RRETH TERMINOLOGJISË SË EMËRTIMIT TË “BLENDEVE” SI PROCES I RI SOCIOLINGUISTIK
REGARDING THE TERMINOLOGY OF THE TERM “BLENDS” AS A NEW SOCIOLINGUISTIC PROCESS

Summary/Abstract: In the Albanian language, there is no unified term for the sociolinguistic process of the term blends. Consequently, various studies employ multiple terms associated with this process, such as: merging, compression, alignment, hybridization, lexical merging, lexical matching, lexical mixing, word combination, word elevation, word amalgamation, word blending, word intersection, suitcase words, abbreviated forms, acronyms, syllabic abbreviations, mixed truncation, contamination, and short syllabic contamination, etc. In international terminology, the term ‘blends’ is commonly used, while other languages may employ different terms such as ‘amalgam’, ‘portmanteau’, and the colloquial German term ‘Zusammenbildungen’, etc. Despite having so many terms in the Albanian language for this new sociolinguistic process, we have chosen to use the term ‘blends’ in our study, as it is a standardized international term. The objective of this research paper was to conduct a comparative analysis regarding the process of word merging in relation to terms in the English language such as blending, amalgamation, or portmanteau word. As observed during the examination of the examples identified in this study, these are new words formed by combining parts of two or more existing words, and in some instances, one of the original words is retained in its entirety. Generally, it can be stated that the creation of blends facilitates communication by generating new words that are often shorter in form. Blends frequently become part of everyday language, particularly in areas such as media, technology, political terminology, and economics, as well as in other fields like literature and culture in general. As regards to the Albanian language, it is our belief that our objective should not be the mere borrowing of blends, but rather to follow the dynamics of the development of this linguistic process on an international scale, which was largely unknown to us a few years ago. Based on the aforementioned points, we should strive to carefully introduce into usage these word-formation methods into the Albanian language, as the creation of blends appears as one of the most vibrant forms of word formation nowadays, particularly as far as forming of neologisms is concerned. Therefore, the phenomenon of blend creation as a sociolinguistic occurrence deserves special attention in studies concerning the Albanian language as well.

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