Discovering Albanian 1 Textbook Discovering Albanian 1 TEXTBOOK Linda Mëniku and Héctor Campos The University of Wisconsin Press The University of Wisconsin Press 1930 Monroe Street, 3rd Floor Madison, Wisconsin 53711-2059 uwpress.wisc.edu 3 Henrietta Street London WC2E 8LU, England eurospanbookstore.com Copyright © 2011 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any format or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a Web site without written permission of the University of Wisconsin Press, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles and reviews. 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Mëniku, Linda. Discovering Albanian I textbook / Linda Mëniku and Héctor Campos. p. cm. ISBN 0-299-25084-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-299-25083-6 (e- book) 1. Albanian language—Textbooks for foreign speakers—English. I. Campos, Héctor. II. Title. PG9527.5.E5M46 2011 491′.99182421—dc23 2011021822 CONTENTS Preface xi Acknowledgments xv Introduction 3 The Albanian Alphabet 3 The Pronunciation of Albanian Letters 3 The Alphabet and Some Common Albanian Names 4 Mësimi 1: Prezantimi dhe përshëndetjet (Introductions and greetings) 6 §1 Subject pronouns in Albanian 7 §2 The verb jam ‘to be’ in the present indicative 8 §3 The numbers from 0 to 12 9 §4 Telling time (part 1) 9 §5 Negative and interrogative sentences 12 Mësimi 2: Nga jeni? Ç’gjuhë fl isni? (Where are you from? What language do you speak?) 17 §6 The six classes of verbs and the verb fl as ‘to speak’ in the present indicative 18 §7 Countries, nationalities, and languages 21 §8 Basic cases in Albanian; nga ‘from’ to express origin and the nominative defi nite form of countries 21 §9 Addressing someone by name 23 §10 The numbers from 13 to 99 27 §11 Telling time (part 2) 28 Mësimi 3: Ku banoni? (Where do you live?) 31 §12 The verb punoj ‘to work’ and class 1 verbs 32 §13 The particle po 33 §14 The preposition në ‘in, at’ 34 §15 Sa vjeç? Sa vjeçe? (How old?) 34 §16 The verb kam ‘to have’ in the present indicative 38 §17 The verb vij ‘to come’ in the present indicative 38 §18 The preposition te(k) ‘to, at (a place)’ 38 §19 The numbers from 100 to 1 000 and the basic mathematical operations 38 v Mësimi 4: Çfarë profesioni keni? (What is your profession? lit., What profession do you have?) 45 §20 Masculine, feminine, singular, and plural professions and nationalities 47 §21 The demonstrative forms 48 §22 The days of the week and other time expressions 49 §23 The irregular verbs jap ‘to give’, dua ‘to want’, and them ‘to say’ 55 §24 Inviting someone: a plus the present indicative 55 §25 Në ç’orë? Në çfarë ore? (What time?) 55 §26 The numbers from 1 000 to 10 000 56 Mësimi 5: Në shtëpi (At home) 62 §27 Nominative singular defi nite nouns: feminine nouns 64 §28 Nominative singular defi nite nouns: masculine nouns 65 §29 Ka ‘there is’, ‘there are’ 66 §30 The prepositions mbi ‘on’ and nën ‘under’ 66 §31 Class 2 adjectives: the linking article with singular defi nite nouns 73 §32 Class 2 adjectives: adjective agreement (singular forms) 74 §33 Class 2 adjectives with nominative singular indefi nite nouns 75 §34 The weather 76 §35 The seasons and the months of the year 77 Mësimi 6: Përsëritje (Review) 85 Mësimi 7: Çfarë ka sonte në televizor? (What’s on TV tonight?) 90 §36 The verbs njoh ‘to know’ and shoh ‘to see’ in the present indicative 92 §37 Nominative/accusative plural indefi nite nouns: masculine nouns 92 §38 Nominative/accusative plural defi nite nouns: masculine nouns 94 §39 Nationality and class 1 adjectives 95 §40 Nominative/accusative plural indefi nite nouns: feminine nouns 100 §41 Nominative/accusative plural defi nite nouns: feminine nouns 101 §42 Class 2 adjectives: the linking article with plural defi nite nouns 102 §43 Class 2 adjectives: adjective agreement (plural forms) 103 §44 Class 2 adjectives with nominative/accusative plural indefi nite nouns 104 §45 Some irregular class 2 adjectives in the plural 105 Mësimi 8: Në dyqan (At the store) 114 §46 Class 2 verbs 116 §47 Superlative constructions 117 §48 Comparative constructions 119 §49 The present subjunctive 122 §50 The modal verbs duhet ‘must’ and mund ‘can’ and the present subjunctive 124 §51 Other basic constructions that require the present subjunctive 125 §52 The future indicative 126 vi Contents Mësimi 9: Shtëpi dhe hotel (House and hotel) 133 §53 Accusative singular nouns 135 §54 Accusative plural nouns 137 §55 Prepositions and the accusative case 137 §56 The demonstrative forms in the accusative case 138 §57 The interrogative pronouns kush ‘who’ and cili ‘which’ 139 §58 Class 2 adjectives: the