<p>Where does a language come from? Every language has its own history and during the course of that history, it might change, evolve or even die. Why do languages borrow from each other? Borrowing seems to be true for every language that has contact with another, even for major cultural languages such as Greek. Every case though is unique in itself. From which languages can a language borrow? Speakers of a certain language borrow from the people that they come in contact with, face-to-face or otherwise. How do languages incorporate those borrowings?</p><p>Lexical borrowings are responsible for as much as ninety percent of the Albanian vocabulary and due to globalization, this percentage is about to grow even more. With a great history of three thousand years behind it and being neighbor to the two great civilizations of the then known world, Ancient Greece and Rome, Albanian has borrowed more words than any other European language.Lexical borrowings are tightly connected to the history and culture of this nation. Depending on the presence of which foreign power ruled in the Albanian territories at which time, these borrowings have had as a primary source either Greek (Ancient, Middle or New), Latin or Turkish with a few minor interferences from Gothic and Slavic languages.Every language has its own reasons for borrowing from another language. There are two main reasons: prestige and need. Albanian is not an exception. Albanian has borrowed from Greek and Latin both on the basis of need and on the basis of prestige.</p><p>The primary objective for this master thesis is the identification of the vast numbers of lexical borrowings in the Albanian language, which languages they primarily come from, why the Albanian language has borrowed so many words during the course of its history and how those borrowings are incorporated in the Albanian language.</p>

Where does a language come from? Every language has its own history and during the course of that history, it might change, evolve or even die. Why do languages borrow from each other? Borrowing seems to be true for every language that has contact with another, even for major cultural languages such as Greek. Every case though is unique in itself. From which languages can a language borrow? Speakers of a certain language borrow from the people that they come in contact with, face-to-face or otherwise. How do languages incorporate those borrowings? Lexical borrowings are responsible for as much as ninety percent of the Albanian vocabulary and due to globalization, this percentage is about to grow even more. With a great history of three thousand years behind it and being neighbor to the two great civilizations of the then known world, Ancient Greece and Rome, Albanian has borrowed more words than any other European language.Lexical borrowings are tightly connected to the history and culture of this nation. Depending on the presence of which foreign power ruled in the Albanian territories at which time, these borrowings have had as a primary source either Greek (Ancient, Middle or New), Latin or Turkish with a few minor interferences from Gothic and Slavic languages.Every language has its own reasons for borrowing from another language. There are two main reasons: prestige and need. Albanian is not an exception. Albanian has borrowed from Greek and Latin both on the basis of need and on the basis of prestige. The primary objective for this master thesis is the identification of the vast numbers of lexical borrowings in the Albanian language, which languages they primarily come from, why the Albanian language has borrowed so many words during the course of its history and how those borrowings are incorporated in the Albanian language.

Ever since Kosovo’s declared Independence in 2008, the nation has opted for a multi-ethnic approach by adopting a legal framework that contains several laws promoting and protecting minority rights, although these have remained rather stagnant in implementation. The minorities in Kosovo have furthermore been affected by the Serb-Albanian relations and inter-ethnic tensions by creating divisions and societal challenges. The purpose of this study is to examine the current situation for minorities in Kosovo, along with studying the limitations and possibilities of the implementation of minority rights and societal opportunities. Additionally, this is a case study based on the experiences and views of Torbeshis being a minority in Kosovo which exemplifies the situation of how minority rights are expressed in a social and political context. The  methodological approach of semi-structured interviews was applied which provided the primary data consisting of empirical findings and results from interviews. The data was then analyzed with the assistance of the theoretical framework of social constructivism, along with the intersectionality concept as a complementary tool with an applied narrative analysis. The results indicated that the inadequate implementation of rights is the common denominator concerning minorities' situation, possibilities, limitations and experiences. The focus of the international community on Serb-Albanian relations has further shifted the attention from minority issues. Although the legislative framework is advanced, minorities generally seem to face more limitations than possibilities, with potential for a positive turn. Minorities face limitations such as security concerns, freedom of movement caused by linguistic obstacles, together with restricted participation and access in political life. The Torbeshis face similar issues as mentioned, together with forms of discrimination, ethnic redefinition, assimilation and interrelationship between to major ethnic groups. / Sedan Kosovos förklarade självständighet 2008 antog konstitutionen en lagstiftningsram innehållande flera lagar som främjar och skyddar minoritetsrättigheter, men trots implementeringen har dessa lagar förblivit relativt stillastående i praktiken. Kosovo definierar därmed sig själva som ett multietniskt samhälle i samband med fastställandet av dessa lagar. Minoriteterna i Kosovo har dessutom påverkats av Kosovos efterkrigstid och den Serbisk-Albanska dynamiken där spänningar mellan etniska grupper förekommer i landet och skapar diverse splittringar och samhällsutmaningar för minoriteterna. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka den aktuella situationen för minoriteter i Kosovo, tillsammans med de existerande begränsningar och möjligheter som finns för implementeringen av minoritetsrättigheter och samhällsmöjligheter. Studien tillämpar en fallstudie som utvärderar Torbesjers erfarenheter av att vara en minoritet, vilket illustrerar hur den nuvarande situationen av minoritetsrättigheter uttrycks i en viss social och politisk kontext. Det metodologiska tillvägagångssättet som tillämpas är semistrukturerade intervjuer och utgör det primära materialet bestående av resultat från intervjuer samt empirisk data. Datan analyserades sedan med hjälp av det teoretiska ramverket social konstruktivism med intersektionalitetskonceptet som ett kompletterande verktyg, och slutligen applicerades en narrativ analys för att behandla datan. Resultatet av studien visar på att den otillräckliga implementeringen av rättigheterna är den gemensamma nämnaren när det kommer till minoriteters situation, möjligheter, begränsningar och erfarenheter. Det omfattande fokus som läggs på relationen mellan serber och albaner av det internationella samfundet skiftar ytterligare uppmärksamhet från minoritetsfrågorna. Trots den avancerade lagstiftningsramen verkar minoriteter i Kosovo möta fler begränsningar än möjligheter, med potential för en positiv förändring. De begränsningar som minoriteter bemöter i Kosovo är säkerhetsproblem, rörelsefrihet, språkliga hinder, samt ett begränsat deltagande och tillgång i det politiska klimatet. Torbesjer står inför liknande problem, tillsammans med former av diskriminering, etnisk omdefiniering, assimilering och ett mellanförskap i förhållande till de etniska majoriteterna i landet.