I would think that the Albanians have some intimate tie to all this as well, being that the Albanian language is full of Latin.
Certainly. Illyrian wars were some of the first wars of expansion of the Romans beyond the peninsula.
My guess though is that some of the linguistic similarities are not just pure loan words.
Given what we have seen genetically, Balkans and Italy have been connected way before the Romans. So there might have been some cousinry going on between Balkan pops and Latins or whatever.
Like knowing a couple of language I always stumble upon interesting stuff.
Volimo - (we)want/love in some Serbian/Croatian
Vogliamo - (we)want in Italian
Volition - faculty of using ones will English/French?
Guest - English
Gosti - Guest.
Now it is obvious such fringe and basic concepts are of IE or proto-IE nature. At least that is what I would think. Unless these ethnicities/languages did not "love/want" things before Latins taught them how to?
I always found it funny that certain Albanian dialects, use Mënej as extreme anger/hatered/antipathy. And the same word is the same word Homer used to start the Illiad... It is the etymological root of Maniac.
Certainly the world for hate/anger is not one you would typically borrow.
The issue in Albanian studies I feel is the nuances due to 1400-1600 years since the Gheg - Tosk split, and local dialects being isolated and evolving over time and differentiating. Not even Danish and Swedish have split as early as these dialects, and in reality just knowing how grammar changes in coloquial talk from Prishtine to Vlore, I would bet you can consider them two languages the same way Danish and Swedish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Danish
And trust me, Albanians will make fun of how various Albanians talk, especially southerners towards northerners (since its more alien to them, being further away from the standard Albanian codified by Hoxha, Elbasan Dialect was taken as a base), probably not as much as Danes and Swedes do with each other though.
Now literary Albanian/standard Albanian bridges the gap for serious matters. But if you record a conversation in Prishtina in full slang and play it to someone from Vlore, I would be interested to know how much of the contents would be understood. And comparatively how that would relate to a Dane hearing some Swede conversation. However, playing a conversation from some fellows from Vlore to Prishtina Albanians would probably be understood to a much higher degree, again due to standard Albanian being based on a more souther dialect.
If it was only about vocabulary it would be no big deal. We are talking basic grammar changes.
Jam kon. (I
am been)I have been.
Kam qene. I
have been
Ka me shku. (
Have to go) Will go.
Do te shkoj.
Will go.
Having a Toske speaking mothers side and Gheg speaking father side, you notice such things.
During early childhood I was raised in a southern Gheg/Toske speaking city, when I moved to an Eastern Gheg city for preschool I could not understand what fellows were saying to me, heck even older teachers predating "Albanian standard language" could not understand me. Made for awkward situations.
I overshared a bit here. But I feel its an interesting tidbit.
