Abstract
We explore here several kinds of language mixing to be found in the Greek-Albanian bilingual speech community of the village of Palasa in southern Albania. Palasa is of particular interest for Greek dialect studies because it offers a window in the present day into highly localized dynamics of language contact. Among the mixing observed in Palasa is code-switching, motivated by various factors as identified by Myslín & Levy 2015, borrowing, both lexical and structural, and hybridization, at a number of levels of analysis, including phonology, morphology, and semantics. Our findings indicate that language contact is still alive and well in the Balkans at least at the level of village dialects.
1 Introduction
The small village of Palasa, located in the vicinity of Himara in southern Albania, provides a fascinating and important look at language contact. The villagers are Greek-speaking but are fully fluent in Albanian as well, so that it is possible to see the effects that contact between the two languages has had for these speakers. Especially interesting is the extent to which these bilinguals show a mixing of Greek and Albanian at various levels. Our presentation of this language mixing here is based on fieldwork in Southern Albania, specifically on work in Palasa that Brian Joseph did individually or together with Aristotle Spiro, Majlinda Spiro, Andrey Sobolev, and Alexander Novik in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018; the material is thus on-site naturalistic data, involving recordings of conversations with and between several older Greek-Albanian bilinguals. Rexhina Ndoci provided most of the analysis, based on these recordings, assisted by Carly Dickerson.
The notion of “language mixing” we intend here should be understood in its broadest sense, i.e. referring to ways in which, in a language contact situation, elements of both language A and language B co-occur in the discourse of speakers of A and B. Language mixing for us thus takes in such well-known contact-related phenomena as code-switching and borrowing, both of a lexical nature and a structural nature, but also what we call “hybridization”, in which phrases and even words show mixing of elements at different levels, especially phonology, morphology, and semantics. In what follows, we present the relevant data showing the mixing and offer our analysis of the individual instances and the more general situation they shed light on.
2 Code-switching
We start with code-switching, an outcome of language mixing with a long tradition of research (cf. e.g. Poplack 1980). We adopt the definition here of Myslín & Levy 2015:873, namely the “alternation of multiple languages within a single discourse, sentence, or constituent … by fully proficient multilinguals”, and we draw on the general framework for the causes of code-switching that they articulate.
In particular, in addressing why bilingual speakers would code-switch, Myslín & Levy 2015 offer several motivations; most relevant for the situation we observed in Palasa are the following:
-
Pragmatic/discourse-functional factors, especially clarification, emphasis, qualification of information and topic of discussion.1
-
Sociocultural dynamics, especially inter-speaker accommodation
-
Psycholinguistic factors, especially triggering (cf. Clyne 1991 on sound-alike “trigger words”)
We illustrate these situations in what follows, but we note that there are also some switches between Greek and Albanian in Palasa that are difficult to classify and at least appear to be unprovoked.
2.1 Pragmatic/discourse-functional factors
Two different types of discourse-based factors for code-switching can be found in the Palasa data.
2.1.1 Clarification/emphasis/qualification
An example showing a speaker switching languages for clarification is given in (1), where the issue was the grammatical gender of a place referred to as [liθerí], where based on its sound shape, ending in [i], the form could in principle be neuter (with definite article το) or feminine (with definite article η): after debating for a little while with the interviewers trying to elicit the gender of the name for the area using definite articles (το Λιθερί ή η Λιθερή ‘the(NTR) Litheri(NTR) or the(FEM) Litheri(FEM)’) and locative prepositions (στο ή στη ‘to.the(NTR) or to.the(FEM)’) marked for either neuter or feminine gender, the informant resolves the ambiguity by using the feminine locative preposition στη and then immediately switching to Albanian (n’ gjinin femërore ‘in feminine gender’) to clarify that it is a noun with feminine grammatical gender.
(1)
I1:2
το
Λιθερί
ή
η
Λιθερή;
the(NTR)
Litheri(NTR)
or
the(FEM)
Litheri(FEM)
‘ “The” Litheri or “the” Litheri?’
