The phonological picture is complicated only by an unusually large number of combinative changes and by the loss of internal and final consonants which tend to make etymological interpretation difficult. It need hardly be said that Albanian has developed on perfectly consistent lines from parent IE. His lndo-European “ interpreta tions ” are, needless to say, almost worthless. Meyer also makes initial IE d/dh become indiscriminately Albanian d in djek, dy, duaj, and dh in dhi, dhjetë and dhashë. The confusion is complete when Meyer tries to see [ndo-European initial 5 in thi, hjek, shurrë, sonte and gjarpër, a sound which he makes mysteriously disappear in et and kot! Even Latin initial s takes various shapes (accordin g to Meyer) in the words shëlboj, sipër and thekën. It is difficult to see, for instance, how lndo-European palatal k can produce under similar conditions both 5 (see his interpretation of sjell, sorrë, ‘sulem and sup), and th (see thanë, thartë and athët), or still worse, how palatal g/gh can produce at once (1 in dorë, dimën, derr, dh in dhjes, dhëmb and dhallë, and 2 in zorrë, zot, zjarr and zë. Meyer’s recognition and interpretation of the lndo-European elements of Albanian are at once both naive and inconsistent. Nearly all the Modern Greek and Turkish words admitted into his Dictionary are not used in Albania at all, whereas most of the abundant native material of the language was overlooked by Meyer altogether. Though Meyer is responsible for a number of brilliant interpretations of loan elements in Albanian-he was extremely well-informed linguistic ally-he nevertheless succeeded in producing a work which might almost be called a Dictionary of Albanian Jargon. This number can now be multiplied by five at least.
Gustav Meyer, in his “ Etymologisches Woerterbuch der albanesischen Sprache,” Strassbur g, 1891, discovered only 400 radical words.which we're demonstrably of native lndo-European origin. Though Albanian contains a large proportion of loan-words from Latin, Ancient Greek, Old Slavonic, Italo-Vene tic, Middle and Modern Greek, Middle and Modern Slavonic, and Turkish, as well as a number of interesting words of “ Mediterranean ” origin, native ludo-European elements predominate. As such it is clearly as important for comparative study as its sister languages Latin, Greek, Slavonic, Lithuanian, etc., with which it shows an approximately equal degree of relationship. PREFACE Albanian is a separate and independent member of the ludo-European family of languages. 55 nrru AVENUE, NEW YORK 3 LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
ROAD, BOMBAY 1 17 CIIITTARANJAN AVENUE, CALCUTTA 13 36A MOUNT ROAD, MADRAS 2 In View of the fact that this work is out of print, that it is not copyrighted, and that the international convention between Great Britian and the United States covering copyrights permitsĭuplication for local educational purposes, it is being reproduced by DLI for utilization by resident students. Author of “A Short Albanian Grammar ", etc. AN HISTORICAL ALBANIAN-ENGLISH ' DICTIONARYīy STUART E.
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