Sh. Islamaj. Gjuha e Jakov Xoxës. Prishtinë: KOHA. 2000. 420 p.
(Jakov-Xoxa’s language – lexical-semantic and stylistic features)
presented by R. Beyleri

Without opening the topic of gender situation, we must mention that first-rate female scholars are infrequent in Kosova. Professor Shefkie Islamaj from the Albanological Institute in Prishtina sets an admirable example of how mother of four children may succeed in a remarkable professional career. She is the author of the single study on synonyms in Albanian language^[1] and co-author of the Dictionary of Foreign Words and Expressions^[2], a valuable tool available only in Kosovo due to the ideological restraints in Albania at the time.

The starting point for Sh. Islamaj’s monograph is the fact that the works of the leading writers in general give many opportunities for linguistic analysis and are considered to be a source of enrichment of the modern language. That is valid especially for Albanian, which compared to the other national languages of Europe, does not enjoy a long literary tradition (first recorded in 1555).  The standard language was shaped during the dictatorial period of Enver Hoxha and the creative sustenance it could search for in literature was filtered through the doctrinal fidelity surveillance. In a preface to his anthology “An Elusive eagle soars” the outstanding connoisseur and translator of Albanian literature Robert Elsie remarks that “subjects devoid of any redeeming educational value in Marxist terms were considered alien and taboo”. That banned the stylistic horizon and only few were the authors who could stand the trial of individuality. Jakov Xoxa is one of them. Though his works abide by the social and political messages required, the diversity of expression and the creative endeavors made him representative of prose production. The language was precisely the one that enabled Jakov Xoxa to perform his poetical world and to distinguish among his generation. Sh. Islamaj has chosen the language as goal of the study, convinced that it presents a task of key scientific interest. The monograph delivers observations and interpretations of essential for the Albanian language facts. Xoxa’s ltierary work was written in the standard literary language. He firmly relied both on the standard language and on the spoken folk language. According to professor Xhevat Lloshi the average number of words used in most distinguished novels of the Albanian literature is approximately 5000-7000, while only Xoxa’s novel “Lumi i vdekur” (The dead river) is asserted to have included about 12 000 lexical units, most of which are registered in the normative FGJSSH (Dictionary of Modern Albanian Language,1980). Xoxa generated not only quantity to the lexical stock, but semantic enrichment, abundant phraseology and idioms, compounds, synonyms, unique system of figures. It is Sh. Islamaj’s merit to summarize and bring to light the broad scope of lexical and stylistic contributions of Jakov Xoxa in a time when the standard language, urged by global communications to change, needs to recuperate its innate power and self-confidence. The book is recommendable to everybody interested both in Albanian language and literature, as well as in sociolinguistics.

January 2003