Genetic Descent/Haitian Creole

[Gabor Sandi]

> What happened here was this. In my student days, back in the Bronze Age, I
> was taught that the Hungarians were among those who had been prominent in
> Albania at various times in the past, and that there were Hungarian loan
> words in Albanian to prove it.

> Before sending out that posting, I checked a standard reference source on
> Albanian in my office, and I found that all the other languages I mentioned
> were cited as important sources of loans in Albanian, while Hungarian was not
> mentioned.

> Having already typed the word 'Hungarian', but now doubting it, I almost
> deleted it, but then I decided to leave it in. I figured "Well, if there are
> no Hungarian loans in Albanian, somebody will tell me about it."

> This is true. Honest.

> Anyway, thanks for the correction. Now I know that there are -- apparently --
> no Hungarian loans into Albanian. Most interesting. Absolutely *everybody*
> who ever set foot in the Balkans seems to have conquered Albania at some
> point, and I can hardly believe that the Hungarians never did.

What's more, absolutely *everybody* in the neighbourhood bit off a bit (quite a
bit in many cases) of Hungary after World War I, except for the Albanians.
Sounds like a good basis for a beautiful friendship between the two peoples...
(Actually, King Zog of Albania had a beautiful Hungarian wife, adding to this
historical relationship).

But are you sure that the two Hungarian words that have pretty much infiltrated
all European languages (kocsi & husza'r, cf Eng. coach and hussar) have not
entered Albanian? Not having a proper Albanian dictionary in my home, I cannot
check up on this.

All the best,
Gabor