The Albanian Language Gjuha Shqipe - Live Lingua

The Albanian LanguageGjuha ShqipeHosted for free on livelingua.com

November 2005Table of Contents1.Information About Albanianp. 42.Albanian alphabet and soundsp. 53.Greetingsp. 104.Useful phrasesp. 115.Phrases containing adjectivesp. 126.Other phrasesp. 137.Phrases used in a restaurantp. 148.Directionsp. 159.Drinksp. 1610. Foodp. 1711. Fruitsp. 1812. Home itemsp. 1913. Clothingp. 2014. Colorsp. 2115. Placesp. 2216. Family relationsp. 2317. Numbers 1 - 20p. 2418. 10 – millionp. 2519. Monthsp. 2620. Days of the Weekp. 2621. Saying welcome and respondingp. 2722. How are you?p. 2723. Would you like a cigarette/coffee?p. 2724. What’s your name? Where are you from?p. 2725. Thanks for coming. Good bye.p. 2726. Cheers! Bon appetite!p.2827. Exercisesp.29Page 2 of 30Hosted for free on livelingua.com

November 2005The text accompanies the following audio tracks: AL Albanian Lesson 1.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 2.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 3.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 4.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 5.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 6.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 7.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 8.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 9.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 10.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 11.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 12.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 13.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 14.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 15.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 16.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 17.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 18.mp3AL Albanian Lesson 19.mp3(Time: 1:53) (File Size: 1.73 MB)(Time: 0:42) (File Size: 666 KB)(Time: 1:38) (File Size: 1.49 MB)(Time: 3:14) (File Size: 2.96 MB)(Time: 2:02) (File Size: 1.86 MB)(Time: 1:48) (File Size: 1.65 MB)(Time: 1:47) (File Size: 1.64 MB)(Time: 1:29) (File Size: 1.36 MB)(Time: 1:28) (File Size: 1.35 MB)(Time: 1:09) (File Size: 1.06 MB)(Time: 1:00) (File Size: 938 KB)(Time: 4:12) (File Size: 3.84 MB)(Time: 1:34) (File Size: 1.44 MB)(Time: 1:23) (File Size: 1.26 MB)(Time: 1:53) (File Size: 1.73 MB)(Time: 2:02) (File Size: 1.87 MB)(Time: 2:24) (File Size: 2.20 MB)(Time: 1:16) (File Size: 1.16 MB)(Time: 1:29) (File Size: 1.36 MB)Page 3 of 30Hosted for free on livelingua.com

November 2005Information about AlbanianThe Albanian language belongs to the family of Indo-European languages. It is one of theoldest languages, yet different from the others. Albanian language seems to have kept itsown features from very ancient times. The earliest text in Albanian known so far is the"Baptizing Formula", written in 1462. Historically, unified national literary Albanian can betraced to 1908, when the decision was made to accept the Latin alphabet. Since 1972, theunified literary language remains the only one used in Albania and Yugoslavia.Albanian language is spelled more or less phonetically. Each letter has a specific sound thatdoesn't change in the context, making its reading and writing rather easy. As a rule,Albanian spelling corresponds to the pronunciation of words quite directly. The alphabet has36 letters, 29 consonants and 7 vowels. There are two main dialects, the Geg dialect in theNorth of Albania and the Tosk dialect in the South. In spite of the differences of the two maindialects, both spoken and written Albanian are understood by all Albanians. Education andmass media have facilitated this process. Today Albanian is spoken by about 10 millionpeople around the world, 3.5 million in Albania, 3 million in Yugoslavia (Kosovo,Macedonian, Serb and Montenegro), over 1 million in Turkey, as well as large groups ofAlbanians in South Italy (known as Arbereshe), Greece, Europe, USA, Canada andAustralia. Albanian is an inflected language, which means that grammatical endings play anindispensable role in the language grammatical system. Nouns can have either a feminine or masculine gender (the neutral gender isn’t verycommon) Depending on their role in the sentence (such as subject or object, nouns changetheir endings. The different roles they play are called cases. Albanian has five cases:Nominative (subject), Accusative (direct object), Dative (indirect object), Genitive(possession) and Ablative (nouns following prepositions). Nouns can be either definite or indefinite. This is marked by their ending rather thanan article like the English the. Even names of people and places can be definite. Thecapital Tirana could then be literally translated as the Tiranë. Adjectives change depending on the gender, number, definiteness and case of thenoun they follow. Instead of the pronouns (I work, you work, he she/it works, we work, you work, theywork), verbs use endings (punoj, punon, punon, punojmë, punoni, punojnë). Thepronouns exist (unë, ti, ai/ajo, ne, ju, ata/ato) but are used only for emphasis. Compared to the English 14, Albanian only has 8 tenses whose use is very similar totheir English equivalents. Another prominent feature or Albanian is its clitics e/i and their forms which havemany different functions. One of the language’s functions is the direct objectpronoun: Unë e shoh. (I see it.) What may be confusing is that it is used even whenthe full object is there: Unë e shoh librin. (I see [it] the book.)Page 4 of 30Hosted for free on livelingua.com

