The article presents the results of a quantitative study of lexical borrowings in the Albanian dialects based on the material from the Dialectological Atlas of the Albanian language (DAAL). This study is a stage in the investigation of Albanian dialects by the methods of areal typology and dialectometry aiming to clarify the existing ideas about the development of the Albanian dialectal landscape and to reconstruct the contact history of the Albanian language area.

The article analyzes the overall sample of lexical borrowings and the borrowings of different origins (Balkan Slavic, Medieval and Modern Greek, Ottoman Turkish, Eastern and Western Romance) found in Albanian dialectal varieties. Within the Albanian language area, we identify zones more or less affected by borrowing, and microareas characterized by various degrees of contact, isolation, exposure to the general Albanian linguistic development tendencies, etc. Using distance calculation and multidimensional scaling, we measure and map the closeness of Albanian varieties based on certain groups of borrowings and verify the existing views on the Albanian dialect classification and on the areal distribution of loanwords across the traditionally defined zones of Albanian-Slavic, Albanian-Romance, and Albanian-Greek contact.

Our quantitative analysis of the closeness of Albanian varieties shows that the results based on the overall sample of borrowings better correspond to the traditional dialectal classification than those based on any of the specific subgroups of borrowings. Some long-established subdialects of Gheg and Tosk demonstrate lack of internal homogeneity. Central Gheg varieties of North Macedonia, for example, clearly stand out in the Central Gheg subdialect, and tentative subdivisions are evident within Northern and Southern Tosk in the Tosk dialect area.

The quantitative distribution of loanwords shows a clear areal pattern, with the intensity of borrowing (and language contact) increasing from the center to the periphery of the Albanian-speaking area. While certain micro-areas differ in the number of borrowings from Slavic, Greek, or Arumanian lexis, no clear areal patterns are observable for the distribution of Turkish loanwords. As to Western Romance loanwords, relatively high numbers of these are not only, quite expectedly, found in the coastal Northwestern and Central Gheg varieties, but also in the most isolated Central Gheg varieties — a fact that may throw light on the early history of these dialects.