Albanian Verbs in Slavic Bilingual Speech: Between Code-Switching and Adaptation of Lexical Borrowings

The article analyzes the functioning of Albanian verbs in the speech of bilinguals in four Slavic-speaking communities of Albania (Prespa, Golloborde, Gora, Vraka), in which Slavic dialects are used as the first language, and Albanian is the second language for most of the population. The study is based on the dialectal texts published in the monograph Slavic Minorities in Albania by J. Ylli and K. Steinke. Albanian verb inclusions are studied in the context of two relevant theoretical problems: (1) attribution of single inclusions from one language to speech in another language to code switching (CS) or borrowing and (2) differences in the behavior of verbs and nouns in language contact. In the first case, we base on the works by K. Myers-Scotton, Sh. Poplack, and P. Muysken, and in the second case we compare our data with the typological observations of M. Haspelmath and U. Tadmor and apply J. Wohlgemuth’s approach to determine the adaptation strategies of Albanian verbs in the speech of Slavic bilinguals in Albania. The results of quantitative and qualitative analysis of Albanian verb inclusions are interpreted taking into account the sociolinguistic situation in the four communities. Having analyzed the single-word inclusions of Albanian verbs from the point of view of their belonging to the cases of CS/adapted borrowings, we assume that some verbs repeatedly used in texts in the adapted form are rather borrowings than cases of CS, since they do not have Slavic correspondences (at least in these texts). Non-adapted verbs, being undoubtedly examples of CS, are found mainly in the long Albanian “islands”. A quantitative analysis of verbal inclusions showed that the use of single non-adapted verbs does not exceed 15% in all regions except Vraka, where a high percentage of “embedded language islands” (in the terminology of K. Myers-Scotton) can be considered a consequence of the ongoing language shift. Single Albanian verbs are relatively numerous and usually adapted in the texts from Golloborde and Gora, and this similarity between the two regions can be explained by a similar sociolinguistic situation: both regions represent an example of a linguistic island with a good level of preservation of the first language. The ratio of verbal inclusions to other parts of speech in our material is fairly constant in all regions (from 15% to 18%) and is very close to the general typological observations (14%). Among the adapted verbs, the Indirect Insertion strategy prevails, according to the typology of J. Wohlgemuth. The use of non-adapted Albanian verbs is rather a case of CS than of the Paradigm Insertion strategy, since most of them are used within long “embedded language islands”, while the rare examples of single-word inclusions do not constitute a consistent strategy.

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