I2:
στο
ή
στη;
to.the(NTR)
or
to.the(FEM)
‘ “To the” or “to the” ’
M:
στη [pause]
(n’)
gjinin
femërore3
to.the(FEM)
(in)
gender
feminine
‘ “to the” in the feminine gender’
In (2), the woman is talking in Greek and gives her answer to the interviewer’s question on what they used to cut the object of the discussion with (με το μαχαίρι ‘with the knife’) and then follows it immediately by the exact same answer in Albanian (me thika ‘with the knife’). In this case it is not as easy to identify the precise pragmatics behind the switch. The speaker might be trying to make sure that the answer is clear and the researcher has understood what she has said or she might be emphasizing the object of the cutting action being discussed.
(2)
I:
Και
αυτό
με
τι
τα
κόβατε;
and
this
with
what
them
you.cut
‘And what did you cut this with?’
W:
Με
το
μαχαίρι,
me
thika,
ναι
with
the
knife
with
the.knife
yes
‘With the knife, with the knife, yes’
I:
Με
το
μαχαίρι.
Είχατε
διάφορα
μαχαίρια;
With
the
knife
you.had
various
knives
‘With the knife. You had various knives?’
In the next example, (3), we can see an instance where code switching seems to have a clarifying and qualifying function. The speaker is talking at first in Albanian (Gjithmonë andartin kanë qenë Palasikot ‘the Palasikotes had always been rebels’) about how rebellious and strong the people from Palasa have been and then switches to Greek (Ελέγανε οι Χειμαρραίοι, λέγανε για τους Παλασκινούς “σέρνει η βάρκα το βαπόρι” ‘the Himariotes would say, would say about the Palasikotes “the boat drags the ship” ’) to qualify this by providing more information about the claim.
(3)
Gjithmonë
andartin
kanë
qenë
Palasikot.
Ελέγανε
οι
Χειμαρραίοι
λέγανε
για
τους
Παλασκινούς
“σέρνει
η
βάρκα
το
βαπόρι”
always
the.rebellion
they.had
been
Palasikotes
they.said
the
Himariotes
they.said
about
the
Palasikotes
drags
the
boat
the
ship
The Palasikotes had always been rebels. The Himariotes would say about the Palasikotes that “the boat drags the ship.”
2.1.2 Topic
An example in which the topic seems to motivate a code-switch can be seen in (4). In this instance, the interviewer is trying to clarify whether one of the informants is from Palasa or from Narta, another Greek village, and then moved to Palasa when she married a local. This negotiation takes place in Greek. This conversation triggers a response from Man 1 who goes on talking about the experiences of the woman’s family during the Greco-Italian war. He starts his first turn in Greek (Όχι, έχουμ πάει ‘No, we have gone’), as the language of the discussion so far has been Greek, but soon switches to Albanian in the same turn admitting that he feels more comfortable talking about this topic in Albanian (Ta them në shqip më mirë se nuk e [?] ‘I’ll tell it to you better in Albanian because I don’t [?]’). Thus, this seems to be a case of topic-based shift. Between this utterance and his next utterance there is a short discussion between two other informants about how the female informant is related to another man, a passage omitted here to save space. The example continues when Man 1 gets another turn in the conversation and resumes narrating the history of the family in Albanian.
(4)
I:
Είσαι
Ναρτιώτισσα
εσύ;
Ποια
είναι
Ναρτιώτισσα;
you.are
Nartiotissa
you
Who
is
Nartiotissa
‘Are you from Narta? Who is from Narta?’
W:
Εγώ;
Δεν
…
I
not
‘Me? Not …’
M1:
Όχι
έχουμ
πάει.
Ta
them
në
shqip
më
mirë
se
nuk
e[?]
no
we.have
gone
you.it
I.tell
in
Albanian
more
well
because
not
it
‘No, we have gone. I’ll tell it to you better in Albanian because I don’t [?]’
