Albanian Online

Lesson Text

Translation

Grammar

1 General Syntactic Concerns

Albanian word order is generally SUBJECT-VERB-OBJECT, as illustrated by the Albanian for 'The girl saw the dog' --

		Vajza		pa		qenin
		the-girl		saw		the-dog

While this is the normal word order, there is some flexibility.

Adjectives normally follow the nouns that they modify. Consider the Albanian for 'The beautiful girl saw the white dog' --

		Vajza		e bukur		pa		qenin		e bardhë
		the-girl		beautiful		saw		the-dog		white

There are some instances where adjectives precede the noun they modify, but these are somewhat uncommon. Additional syntactic issues are given attention in later lessons.

2 The Albanian Noun

2.1 Grammatical Gender

Generally speaking, nouns in Modern Albanian are either masculine or feminine. There was a neuter gender in earlier stages of the language, but it has been almost completely eliminated (most of the earlier neuter nouns are now masculine nouns). A few nouns still show relics of being neuter; for more information on the status of the neuter gender in Modern Albanian, please see Newmark et al. (1982: 133-4).

The grammatical gender of nouns is somewhat predictable from the ending of the noun stem (i.e., the nominative/accusative singular indefinite form). Most nouns that end in -ë, along with most other nouns that end in a vowel, are feminine (though there are exceptions in each category). Except for the set of nouns ending in -ër, -ël, -ur, and -ull (of which some are masculine and some are feminine), all nouns ending in consonants are masculine.

While nouns are generally considered 'masculine' or 'feminine', there exist nouns that are masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural. In agreement, the singular takes masculine singular forms of adjectives, nyje particles, etc., while the feminine takes feminine plural forms of adjectives, nyje particles, etc. We refer to these as 'ambigeneric' nouns.

2.2 Inflectional Categories

Nouns in Albanian are inflected for number (singular, plural), case (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative), and definiteness. The dative and genitive forms are always identical (except for the genitive requiring a nyje particle, see below). Older stages of the language also had a locative case (this is discussed in Lesson 5). The uses of each of the cases are similar to those in other Indo-European languages. As mentioned in the series introduction, Albanian has a postposed definite article. As this can be treated as a suffix, it is discussed under noun inflection as well.

The most daunting aspect of declining Albanian nouns is that the singular and plural paradigms often have different stems (very common in masculine nouns, less common in feminine nouns). While the correspondences between the singular and plural stems of nouns are often predictable, there are many cases in which they are not. What follows is a sketch of the most common inflectional patterns in feminine and masculine nouns.

The citation form for Albanian nouns is the nominative/accusative singular indefinite form. Some nouns that are derived from adjectives are obligatorily preceded by a nyje particle (see below). These nouns are marked with an e in the citation form.

3 Noun Inflection

3.1 Feminine Noun Inflection

The following is the basic pattern of endings for feminine nouns. Note that singular endings are attached to the singular stem and plural endings are attached to the plural stem. Most feminine nouns have a nominative/accusative indefinite form in -ë. This final vowel is lost when a vowel-initial suffix is added (e.g., nom.sg.def. -a, abl.sg.indef. -e, etc).

		singular				plural
		indefinite		definite		indefinite		definite
nominative		-		-a		-		-t
accusative		-		-n		-		-t
gen/dat		-e		-s		-ve		-ve
ablative		-e		-s		-sh		-ve

Many feminine nouns have the same stem in the singular and the plural, e.g., gjuhë 'language'.

Inflection of gjuhë 'language' (plural stem gjuhë):

		singular				plural
		indefinite		definite		indefinite		definite
nominative		gjuhë		gjuh-a		gjuhë		gjuhë-t
accusative		gjuhë		gjuhë-n		gjuhë		gjuhë-t
gen/dat		gjuh-e		gjuhë-s		gjuhë-ve		gjuhë-ve
ablative		gjuh-e		gjuhë-s		gjuhë-sh		gjuhë-ve

A large group of feminine nouns in -ë have a plural stem in -a. The inflectional suffixes seen above are the same, but the plural suffixes are added to a stem in -a, e.g., nenë 'mother'.

Inflection of nënë 'mother' (plural stem nena):

		singular				plural
		indefinite		definite		indefinite		definite
nominative		nënë		nën-a		nena		nena-t
accusative		nënë		nënë-n		nena		nena-t
gen/dat		nën-e		nënë-s		nena-ve		nena-ve
ablative		nën-e		nënë-s		nena-sh		nena-ve

Feminine nouns ending in -ër or -ël have a plural stem in -a. When these nouns are inflected with a vowel-initial suffix, the ë is lost, e.g., motër 'sister'.

Inflection of motër 'sister' (plural stem motra):

		singular				plural
		indefinite		definite		indefinite		definite
nominative		motër		motr-a		motra		motra-t
accusative		motër		motrë-n		motra		motra-t
gen/dat		motr-e		motrë-s		motra-ve		motra-ve
ablative		motr-e		motrë-s		motra-sh		motra-ve

There are several other patterns that are followed by fewer nouns (or a single noun); e.g., the plural stem of natë 'night' is net, and the plural stem of grua 'woman' is gra.

