On Anglicisms in modern Albanian language according to “A Dictionary of European Anglicisms

The review of: On anglicisms in modern Albanian language according to “A Dictionary of European Anglicisms" (edited by Manfred Görlach, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2001, 352 pages) A Dictionary of European Anglicisms includes 16 European languages from different language families. Albanian is among the sixteen European languages selected for treatment. Other languages are: Icelandic, Norwegian, Dutch, German, Russian, Polish, Croatian, Bulgarian, French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Finnish, Hungarian, Greek. These languages were selected, - the author says, - partly to allow the analysis of a maximal number of contrasts - purist vs. open speech communities, Western vs. Eastern countries, regional comparisons (Scandinavian, the Balkans) and the impact of mediating languages (French and German in particular). The Dictionary includes 3800 Anglicisms. It is a unique resource for comparative analysis and the study of linguistic variation and change, in general. “Ever since the political division of Europe came to an end (1989- 1990), - the author writes in his Introduction, - the intake of English lexis has been dramatic in the Eastern countries in particular”. There is an inflow of Anglicisms in Albanian, too, but less as compared with other languages. See e.g. letters Tto Z in the Dictionary. There are 386 Anglicisms in total in other languages included; in Albanian: 60. According to the Dictionary, there are no such Anglicisms in Albanian as lipstick, popcorns, skinhead, etc. but they exist in other languages. A Dictionary o f European Anglicisms will facilitate research in specialist fields, such as the language of computing, sports, etc. An example: As is known, in Albanian many sports Anglicisms have already been substituted for native coinage. With the inclusion of so many languages (sixteen), the Dictionary is indeed an international one. The data of the Dictionary will be of interest to the compilers of bilingual dictionaries, in particular, English-Albanian and Albanian-English Dictionaries. It will be, of course of great help in compiling a vocabulary of Anglicisms in the present-day Albanian language.