ЛЕКСИКОЛОГИЯ АЛБАНСКОГО ЯЗЫКА И ИСТОРИЧЕСКОЕ РАЗВИТИЕ ЕГО СЛОВАРНОГО СОСТАВА [ОБЗОР]

Albanian lexicology and the historical development of its dictionaries

The Albanian language is one of the oldest languages ​​in the Balkans [12, P.221]. Albanian is a living language. In this case, it turns out that the written documents are not the only source that helps us know the language and its historical development [6, P.8]. To trace the history of the Albanian language, we must look at the Albanian language itself as it is spoken today by the people, with the dialects and sub-dialects, especially the dialect of the Arvanites in Greece and the dialect of the Arbresh in Italy, which represent the older phases of the language today. However, the oldest words of the Albanian language prove that Albanian has deep roots in the Balkans and Europe. The antiquity of the Albanian language is evidenced by several words that are similar or identical to the words of the Baltic languages​​ (Lithuanian, Latvian, and Slavic languages), as well as the fact that the Illyrian words, according to antiquity, date from 1000 years B.C [7, P.6].

When we talk about the Albanian language, we do not necessarily set historical boundaries and territory. The Albanian language consists of all that wealth of means of expression, of the complete phonetic, grammatical, and lexical word formation, and of the stylistic system that has served the linguistic agreement of the Albanian population to this day. A part of this great linguistic unit is the Albanian language, which starts from the period of our National Renaissance until today, and it is seen that it has a historical border [12, P.221]. Famous Albanologist Gustav Mayer proved in 1888 that the Albanian language was an Indo-European language and that it is more similar to the languages ​​of the North of Europe than of the Greek language. Later in 1891, he published the Etymological Dictionary of Albanian with 5,000 words. Only 400 words are Indo-European, while others are of Greek, Latin, Italian, Slavic, and Turkish origin [9, P.25]. Studies about the features of the historical development of the Albanian lexicon over the centuries have been done according to the evidence that is given to us by the published books by Eqrem Çabej, S. Riza, Idriz Ajeti, etc [12, P.221]. Scholar Gjovalin Shkurtaj points out that the Albanian language “...until the beginning of the XV century, was one of the 1000 unwritten languages ​​(not written as documents)...” In the 16-17th centuries, as we see in the old edition from authors Gjon Buzuku, Pjetër Budit, and Pjetër Bogdani, the Albanian language is generally rich in the lexicon [12, P.221].

Historical documents, such as acts of sale, political and commercial treaties, etc., are an important source for the history of a language. In them are found words and forms of words of a past period, which enter into work for the reconstruction of the previous phases of that language [6, P.8]. We have collected documents in the book, “Acta et diplomata res Albaniae mediae aeatis illustrantia”, that was published in 1916 from historians Thalloczy, Jeriçek, and Sufflay. These documents evidence that the Albanian language was also written before the Meshari (The Missal) of Gjon Buzuku (1555), which was the first document of the Albanian language and which is also evidence of the historical development of the Albanian lexicon. We also have “Formula e pagëzimit”, written in Latin and Albanian by Albanian cardinal and scholar Pal Engjëlli. Here is a brief transcription of the document [1, P.34]. This text in the Latin language by Pal Engjëlli: ”Ego te Baptizo in nomine Patris es filij spiritus Sancti”, while this text is in the Albanian language by Pal Engjëlli:”vnt” paghesont premenit Atit et birit et spertit sent”. This is the transcription:”Un të pagëzonjt premënit (të) Atit e t Birit e t Shpertit shenjt”. (I baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit". From this transcription, we can prove how the Albanian language was clearly written completely from the Latin alphabet in that time. Pal Engjëlli was the archbishop in the Durrësi city at the time of Skanderbeg. This manuscript is preserved in Florence, Italy, Bibliotheca Laurentian, and Ashburnham II fund, register 1167 with parchment sheets 1-37. From that 37-page register, historian, politician, and literary critic Nicolae Jorgha (Nikola Jorga) took some notes. In his work, “Notes et extraits pour server á l`istorie des croisades an XV-e siècle, IV-e série 1453-1476, Bucarest, 1915”, he was the first to publish these pieces, which belong to Pal Engjëllit, on pages 194-198. “Konctitucionet”, which was written in the Latin language by Pal Engjëlli, was published by Nicolae Iorga, only with the summaries as abbreviations or as quotations, as “Baptismal formula” (formula e pagëzimit) comes out in Albanian[9, P.34] on page 195. German traveler Mr. Arnold Von Harffi has collected 26 words, 8 expressions, and 12 numbers and phrases, putting them close in translation, but without listing them as dictionaries [1, P.62]. "Easter Gospel" or as it is otherwise known “Perikopeja e Ungjillit”, is a document found inside a Greek manuscript in the 14th century.

