Albanian

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Re: hey, I want to learn Shqip

Postby gothwolf » 2012-08-26, 13:48

I'm considering it. 8-) Two days ago I bought myself an Albanian grammar book written in my native language + I have Colloquial Albanian book and Discovering Albanian 1 but I'm too lazy these days because it's really heat here. What about you? Are you studying Albanian seriously or you''re only a beginner?

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Re: hey, I want to learn Shqip

Postby Keystone » 2012-08-26, 16:36

gothwolf wrote:I'm considering it. 8-) Two days ago I bought myself an Albanian grammar book written in my native language + I have Colloquial Albanian book and Discovering Albanian 1 but I'm too lazy these days because it's really heat here. What about you? Are you studying Albanian seriously or you''re only a beginner so far?


I live in Tirana currently (arrived a few weeks ago) and am taking language classes. Some books I have: Cezar Kurti's Albanian-English Conversations (vocab book, not much grammar), Basic Albanian Grammar for Foreigners by Mandalina Losha, as well as some workbooks from my classes.

I am technically a beginner but I used to live in Skopje, Macedonia where Albanian is not such a foreign language, so I already know Albanian greetings, some random words (for example, "fustan" means dress in both Macedonian and Albanian), and some swears ( :whistle: ). I do plan to study it seriously, but I leave in January so I'm really just trying to learn as much as I can. I'd like to be able to converse in the language, at the very least.
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lyrics of "Lujma, lujma dorën mbi dorë" with translation

Postby crazy_girl » 2012-08-26, 18:21

can someone write the lyrics of "Lujma, lujma dorën mbi dorë" with translation? :whistle:
song is here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtr-Q4rp5X4

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Re: lyrics of "Lujma, lujma dorën mbi dorë" with translation

Postby gothwolf » 2012-08-26, 20:38

I found the lyrics but unfortunately without the diacritic marks:

Lujma lujma ah doren mbi dore
per fejes o ta kam ble ni ore oooooo
Ta kam ble moj oren me zinxhire
Qe te dukesh oj nuse ma e mire
oooooooooo
Qe te dukesh oj nuse ma e mire oooooooooo

Lujma Lujma ah doren mbi dore
per fejes o ta kam ble ni ore oooooooo
ta kam ble moj oren me zinxhire
por te bahesh oj nusja ma e mire
porr te bahesh oj nusja ma e mire ooooooooooo

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Re: hey, I want to learn Shqip

Postby gothwolf » 2012-08-27, 15:40

That's great - You'll learn the language faster since you're surrounded by native speakers all the time. I'll try to find a course here in Bulgaria but I think it'll be "mission impossible". ;)

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Albanian relatives?

Postby nailgun » 2012-09-01, 21:45

Sorry for being unknowledgeable, but how does Albanian sit in relation to other languages?

I'm pretty sure I've heard that it's an I-E language and is believed to be related to Ancient Illyrian, whatever that was like. But, for instance, would it be reasonably closely related to, say, Greek, Slavonic, Germanic, Italic, Phrygian - or anything else?

One other point - I think there may be some sort of Albanian spoken in bits of Serbia near the Hungarian/Romanian border (not sure - Voivodina) and it's definitely spoken in Kosovo and Albania, also parts of northern Greece and Macedonia. But, seeing as its name for itself is Shqip (or something similar) and Albania is Shqipnija, where does the word "Albanian" actually come from?

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Re: Albanian relatives?

Postby Keystone » 2012-09-02, 16:02

Albanian is its own branch in the Indo-European tree. It does share some grammar norms with neighboring Slavic, Greek, and Romance languages and there's also a decent amount of loanwords from Slavic languages, Greek, Turkish, English, French, and Italian. But it is quite different from the neighboring languages too, so I don't think there's really any other language it is "closely related" to.

About its relation to Illyrian, I don't think scholars have a definitive opinion yet. Albanian nationalists have very handily adopted the Illyrian label (claiming ancient peoples is common in the Balkans), but the origins of the ethnicity and language aren't known for sure. The etymology of Albania is also not known for sure, but I think the common theory is that there was a medieval tribe in the region called "Albanoi".
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Personi që vjen pas meje...

Postby gothwolf » 2012-09-12, 9:40

Personi që vjen pas meje është i martuar.