[…]4
M1:
Këta
kanë
vajtur
i
morën
që
ktena
dhe
i
çuar
në
më [?]
në
për
vende
domethënë,
se
ketu
do
bëhet
luftë.
Siç
bërë
bombardime,
ça
do
bëshin
ato.
these
they.have
suffered
them
they.took
that
over.here
and
those
brought
to
more
to
for
places
want-to-say
because
here
would
become
war
as
done
bombardments,
what
would
had.done
they
‘These ones have suffered, they took them from over here and those brought to more [?] to (other) places, that is to say, there would be war. As there were bombardments, what would they have done.’
M2:
Bombardime
bombardments
‘Bombardments’
2.2 Accommodation
Very common in cases of code-switching, and also found in Palasa, are instances in which a speaker switches in order to accommodate to the language of one’s interlocutor. This is shown twice in (5) where the woman accommodates to Interviewer 1 by responding to him in Albanian (Soi burrit. Jo babai im ‘Husband’s family. Not my father’) when he addresses her in Albanian (Domethënë [soi] i burrit është prej Skrapari, ose [soi] babait?5 ‘That is to say, the husband’s family is from Skrapar, or the father’s family?’). However, when Interviewer 2 enters the conversation using Greek (Από ποιο σόι είσαι εσύ; ‘Which family are you from?’), the woman accommodates again to the language of the second interviewer and responds to him by switching to Greek (Εγώ είμαι από το Παπά. Είχαμε τον παπάν ‘I am from the Papa family. We had the priest’).
(5)
I1:
Domethënë
[soi]
i
burrit
është
prej
Skrapari,
ose
[soi]
babait?
want-to-say
the.family
of
the.husband
is
from
Skrapar
or
the.family
of.the.father
‘That is to say, the husband’s family is from Skrapar, the father’s family?’
W:
[soi]
burrit.
Jo
babai
im
the.family
of.the.husband
no
the.father
my
‘Husband’s family. Not my father’
I1:
[soi]
babait
nga
është?
the.family
of.the.father
from
is
‘Where is your father’s family from?’
I2:
Από
ποιο
σόι
είσαι
εσύ;
from
which
family
are
you
‘Which family are you from?’
W:
Εγώ
είμαι
από
το
Παπά.
Είχαμε
τον
παπάν
I
am
from
the
Papa
we.had
the
father
‘I am from the Papa family. We had the priest.’
I: Ήταν παπάς ο αυτός ο παλιός;
Was priest the this the elder
Was this elder a priest?
2.3 Triggering
Psycholinguistic factors also seem to be relevant in the code-switching of the bilinguals in Palasa. Instances of switching seem to be triggered often by lexical items that sound the same in both Albanian and Greek, “trigger words”, in the terminology of Clyne 1991, that serve as a bridge between the two languages. Examples of this type are given in (6) and (7) where the utterances begin in Greek (Με παίραν πάλι ‘they took me again’ and Εσύ γι’ αυτή κ´ευτή, για σένα, αλλά ‘you for her and she for you, but’, respectively) and are completed in Albanian (ekzekutiv me të gjitha ‘the executive, with all’ and mirëkuptimi ‘understanding’, respectively). The use of the preposition with the pronunciation /mε/ ‘with’, which has the same meaning and also sounds the same in Greek (orthographically με) and in Albanian (orthographically me), might be what activates Albanian in the bilinguals’ minds and thus triggers the switch from Greek to Albanian.6
(6)
Με
παίραν
πάλι
[mɛ]7
ekzekutiv
me
të
gjitha
me
they.took
again
with
executive
with
[particle]
all
‘They took me again with the executive, with all.’
(7)
Εσύ
γι’
αυτή
κ’
ευτή
για
σένα,
αλλά
[mɛ]
mirëkuptimi
You
for
her
and
she
for
you
but
with
understanding
‘You for her and she for you, but with understanding.’
