Rapporti tra le aree linguistiche albanese e romena

The present research takes into account the main studies carried out by generations of accomplished scholars in the field of the lexical coincidences between the Romanian and the Albanian language – both being of relatively late documentation – which presumably are deemed impossible to explain through Greek, Latin, Slavic or other languages and supposedly go beyond the well known features of the Balkansprachbund. Several scholars, from the mid 19th century until today, have tried to trace a substantial part of these coincidences back to the alleged Paleo-Balkan languages such as Illyrian, Thracian, Dacian, Mysian, etc. But since the linguistic data of these ancient languages are so far scanty, no solid evidence can be produced on this matter. Out of a former corpus of 297 common elements of assumed pre-Roman origin, 39 cases connected or relatable to pastoral farming are thoroughly examined. On the basis of the historical phonology of Albanian and Romanian and of their dialectal data, a chronological differentiation of the aforementioned lexical elements is put forward. As a result of this analysis, it is possible to assume that the ancestors of the present-day Albanians and Romanians lived in close contact, leading similar ways of life in which shepherding was of central importance. Albanian was possibly formed to the north-east of where it is spoken today, whereas Romanian to the south-west, most probably south of the Danube. It is very likely that the relationships between the two linguistic areas date back to prehistory, being developed afterwards in a socioeconomic background of multilingualism, where local Latin, Greek and, later, Slavic were of great relevance.