3.2 Masculine Noun Inflection

As was the case with feminine nouns, the case endings for masculine nouns are consistent. What is not consistent are the correspondences between singular and plural stems (to which the endings in the chart below are attached).

		singular				plural
		indefinite		definite		indefinite		definite
nominative		-		-i		-		-t(ë)
accusative		-		-in		-		-t(ë)
gen/dat		-i		-it		-ve		-ve
ablative		-i		-it		-sh		-ve

When the final sound of the noun stem is a velar consonant (that is, k, g or h) or a vowel, all of the singular suffixes in -i are replaced with -u (e.g. zog 'bird', nom.sg.def. zogu, dat.sg.def. zogut, etc). The nominative/accusative plural definite ending is -të when following a syllable with an unstressed vowel and -t when following a syllable with an unstressed vowel. If the noun ends in two consonants, an -i- is inserted between the stem and the ablative plural indefinite and nominative/accusative plural definite endings (e.g., peshq 'fish', abl.pl.indef. peshqish, nom./acc.pl.def. peshqit).

The most common correspondence between singular and plural stems is where a plural stem is formed by the suffixation of -e, e.g., qytet 'city'.

Inflection of qytet 'city' (plural stem qytete):

		singular				plural
		indefinite		definite		indefinite		definite
nominative		qytet		qytet-i		qytete		qytete-t
accusative		qytet		qytet-in		qytete		qytete-t
gen/dat		qytet-i		qytet-it		qytete-ve		qytete-ve
ablative		qytet-i		qytet-it		qytete-sh		qytete-ve

There are also many nouns that form the plural stem via the suffixation of -ë (e.g., anglez 'Englishman', anglezë 'Englishmen') or the suffixation of -a (e.g., derr 'pig', derra 'pigs'). Masculine nouns in -ër usually form the plural stem by adding -a and deleting the ë. There are also plural stems that are formed by the suffixation of -nj, sometimes accompanied by a preceding vowel (e.g., gjarpër 'snake', gjarpërinj 'snakes') or -ër (e.g., mbret 'king', mbretër 'kings'). Some masculine nouns have the same stem in the singular and plural (e.g., qen 'dog', 'dogs'; tiranas 'person from Tirana', 'people from Tirana').

In addition to forming the plural stem via suffixation, there are some nouns that form the plural stem via a stem change. Most nouns that end in -g or -k have a plural stem in which these consonants are palatalized to -gj and -q respectively, e.g., mik 'friend'.

Inflection of mik 'friend' (plural stem miq):

		singular				plural
		indefinite		definite		indefinite		definite
nominative		mik		mik-u		miq		miq-të
accusative		mik		mik-un		miq		miq-të
gen/dat		mik-u		mik-ut		miq-sh		miq-ve
ablative		mik-u		mik-ut		miq-ve		miq-ve

However, this case is not representative of all masculine nouns that end in -g or -k. Most of these nouns form a plural stem by the palatalization of the final consonant along with the suffixation of -e (e.g., dushk 'oak', dushqe 'oaks'). For some nouns the final consonant is not palatalized in the plural (e.g., flok 'hair', flokë 'hairs'). Similar variability is seen in nouns in -ll or -r, some of which are palatalized to form the plural stem (e.g., shekull 'century', shekuj 'centuries'), and some of which have palatalization and the addition of -e (e.g., pyll 'forest', pyje 'forests').

There are additional patterns seen in the correspondences between masculine singular and plural stems. Many of these patterns are followed by just a few nouns, and some are rather anomalous (e.g., vëlla 'brother', vëllezër 'brothers'; ka 'ox', qe 'oxen').

4 "Nyje" Particles

As seen in the many instances of nouns in the genitive case in the text above, the Albanian genitive case obligatorily requires the presence of a particle. This particle is also required with some adjectives, as well as with some nouns that are derived from adjectives. In general, these particles are used to connect a noun and a modifier (be it an adjective or a noun in the genitive case). As there is no agreed upon name in English for these particles, we refer to them as "nyje" particles (short for the Albanian term nyje e përparme), following a suggestion by Jerry Morgan.

The nyje particle has four forms: e, i, të, and së. The form that is used depends on the gender, number, case, and definiteness of the noun being modified. The following rules (based on Newmark 1998) are a simple way to remember which form of the particle is used in each situation:

• i : the referent is masculine, singular and in the nominative case
• e.g., fillimi i vjeshtës 'the beginning of autumn': the nyje is i because the referent fillimi 'beginning' is the nominative, singular, definite form of the masculine noun fillim.
• së : the referent is feminine, singular and in the genitive/dative/ablative case
• e.g., Republikës së Kosovës 'of the Republic of Kosovo' : the nyje is së because the referent Republikës 'of the Republic' is the genitive, singular, definite form of the feminine noun republikë.
• e : the referent is feminine and in the nominative case OR the referent is singular, definite and in the accusative case OR the referent is plural, definite and in the nominative or accusative case
• e.g., Republikën e Kosovës 'the Republic (accusative) of Kosovo': the nyje is e because the referent Republikën 'the Republic (accusative)' is the accusative, singular, definite form of the feminine noun republikë.
• të : elsewhere
• e.g., sundimit të ligjit: 'of the rule of law' : the nyje is të because the referent sundimit 'of the rule' is the genitive, singular, definite form of the masculine noun sundim.

