Characteristics of the Albanian language in AX Semantics
Fundamentals
In Albanian, you need to know the gender, case and number of a noun to form the accompanying adjective, determiners, numeral and pronouns correctly.
Albanian has five primary cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and ablative. Additionally, Albanian has two numbers: singular, plural; and three genders: masculine, feminine, neuter.
| grammatical name | values | examples |
|---|---|---|
| gender | masculine | zog i bukur (beautiful bird) |
| feminine | vajzë e bukur (beautiful girl) | |
| neuter | delfin i bukur (beautiful dolphin) | |
| number | singular | zog (bird) |
| plural | zogjtë (birds) | |
| case | nominative | zog (bird) |
| accusative | shoh një zog (see a bird) | |
| genitive | një pendë zogu (a bird's feather) | |
| dative | i jep bukë një zogu (give bread to a bird) | |
| ablative | nga zogu (from the bird) | |
| adjectives (noun) | after noun | shtëpi e kuqe (red house) |
| verb tenses | present | Ai punon. (He works.) |
| past | Ai punoi. (He worked.) | |
| future | Ai do të punojë. (He will work.) | |
| Imperfect | Ai punonte. (He was working.) |
The standard order of a noun phrase in Albanian is the following: preposition + determiner + numeral + noun + adjective. See for example:
rreth këtyre tre librave të rinj
about these three books new
PREP DET NUM NOUN ADJ
"about these three new books"
Lexicon
Nouns
Albanian nouns inflect for case and number. Nouns should be added to the lexicon if they are not regular. The vocative only occurs with a limited number of words, which is excluded in Albanian on AX NLG platform.
Lexicon entries for nouns may also be necessary for inflecting determiners, adjectives, numerals and pronouns correctly. They are omitted, if a lexicon entry is required, but missing.
Examples
The basic lexicon entry for zog (bird) contains:
- gender: masculine
- inflection table for case and number:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | zog | zogj |
| Accusative | zog | zogj |
| Genitive | zogu | zogjve |
| Dative | zogu | zogjve |
| Ablative | zogu | zogjsh |
Adjectives
In Albanian, adjectives inflect for gender, number and case. The default position for an adjective is "after noun". Albanian adjectives typically are used with a linking particle between noun and adjective. For example,
ariu i murrmë
NOUN Link ADJ
(the brown bear)
Verbs
Albanian verbs inflect for number, tense, and person. The most common verbs are encoded in our software. If a verb inflects incorrectly, you should add it to the lexicon.
Container settings
Determiner
The AX NLG platform supports the following determiners for Albanian: indefinite, definite, demonstratives (proximal + distal) and possessives.
Definite determiners are attached as suffixes to the noun. For example:
vajza e bukur
NOUN+DET LINK ADJ
(the beautiful girl)
Note that Albanian possessives stand behind the noun, other determiners before it. For example:
nje vajze e bukur
DET NOUN LINK ADJ
(a beautiful girl)
vs.
vajza ime e bukur
NOUN DET LINK ADJ
(my beautiful girl)
Pronoun
The AX NLG platform supports the following pronouns for Albanian: demonstratives (proximal + distal ), personal, and possessives.
Numerals
Four types of numerals are possible on the AX NLG platform: cardinal, cardinal as digit, ordinal, and ordinal as digit. Take ditë (day) for example:
| cardinal | ordinal | |
|---|---|---|
| text | nëntë ditë (nine days) | ditën e nëntë (the ninth day) |
| digit | 9 ditë (9 days) | ditën e 9 -të (the 9th day) |
As demonstrated in the examples above, ordinal numerals stand behind the noun, while cardinal numerals stay before the noun. Additionally, ordinal numerals inflect and get a linking particle like adjectives. Note that the ordinal numeric numerals will get the marker -të. For example:
ordinal:
delfini i dytë
NOUN LINK ORDINAL
(the second dolphin)
vs.
ordinal_numeric:
delfini i 2 -të
NOUN LINK ORDINAL marker
(the 2nd dolphin)
For Albanian, both cardinal and ordinal numerals are written out until 12 on the platform, otherwise (above 12) the output is in digit form. Take cardinal numerals for example:
dymbëdhjetë qen
(twelve dogs)
vs.
13 qen
(13 dogs)
Determiner switch
Determiners can be switched according to lexical information. If you set the determiner switch for a specific noun in the lexicon, it will automatically switch to another determiner when you set the desired determiner in the container.