The Southern Tosk Albanian Lord’s Prayer From Adelung & Vater’s Mithridates Vol. Ii (1809) In Comparison With Other Early Tosk Translations
The Southern Tosk Albanian Lord’s Prayer From Adelung & Vater’s Mithridates Vol. Ii (1809) In Comparison With Other Early Tosk Translations

Summary/Abstract: Mithridates, published in 1806 - 1817 by Johann Christoph Adelung and Johann Severin Vater, is a compendium of the languages of the world centered around translations of the Lord’s Prayer. In their treatment of Albanian, the authors do not limit themselves to reprinting pre-existing translations, but also provide new Albanian material procured directly for their project (as in another notable collection of this kind published by Lorenzo Hervás in 1787; cf. Altimari 1988). The original sample (no. 332) in Mithridates is described as representing the vicinity of Gjirokastër. As such, the short text constitutes the second earliest – and earliest printed – extant documentation of Gjirokastër Albanian. Despite this, the language of the translation has never been studied, save for several valuable but short observations by Vătășescu (2018). We transcribe the entire sample and analyze its linguistic and textual features, juxtaposing it with other early Tosk (mainland and Arbëresh) translations of the Lord’s Prayer. Our analysis confirms that we are dealing with a Southern Tosk variety with some specific Gjirokastër features (e.g. nominative/accusative nevet ‘we’). Atypically, the translation makes liberal use of Turkisms to render Christian concepts. The somewhat cumbersome translation is a testimony to the sociolinguistic situation of the Albanophone Orthodox community of the time.

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