Italian affixes in Arbëresh Albanian

Summary

Affix function number of borrowed affixes

Description

Examples are from Altimari (2011:12–13). The affix is argued to be introduced via partial calques of Italian verbs, in which the nominal roots are translated to Arbëresh Albanian while the Italian infinitive -are suffix is retained.

1 verbalizer suffix

  • -ar ‘verbalizer’, e.g. thel-ar-ënj (nail-verbalizer-present.1.singular) ‘I slice’, ajër-ār-ënj (air-verbalizer-present.1.singular) ‘I air, ventilate’. Note that the etymology of ajër in this word is Albanian, even though this form was previously borrowed from Latin into Albanian.