Turkish affixes in Albanian

Summary

Affix function number of borrowed affixes

Description

Information and examples are mostly from Boretzky (1975a:265–270), some additional examples stem from Xhuvani and Çabej (1962). Information on the etymologies of stems comes from Orel (1998). According to Boretzky (1975a:265), there are many Turkish suffixes in Albanian, but only 34 are used to derive more than a few Albanian stems. Boretzky (1975a:265–270) nevertheless lists 5 borrowed suffixes and gives examples of combinations with native stems for each. Some of them may be restricted to spoken varieties.

4 nominalizers

  • -xhi/çi ‘profession derivation’, e.g. derraxhi ‘swineherd’ (from derre ‘pig’), djathëxhi ‘cheese maker’ (from djathë ‘cheese’), lëkuraxhi ‘skinner’ (from lëkurë ‘skin’). Boretzky (1975a:265–270) found about 40 derivations with this suffix, but expects that there are many more. Brian Joseph (personal communication, July 2011) confirms that this suffix is productively used. It also appears in Genesin and Matzinger (2016:3127). This agent noun suffix is frequently borrowed from Turkic across languages in Eurasia as discussed in the AfBo entries on Uzbek affixes in Northern Tajik, Turkish affixes in Iraqi Arabic, Turkic affixes in Middle Mongolic, Azeri affixes in Udi, and Central Asian Turkic affixes in Russian. More examples are given by Hadzhieva et al. (2012), including -džija, borrowed from Turkish into Bulgarian. This form is now productively used in Bulgarian (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-джия#Bulgarian ［accessed: 10.07.2024］).
  • -llëk ‘abstract noun nominalizer (from adverbs, and others)’, e.g. zjarrlëk ‘burning heat’ (from zjarr ‘fire’). According to Brian Joseph (personal communication July 2011) this suffix is not very productive.
  • -li/-lli ‘designation of residents’, e.g. vendali ‘inhabitant’ (from vend ‘place’), Elbasanlli ‘inhabitant of Elbasan’, Tiranalli ‘inhabitant of Tirana’.
  • -qar ‘nouns denoting a person having a quality that is denoted by the noun or verb from which it is derived’, e.g. nihmaçar ‘helper’ (from ndihmë ‘help’), mundqar ‘someone who earns his daily bread with effort’ (from mund ‘effort’).

1 adjectivizer

  • -çe ‘ethnic or regional terms, and other derivations’, e.g. Shqipëtarçe ‘Albanian (adj.)’ (from Shqipëtar ‘Albanian (person)’), vendçe ‘locally’ (from vend ‘place’), derrçe ‘pig-like’ (from derr ‘pig’). Brian Joseph (personal communication, July 2011) confirms that this suffix is productive.

1 plural marker

  • -lar ~ -llar ~ -lerë ‘masculine human plural’, e.g. mbretlerë ‘emperor’ (from mbret, originally from Latin), priʃtlerë ‘priests’ (from priʃt, originally from Latin), giyshllar ‘grandfathers’ (from giyish, from Proto Albanian). Examples are from Gardani (2008:72), who cites Fiedler (1977). This form is used only on a few words, probably most of them of Turkish origin, according to Brian Joseph (personal communication, July 2011).