Albanian as a Challenge to Dominant Narratives of Linguistic Origins

 Language Before Theory:

Albanian as a Challenge to Dominant Narratives of Linguistic Origins

Introduction

Dominant scientific narratives on the origin of language present themselves as neutral, universal, and impartial. In reality, behind this facade of objectivity lies a structural deception: they explain the birth of language using linguistic and conceptual categories that already presuppose language itself. This is a methodological trick disguised as scientific rigor. And when a language like Albanian defies these models, all the contradictions of a system that prefers to ignore what does not fit the norm become painfully visible.

Albanian is not an anomaly to be cataloged or marginalized: it is a blow to dominant narratives, a living proof that the linguistic history told in Western textbooks is often an ideological construction rather than a genuine inquiry.

Methodological Circularity: The “Sages’” Trick

Modern linguistic studies reconstruct the origins of language through proto-languages, comparative grammar, and theoretical abstractions. All of this is presented as rigorous science, yet it is built entirely on fully formed languages, long removed from the original conditions it claims to explain. It is a trick: using the result to explain the cause. The daughter is asked to speak about the origin of the mother, and this logical inversion passes as acceptable method.

Those who govern the production of linguistic knowledge thus decide in advance what counts as an “origin” and what does not. Languages without ancient texts or continuous documentation are automatically marginalized, considered anomalous or irrelevant. Albanian, with its deep continuity and resilient semantic layers, therefore becomes a nuisance to the official narrative.

Albanian as a Challenge to Hegemonic Science

Albanian has survived millennia of foreign domination, religious fragmentation, and cultural pressure without losing its essential structure. It did not need strong states, canonical writing, or academies to endure. It survived because language is, first and foremost, life, community, and memory—not merely abstract grammar or classificatory systems.

Yet Western scholars often dismiss it as a “curious,” “archaic,” or “residual” language. This is not mere neglect: it is epistemic violence, a silent erasure that preserves the authority of dominant models. Official science prefers convenience over truth, avoiding languages that refuse to conform to its categories.

Genealogy, Classification, and Deception

Instead of studying how Albanian could survive and evolve independently, dominant linguistics confines it to genealogical trees that explain nothing. Origin is replaced by classification; investigation by taxonomy. Science no longer seeks the principle of language but decides its value in advance, erasing anything that does not fit its framework. This is the ideological core of methodological circularity: what does not conform to the model is silenced.

Scientific Neutrality as Cultural Violence

The supposed neutrality of science is often a mechanism of cultural domination. Languages like Albanian are not just ignored; their histories are distorted, reduced to curiosities or anomalies. From above, it is decided what counts as an “origin,” what can be studied, and what cannot. In this way, the hegemony of Western linguistic knowledge becomes an act of political and cultural erasure: not only the language, but the historical memory of the people who speak it is silenced.

Conclusion

Scientific narratives of language origin continue to explain language through the very products of language itself. Albanian, with its antiquity, continuity, and resistance, demonstrates how arbitrary, ideological, and circular these narratives are. It is not an exception: it is a warning. Linguistic science must choose: continue mistaking the daughter for the mother, or admit that some origins cannot be understood without questioning the very tools and prejudices of reconstruction.

Until that choice is made, languages like Albanian will remain censored by “official” science, and truth will continue to be distorted by models that serve academic prestige more than genuine knowledge.