2.4 Seemingly unprovoked
So far we have presented instances of code-switching motivated by what we see as the sociocultural dynamics between interlocutors, discourse-functional factors, and psycholinguistic factors. There are, however, instances that seem to be unprovoked so that the motivation behind the switch is unclear. Such cases can be found in examples (8) and (9) where the speakers switch momentarily—perhaps one-word switches if these are not to be treated as loans—into Albanian while speaking Greek, using the Albanian lexical items guzhina ‘kitchen’ and pika ‘drop’ instead of the corresponding Greek κουζίνα and σταγόνα/στάλα; these are common, everyday words that might be unlikely candidates for borrowing.8
(8)
Τι
θέλει;
Guzhina,
καθαριότητα,
σίδερο …
what
he.wants
the.kitchen
cleaning
ironing
‘What does he want? The kitchen, cleaning, ironing …’
(9)
για
δε
μας
δίνετε
μια
pika
νερό,
λέγω.
because
not
to.us
you.give
one
drop
water
I.say
‘Because you did not give us one drop of water, I said.’
3 Borrowing
We use the notion of borrowing in a broad sense here, referring not only to the introduction of lexical items, but also to the introduction of semantic, grammatical, and phonological material. Thus, our approach is closer to Aikhenvald’s (2002) definition of borrowing as “the transfer of features of any kind from one language to another as a result of contact”. Let us then proceed by looking at these types of borrowing more closely.
3.1 Lexical borrowing
Lexical borrowing in the Greek-Albanian contact situation of Palasa shows that certain lexical domains have been especially conducive to borrowing.
3.1.1 Communist-era terminology
One such domain is terminology that refers to the Albanian communist era. In (10) partia ‘party’ and in (11) spi9 kulture ‘house of culture’, both mentioned in reference to the past communist regime, are borrowed from Albanian and embedded into Greek utterances.
(10)
Όταν
εμπήκε
η
partia
που
γίνηκε
το
σχολείο.
when
entered
the
the.party
that
it.became
the
school
‘When the party took over (that) the school was established.’
(11)
Αφού
εδώ
την
εκκλησία
την
είχανε
spi
kulture,
πώς
το
λένε.
because
here
the
church
it
they.had
house
of.culture
how
it
called
‘Because here the church was (turned into) a “house of culture” how do you call this?’
3.1.2 Official-level, academic, or bureaucratic terminology
Official terminology, involving words referring to any governmental dealings, to education, or to bureaucratic affairs, and the like, is another domain where borrowing is very common in the data. For example, biologjia ‘biology’ in (12), gjykata administrative ‘administrative court’ in (13), ushtria ‘army’ in (14), and marrëdhënie ‘relations’ in (15) belong, respectively, to academic, legal, military, diplomatic fields and are all borrowed from Albanian into the Greek discourse.
(12)
Δεν
ξέρω [?]
biologjia,
λέγω,
και
kimia
…
not
I.know
the.biology
I.say
and
the.chemistry
‘I don’t know [?], biology, I say, and chemistry …’
(13)
με
ρίνει
ση
gjykata
administrative,
τα [?]
όλα
αυτά
me
throw
at.the
court
administrative
the
all
those
‘(he) throws me at the administrative court, [?] all those’
(14)
Αλλά
δε
το
χει
η
αστυνομία,
μου
παν
εμένα,
το
χει,
η,
η
ushtria.
But
not
it
have
the
police
me
they.told
me
it
has
the
the
army
‘But the police does not have it, they told me, the army has it.’
(15)
Η
Ρουσία,
είχαμε
marrëdhënie
με
τη
Ρουσία
the
Russia
we.had
relationships
with
the
Russia.
‘Russia, we had relations with Russia.’
3.1.3 Terms related to village life
Another interesting domain where lexical borrowing is not unusual is terminology related to village life. We find it interesting because we would not expect Albanian being used here by the Greek villagers unless the village culture was originally Albanian and these borrowings are an indication that the older language in the village prevails in domains pertaining to village life. In (16) and in (17), where the discussion concerns weddings and wedding traditions in the village, we find ftesa ‘invitations’ and vello ‘wedding dress’, both borrowed from Albanian and embedded in the Greek utterances.
