partly known from records of the last remnants of the language made by Ive, Bartoli, and others; further, from archives found in Ragusa (Dubrovnik) written in Dalmatian. Studies of the placenames of Dalmatia, as well as Dalmatian elements transferred to Venetian and Croatian also contributed to this knowledge. There were two main dialects: a northern (also spoken on the island of Veglia), and a southern, which included the dialect of Ragusa. Dalmatian was spoken in the northwestern parts of the Balkan peninsula, especially along the coasts and on the islands. These areas were among the first to be colonized by the Romans, and were populated mostly by colonists from Italy. The area of Dalmatian was adjacent to that of the Vlachs in the mountains east of the river Drina, and also to the territory inhabited by the Albanians. The river Drina in Serbia (after 395 AD the frontier between the western and eastern empires) became in the course of time the dividing line between the territories of the Rumanian and Dalmatian languages. As a predominantly shepherd population, the Vlachs were from the social as well as from the ethnic viewpoint very different from the population of the Dalmatian coasts and islands. Bartoli considered that Dalmatian belonged to the East Latin group of the Romance languages. However, this is not entirely true. The vowel system of Dalmatian was, at the beginning of the 7th century, probably the same as that of the Western Romance languages. Thus, for example, the development of Latin /

ß

/ was different from that in Rumanian. The consonant system was different from that of the Western Romance languages and showed similarities to that of Rumanian (cf., for instance, the preservation of p, t, k, and of pt). Latin ct, cs changed to pt, ps only in Lat. octo > Dalmatian guapto, respectively Lat. coxa > Dalmatian kopsa. (In most other words, it was later simplified to t , under the influence of Venetian.) Also the gn > mn change, usual in Rumanian, appears only in single Dalmatian words: Lat. cognatus > Dalmatian komnut, Rum. cumnat; there are also examples of the mn > au change: Lat. columna > Dalmatian kelauna; Lat. damnum > Rum. daun

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. The conservativism of Dalmatian regarding the Latin consonant system is explained by the fact that this system changed in the West in a period when Dalmatia was separated from the rest of the Romance languages by the Slavic occupation of the Balkan peninsula. The great difference between the socio-cultural circumstances of the Dalmatians and those of the mainly shepherd Albanians and Vlachs explains that the Dalmatian language does not belong to the idioms which constitute the Balkan Linguistic Union (cf. below). However, Dalmatian, spoken in an area of the Balkan peninsula adjacent to Italy, shows features characteristic of both Italian dialects and Balkan Latin. It was considered a link between Italian and Rumanian: A notre avis le vegliote doit être consideré comme un parler intermediaire entre le roman d´Italie et celui de la péninsule balkanique. Par sa phonétique et son lexique il se rapproche tantôt de l´un, tantôt de l´autre. Sa position géographique nous autorise aussi à voir en lui la transition de l´italien au roumain. Significant are the lexical similarities, words and fine variations of meaning,

SHARED BY ITALIAN DIALECTS, DALMATIAN, ALBANIAN, AND RUMANIAN

. As shown above (p. 48), these are relics of the age when there was a continuum of Latin-speaking populations from Italy through Veglia and the other Dalmatian isles, and the Istrian peninsula, to the Balkans. To the examples given above, the following may be added here (Densusianu, HLR 1975 p. 227): Latin *excotere, Dalmatian skutro, Rumanian scoate ´to take/draw/pull out, to produce´: Dalmatian blaj me skutro joint daint, N. Rum. vreau s

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-mi scot un dinte ´I want a tooth to be pulled´. Dalmatian (the Ragusa dialect) lundro, Alb. l´undrë, Rum. luntre ´boat´ and luntre, luntri, etc. in (mosty southern) Italian dialects. Lat. singulus, Dalmatian sanglo, Rum. singur ´alone; only´: Dalmatian sanglo signaur nuestro, Rum. singurul st

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pân al nostru ´our only Lord´. Singulus was in most other Romance languages replaced by solus, although it appears in a number of dialects. It should be remembered that the Dalmatian language is not known in detail and it is therefore impossible to decide more exactly its relation to Rumanian.