L'arbresh tra perdite e innovazioni

This paper analyzes some Arbëresh data showing that, on the one hand, this dialect exhibits continuity with standard Albanian, while on the other, it has developed new structures which are the result of Italo-Romance influence during centuries of contact between the two languages. This type of contact has led to linguistic changes that take three different forms: 1) adaptation of Arbëresh structures to those of Italian. 2) Replacement of the original Albanian forms with forms similar to the Italian ones. 3) Addition of Italian structures to those that Arbëresh has inherited from Albanian. The data show that, centuries of contact have caused both a syntactic impoverishment, evidenced by the loss of some syntactic structures, and an enrichment evidenced by the creation of new structures.