Gjuhësi Ballkanike

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Chapter X
Some Other Correspondences Among the Balkan Languages
Some other correspondences of the Balkan languages, which are to be met outside the Balkan,
too, will be briefly dealt with in the following paragraphs.(1).
In Albanian, Rumanian and in the Balkan Slavish languages the numerals 11-19 are built up by
inserting a preposition between the small number and “ten”. Such a phenomenon is to be
encountered in some other languages, too. It is generally acknowledged as a Baltic-Slavish-
Albanian isogloss. The Slavish influence upon Rumanian in this case is not to be excluded.(2).
In all the Balkan languages the third person singular of the verb “have' is used impersonally
with the meaning “there is, there are”. Such a use, which is encountered also out of the Balkans,
is difficult to be historically explained for the Balkan languages, where it may be due, in some
cases, to the contacts among the peoples of this area. In Albanian it is attested since 1555 (by
Buzuku).(3).
Regarding the analytic perfect with the auxiliary “have”, which is used in Albanian, Rumanian,
Greek and western Macedonian, some scholars think that it has developed under the influence
of the Balkan Roman. Someone else upholds a substratum hypothesis. The Latin influence has
been suggested for the Germanic analytic perfect too, by A. Meillet, but such an opinion has not
been supported by some other linguists. In Greek and Albanian such an analytic perfect is
probably due to their internal development.(4).
Finally, a few words about a correspondence between Albanian, on one hand, and Bulgarian-
Macedonian, on the other. The question is of the Albanian “admirative mood” and the
Bulgarian-Macedonian “indirect narrative mood”. The Albanian admirative is used also to
reproduce with reservation and doubt another man's words, as it is the case of the Bulgarian-
Macedonian “indirect narrative mood”. (5-6). The last formation is relatively recent, according
to some scholars, who retain that it has appeared under the Turkish influence. But some others
reject that opinion.(7). One should recollect that the Albanian admirative present forms have
developed through the conglutination of the inverted analytic perfect and that such
conglutinated admirative forms are already attested in Buzuku's deed (1555), which
demonstrates that they had been coined since the pre-literary period of Albanian.(8).
Concerning the question whether there is any historical connection between the Albanian
admirative and the Bulgarian-Macedonian “indirect narrative mood”, the answers so far have
been quite different. But in order to achieve an adequate solution of this problem, it is necessary
to previously make clear a set of questions, like the following: How old is the “indirect narrative
mood” and has it developed under the Turkish influence? Is the admirative sense in such a
formation secondary or primary? Where has such a formation been historically more frequent,
in Bulgarian or in Macedonian? It should also be taken into account that the Albanian
admirative has been coined since the pre-literary period, whereas the “indirect narrative mood”
seems to be relatively more recent.(9).
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