ALBANIAN LANGUAGE. This Indo-European language is spoken in the mountainous region north of Epirus, south of Montenegro, on the eastern side of the Adriatic, by rather less than a million persons, who have kept to their ancient speech as to their ancient ways.
Apart from a few fragments of the 5th century, the oldest texts belong to the i6th and i7th centuries so that all we have is a modern version not very remote from present day speech. It is therefore difficult to construct an accurate history of the lan guage. From what period Albanian was spoken in its present area and whence it came, cannot be stated with certainty. There is no reason for holding that it came from Thrace and it probably is the continuation of a language which from early times was spoken in this area.
Albanian preserves a number of peculiarities indicating its Indo European origin, such as the personal pronouns, ty, thou; na, we; ju, you; and verbal forms as thom, I say; thote, he says; thomi, we say; thone, they say.
It is now modern in type. The article follows the noun. The future is expressed by a periphrasis. I will work is do te punoj, literally, there is a will that I should work; or kam me, punue= I have to work, as in the French, travaillerai.
A few indigenous words come directly from the Indo-European stock such as, in the northern dialect (called Guegue) dimen= winter, plural dimna; and emen = name, plural emna. In Tosk, the southern dialect, these nouns vary in form because n between vowels becomes r, thus dimer, dimera and emer, emera.
The bulk of the vocabulary consists of words borrowed from foreign languages, Albanian being thus a typical Balkan speech in which words have passed from one tongue to another so that we may speak correctly of a Balkan vocabulary despite the funda mental diversity of the individual languages.
Hardly any words can be definitely traced to ancient Greek, whose influence barely reached Albania in classical days. Latin, however, has had a strong influence even from early times and Romance scholars find Latin as well as Romance loan-words. Numerals like pes= five, and dhet=ten, have an indigenous ap pearance; but katre= four, and qind= one hundred, are evidently from Latin. The Latin amicus is mik, canis (dog) is gen. Kendoj, to recite or read comes from canto; as livroj= work, comes from laboro; and kujtoj=think, from cogito. Without words taken from Latin, the language would be seriously inadequate. It is a language of interest to the student, for we have a country reached by Roman civilization under the empire where the non urban population preserved its own speech. The vocabulary is full of Latin words while the grammar and pronunciation have remained constant to indigenous forms.
Many other influences have been at work on Albanian. Mediaeval and modern Greek have furnished many words, often by indirect routes. Other words are of Slav origin. Thus the word lypset= "it is necessary," was borrowed from Serbian, which in turn borrowed it from Greek.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—G. Meyer: Etymologisches Worterbuch der albanesBibliography.—G. Meyer: Etymologisches Worterbuch der albanes- ischen Sprache (Strassburg, 1891 ; bibl.) . N. Jokl. "Albanisch" (Strass burg, 1917), Geschichte der indogermanischen Sprachwissenschaft (ii.
3, p. 109-151 bibl.) . Lambertz and Pekmezi: and Lesebuch des Albanischen. (A. ME.) ALBANUS LACUS (LAGO DI ALBO), a lake 12m. S.E. of Rome. It is at the bottom of an extinct crater, itself on the margin of the great crater of Albanus Mons (q.v.). Fed by subterranean springs, it is 56of t. deep and the banks 400f t. over water-level. An outlet was made in 398-397 B.e., because the Delphic Oracle said Veii could be taken only when the waters reached the sea; it is still in use and is rock-hewn, im. long, 6ft. high and 4ft. broad with vertical shafts and a sluice chamber. (See ALBA LONGA.)