[Ads-l] Albanians

[Laurence Horn]

On Feb 19, 2015, at 10:51 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> At 2/19/2015 10:21 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>> Wonder if the first vowel would disambiguate in the spoken language.  Ah, yes, so saith OED, at least in the primary pronunciation with open /O-/.
> 
> Probably, but the invitation wasn't written in IPA.
> 
>> There's also Albanian, n.3 and adj.1, another new one on me:
>> 
>> Of or relating to Scotland or its people; Scottish. Chiefly with reference to the time prior to the Scottish Wars of Independence (1296­1357), in later use often in relation to the Scots (Scot n.1 1) who settled in what is now western Scotland.
> 
> I wondered, but then remembered.  To quote Wikipedia, "Albion", not just the island of Great Britain, but:
> 
> "... The name for Scotland in the Celtic languages is related to Albion: Alba in Scottish Gaelic, Albain in Irish, Nalbin in Manx and Alban in Welsh, Cornish and Breton. These names were later Latinised as Albania and Anglicised as Albany, which were once alternative names for Scotland."
> 
> Joel

Interesting, especially since I seem to recall "Faithless Albion" referring to England, in the mouths of Irish and, yes, Scots.  I just found a 2011 dissertation on line that contains this line from An Heroick Poem on Her highness the Lady Anns Voyage into Scotland (1681):

Anne traveled from “faithless Albion to glad Albony,”

i.e. from England to Scotland.

So it seems Albany/Albony and Albion are, or were, false friends.

LH

,
> 
> 
>> Presumably they'd have been recognized as British but not as English...
>> 
>> LH
>> 
>> On Feb 19, 2015, at 10:09 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>> 
>> > "Following the French and Indian War, Albanians believed themselves to be British, but visiting Britons did not recognize them as fellow countrymen."
>> >
>> > Since this is the first sentence of the description of a talk titled "Degrees of Britishness: The People of Albany, New York, and Questions of Cultural Community Membership, 1763--1775", I suffered a moment of dislocation.  But the next sentence brought me back across the ocean:
>> >
>> > "New World Dutch architecture, the Albany Dutch dialect, and the Dutch Reformed Church contributed to the British view of the Albanians as inter-imperial foreigners: subjects who lived within the British empire but stood outside of the British cultural community."
>> >
>> > And I find it has a long history, even if not as long as in the Caucasuses* -- "Albanian, n.4", "A native or inhabitant of Albany, New York State", from 1689.
>> >
>> > * Not to be confused with Secaucus, which is not close to Albany.
>> >
>> > Joel
> 
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