After conducting studies, French albanologist Mario Roku discovered that the Albanian text belongs to the end of the 15th century. The text has two pages, and two short parts are written in Albanian. Although the document is written in the Greek alphabet, it has linguistic significance, as evidenced by the document in the Tosk dialect. The book, "Meshari", written by priest Gjon Buzuku, consisted of 110 pages (220 pages) [1, P.130]. A full version was published in Tirana in 1968, and it was prepared and transcribed by scholar Eqrem Çabej, who also wrote the introduction of this book. The copy of the book was damaged, and the book now has only 94 pages. [1, P.130]. Lekë Matrënga’s book is translated into Albanian [2, P. 32]. Matrënga writes Albanian with the Latin alphabet, and for some letters, it goes according to the alphabet of the Italian language. Matrënga's book, published in 1592, contains a total of 479 words [1. P, 32]. Lekë Matrënga's book is known as "E mbsueme e chraesterae" (E mbsueme e krështerë). Matrënga's complete lexicon consists of 428 words.

We also have a wealth of lexicology from Bishop Pejtër Budi, as he left several thousand verses (3,000) [1, P.23]. He is the first known poet in the history of our literature, together with the Arbëresh from Italy - Lekë Matrënga. Most of the poems are translated and adapted from the Latin language. Pjetër Mazreku left some reports and letters, which he wrote in the Italian language, in the first half of the 17th century [3, P.9]. In these reports, several announcements were made by the author himself for his people. It is shown here that many other relations, acts, and chronicles were preserved over the centuries in the archive at "De Propaganda Fide" and in the "Vatican Library" and its Archive [3, P.9]. In the same report written by him, in addition to the following data and others that can be extracted to write his life in more detail, he left 32 words [3, P.22].

Frang Bardhi's dictionary in the "Latin - Albanian" language, published in 1635, has 5,000 voices. Of them, 2,492 voices are in Albanian. In the book, "Company of Prophets", written by Pjetër Bogdani, are a total 4,170 voices. Lexicology is the earliest branch of our language, and it begins its journey with the language dictionary in the "Latin-Albanian" by Frang Bardhi (1635). However, even before that, there were efforts in this field, such as "The Dictionary of Arnold von Harf ”(1497) and also from Pjetër Mazrek (1633), which have only dozens of Albanian words - a foreign language. After the publication of Frang Bardhi's dictionary in 1635, we have the publication of a large number of different dictionaries from different fields, such as Francesco Rosi’s "Dictionary in Latin – Albanian language" (1866), with 25,000 words; Francesco Rosi’s "Dictionary in Italian-Albanian language” (1875), with 25,000 words; Jak Junku’s “Little Dictionary in Albanian-Latin language” (1895), with about 9,000 words; Society "Bashkimi": “Fjaluer i Rii i shqipes” (Albanian-Italian), Shkodër (1908), with 11,000 words; Angelo Leoti’s "Dictionary in Albanian-Italian language" (1937) with  30,000 words and 3,000 proverbs; Lukë Lukaj’s "Serbo-Croatian-Albanian Dictionary", Belgrade, (1935) with 14,000 words; and Konstandin Kristoforidhi’s “Albanian-Greek Dictionary” (1904). Then, there were multilingual dictionaries, such as William Martin Lik’s "Dictionary in Greek-English-Albanian language", with 21,000 words; and Simon Kazanxhiu’s “Dictionary in German - Slovenian - Czech - Hungarian - Italian – Albanian”. There were also dialectal and etymological dictionaries, such as Pano Tase’s “Fjalor i ri” (1941), with 2,000 thousand words and much phraseology, as well as many congratulations and curses, mainly from the South of Albania; Nikolle Gazulli’s “Fjalor i ri” (1941), with 5,000 rare words from the North of Albania; Emanuel Jordan’s "Dictionary of the Arbëresh of Italy" (1963), with about 20,000 words and explanations in Italian, Bari; Gustav Majer’s “Etymological Dictionary of the Albanian Language” (1891), with about 5,140 words; "Dictionary of the Albanian language" (1954), with 25,000 words, Tirana; "Dictionary of today's Albanian language" (1980-1981), with 41,000 words, Tirana; "The first explanatory dictionary" (1954), Tirana. To continue, there were also bilingual dictionaries created, such as "Serbo-Croatian-Albanian dictionary" (1947), with 25,000 words; "Russian-Albanian dictionary" (1951), with 25,000 words; "Russian-Albanian Dictionary" (1954), with 25,000 words; "French-Albanian Dictionary" (1966), with 20,000 words; "Latin-Albanian Dictionary" (1966), with 20,000 words; Stuart Man’s “Historical Dictionary - Albanian-English” (1948); Ilo Duro and Ramazan Hysa’s “Albanian-English Dictionary” (1988); Henrik Baric’s “Serbo-Croatian-Albanian Dictionary” (1950); Sokol Dobroshi’s “Serbo-Croatian – Albanian Dictionary” (1953), with 40,000 words; “Serbo-Croatian-Albanian Dictionary” (1974); “Albanian-Serbo-Croatian-Albanian Dictionary” (1981); Lajosh Tamash’s “Albanian-Hungarian Dictionary” (1981); “Bulgarian-Albanian Dictionary” (1959), with 25,000 words; “German-Albanian Dictionary”, with 25,000 words; Zef Simoni, Skënder Doku, Oda Bucholz, Wilfried Fiedler, and Gerda Uhlisch’s “Frazeo Dictionary German-Albanian logic” (1988); Vojislav Dançetoviç, Aleksandër Xhuvani, Kostaq Cipo, and Eqrem Çabej’s “Serbo-Croatian-Albanian Dictionary” (1947); Mikel Ndreca’s “Albanian–Serbo-Croatian Dictionary” (1976), with 30,000 words; "Albanian-Serbo-Croatian Dictionary" (1982); Sami Neziri’s "Turkish-Albanian Dictionary" (2006), with 75,000 words; Hysen Voci’s "Dictionary of Orientalisms" (2005); "Dictionary of Albanian - Albanian" (2010); Isa Memishi’s “Arabic-Albanian Dictionary” (2011); Ilo Stefanllari’s “Albanian-English Dictionary, English-Albanian” (1996); Pavli Qesku’s “English-Albanian Dictionary” (2000); Vesel Nuhiu’s “Dictionary of English-Albanian Phraseological Expressions” (1990); “Dictionary of Foreign Words” (1988); "Dictionary of foreign words and expressions" (1986). There have also been many dictionaries written that focus on terminology, such as “Dictionary of Botanical Terminology” (1970); “Dictionary of Terminology of Mathematics and Tower Mechanics” (1963); “Dictionary of Thermodynamics Terminology” (1963); "Dictionary of Optical Terminology" (1963); "Dictionary of Acoustics Terminology" (1963); "Dictionary of Electromagnetism Terminology" (1963); "Dictionary of Electronics Terminology" (1963); "Terminology of Chemistry" (1963); "Dictionary of Architecture Terminology" (1964); "Dictionary of Hydraulic Terminology" (1966); "Dictionary of Literary Terms" (1070); "Dictionary of Geographical Terms" (1975); and Jahi Staneci’s "Dictionary of Geomorphology" (2004). The “Spelling Dictionary of the Albanian Language” was published in 2011 with 75,000 thousand words. The lexical richness of each language is different and depends on many factors, such as overall socio-economic and cultural development, language policies, and language planning, which includes the standardization process and other factors [8, P.7]. Linguist Ferdinand de Saussure has said of the language that it is a river that flows incessantly [10, P.7]. According to linguist Edward Sapir, language exists only because it is used: spoken and heard, written and read. Despite the difficulties, the journey of Albanian linguistics has always been helped by its linguistic disciplines, such as etymology, lexicology, lexicography, semantics, phonetics, phonology, orthography, morphology, syntax, word formation, phraseology, dialectology, semiology historical grammar, language history, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and geo-linguistics.