(16)
I:
Δηλαδή
ποιος
τους
έλεγε
να
έρθουν;
namely
who
them
said
to
come
‘Who asked them to come?’
W:
Κάναμε
ftesa.
we.made
invitations
‘We made invitations’
I:
Ftesa
invitations
‘Invitations’
W:
Κάναμε
χαρτί,
το
στέλναμε
we.made
letter
it
we.sent
‘We made a card and we sent it’
(17)
I:
Εσύ
ήσουν
έτοιμη,
στολισμένη
You
were
ready,
adorned
‘You were ready, adorned’
W:
Και
γω
με
vello
και
με
όλα
and
I
with
wedding.dress
and
with
all
‘And I with a wedding dress and all’
3.1.4 Conversationally based loans
Finally, Friedman & Joseph (2014, To appear 2020) propose and exemplify a type of borrowing which they refer to as “ERIC” loans, an acronym standing for those “Essentially Rooted In Conversation”. These are loans that do not necessarily fill a need or gap of any sort, are not associated with any particular cultural item, and do not reflect any prestige on the part of the donor language;10 rather, they seem to crucially derive directly from conversational interactions between speakers of the two languages. Such loans include discourse particles, address terms, affirmation, negation, and closed-class grammatical elements like pronouns, among other types of lexemes. Examples of ERIC loans in Palasa are conversational elements like the affirmative element ναι ‘yes’, used in mocking agreement in (18) as ναι ναι ‘yes yes’, and the terms of endearment xhan ‘soul’ and jeta ‘life’ in (19) and (20), respectively, that are borrowed from Albanian (the former ultimately from Turkish) and embedded into Greek usage.
-
Discourse elements
(18)
I:
[sighs]
Do
përpiqem,
të
martohem
FUT
I.try
that
I.get.married
‘[sighs] I will try to get married’
W:
Α
ναι,
ναι.
Do
përpiqesh,
kur
do
përpiqesh?
ah
yes
yes
FUT
you.try
when
FUT
you.try
‘Ah yes, yes. You will try, when will you try?’
-
Terms of endearment and kinship
(19)
xhan
της
μάνας
soul
of.the
mother
‘mother’s beloved’
(20)
πάρε
καρέκλα
jeta
της
μάνας
you.take
chair
life
of.the
mother
‘Take a chair, mother’s life’
3.2 Grammatical and structural borrowing
In addition to lexical borrowing, a few cases of borrowing of grammatical items as well as of structure can be seen in the contact between Greek and Albanian in Palasa.
3.2.1 Use of Albanian ma (“more”) for πιο in Greek
Very common in the Greek of the villagers was the use, in cases where the language of communication was Greek, of the Albanian ma ‘more’ to signal comparative degree in adjectives, instead of its Greek correspondent πιο ‘more’. Example (21) is interesting as it showcases this borrowing twice in the speech of the same speaker. At first the speaker uses, in speaking Greek, ma with καλύτερα, an adverb in the comparative degree form, and a little later with μεγάλο, a plain (positive degree) adjective. The ma + comparative constructions are the most frequent in our data, but as (21) shows, ma + plain adjective is a possible construction in the speech of these bilinguals as well.
(21)
Να
φήσει
τα
ανθρώπους
να
δλέψουν.
Αν
έκανε
αυτός
άλλα
καλυτ-,
ma
καλύτερα.
Μας
τα
χαλάν
τούτα
δω.
Το
καλύβι
πο
’χεις
εσύ
δεν
το
πετάς[?].
Ένα
άλλο
ma
μεγάλο.