linking article with accusative defi nite nouns 144 §59 Class 2 adjectives: the linking article with accusative indefi nite nouns 146 §60 Ordinal numbers 147 §61 Class 3 and 4 verbs 148 Mësimi 10: Festat zyrtare në Shqipëri (Offi cial holidays in Albania) 155 §62 Genitive singular defi nite nouns 157 §63 Genitive plural defi nite nouns 161 §64 Basic uses of the genitive case 163 §65 Asking questions with “whose” 164 §66 Modifying the genitive defi nite form 165 §67 The genitive indefi nite form 170 §68 The genitive forms of cili ‘which’ 172 §69 The genitive forms of the demonstratives ky ‘this’ and ai ‘that’ 172 Mësimi 11: Rrobat (Clothes) 180 §70 Class 6 verbs: the present indicative of verbs that end in - (h)em 182 §71 Passive constructions 184 §72 Negative, progressive, subjunctive, and future of class 6 verbs 184 §73 Dative pronouns: strong and weak forms 189 §74 Basic uses of the dative case 189 §75 Dative case on nouns 191 §76 Position of the dative clitic pronouns 192 §77 Dative demonstratives 192 §78 Dative forms of kush ‘who’ and cili ‘which’ 193 Mësimi 12: Përsëritje (Review) 199 Mësimi 13: Pushime dhe libra (Vacations and books) 205 §79 The simple past indicative of class 1 verbs 207 §80 The simple past indicative of class 3 verbs 209 §81 The simple past indicative of class 2 verbs 209 §82 The simple past indicative of irregular verbs 210 §83 Accusative pronouns: strong and weak forms 215 §84 Basic uses of the accusative clitic pronouns 215 §85 Të plus accusative clitic pronouns 216 Contents vii Mësimi 14: Kinema, imejl dhe internet (Movies, e-mail, and the Internet) 223 §86 The simple past indicative of class 6 verbs 224 §87 Possessive adjectives: nominative forms 229 §88 Possessive adjectives: accusative forms 230 Mësimi 15: Çfarë dëshironi? (How can I help you?) 239 §89 Attributive ablative singular indefi nite nouns 241 §90 Attributive ablative plural indefi nite nouns 243 §91 Basic uses of the ablative indefi nite case 243 §92 Çfarë versus ç’ 244 §93 The imperative 245 §94 Negative imperative clitic pronouns 247 §95 Ablative singular defi nite nouns 252 §96 Basic uses of the ablative case 253 §97 The ablative forms of kush ‘who’ and cili ‘which’ 254 §98 The ablative forms of ky ‘this’ and ai ‘that’ 254 §99 The ablative forms of the personal pronouns 255 Mësimi 16: Pushime dhe histori (Vacations and history) 263 §100 The imperfect indicative of active verbs 265 §101 The imperfect indicative of class 6 verbs 267 §102 The imperfect subjunctive 268 §103 The genitive, dative, and ablative forms of possessive adjectives 271 Mësimi 17: Shëndeti (Health) 280 §104 The present perfect of class 1 through class 5 verbs 282 §105 The present perfect of class 6 verbs 284 §106 Uses of the present perfect 285 §107 The future perfect and present perfect subjunctive 289 §108 The pluperfect 290 Mësimi 18: Përsëritje (Review) 298 Appendix 1: Personal pronouns and clitic pronouns 305 Appendix 2: Demonstrative pronouns and adjectives 306 Appendix 3: Possessive adjectives 307 Appendix 4: The interrogative and relative pronouns cili ‘which’ and kush ‘who’ 309 Appendix 5: Masculine nouns 310 Appendix 6: Feminine nouns 312 Appendix 7: Linking articles with class 2 adjectives 314 viii Contents Appendix 8: Present and imperfect verb forms 315 Appendix 9: Most common regular and irregular verbs 318 Appendix 10: Past tense of regular and irregular verbs 320 Appendix 11: Answers to selected exercises 325 Vocabulary List 341 Grammatical Index 367 Contents ix PREFACE THE ALBANIAN LANGUAGE About seven million people speak Albanian as their native language. It is the offi cial language of Albania and Kosovo as well as of some municipalities in Macedonia and Montenegro.1 It is also the fi rst language for numerous minorities in other Balkan countries such as Greece, Serbia, and Bul- garia, even though some of these countries may not offi cially recognize these minorities as such. It is also spoken natively by different communities in southeastern Italy, all the way from Abruzzi to the island of Sicily. There is also a diaspora of Albanian speakers in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine, among other countries. In Albanian the language is called shqip [ʃcip], but until the fi fteenth century it was known as Arbërisht or Arbnisht, which is still the name given to the dialects spoken in Italy. Already in the second century A.D., Ptolemy, the Alexandrian astronomer, geographer, and mathematician, used the name Albanoi to refer to an Illyrian tribe that lived in what is now central Albania. Mod- ern Greeks refer to the variety of Albanian spoken in Greece as Arvanitika.