Albanoid and other
Paleo-Balkan languages had their formative core in the
Balkans after the
Indo-European migrations in the region about 3000 to 2500 BCE. They replaced the
pre-Indo-European languages, which left traces of the Mediterranean-Balkan substratum. Shortly after they had diverged from one another, Pre-Albanian, Pre-Greek, and Pre-Armenian underwent a longer period of contact, as shown by common correspondences that are irregular for other IE languages. Furthermore, intense Greek–Albanian contacts have continued thereafter. The precursor of Albanian can be considered a completely formed independent IE language since at least the first millennium BCE, with the beginning of the early Proto-Albanian phase. or otherwise an unmentioned Balkan Indo-European language that was closely related to Illyrian and
Messapic. Messapic, which is grouped in the
same IE branch of Albanian, developed in southeast Italy after crossing the Adriatic Sea at least since the Early Iron Age, being attested in about six hundred inscriptions from Iron Age
Apulia. In classical antiquity Proto-Albanian was spoken in the central-western part of the Balkan Peninsula, to the north and west of the
Ancient Greeks, as shown by early
Doric Greek (West Greek) and
Ancient Macedonian loanwords that were treated with characteristic Albanian features, by classical
place names exclusively observing Albanian accent and phonetic rules, as well as by several Proto-Albanian items preserved in ancient glossaries.
Contacts with Ancient Greek Proto-Albanian speech came into contact in its earlier stage with Ancient Greek since the 7th century BCE, when the
Greek colonies were founded on the Adriatic coast of Albania. In that period early loanwords were borrowed from
Doric Greek (West Greek), either directly from the colonists or indirectly through trade communication in the hinterland. During the 5th–4th centuries BCE Proto-Albanian directly loaned words from
Ancient Macedonian, at a time when this language
gained prominence in the region and was not yet replaced by
Koine Greek. Several Proto-Albanian terms have been preserved in the lexicon of
Hesychius of Alexandria and other ancient glossaries. Some of the Proto-Albanian glosses in Hesychius are considered to have been loaned to the Dorik Greek as early as the 7th century BCE. Evidence of a significant level of early
linguistic contact between Albanian and Greek is provided by ancient common
structural innovations and
phonologic convergence such as: • the rise of the
close front rounded vowel (documented in
Attic and
Koine Greek); • the rise of
dental fricatives; • the voicing of voiceless
plosives after
nasal consonants; • the replacement, with a form that featured a
prefix, of the inherited
present tense 3rd person singular of the verb "be" (documented in
Koine Greek). Those innovations are limited only to the Albanian and Greek languages and are not shared with other languages of the
Balkan sprachbund. Since they precede the Balkan sprachbund era, those innovations date to a prehistoric phase of the Albanian language, spoken at that time in the same area as Greek and within a social frame of bilingualism among early Albanians having to be able to speak some form of Greek.
Contacts with Latin, Romance, and Middle Greek Proto-Albanian came into contact with
Latin since the
Illyro–Roman wars in the late 3rd and early 2nd centuries BCE, when the
Roman Republic defeated the
Illyrians and began to establish its rule in the Western Balkans, gradually consolidating its dominion during the last two centuries BCE. But the major Latin influence in Proto-Albanian occurred since the first years of the common era, when the Western Balkans were eventually incorporated into the
Roman Empire after the Great Illyrian Revolt of 6–9 CE (
Bellum Batonianum). According to Walter Breu, the earliest Latin influence in Albanian came from the coastal areas of the Western Balkans when they were Romanized, and does not concern possible contacts with Romanian whose similarities with Albanian had been strongly overestimated in the past. Many Latin-based words in Albanian have the character of indirect Latinisms, as they go back to originally Latin borrowings via Ancient and Medieval Greek. The name Albanian came from the
Albanoi, an Illyrian tribe located in north-central Albania and their city
Albanopolis, which was located somewhere between the
Mat and
Shkumbin rivers. The Albanoi might have been mentioned first as
Abroi, which may have been a constituent northern tribe of the larger group of the
Taulantii; modern scholars place them near the Mat and
Drin rivers. According to Eric P. Hamp, Albanian maintained links with both coastal western and central inland Balkan Latin formations. Ancient toponyms such as Lissus, Drivastum, Candavia, Drinus, Barbanna, Mathis, Isamnus, and Ardaxanos reached their current forms as
Lezhe,
Drisht, Kunavja, Drin,
Bunë, Mat,
Ishëm, and
Erzen respectively, through Albanian sound changes, indicating Albanian has been in the area since antiquity. The Latin loanwords in Proto-Albanian were borrowed through the entire period of spoken Latin in the Western Balkans (), reflecting different chronological layers and penetrating, without any restrictions, into virtually all semantic fields. Even the basic
Christian terms are of Latin origin, and since they entered Proto-Albanian before the Gheg–Tosk dialectal diversification, the Proto-Albanian speakers were
christianized under the Latin sphere of influence, specifically in the 4th century CE.
