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 namevaluesexamples
gendermasculinezog i bukur
(beautiful bird)
femininevajzë e bukur
(beautiful girl)
neuterdelfin i bukur
(beautiful dolphin)
numbersingularzog
(bird)
pluralzogjtë
(birds)
casenominativezog
(bird)
accusativeshoh një zog
(see a bird)
genitivenjë pendë zogu
(a bird's feather)
dativei jep bukë një zogu
(give bread to a bird)
ablativenga zogu
(from the bird)
adjectives (noun)after nounshtëpi e kuqe
(red house)
verb tensespresentAi punon.
(He works.)
pastAi punoi.
(He worked.)
futureAi do të punojë.
(He will work.)
ImperfectAi 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:
SingularPlural
Nominativezogzogj
Accusativezogzogj
Genitivezoguzogjve
Dativezoguzogjve
Ablativezoguzogjsh

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:

cardinalordinal
textnëntë ditë
(nine days)
ditën e nëntë
(the ninth day)
digit9 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.