page_title: Albanian-Romanian linguistic relationship
section_title: Proposed explanations
hierarchical_section_title: Albanian-Romanian linguistic relationship / Proposed explanations
context_page_description: The Albanian-Romanian linguistic relationship is a field of the research of the ethnogenesis of both peoples. The common phonological, morphological and syntactical features of the two languages have been studied for more than a century. Both languages are part of the Balkan sprachbund but there are certain elements shared only by Albanian and Romanian. Aside from Latin, and from shared Greek, Slavic and Turkish elements, other characteristics and words are attributed to the Paleo-Balkan linguistic base: Illyrian, Thracian, Dacian and/or Thraco-Illyrian, Daco-Thracian.
  Despite the similarities, genetically they are only distantly related Indo-European languages.
context_section_description: Hamp refers to an "Albanian substratum" in Romanian, arguing its early formation was shaped by language shift from Albanian to Latin, while Fine argues that the critical area of Albanian-Romanian contact was the valley of the river Great Morava in what is now eastern Serbia, before the Slavic invasions.
  Other scholars have differentiated different groups of Latin loans in Albanian representing different stages and historical scenarios. Albanian/Latin convergence began during the first century CE, with the dating of Latin loans used to differentiate between Early Proto-Albanian (just before initial imperial Latin contact) and Late Proto-Albanian (at the time of contact with Proto-Romance). There has also been a distinction between later convergence with different Romance languages in Albanian. Romanian scholars Vatasescu and Mihaescu, using lexical analysis of the Albanian language, have concluded that Albanian was also heavily influenced by an extinct Romance language that was distinct from both Romanian and Dalmatian. Because the Latin words common to only Romanian and Albanian are significantly less than those that are common to only Albanian and Western Romance, Mihaescu argues that the Albanian language evolved in a region with much greater contact to Western Romance regions than to Romanian-speaking regions, and located this region in present-day Albania, Kosovo and Western Macedonia, spanning east to Bitola and Pristina.
caption: The Romanians' homeland and their medieval migrations (a map presenting views of scholars who propose that the Romanians' ethnogenesis started in the south-Danubian Roman provinces)
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