RRETH HUAZIMEVE TURKE NË GJUHËN SHQIPE
ON THE TURKISH LOANWORDS IN ALBANIAN

Summary/Abstract: Although the Turkish loanwords of Albanian have attired the attention of numerous scholars, they still remain to be further investigated, particularly concerning their way of integration in the borrowing language. It was quite natural that the Turkish words used by Albanian speakers should undergo radical changes particularly with regard to the grammatical categories being Turkish of a quite different linguistic family. As far as the phonetic system is concerned, the difficulties in the way of their integration were less significative, because both of these languages have a reach inventory of phonemes (see the Albanian version). It is also to be mentioned a common phonetic phenomenon of these two languages, that is the assordization of some voiced consonants in final position. That is why some Turkish loanwords like the proper noun Ahmet (from Arabic Ahmad), the substantive ihtija Η (from Arabic ihtijaxh) etc. are used in Albanian by a final voiceless consonant, having been lent from the Turkish nominative form (cp. genitive Ahmed-in, ihtijaxh-in etc.). On the contrary, the Turkish loanwords could not be integrated into Albanian without undergoing some significative grammatical changes. Suffice it to mention that the Turkish genderless substantives could not be used in Albanian without being integrated into one of the live genders (masculine or feminine) and without being used according to the rules of the Albanian declension, which is quite different from that of Turkish. In both of these languages, however, a common phenomenon has appeared in the plural of substantives. In both of them the case endings are added to a special plural theme, which is generally different from that of the singular. But such a phenomenon, which has appeared also in Rumanian and in German, is not due to any Turkish influence; in Albanian it has appeared since long before the Turkish conquest of Albania. The adjectives of Turkish origin have also undergone profound changes in Albanian; it is also to be noted that they are normally used before the substantives in Albanian (see theAlbanian version). The Turkish verbal loanwords, which are relatively less numerous, have also undergone deep changes by being conjugated according to the Albanian conjugational system. The author of this paper has briefly dealt also with the much discussed question whether Turkish has exerted any influence upon Albanian and Bulgarian and Macedonian concerning their grammatical system, particularly regarding the appearance of the admirative mood in Albanian and of “the indirect narrative mood” in Bulgarian and Macedonian. One should take into account that the admirative mood in Albanian is rather ancient and has no connection with the Turkish “subjunctive modality” (or the so-called indeterminate” verbal forms with the suffix -mi ©). In Albanian, however, as in some other Balkan languages, some suffixes of Turkish origin have penetrated (see the Albanian version).

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