Το
πετάζεις;
Που
θα
χώσεις
το
κεφάλι;
that
one.lets
the
people
that
they.work
If
did
he
others
bet-
more
better
us
them
they.spoil
those
here
the
hut
that
have
you
not
it
you.throw
one
other
more
big
it
you.throw
where
FUT
you.put
the
head
‘To let the people work. If he did other things bet-, more better. They spoil these here. The hut that you have you don’t throw it (away) [?]. Another bigger one. Do you throw it? Where will you put (your) head in?’
3.2.2 Adjective order
Example (22) shows an instance of the borrowing of structure involving a matter of syntax, specifically noun-adjective word order. The adjective κακέα11 ‘bad’ appears after the noun it modifies, αρρώστια ‘illness,’ and not before it, which would be the default word order in Greek. We can attribute this to structural borrowing from Albanian if we consider the Albanian word order. This construction would have been sëmundje të keqe ‘bad illness’12 in Albanian, where the adjective keqe ‘bad’ follows the noun sëmundje ‘illness’ that it modifies, thus a model for what we see happening in (22) in Greek.
(22)
πήρε
αρρώστια
κακέα
στο
μυαλό
he.took
illness
bad
in.the
brain
‘He had brain cancer.’
4 Hybridization
In some cases, the language contact effects observed go beyond borrowing in the more usual sense and instead involve what we call “hybridization” in that one and the same linguistic sign shows elements from both languages coming together to form single constituents. The resulting forms are Greek-Albanian hybrids, and they can be seen at a variety of levels of analysis.
4.1 Phonological hybridization
An example of hybridization at the phonological level can be seen in (23). While speaking Albanian, the speaker is aiming to say the Albanian word diplomë ‘diploma,’ which has a voiced alveolar plosive /d/ in initial position in Albanian, but instead uses /ð/ (the voiced dental fricative), which is the initial segment in the equivalent Greek word δίπλωμα ‘diploma’; the word is in all other respects Albanian as at the same time it shows the Albanian stress placement, on the penultimate syllable, and not the antepenultimate stress that the corresponding Greek word shows.13
(23)
Bënin
agurimin
e
shkollës
si
kishin
marrë
/ð/iplómë
ata
they.did
inauguration
of
the.school
as
they.had
taken
diploma
they
‘They had a school graduation because they had received their diplomas.’
4.2 Morphological hybridization
Morphological hybrids are fairly frequent in the speech of the Palasa bilinguals as well. This is illustrated in example (24). First, we have a Greek utterance where there is mention of the Greek word for ‘university students’ φοιτητές, immediately followed, via borrowing, by a mention of the Albanian word studendες ‘(university) students’, with a code-switch perhaps for purposes of clarification (see § 2.1.1). Studendεs, though, as the spelling here suggests, is complicated. It is a morphological hybrid as the Albanian stem student ‘student’ is combined with the Greek plural suffix -ες (e.g. φοιτητ-ές ‘students’, διευθυντ-ές ‘directors’) to produce the morphologically hybrid studendες. Moreover, it is a phonological hybrid too (see § 4.1), as it is Albanian-like in having an intervocalic [d] without the nasal “prop” that is usual in the local Greek dialect, but at the same time it is Greek-like in that the Albanian [nt] cluster of student is Hellenized via voicing to [nd].
(24)
εδώ
και
κάμει
δύο
φοιτητές
studendες
που
θέλαν […]
here
and
done
two
students
students
that
wanted
‘Here and done two students, two students that wanted …’
4.3 Semantic hybridization
Frequent are also cases of what we call semantic hybrids or what have been referred to often in the literature as calques or isosemy. In (25), the discussion is in Greek and one of the male informants comments that the female informant was ψημένη, literally ‘baked’, when she got married at 27. A monolingual Greek speaker would not make much out of this expression and would not get the inference that the woman was ‘mature’ when she got married at that age. What seems to be happening here is that the speaker is translating the Albanian adjective e pjekur, which means ‘baked’, ‘ripened’, but also ‘mature’, into Greek, using ψημένη, which otherwise only carries the meaning of ‘baked’; what would be expected in Greek is ώριμη, which has the meaning ‘mature’ that the speaker actually intends. The result is a construction that would appear quite odd for a Greek who does not know any Albanian.