Historical linguistic considerations indicate that the Roman province of
Moesia Superior, and more specifically the ancient region of
Dardania and adjacent zones, constitute the best candidate for the area where Proto-Albanian received its major Latin influence, and where intensive contacts between Proto-Albanian and
Proto-Romance occurred, eventually producing the shared innovations between Tosk Albanian and
(Proto-)Romanian. Those innovations ultimately prompted the rise of Tosk from Proto-Albanian, a diversification that began not later than the 6th–7th centuries CE (i.e. before the period of contacts with Slavic). Gheg Albanian was already separated from the Albanian–(Proto-)Romanian contact zone at an earlier period. Those considerations indicate that unlike Gheg, the Tosk dialect could not yet have already occupied its historical geographic distribution in late antiquity. On the other hand, the multi-layered Albanian dialects in western North Macedonia provide evidence that the area was inhabited by Albanian-speakers since antiquity. The historical geographic spread of the Albanian dialects as it appeared in medieval times is considered to have been shaped by the
settlement of Slavic farmers from the 6th–7th centuries CE. During the centuries of the
Great Migration Period in the Roman Empire after the 3rd century CE, the Imperial structures progressively weakened and eventually collapsed. Proto-Albanian and Proto-Romanian speakers remained in close contact for a substantial time frame as mountain
pastoralists. The fact that the Albanian language reflects a clear pastoralist stage does not allow conclusions about the Proto-Albanian speakers' way of life during classical antiquity, as only the speech of the mountain pastoralists managed to survive the Great Migrations. It has been suggested that the Latin influence on Albanian resulted from an urbanized way of life, which was followed by a flight from towns similar to what occurred to the Eastern-Romance speakers. Nevertheless, the extensive influence of the Albanian language on the pastoral vocabulary and its influence, albeit lower, on the
crop cultivation vocabulary, in Eastern Romance languages, indicate that Proto-Albanian speakers were already leading a pastoral lifestyle at the time when Latin speakers assumed the same way of life, borrowing from (Proto-)Albanian a number of technical terms. The post-Roman contact zone between Albanian and Common Romanian is considered to have been located in
Dardania and adjacent areas. From this contact the Tosk Albanian dialect is considered to have received the first impetus of developments that were shared with Eastern Romance and that did not affect the Gheg Albanian dialect as it had already separated in earlier times. After a period of common innovations, but before the rise of the
rhotacism n >
r (which preceded contacts with Slavic from 600 CE), speakers of Eastern Romance varieties that were not yet affected by this fundamental sound change separated from the Tosk Albanian–Common Romanian contact zone. In a period that followed the rise of those innovations, Tosk Albanian is considered to have moved – driven by the offensive of the Slavs – to Albania south of the
Shkumbin river in its historically documented location. At the time of the South Slavic incursion and the threat of ethnic turbulence in the Albanian-inhabited regions, the Christianization of the Albanians had already been completed and it had apparently developed for Albanians as a further identity-forming feature alongside the ethnic-linguistic unity. Church administration, which was controlled by a thick network of Roman bishoprics, collapsed with the arrival of the Slavs. Between the early 7th century and the late 9th century the interior areas of the Balkans were deprived of church administration, and Christianity might have survived only as a popular tradition on a reduced degree. The reorganization of the Church as a cult institution in the region took a considerable amount of time, as the Balkans were brought back into the Christian orbit only after the recovery of the