November 2005 Lesson 1: Albanian alphabet and soundsAlbanian language has 36 letters, each presenting a different sound from the other. Nineletters are digraphs, which means they are written as a combination of two consonants butare considered to be a single letter. Sh, th, and others and are considered letters. Wordsbeginning with them are listed separately in the dictionary.LetterSoundSimilar boybabai(father)Cctscatscopë(piece)Ççt charmçantë(bag)Ddddoorderë(door)DH l)GJ kkcomekëmba(foot, leg)Llllittlelule(flower)LL llLfall, na(mother)NJ njηnewnjë(one)Oooall, rrrememberradio(radio)RR SH sh shallshumë(many)Ttttabletavolina(table)Page 5 of 30Hosted for free on livelingua.com

November 2005TH thθthank youthoni(speak)Uuucook, spark)XH xhdjokexhaxha(uncle)Yyy-------ylli(star)Zzzzoo, zerozogu(bird)pleasurezhurmë(noise)ZH zh Lesson 2: Difficult sounds in AlbanianThese pairs of sounds are particularly difficult and often wrongly interchangeably when used:rrrlllkur (when)kurrë (never)pula (hen)pulla (stamp)xhgjqçxhaxha (uncle)gjellë (soup)qen (dog)çelës (key)Page 6 of 30Hosted for free on livelingua.com

November 2005Sounds in Albanian Language(No Audio)VowelsEach of the vowels can be either short or longCaseËëNamePhoneticsymbolËNoteIt is similar to the first vowel in English around whenshort, and to the vowel of burn when long.[ə]për [pər] forAaAhënë [hə: n]It is similar to the English sound in cut when it isshort, or cart when it is long.[a]mal [mal] mountainEeezanë [za :n] fairyIt is very similar to the English sound as in get,dead, set etc. In Albanian it also has a longcounterpart.[ε]vesh [vε ] earIiibletë [blε: t] beeIt is similar to the English sound as in hit, or as inmeet if it is long.[i]mik [mik] friendOoopikë [pi:k] pointIt is similar to the English hot when it is short, andthought when it is long.[o]sot [sot] todayUuubotë[bo: t] worldIt is similar to the English bush when short, andmoon when long.[u]mbush[mbush] fillfushë[fu: ] fieldConsonants1.The following consonants:b[b],n[n],ç[t ],s[s],f[f],sh[ ],g[g],v[v],j[j],xh[d ],m[m],z[z],zh [ ]are like the initial English sounds in the following words: book, church, foot, goal, jet,moon, note, sheep, vowel, judgement, zipe and pleasure:bukë[bu:k]breadsa[sa]how ?çfarë[t far]what?shikoj[ ikoj]to seePage 7 of 30Hosted for free on livelingua.com