(25)
M1:
Πόσο
χρονών
ήσουν;
How.many
years
you.were
‘How old were you?’
W:
Εγώ
ήμουν
κοσι
εφτά,
κοσι
εφτά,
κοσι
εφτά
I
was
twenty
seven
twenty
seven
twenty
seven
‘I was twenty-seven, twenty-seven, twenty-seven’
M2:
Είκοσι
εφτά,
ψημένη
twenty
seven
baked
‘Twenty-seven, mature’
In (26), one of the speakers is narrating how he got to be a school teacher and in his speech we find another such semantic hybrid. First, we have a momentary switch from Greek θα δώσεις to Albanian gjuhë-letërsi and back to Greek και εσύ. What is at issue here, however, is the use of δώσεις, literally ‘you give’, to mean ‘you will teach a course’ (in this particular case, gjuhë-letërsi ‘language and literature’). In Greek, teaching a class, a course, or a lesson would be formulated with διδάξεις ‘teach’ and not with δώσεις ‘give’. This construction in (26) makes sense, however, if we take into account the Albanian verb japesh, which can have the meaning of ‘you give’, but also ‘you drive’ when the topic of discussion concerns cars and driving, and ‘you teach’ when the topic of discussion concerns courses and classes. Thus, the speaker in (26) appears to have transferred this meaning of ‘to teach’ of the Albanian japesh, which has ‘give’ as its basic meaning, to the Greek word δώσεις ‘to give’, which does not generally have such a meaning.14 Interestingly, when speakers use a construction such as δίνω μάθημα, literally ‘give a course’, in standard Greek, they are conveying that they will take an exam or a test in that course and not teach it.
(26)
Θα
δώσεις
gjuhë-letërsi
και
εσύ
FUT
you.give
language-literature
and
you
‘You will teach language and literature too’
5 Contact-induced lexical activation
In this final section, we draw attention to instances of what we call contact-induced lexical activation. These are cases where there are two or more competing lexical items in Greek for the same concept and where the Greek-Albanian bilinguals in Palasa seem to opt for the one that is closer to the corresponding Albanian lexical item for the same concept. For example, in (27), the speaker is talking about the livestock that the villagers used to have and compares that situation to the present where most of the villagers have migrated to foreign lands. Greek has two options for ‘foreign lands’, either ξενιτιά [ksεniˈtja] or κουρμπέτι [kurˈbεti]. The speaker here chooses κουρμπέτ instead of ξενιτιά, because, we hypothesize, κουρμπέτ is closer to the Albanian term for ‘foreign lands’, kurbet [kurˈbεt]. Similarly, in (28) the speaker is complaining in Greek about the closing down of the factories in the nearby city of Avlona (Vlora in Albanian). Greek has two lexical items to refer to ‘factories’: εργοστάσιο [εrɣoˈstasio] and φάμπρικα [ˈfabrika]. The informant in this example opts for φάμπρικα instead of εργοστάσιο because, we suggest, it is closer to the Albanian word for ‘factory’, fabrikë [faˈbrikə]. That is, in both (27) and (28), the speakers seem to favor the Greek word that more closely matches the Albanian form.
(28)
Είχαμε
πρώτα
και
άλογα,
και
μλάρια,
και,
τώρα,
πάνε
στο
κουρμπέτ
we.had
first
and
horses
and
mules
and
now
they.go
to.the
foreign.lands
‘Before we had horses and mules, and, now, they go to the foreign lands.’
(29)
Όλες
οι
φάμπρικες.
Που
’ναι
στον
Αυλώνα;
Δεν
έχει
μια
φάμπρικα
all
the
factories
where
they.are
in.the
Avlona
not
it.has
one
factory
‘Where are all the factories? Where are they in Avlona? There is not one factory.’