Conclusion

The lexicon of the Albanian language has had a satisfactory development during different streams of history as it has been added and enriched with new words and expressions. Also, the vocabulary of today's Albanian language has marked significant progress. The greatest lexicon and Albanian lexicology reached its peak towards the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, because many different dictionaries were published from different fields, including bilingual dictionaries and thematic dictionaries. To thank for this meritorious development are linguists, writers, journalists, translators, publicists, etc. As one of the most difficult languages ​​in Europe, the Albanian language has had constant contact with other languages, such as Greek, Latin, Slavic, Turkish, and Italian. From these continuous lexical contacts, the Albanian language has received and given words and different expressions. To develop and achieve new successes, a series of studies have been drafted in various fields of lexicography, and scientific conferences have been continuously organized on the topic of Albanian lexicon and lexicography. Albanian scholars, such as Eqrem Çabej, Idriz Ajeti, Shaban Demiraj, and Jani Thomai, have made an extraordinary contribution to the development and advancement of lexical studies. From all stages of the development of the lexicon of the Albanian language, starting from the old literature to the modern literature, we can single out the rapid development of the lexicon in the period of the National Renaissance. During this period, for the first time, the collection and the lexical system as a whole began, as well as with the creation of new Albanian words, the creation of neologisms, and the removal of foreign words that had taken place in the vocabulary of Albanian language speakers. At the time of the National Renaissance, neologisms were created, such as windows, motherland, capital, promenade, etc. However, the neologisms have also been created by the authors of old literature, such as Gjon Buzuku, Pjetër Budi, Frang Bardhi, and Pjetër Bogdani. The Albanian language and the lexicon during its historical development have always been open to the words and the lexicon of other languages, so the Albanian language has continuously given and received words from foreign languages.