November 2005fik[fik]figvit[vit]yeargisht[gi t]fingerxhep[d εp]pocketjam[jam]to bezi[zi]blackme[mε]withzhurmë[ k[k]are pronounced like their English counterparts but are not aspirated even when they are inan initial position. They are similar to p, t, d and k in pen, top, door and ë[ko:k]head3. nj[η] is pronounced like the initial sounds in the English word new.njeri[ηεri]person4. h[h]is very similar to the English as in head, heat, etc.humb[humb]lose5. th[θ]and dh[ð]are similar to English in think and they, but in Albanian these two soundstend to be more interdentally, that is, you put the tip of your tongue between teeth.thumb[θumb]stingdhe[ðε]and6. c [ts] is pronounce by trying to produce at the same time the sound [t] and [s], whereasx [dz] is pronounced by trying to produce at the same time the sound [d]and[z]ca[tsa]somexixë[dzi:dz]spark7. q [c] and gj [gj] are two consonants that do not exist in English.qaj[caj]crygju[gju]knee[ReguL]order8. r[r] is a single trill, whereas rr [R] involves more than one trill.risk[risk]riskrregull9. l[l]is pronounced similarly to l in leaf or long, whereas ll[L]is more like the final sound inbill, hall, etc.lojë[lo:j]gamelloj[Loj]kindPage 8 of 30Hosted for free on livelingua.com

November 2005Syllables and word stressAccording to the number of vowels, Albanian words may consist of one, two, three or moresyllables. In the Albanian language the position of the word stress is not fixed. In somewords the stress falls on the first syllable: Ti you. In others, it falls on the last syllable: Partia party. There are words with the stress falling on the middle syllable: Punë-a work. It isadvisable to pay attention to the stress when memorizing Albanian words. Word stress inAlbanian is more emphatic than in English; the stressed syllable is articulated with muchgreater force than the unstressed one, therefore lengthened.In general, in Albanian the main stress falls on the last word of a phrase, on the last stem ofa compound word, and on the last syllable of a polysyllabic word. Although this holds for thevast majority of words in Albanian, some of them do not obey this general principle.Page 9 of 30Hosted for free on livelingua.com

November 2005 Lesson 3: GreetingsPërshendetjeWelcome!Mirë se vini!Hello!PërshëndetjeGood morning!Mirëmëngjes!Good afternoon!Mirëdita!Good evening !Mirëmbrëma!Good bye!Mirupafshim!Please!Ju lutem!Excuse me.Më falniThank you (very much)!Faleminderit (shumë)!YesPoNoJoPage 10 of 30Hosted for free on livelingua.com

November 2005 Lesson 4: Useful phrasesShprehje të përdorshmeWhere are you from?Nga jeni ju?I am from the United States.Unë jam nga Amerika.I am American.Unë jam amerikan.Where do you live?Ku banoni ju?I live in .Unë banoj në How are you?Si jeni ju?Fine, thanks!Mirë, faleminderit!What do you do?Cfarë pune bëni ju?I am a volunteer.Unë jam vullnetar.I speak only English.Unë flas vetëm anglisht.I don't speak Albanian.Unë nuk flas shqip.What time is it?Sa është ora?Please, speak more slowly.Flisni më ngadalë, ju lutem,Please, speak more loudly.Flisni me zë më të lartë,ju lutem.I understand Unë kuptoj I don't understand.Unë nuk kuptoj Repeat it, please.Përsëriteni, ju lutem.Write it down, please.Shkruajeni, ju lutem.Page 11 of 30Hosted for free on livelingua.com

November 2005 Lesson 5: Phrases containingadjectivesShprehje mbiemroreI am.Unë jam.hungryi/e uriturfulli/e ngopurthirstyi/e eturbusyi/e zënëfreei/e lirëtiredi/e lodhursicki/e sëmurëthirstyi/e eturhappyi/e lumtursadi/e trishtuargladi/e gëzuar,angryi/e zemëruarThe prefix i is used when the speaker is a man and e is used for women.Page 12 of 30Hosted for free on livelingua.com

November 2005 Lesson 6:Other phrasesShprehje të tjeraI need help.(Unë) Dua ndihmë.Look out!Kujdes!Listen!Dëgjoni!Can you help me?Mund të më ndihmoni?Can you tell me?Mund të më tregoni?I am looking for.Po kërkoj.I want to go Unë dua të shkoj I know(Unë) E di.I don't know(Unë) Nuk e di.I think so.(Unë) Mendoj kështu.I don't think so.(Unë) Nuk mendoj kështu.I believe, yes.(Unë) Besoj se po.I don’t believe.(Unë) Nuk besoj.Page 13 of 30Hosted for free on livelingua.com