Check Out Albanian

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WcS9tb-8EE This clip is of an idiot ISIS jihadi giving an impromtu speech on a street in Aavaz, Syria. But he’s definitely speaking Albanian from what I can figure out. The jihadi is an Albanian Muslim from Kosovo. This language is quite interesting. Don’t believe I have ever heard it before. But what does it sound like? I would say it sounds like a mixture of these three languages in descending order: Slavic (especially Russian) Romanian Turkish Beyond that, what does it sound like? I get the vibe of the following languages in descending order: Classical or Ecclesiastical Latin Italian (especially Neapolitan Italian and in particular Barese spoken around the city of Bari in Puglia on the southeastern coast) That’s about it. Doesn’t sound much like Greek at all, despite the proximity to Greece. As far as roots go, Albanian is an ancient Indo-European tongue, probably derived from a Hittite-Armenian-Greek base long ago. There were other Illyrian languages spoken in the Dinaric region, but they have all gone extinct. Contrary to what Albanian nationalists say, Albanians almost certainly came from the north, probably the region around Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia. The Latin/Romanian sound is because Albanian underwent massive Latinization, and ~5 The Barese resemblance is very odd, but Barese has many roots that are not found in Italian at all. Both the southeast coast of Italy and Albania shared an influence from the ancient extinct Messapian language, and this may be where the similarity comes from. The Slavic sound probably derives from Slavic influences in that Albania has a number of Slavic countries around it. Turkish influence is easy to explain as most languages in that region have been influenced by Turkish. It’s a pretty interesting language, easy on the ears. At the end of the day though, I do not think this language sounds very close to any other language on Earth.

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22 thoughts on “Check Out Albanian”

  1. Dear Robert
    I read once that 90% of Albanian vocabulary is of foreign origin, which doesn’t mean that this has affected the Albanian phonetic structure.
    Regards. James

  2. There is also a pretty close cultural connection between Albanians and Turks, I’ve noticed. I actually knew an Albanian guy who told everyone he was Turkish. It was like a status thing.

    1. Maybe that’s because he was of Turkish national origin but of Albanian ethnic origin. There are a lot of Albanians, Bosnians, and other Islamized Europeans in Turkey who speak Turkish and are assimilated. That is one of the reasons you see alot of whites in Turkey. In fact, I read somewhere that 1/4th to 1/3rd of Turkey’s (urban/total?) population is descended from Muslim (white) European refugees from Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Crimea, Caucasus, Russia, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Ukraine, etc. I assume most were Albanians, Bosniaks/Muslim Slavs, (Crimean?) Tatars, North Caucasians, and “Turks” (basically Turkified/Islamized south Balkanians like Greeks, Bulgarians, Macedonians).

  3. The Eurasianist/NB analysis is that ISIS is factionalized, at least to the degree that certain elements are under control of Zionist-dominated America through its proxy Saudi Arabia and certain elements are independent thereof and might do significant damage to the former’s interests.

  4. Could you give us a reference on the 55%?
    Because it sounds like it’s a given fact that Latin has been there (place it) since day 0, already solidified with a robust grammar, structure etc… The same’s valid about all other languages Albanian has allegedly loaned a certain percentage of words…
    There’s NO question that Albanian obviously has many loanwords, but how do you decide, that’s what puzzles me.
    I could stamp here a multitude of words that English has borrowed from Albanian, as well as the entire western civilization languages(including Latin, ancient Greek, etc).
    But to claim a 55% is… I don’t know…
    Here’s a good question for you: how come almost all European languages have a Turkish word for yogurt while Albanian stands apart?
    Western Europe has never been invaded by the Ottomans, while Albanians were ruled by them for 5 centuries, yet, they did not borrow that particular word.
    Could you explain this?

      1. It was only to make you think a little over it. I know of an Albanian albanologue who could as well back up your claim, but I’ve read his reasoning and it’s utterly rubbish. His name is Çabej.
        I will throw in another example:
        Equus (Lat), cavallo(it), kal(ë)(alb).[cheval(fr),caballo(es),cavalo(por),cal(ro)]
        Which one of the three is the root of the other two or the rest of them? We know for a fact that Romanian is the closest language to Latin. How do you (not you as robert) conclude that “kal”(al) derives from “equus”(lat)?
        This is how Albanian gets the famous(or infamous) 55%. We owe it to small minds that are afraid of critical thought, tools or methodology.
        Whilst logic should dictate that older languages are distinct in their monosyllabic lemma, we fail to use this logic in determining origin.
        Here’s another word for you: “treasure”.
        I could go with “dark” as well, and also give you the “root” (according to britanica: “tarkannen” – old German for “to hide”) (!!sic!!)…
        It has never been a quest for truth, otherwise I can’t explain the failure and their methodology.

    1. You’re sure “dark” from German is correct?
      Did you know “dark” in Albanian is “dark”?
      Do we study languages or etymology based on assumptions or do we explore all available avenues? I’m not going for “possible” or “existing” avenues, no, just available.
      What would the implications be if I were right? At least you get rid of the headache of explaining how “tarkannen” transforms into “dark”, having only 3 letters in common and a completely different meaning.
      If you base your certainty on the reputation of Britannica, then I would refer you to “Aphrodite”. Their explanation is lazy, if I’m being generous, or tendentious, if I were crude.
      To conclude, there’s not a chance that 55% of Albanian words are of Latin origin; that could boldly go the other way around. Albanian is a much older language than Latin, and although there’s been a considerable influence from Rome to the east shores of the Adriatic, the vice versa is also true, if you consider what heavy influence Illyrians had on the empire. Starting from the number of emperors of Illyrian origin.
      It is unthinkable to claim that of two nations in contact with each other one is heavily influenced and the other NOT.
      It would be like saying that Africans in America have been impactless because they once were slaves.
      Today we got over 100 creoles developing right under our nose, yet we refuse to see how a language can develop naturally.
      What better example could we ask for than English language itself? It’s influenced heavily even by languages of cultures they’ve been in contact with in quality of an invading force.

