The Angevin–Albanian element in the Albanian lexicon

Abstract

While recent work has shown the Angevin Kingdom of Albania in the 13th and 14th centuries to have had a significant impact on Albania with effects ranging from religious demography and socioeconomic structure to architectural and artistic heritage, the linguistic impact of contact between Old French and Old Albanian has not yet been investigated. The diverse strata of the Albanian lexicon have long been an object of interest, but while impressive surveys have analyzed layers as thin as Gothic, to date no study of Angevin-Albanian contact appears to have ever been published. This paper aims to address this oversight and build a foundation for further investigation. After considering the historical context and examining the few Albanian etyma previously attributed to Angevin borrowings in past works, I argue there are at least thirteen highly plausible borrowings from the langue d’oïl in Albanian, consisting of two cases that have been supported in recent scholarship and eleven new cases that I present: napë, parriz, pëllas, kurt, trevë, bërsi, beronjë, punjashë, turbë, fe, and pre. The motivation for each is given by the diachronic phonology of Albanian, corpus evidence for attestation of relevant forms in Old French and langue d’oïl varieties, and historical semantic and sociolinguistic considerations.