Last Updated: 2020-07-02
Background
Language Family: Indo-European / Albanian / Tosk
- Albanian has two major dialects, Gheg and Tosk. I will be aiming to reflect Standard Albanian, which is predominantly based on the Tosk dialect.
- Albanian is spoken in a multitude of places, but predominantly in southeastern Europe.
Phonology
Consonants
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|
Place of Articulation
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Manner of Articulation
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Labial
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Dental
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Alveolar
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Postalveolar
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Palatal
|
Velar
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Glottal
|
|
Stops
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p b
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t d
|
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c ɟ
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k ɡ
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|
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Affricates
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|
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ts dz
|
tʃ dʒ
|
|
|
|
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Fricatives
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f v
|
θ ð
|
s z
|
ʃ ʒ
|
|
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h
|
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Nasals
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m
|
|
n
|
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ɲ
|
|
|
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Flaps
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|
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ɾ
|
|
|
|
|
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Trills
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|
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r
|
|
|
|
|
|
Approximants
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|
|
l
|
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j
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ɫ
|
|
|
Note: Phonemes to the left of each cell are voiceless and phonemes to the right of each cell are voiced.
|
Vowels
- Newmark, Hubbard, and Prifti (1982) argue for /ɛ/ rather than /e/ (p. 10).
- Nasal and long vowels exist in Gheg, but Tosk has lost them. Because my analysis focuses on the Tosk-based Standard Albanian, I will be omitting information on the nasal and long vowels, but it can be found on pp. 5-6 of Camaj (1984).
- In Gheg, all vowel phonemes are nasal equivalents except for /o/ and /ə/. In ambiguous situations, nasal vowels may be indicated with the circumflex (ˆ). As for long vowels, /ə/ once again lacks a long counterpart (Camaj 1984 , pp. 5-6).
- Albanian also has four diphthongs, that Newmark, Hubbard, and Prifti (1982) state are always interpreted as complex phonemes (p. 12). However, he does state that there is variation in terms of realization. Additionally, Camaj (1984) states that new documentation identifies these sequences as separate phonemes. I have, however, chosen to include them in the ruleset.
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|
Front
|
Central
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Back
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High
|
i y
|
|
u
|
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Mid
|
e
|
ə
|
o
|
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Low
|
|
a
|
|
|
Note: The high front phonemes are unrounded and rounded, respectively.
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|
Diphthongs
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/ie/, /ua/, /ue/, /ye/
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Alphabet
|
Grapheme
|
Phoneme
|
|
a
|
/a/
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|
b
|
/b/
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c
|
/ts/
|
|
ç
|
/tʃ/
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|
d
|
/d/
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|
e
|
/e/
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|
ë
|
/ə/
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f
|
/f/
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|
g
|
/ɡ/
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h
|
/h/
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|
i
|
/i/
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j
|
/j/
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k
|
/k/
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|
l
|
/l/
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m
|
/m/
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n
|
/n/
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|
o
|
/o/
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p
|
/p/
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|
q
|
/c/
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r
|
/ɾ/
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|
s
|
/s/
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|
t
|
/t/
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|
u
|
/u/
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v
|
/v/
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|
x
|
/dz/
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y
|
/y/
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|
z
|
/z/
|
|
Digraph
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|
|
dh
|
/ð/
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|
gj
|
/ɟ/
|
|
ll
|
/ɫ/
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|
nj
|
/ɲ/
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|
rr
|
/r/
|
|
sh
|
/ʃ/
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|
th
|
/θ/
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xh
|
/dʒ/
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|
zh
|
/ʒ/
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|
ie
|
/ie/
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|
ua
|
/ua/
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|
ue
|
/ue/
|
|
ye
|
/ye/
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Lenition Rules
- The palatal stops spirantize to affricates in many Gheg-speaking regions (Camaj 1984, 2).
- Nasals tend to assimilate to the place of following voiced stops (Camaj 1984, 4).
- In northern Gheg, the stop tends to delete in such environments, leaving just the assimilated nasal behind (ibid.).
- When preceded by /n/, /d/ tends to be released nasally or even deleted entirely (ibid.).
Misc. Rules
- Stress and tone are non-contrastive in Albanian (Newmark, Hubbard, and Prifti 1982, 14–17).
- In the Arbëresh dialects, /l/ tends to palatalize (Camaj 1984, 3).
- /ɡ/ devoices when followed by /t/ (Camaj 1984, 5).
- Word-final /ə/ often deletes in casual speech (Newmark, Hubbard, and Prifti 1982, 11).
- Final /ə/ tends to lengthen the syllable preceding it (Newmark, Hubbard, and Prifti 1982, 12).
- /n/ assimilates to [ŋ] when followed by /ɡ/ or /k/ (Newmark, Hubbard, and Prifti 1982, 21).
References
Camaj, Martin. 1984. Albanian Grammar. Translated by Leonard Fox. Otto Harrassowitz.