In order to learn this language (or any other) a basic understanding of
grammar is necessary. The following is a quick warm-up intended to
remind you of some basic terminology.
Prefix, suffix, ending, etc.
A prefix creates a new word out of a pre-existing word; a prefix
is just a group of letters such as un-, in-, etc.
Examples from English:
un + believable = unbelievable
un + forgettable = unforgettable
ab + normal = abnormal
re + fill = refill
Similarly, a suffix may be added to a word to create a new word;
the new word created in this way usually has a related meaning.
Examples:
slow + ly = slowly
quick + ly = quickly
work + er = worker
compete + tion = competition
An ending is something different. An ending does not change
the meaning of the word. Endings result from inflection (conjugation of verbs
and declension of nouns). English does not have many endings.
English endings include the 's' of third person
singular of verbs, the 'ed' of the past tense and past participle, the 's' of
the plural of nouns, and the 'ing' of the present participle. Examples:
I work
he work~s
I work~ed
I am work~ing
one computer
two computer~s
In Albanian a prefix is called parashtesė;
a suffix is prapashtesė;
and an ending is mbaresė.
Nouns
A noun is simply a label for an object, place, idea, or a person.
In English nouns can be singular or plural,
definite or indefinite. They are plural if they have
's' in the end, and they are definite if they have the word 'the' in
front of them.
In Albanian, things are a little bit more
complicated. In Albanian, a noun can be singular or plural,
it can be definite or indefinite, it can be
masculine, feminine, or neutral, and it can be in one of the
5 possible cases: nominative, genitive
(or possessive),
dative, accusative, or ablative.
In theory, an Albanian noun could have 20 different endings, one for each
combination of number, definite/indefinite, and case. The gender is
inherent in the noun (i.e. a 'hen' is feminine and a 'rooster' is masculine;
'running' is neutral). The declension of 'libėr' is shown below as an example;
'libėr' happens to be a masculine noun.
|
Indefinite |
English |
Albanian | |
Nominative |
a book |
njė libėr | |
Genitive |
of a book |
i/e njė libri | |
Dative |
to a book |
njė libri | |
Accusative |
(with) a book |
(me) njė libėr | |
Ablative |
------------- |
(prej) njė libri |
|
|
Definite |
English |
Albanian | |
Nominative |
the book |
libri | |
Genitive |
of the book |
i/e librit | |
Dative |
to the book |
librit | |
Accusative |
(with) the book |
(me) librin | |
Ablative |
------------- |
(prej) librit |
|
In Albanian a noun is called emėr ('emėr' is the
singular indefinite nominative -- the representative form which can be found
in an Albanian dictionary; the definite singular nominative is 'emri').
The Albanian word for 'definite form' is trajtė e shquar;
the indefinite is trajtė e pashquar.
The singular is called njėjės, plural in Albanian is
shumės. The Albanian words for cases are emėrore,
gjinore,
dhanore,
kallėzore, and
rrjedhore.
The Albanian word for gender is gjini.
Verbs
A verb is a label for an action (including "actions" such as simply
being alive, existing, having, possessing, etc.)
Examples are 'read', 'eat', 'get', 'am', 'have'.
The Albanian verb system is complicated. An Albanian verb could be in one of the
6 possible moods:
dėftore, habitore, lidhore, kushtore, dėshirore, dhe urdhėrore
(In English they can be translated as
indicative, surprised, conjunctive, conditional, desiring, and
imperative.)
Each mood has tenses, and each tense has 6 persons:
3 for singular and 3 for plural. For instance, the verb 'qenkan'
is the verb 'to be' in the surprised mood, present tense, third person plural.
In the first person singular of the present tense of the indicative mood this verb
becomes 'jam' (the equivalent of the English 'I am').
In addition to the above, Albanian verbs can be in one of two forms:
veprore, or joveprore.
'Veprore' can be translated as "acting on something" and 'joveprore' can be
translated as "not acting on anything". 'Forma veprore' is used
in sentences in which the subject acts on something or somebody
(e.g., 'I wash my hands').
'Forma joveprore' is used in sentences in which either the subject is passive,
(as in the 'passive voice' of English; for instance, 'My hands are washed by me'), or
the subject and the object of the verb are the same (in English, reflexive
pronouns are used in such cases; for instance, 'My hands wash themselves').
The change from 'veprore' to 'joveprore'
in the present indicative is accomplished by changing the ending to 'em'
or to 'hem'. E.g., 'laj' is the equivalent of 'I wash', and 'lahem'
is the equivalent of 'I am washed' or 'I am being washed' or 'I wash myself'.
More about this subject later.
Obviously, Albanian verbs are complicated. The task of learning them may seem
like 'mission impossible'. They can be learned however, and the system does make
some sense.
For instance, when you see the verb 'qenkan' there is no mistaking that
(1) we are dealing with several objects (as opposed to a single one);
(2) these objects are different from other similar objects;
(3) the difference is suprising.
An example: The Albanian sentence
Nė kėtė vend, vajzat qenkan tė mira.
can be translated in English in several ways. A simple translation would be:
In this country, the girls are nice.
However, this fails to convey the surprise felt by the speaker. A better translation would be:
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that girls are nice in this country.
Now it's time to learn some new
terms. The Albanian word for verb is folje. The mood in Albanian
is mėnyrė, the tense is called kohė,
the person is vetė. Singular and plural are
-- just like for nouns -- njėjės and
shumės. More about verbs in later lessons.
More terminology
An adverb in Albanian is ndajfolje. Adverbs
are words that show how (or when, or where) something is done. Examples
from English are well, badly, slowly, quickly, arrogantly, early, above,
below, etc.
An adjective is called mbiemėr. Adjectives are words that
show qualities. Examples from English: tall, pretty, small, big, vast, enormous, tiny, etc.
It is important to remember that in Albanian adjectives are placed
after a noun (not before like in English). For instance, in English we say:
Pretty girl
where 'pretty' is the adjective, and 'girl' is the noun; the adjective is placed before
the noun. The same sentence in Albanian is:
Vajzė e bukur
where 'e bukur' is the adjective, equivalent to the English 'pretty',
and 'vajzė' is the noun, equivalent to the english 'girl'.
That which in English is called a 'possessive adjective' in Albanian is called
a 'possessive pronoun' (pėremėr pronor).
In Albanian a pronoun is called pėremėr. Just like English,
Albanian has personal pronouns, pėremra
vetorė ('pėremėr vetor' in singular).
In Albanian they are:
|
English |
Albanian | |
I |
unė | |
you |
ti | |
he/she, it |
ai/ajo | |
we |
ne | |
you |
ju | |
they |
ata/ato |
|
Albanian 'possessive pronouns' are equivalent to English 'possessive
adjectives'. More about this subject at another time.
A preposition in Albanian is called parafjalė.
English examples of prepositions include: in, at, on, into, at, for, with, etc.
A numeral is numėror.
An interjection in Albanian is pasthirrmė.
End of this page. 20020714.
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