"Tendencial" phonetic varieties in the use of controlled standard Albanian in Tv show Cover Image

Varietete/variante fonetike "tendenciale" në përdorimin e kontrolluar të shqipes standarde në një emision televiziv të sotëm
"Tendencial" phonetic varieties in the use of controlled standard Albanian in Tv show

Author(s): Giovanni Belluscio
Subject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Phonetics / Phonology
Published by: Univeristeti i Prishtinës, Fakulteti i Filologjisë
Keywords: Contemporary Albanian; phonetics; acoustic analysis; 'tendency';

Summary/Abstract: It is hard to give an answer to the question "Is there a spoken standard of Albanian language?", although in many ways the "standard" itself is put in question as a real language system. However, there are many cases in everyday life where we can say that Albanian is displayed with a good and precious clothing, a model that linguists (but not only linguists) choose to call "standard". The qualities of the standard have been so far expressed very well by linguists such as Rexhep Ismajli, Anastas Dodi, Bahri Beci etc., and some even managed to define a standard Albanian norm (Dodi 1981) but, as is known, currently Albanian does not have such a norm; on the contrary, it is often claimed that Albanian pronunciation directly derived from its spelling. But this assertion does not come true, not just because the written language differs greatly from the spoken language, but even though the rules of free pronunciation do not have the well-known "hardness/rigidity" of writing.On the other hand, we can say that in all linguistic traditions, in contrast to the normative norm enshrined in the rules and tradition, there is a tendency to form a much more free use of language, which is part of the informal registers of speech. This use represents the need of communication of an average level of speakers, and this creates and radiates vibrant uses until they are spread so as to overcome the norm line, becoming the property of the entire community of speakers. This tendency, in other contexts such as Italy, was named by linguists as "the variety of medium usage " of the language, and in the case of the Albanian, we can call it the "the Albanian of medium usage ". Someone also proposed the term "neostandard", but this in the context of Albanian does not seem appropriate to what we just said above. In 1983, the Italian linguist Alberto Mioni used the expression "Tendenciat Italian " for the first time, and this name we think that we can use in the case of spoken Albanian as well.The material we used was issued by a TV show recorded in April 2016 in a private Albanian channel. The show proposes to the public a conversation between a journalist (with a university degree) and three university professors in Tirana. The subject in the studio is Albanian and its dialects, so our linguistic analysis will deal with free, controlled or caring speech, used by speakers who are not only in their profession dealing with language but in the formal context of television speech about language and offer a careful use of contemporary Albanian pronunciation, it means a model that all four "cares" to reflect as much a top log, d.m.th. "The standard of speech". The aim of the analysis is to verify which are the pronouncing tendencies of today's dialectical and dialecic spoken Albanian as well as if it is possible to determine trends (i.e. what the term "Tendential Albanin" means that can be followed by the spoken language in the future.

  • Issue Year: 2017
  • Issue No: 35
  • Page Range: 51 - 76
  • Page Count: 26
  • Language: Albanian