Byzantine Empire and through the activity of Byzantine missionaries. The earliest ascertained church vocabulary of
Middle Greek origin in Albanian dates to the 8th–9th centuries, at the time of the
Byzantine Iconoclasm, which was started by the Byzantine Emperor
Leo III the Isaurian. In 726 Leo III established
de jure the jurisdiction of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople over the Balkans, as the Church and the State established an institution. The Eastern Church expanded its influence in the area along with the social and political developments. Between the 7th and 12th centuries a powerful network of cult institutions were revived completely covering the ecclesiastical administration of the entire present-day Albanian-speaking compact area. In particular an important role was played by the
Theme of Dyrrhachium and the
Archdiocese of Ohrid. The lack of
Old Church Slavonic terms in Albanian Christian terminology shows that the missionary activities during the
Christianization of the Slavs did not involve Albanian-speakers, indeed, the Christian belief among Albanians had survived through the centuries and already become an important cultural element in their ethnic identity.
Earliest contacts with South Slavic When the
Slavic-speaking farmers migrated to the Balkans and settled the plains from the 6th–7th centuries CE, they encountered Albanian-speaking Indo-Europeans and assimilated part of them, but the language of the Albanians who had taken refuge in the mountainous areas of present-day northern and central
Albania, eastern
Montenegro, western
North Macedonia, and
Kosovo, managed to survive the Great Migrations. Leading a
pastoral lifestyle and although separated from Slavic-speakers, Albanian-speakers were not isolated, and contacts between Albanian and Slavic occurred thereafter. In particular, Tosk Albanian came into contact with
Eastern South Slavic dialects, and Gheg Albanian with
Western South Slavic dialects. Early long-standing contacts between Slavic-speakers and Albanian-speakers might have been common in mountain passages and agriculture or fishing areas, such as the valleys of the
White and
Black branches of the
Drin and around the
Shkodër and
Ohrid lakes. Such contacts in these areas caused many changes in Slavic and Albanian local varieties. As Albanian and South Slavic have been in contact since the early Middle Ages, loanwords in both belong to different chronological strata and reveal different periods of acquisition. The earliest phase of contacts is dated to the 6th–8th century CE, reflecting some of the more archaic phonetic features of Slavic as well as early Albanian phonology. The early Slavic loanwords into Albanian developed Slavic
*s as
/ʃ/ and
*y as
/u/ within Albanian phonology of that era. Such toponyms include
Bushtricë (
Kukës),
Dishnica (
Përmet),
Dragoshtunjë (
Elbasan),
Leshnjë (
Leshnjë,
Berat and other areas),
Shelcan (Elbasan),
Shishtavec (Kukës/Gora),
Shuec (
Devoll) and
Shtëpëz (
Gjirokastër),
Shopël (
Iballë),
Veleshnjë (
Skrapar) and others. Part of the toponyms of early Slavic origin were acquired in Albanian before undergoing the changes of the
Slavic liquid metathesis (before end of the 8th century CE). They include
Ardenicë (Lushnjë),
Berzanë (Lezhë),
Gërdec and
Berzi (Tiranë) and a cluster of toponyms along the route Berat-Tepelenë-Përmet. The evolution of the ancient toponym
Lychnidus into
Oh(ë)r(id) (
city and
lake), which is attested in this form from 879 CE, required an early long-standing period of Tosk Albanian–East South Slavic bilingualism, or at least contact, resulting from the Tosk Albanian
rhotacism -n- into
-r- and Eastern South Slavic
l-vocalization ly- into
o-. The name of the region
Labëri resulted through the Slavic liquid metathesis: South Slavic
*Labanьja < Late Common Slavic
*Olbanьja 'Albania', and was reborrowed in that form into Albanian, in the period when
rhotacism was still active in Tosk Albanian. ==History of study==