5 Adjectives

Albanian adjectives are inflected for gender and number, but never for case and rarely for definiteness. The only situations in which adjectives are marked for definiteness are in the rare instances where an adjective precedes the noun it modifies (which is apparently more common in Geg). Albanian adjectives can be divided into two groups, depending on whether they require a nyje particle (articulated adjectives) or not (unarticulated adjectives). The citation form used for adjectives is the masculine singular. Articulated adjectives (i.e., those which require the presence of a nyje particle) are marked with an e (the default form of the nyje particle) in the citation form.

5.1 Articulated Adjectives

Articulated adjectives always require a nyje particle. Note that, in the following examples, articulated forms of adjectives are marked by e preceding the noun. This is done for convenience and it must be remembered that the gender, number, case, and definiteness of the referent must be taken into consideration when choosing the correct form of the nyje particle.

With articulated adjectives, the masculine singular, feminine singular and masculine plural generally all have the same form. In adjectives in -ë or in a consonant, the masculine/feminine singular and masculine plural forms are generally identical and the feminine plural has the suffix -a, e.g., bardhë, e 'white' --

		singular		plural
masculine		e bardhë		e bardhë
feminine		e bardhë		e bardha

While this is the most common pattern, there are several common adjectives that show other patterns. Some of them show different masculine and feminine singular forms (e.g., e kuq 'red-masc.sg.', e kuqe 'red-masc.pl.'). Some adjectives also show different masculine singular and plural forms (e.g., e lig 'evil-masc.sg.', e ligj 'evil-masc.pl.'). Some articulated adjectives show four distinct forms, e.g., zi, e 'black' --

		singular		plural
masculine		e zi		e zinj
feminine		e zezë		e zeza

5.2 Unarticulated Adjectives

Unarticulated adjectives do not require a nyje particle. In unarticulated adjectives, the feminine singular and feminine plural forms are derived via the suffixation of -e to the masculine singular form. The masculine plural is usually formed via the suffixation of -ë to the masculine singular form, e.g., normal 'normal' --

		singular		plural
masculine		normal		normalë
feminine		normale		normale

There is actually a bit of variation to how the masculine plural forms of unarticulated adjectives are formed. The example above represents the most common case, but some masculine plural adjectives have the same form as the masculine singular, some are formed via the suffixation of -nj (Newmark et al., 1982, states that all adjectives of Turkish origin have this ending), and most adjectives derived from nouns have the same plural ending that the corresponding noun has.

6 Verb Basics: 'be' and 'have'

The following are the present indicative and subjunctive paradigms for the verbs jam 'be' and kam 'have'. In addition to fulfilling this function, these two verbs serve as the major auxiliary verbs in Albanian.

Present indicative paradigms of jam 'to be' and kam 'to have' --

		singular		plural				singular		plural
1st person		jam		jemi				kam		kemi
2nd person		je		jeni				ke		keni
3rd person		është		janë				ka		kanë

Present subjunctive paradigms of jam 'to be' and kam 'to have' --

		singular		plural				singular		plural
1st person		të jem		të jemi				të kem		të kemi
2nd person		të jesh		të jeni				të kesh		të keni
3rd person		të jetë		të jenë				të ketë		të kenë

Notes:

• The 2PL of jam and kam are jini and kini, respectively, in some dialects.
• In Geg, the 3SG of jam is âsht. In older Geg texts (e.g., Meshari), this is written as anshtë.

As seen in the tables above, all subjunctive forms are preceded by the subordinator të. All instances of the Albanian subjunctive are subordinated by të (for more on subordination, see Lesson 4). In addition, in these examples, the differences in conjugation between indicative and subjunctive forms lie in all forms except the 1st and 2nd persons plural. In the following lessons this is shown to be rare, as the vast majority of present tense Albanian verbs only show difference between indicative and subjunctive in the present 2SG/3SG.

The Standard Albanian/Tosk future tense is an analytic formation composed of the invariant future marker do (originally from the verb dua 'want') and a conjugated present subjunctive form of a verb (including the subordinator të). Thus do të jenë, seen in the text above, is the 3rd person plural future form of jam 'be'. For more details on the future tense (including dialectal differences), see Lesson 3.

While there is some variation as to what is used as the citation form for Albanian verbs, we use the 1st person singular present indicative here. In Geg, the citation form is traditionally the infinitive. However, in order to be consistent, we use the 1st person singular present indicative form as the citation form for Geg verbs as well (see Lessons 4 and 5).

previous lesson   |   next lesson