Re: Albanian origins and much more

In all the talk about Albanian origins, some of which is obviously
too speculative to be very convincing, what strikes me most is the
absence of what seems to me one of the hardest pieces of evidence
there is about the past of the Albanian language. That is the fact
that the names of the major towns of Naissos (in southern Serbia) and
Astibos (in Macedonia) reached Slavic in a shape that proves early
Albanian intermediacy (Nis^ and S^tip). You'll never get Slavic Nis^
and S^tip from anything reasonably resembling Naissos and Astibos.
But if you put Albanian in between there is no problem. This is
remarkable because most place names the speakers of Slavic borrowed
after their arrival on the Balkans can easily be explained on the
basis of Latin or Greek. (Another example of a place name that was
borrowed from a non-Latin and non-Greek population is Plovdiv.)

Nis^ and S^tip suggest that Albanian was the dominant language of the
area at the stage when speakers of Slavic felt the need to be
apprised of the names of those towns.

Willem