It’s all Greek to me: Missed Greek Loanwords in Albanian

Abstract

Albanian is a language that has borrowed words and patterns from various other languages with which it came into contact from time to time. One of the most prominent sources of loanwords and loan-structures in Albanian is Medieval and Modern Greek. This paper discusses cases of Albanian loanwords of obvious or probable Medieval or Modern Greek origin that fail to be identified as such in the relevant literature. The discussion starts with a brief sketch of the history, affinities and contacts of Albanian with special focus on Medieval and Modern Greek. Then a classification is attempted of the Greek loanwords usually missed on the basis of their treatment in various works, while exploring the reason(s) why the Greek origin of such loanwords was missed. The main conclusion is that most such etymological mishaps are due to the limited knowledge of the donor language in terms of phonology, lexis and morphology.