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Re: Personi që vjen pas meje [lojë]

Postby MillMaths » 2012-09-12, 12:02

Jo, ende nuk jam i martuar.

Personi që vjen pas meje flet finlandeze.

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Re: Personi që vjen pas meje [lojë]

Postby gothwolf » 2012-09-12, 19:30

Sophie wrote:Jo, ende nuk jam e martuar.

Personi që vjen pas meje flet finlandeze.


i martuar - for masculine
e martuar - for feminine

Po, flas pak finlandeze.

Personi që vjen pas meje merret me sport.

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Shqip - gothwolf

Postby gothwolf » 2012-09-13, 14:17

Today I had some free time so I took my very first Albanian lesson and I can say that I'm in love with this language although it seems to be a real challenge for me. I have a good grammar book in Bulgarian and from time to time I go through the pages and according to my serious observations I should admit that I'll never learn this language - there are a lot of exceptions, plenty of irregular verbs and this "stupid" letter ë which is sometimes mute. 8-)
I don't like the orthography - sh for[ʃ], zh for [ʒ], xh for [dʒ], rr for [r]. Come on! Such letters don't fit will in Albanian. :blah:
And why don't we have any active native speaker here? I already have some questions to ask. For example I cannot understand these definite articles which precede the noun or... according to Colloquial Albanian the right form for Thank you is falemnderit but according to Discovering Albanian it is faleminderit. Or is there any difference between the greeting mirëmëngjes and mirëmëngjesi (good morning). Gr... :bummer:
But anyway... I still love it. :<3:

Ditën e mirë!

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Re: Shqip - gothwolf

Postby Keystone » 2012-09-15, 21:02

Jazikot e mnogu interesen haha

The language is very difficult to learn, but it's also very interesting. Particularly odd to me is the fact that Albanian has great dialectical variation, perhaps more than you expect for a language. Some letters/sounds aren't the same in different parts of the Albanian-speaking world, my teacher even said some numbers are said differently in parts of Albania.. which is crazy. It's an experience haha.

Only question I can answer: I'm pretty sure thank you is faleminderit with the I. On a related note, in "online speak" Albanians often shorten faleminderit to "flm".

Also, have you looked at the numbers yet, particularly the 'teens? Njëmbëdhjetë, dymbëdhjetë, trembëdhjetë.... :para:
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Re: Shqip - gothwolf

Postby gothwolf » 2012-09-20, 14:13

Keystone wrote:Jazikot e mnogu interesen haha


Согласен сум. :yep:

Keystone wrote:The language is very difficult to learn, but it's also very interesting. Particularly odd to me is the fact that Albanian has great dialectical variation, perhaps more than you expect for a language. Some letters/sounds aren't the same in different parts of the Albanian-speaking world, my teacher even said some numbers are said differently in parts of Albania.. which is crazy. It's an experience haha.


I'm not afraid of dialects. I've studied Slovenian (spoken by 2 million people) which has more than 45 dialects and some of them are really mutual unintelligible. Of course, I would like to learn standard Albanian but I'm also considering to go next year as volunteer somewhere in Albania (preferable in a small village) where local people don't used to use the standard language, so... I don't know.

Keystone wrote:Only question I can answer: I'm pretty sure thank you is faleminderit with the I. On a related note, in "online speak" Albanians often shorten faleminderit to "flm".


Faleminderit. :P

Keystone wrote:Also, have you looked at the numbers yet, particularly the 'teens? Njëmbëdhjetë, dymbëdhjetë, trembëdhjetë.... :para:


Yes, I did but I don't see anything wrong in the numerals. Their forming is just like in Bulgarian. What does bother you?

P.S. How are your studies going? What have you learnt so far? :)

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Re: Shqip - gothwolf

Postby Keystone » 2012-09-30, 14:23

The 'teen' numbers are just long and it took me a while to pronounce them correctly (I think I got it now). The structure is the same as in Macedonian/Slavic languages in general (one-on-ten, two-on-ten, etc.), so that didn't confuse me.

My learning is going good. I know enough to engage in a decent conversation with natives, though my pronunciation gives me away as a foreigner quite quickly. :D I haven't really jumped into grammar yet, but I will soon.