      1. You’re sure “dark” from German is correct?
        No, but it is probably correct. Germanic Studies and Indo-European Studies are pretty exacting sciences.
        At least you get rid of the headache of explaining how “tarkannen” transforms into “dark”, having only 3 letters in common and a completely different meaning.
        Nope, t and d are the same sound. The rest just fell off at the end of the word. Happens all the time.
        It is unthinkable to claim that of two nations in contact with each other one is heavily influenced and the other NOT.
        Happens all the time that Language A borrows heavily from Language B but Language B hardly borrows at all from Language A.
        Today we got over 100 creoles developing right under our nose, yet we refuse to see how a language can develop naturally.
        Actually, the study of creoles has been going on for a pretty long time now.

        1. Well, if you asked Schwarzenegger, they are the same. (You tit, titn’t you?)
          Jokes aside, yes, they are considered so by linguistics.
          1. I don’t get what happened to “dark” in Albanian.
          2. By that explanation, Albanians and Brits must have followed the same rule, without contact with each other, and somehow along the way they decided independently to bestow it the very same definition, and on top of that, exactly the same way off from the root word which happens to be 55% longer than its products.
          “It happens all the time”… Would you consider English, in this case? Also, assume that Britain has been ruled by at least a dosen kings of foreign origin who spoke English as a second language(say Patels from India).
          Yes, the study of creoles has been and still is ongoing; some of these creoles are over 500 years old. The point was, how much alike are the methodologies used in studying creoles with the ones used for known, already established languages? Not at all, I’d say; as you won’t even consider English itself to be a creole language.
          I’d like your expert opinion on this as an MA in linguistics, because if I had taken my case to a mathematician, he’d stun your reasoning with unarguable figures.
          Would you then like to take a shot at “dark”(eng)=”dark”(alb)?

  5. Pokorny would raise more questions than answer.
    If you haven’t already run into the problem with the IE theory, it means that you haven’t seen it with a critical eye.
    Albanian hardly made it to IE, Basque failed and is still omitted, Etruscan of which we know almost nothing apparently isn’t.
    As a self declared Christian you should have “your own” theory on the origin of languages. Or are we stuck with yet another hot potato we can’t neither swallow nor spit out?

    1. dherg – in: M.Ir. derg “red”; M.H.G. terken “befoul“, O.H.G. tarchannen, terchinen “(darken) conceal, hide“, M.L.G. dork “keel of water depth“, O.E. deorc “swart“, Eng. dark; O.E. Þeorcung “dawn, twilight” probably with ð after ðēostor “dark”, geðuxod “dark”. Maybe Alb. darkë “evening, evening meal, supper”, drekë (*derk-) “dinner, midday”.
      The Albanian is looking more like the word for “dinner.” And yes, the Albanian, the German and the English are all from the same root, but in Albanian it means dinner, in German it means “to darken” and in English it means “dark” and maybe “swarthy” too.
      The Albanian and the Germanic are straight up from Indo-European.
      The real Albanian word for dark is errët.
      The root is also attested in Irish.
      Also related are the Albanian words in the meaning “lees, dregs, yeast”: Alb. drü f., Gheg drâ-ni “residuum of oil, from abundant butter; tartar“ (basic form *draë from *dragü, *dhrǝghü).
      Same word is in English: dregs.
      Also probably feces from Latin faēcēs.

      1. Nope. Who wrote this piece could not have been more wrong.
        See, “wrong” is already an absolute, and he lacks knowledge of Albanian.
        See, in Albania, we don’t have breakfast in the morning, we have “morning”(meal) at morning(time), “drekë”(meal) at “drekë” (time of day), and “darkë” also at “darkë” as opposed to dinner at … as long as it is the main meal of the day.
        Also, in Albanian dialectics, the “ë” at the end, is completely absent phonetically at over 80% of the population but it is used in the written form.
        Dark(al) is dark(en), 100%, and we have dark(meal) at dark(tenebre).
        It’s not hard to understand it, but your quotation comes from a presumptuous mind; not that of a “scientist” who “forgets” to ask any random Albanian what a word in… Albanian(their own language!) means!
        It actually looks exactly as if he were deliberately trying to eliminate Albanian off the equation and being naked of excuses.
        Why am I reading a “scientific” page and get the feeling Albanians understand something and the rest of the readers something else?

  6. Couldnt find a more clean example of Albanian language than an Albanian TV Debate Show http://youtu.be/1nt2BubrjDg
    The guy speaking for isis has been infuelnced much of Arabic language hence the accent… Also Albanian Kosovars have a thicker accent then Albanians.

      1. Because he has been living in Syria for a couple of years and has been speaking Arabic since in adulthood .. That deforms much the language .. Its like an Albanian child who migrates to another country and speaks a weak Albanian .

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