6 Summary
In summary, the data presented above show a fluidity and a seamlessness in the mixing of the languages in contact that are characteristic of fully bilingual communities. Moreover, many of the factors contributing to code-switching that have been discussed in the literature are relevant in Palasa linguistic interactions.
It must also be emphasized that not all types of language mixing are isolated events. The reality is that often the different factors converge to result in multiple types of language mixing in one utterance. For example, we see hybridization at many levels, including the somewhat underappreciated phonological hybrids.
Some questions that remain to be answered concern the extent of shared knowledge of linguistic forms. One consideration is whether what we have identified as borrowings are indeed the local standard forms. That is, the Greek-Albanian bilinguals in Palasa may not know the more standard Greek form, or at least do not use it in their local dialect. In addition, it is possible that some of the examples in this paper reflect individual usages or practices that are not shared linguistic norms among the Greek-Albanian bilingual members of the community. We leave these as open questions at this point, to be checked against further data from Palasa and environs.
Note that in some cases, as illustrated later, it is not always easy to identify the exact discourse function the switches have, even more so in cases of clarification and/or emphasis.
Abbreviation conventions for the examples: I=Interviewer; I2: Interviewer 2; W=Woman; M=Man etc.
The passages in Albanian are in bold while the passages in Greek are in Greek letters.
Indicates omitted passage.
W’s use of soi is interesting here. It is in origin a Turkish word but it is one regularly used in many varieties of Greek, including Standard Modern Greek (σόι); we are not sure if it is used in the Albanian of Palasa, but based on the word that occurs elsewhere in Albanian for this concept, fisi, we might expect that instead. Thus, it is not clear if this is a switch into Greek, a borrowing from Greek into Albanian, or even a borrowing from Turkish. Hence, we give it in a phonetic form in square brackets, except for the one time it occurs in a fully Greek context (I2’s question), in order to reflect this analytic ambiguity.
It must be noted, of course, that not every instance of [mε] triggers a switch, suggesting that more may well be at work in the switches and the non-switches.
We transcribe this phonetically because the ‘with’ preposition in both Albanian and Greek is pronounced the same way and, therefore, we cannot be sure which language is activated at this point.
In this way, they differ from the instances of lexical borrowing we identify in § 3.1.
Although it is not our central point, we note that here the informant adapts the word-initial voiceless, post-alveolar, fricative [ʃ] of the Albanian form shpi /ˈʃpi/ ‘house’ (related in some way to shtëpi /ʃtəˈpi/ ‘house’) to the Greek voiceless, alveolar, fricative [s], presumably because Greek, in the standard language at least, does not have /∫/ in its phonemic inventory. Alternatively, this could be a hybrid, with Greek phonology but an Albanian form; see footnote 13.
These factors are mentioned as they are the ones that form the basis for two particularly influential typologies of loans, those in Bloomfield 1933 (“cultural” versus “intimate” loans) and Hockett 1958 (“need” versus “prestige” loans).
Κακέα here is a regional variant of what in Standard Modern Greek is the feminine form κακιά ‘bad’. It is transcribed as given by the speaker.
This is a very common expression in Albanian essentially referring to ‘cancer’. A similar expression can be found in the region of Epirus in Greece where the locals use the compound παλιαρρώστια ‘bad-illness’. Here the first part of the compound παλι- literally means ‘old’ but it is often used to mean ‘bad’ too as in παλιάνθρωπος ‘bad-person’.
See Brown & Joseph 2017 for other examples like this from the Greek of southern Albania. In a sense, one might see this as word-internal code-switching, in that the word starts out with the Greek form but switches internally to Albanian. It should be noted that Albanian has both /d/ and /ð/ in its phonemic inventory. We mark the accent here, i.e. ⟨ó⟩, even though such a diacritic is not usual in Albanian orthography.
Note that δίνω can be used in Istanbul Greek with the sense of ‘to teach’ in the same way it can in Albanian. We thank Matthew Hadodo for this information.
References
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