Volunteering in Albania would definitely speed up the language learning process, especially since knowing the language is probably a necessity in a village. The only prob is that I doubt they adhere to standard Albanian in the village, but it might not be a big problem, since it should be easy to learn the few differences in the standard language.
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Small translation

Postby Mulder-21 » 2012-11-07, 22:59

Hey, guys,

I need a small translation. What does this mean:

♥ Jam shqiptarë,se Kosova është Shqipëri. ♥
♥ Jam shqiptarë,se smë plas për Serbi. ♥
♥ Jam shqiptarë,se shqiptare është gjysma e Maqedonisë. ♥
♥ Jam shqiptarë,se gjysma e Malit të Zi i shtohet Shqipërisë. ♥
♥ Jam shqiptarë,se Camëria jo snjeh Greqi. ♥
♥ Jam shqiptarë,se Camëria është Shqipëri. ♥
♥ Jam shqiptarë,e them me zë të lartë. ♥
♥ Jam shqiptarë,se ndjehem 100% shqiptarë .. ♥

The first probably means, I'm Albanian, but other than the country names (or ethnonyms, not sure), I don't understand much else.
Gløgt er gestsins eyga. (Føroyskt orðafelli)
Wise is the stranger's eye. (Faroese saying)
L'occhio dell'ospite è acuto. (Proverbio faroico)
Hosťovo oko je múdre. (Faerské uslovie)

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Re: Small translation

Postby Keystone » 2012-11-08, 15:08

I'm not a native speaker, but here's all but one part of it:

I am Albanian, and Kosovo is Albania.
I am Albanian, *
I am Albanian, and Albanians are half of Macedonia.
I am Albanian, and half of Montenegro is added to Albania.
I am Albanian, and Chameria doesn't know/recognize Greece
I am Albanian, and Chameria is Albania.
I am Albanian, and I say it with a loud voice.
I am Albanian, and I feel 100% Albanian.

*I don't quite get this part, but "plas" = explosion and it includes Serbia, so it's probably safe to assume it's something anti-Serbian

There are a lot of grammar mistakes in the text, by the way. "Jam shqiptarë" literally means "I am Albanians" (singular + plural). :)
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Re: Small translation

Postby Mulder-21 » 2012-11-15, 13:35

Thanks. :) Yeah, I supposed it was something like that. Kinda like the Albanian variation of "Kosovo je Srbija" with a bit of nationalism and greateralbaniasm in the mix. But oh well. Thanks. :)
Gløgt er gestsins eyga. (Føroyskt orðafelli)
Wise is the stranger's eye. (Faroese saying)
L'occhio dell'ospite è acuto. (Proverbio faroico)
Hosťovo oko je múdre. (Faerské uslovie)

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Re: hey, I want to learn Shqip

Postby KarlDerKaefer » 2012-12-16, 12:32

I'm also trying to learn Albanian right now... with the goal of moving down there for at least a couple of months. However, I'm still in the very basic stage of the language but improving faster than I thought. Probably that's due to my knowledge of Spanish, but when I was there I couldn't even say basic stuff such as "faleminderit" or "miremengjes" for the first couple of days and it sounded sooo much more complicated than other languages :oops:

@gothwolf: Did you begin to learn it? How do you judge these books? I'm considering buying the old Colloquial (as the new one is from the same authors as Discovering Albanian) and Discovering Albanian but I'm still not sure and also don't know if with or without audio... hm :/

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Re: hey, I want to learn Shqip

Postby gothwolf » 2012-12-17, 19:26

Good to see that somebody else is interested in Albanian. But unfortunately recently I don't have enough time for Albanian. I think both books are worth buying but if I have to pick up just one maybe I would choose "Discover Albanian". Of course it's better to have the audio files. You also could contact me and I can send you the files, if you want of course.

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Re: Shqip - gothwolf

Postby KarlDerKaefer » 2012-12-23, 22:18

gothwolf wrote:For example I cannot understand these definite articles which precede the noun or... according to Colloquial Albanian the right form for Thank you is falemnderit but according to Discovering Albanian it is faleminderit.

Ok... my explanations may be completely wrong... anyway... I think that the difference is that Discovering Albanian teaches the standard variety of the language, while Colloquial Albanian is inclined more towards the Ghege (Northern Albanian) variety in case of doubt... at least that's what I'm experiencing with my course ;)

Edit: Discovering Albanian says that the two are correct. Thus: faleminderit = falemnderit.


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