Northern Tosk Albanian

Coretta, Stefano; Riverin-Coutlée, Josiane; Kapia, Enkeleida; Nichols, Stephen G.

doi:10.1017/s0025100322000044

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Orthographically, /c/ is represented as <q> and /tS/ is represented as <ç>. Beci (2004) and other traditional phonetic manuscripts in Albanology (i.e., Dodi 2004;Memushaj 2011) consider /c/ to be a palatal plosive, as transcribed here (but see Lowman (1932) and Coretta et al (2021), who argue that /c/ is an alveo-palatal affricate). The phoneme /tS/ is a relatively common sound in the languages of the world, and, as in these languages, in Albanian, also, it is often described as a palato-alveolar affricate (Lowman 1932;Beci 2004).…”

Section: Albanian Languagementioning

confidence: 73%

“…For our study, we were interested in considering this potential sound change (see the recent study by Coretta et al (2021), who specify that <q> is actually an affricate). It is often proposed that sound changes are led by younger female speakers (Milroy and Milroy 1985;Labov 1990;Williams and Kerswill 1999;Fridland 2008;Harrington et al 2008;Lewis et al 2019) so in examining our data, we considered it relevant to examine whether this sound change might have been led by younger females as well.…”

Section: Albanian Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

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Sound Change in Albanian Monolinguals and Albanian–English Sequential Bilingual Returnees in Tirana, Albania

2023

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This research investigated contrastive perception of L1 phonological categories in Albanian–English bilinguals who returned to Albania after living abroad for over on average a decade. In Standard Albanian, there are phonemic contrasts between /c/ and /tʃ/, /ɫ/ and /l/, and /ɹ/ and /r/. These phonemic contrasts do not occur in English. Using a “real speech” binary minimal pair identification task, we compared the accuracy and response times of bilingual returnees against functional Albanian monolinguals who had never lived abroad. Results showed that (1) reaction times for /c/ versus /tʃ/ were longest for both groups, indicating that this contrast was “harder” than the other contrasts. Surprisingly, (2) bilinguals outperformed monolinguals in accurately identifying /c/ versus /tʃ/; and (3) no significant group differences were found for the other two phonemic contrasts. In combination with other research showing that Albanian is undergoing a merger of /c/ and /tʃ/, our findings suggest that this merger is more advanced in monolinguals than bilinguals—probably because the bilinguals were abroad when the merger started. Examination of variation within the bilinguals indicated that (4) the younger the speaker was when they left Albania, and the more recently they had returned, the lower their accuracy was in identifying the laterals. These phonological findings enhance our understanding of perceptual L1 attrition whilst underlining the need to examine language change in the country of origin in L1 attrition research.

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Section: Albanian Languagementioning

confidence: 73%

Section: Albanian Languagementioning

confidence: 99%

Sound Change in Albanian Monolinguals and Albanian–English Sequential Bilingual Returnees in Tirana, Albania

2023

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“…However, /@/ presents great variation across different speakers and contexts. It has been suggested that it comprises an open-mid unrounded vowel, phonologically transcribed as /3/ [58]. In addition, vowels /e/ and /o/ exhibit free variation, occasionally manifesting as more open-mid sounds [E] and [O] [59].…”

Section: Greek and Albanian Vowel Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic Characteristics of Greek Vowels Produced by Adult Heritage Speakers of Albanian

Georgiou,

Giannakou

2024

Acoustics

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Investigating heritage language (HL)-contact effects on the dominant language has received limited attention despite its importance in understanding the dynamic interplay between linguistic systems in situations of bilingualism. This study compares the acoustic characteristics of Greek vowels produced by heritage speakers (HSs) of Albanian and monolingual Greek speakers, aiming to identify potential differences and explain them. The participants were adult second-generation HSs of Albanian with Greek as their dominant language, born and raised in Greece. A control group of age-matched monolingual Greek speakers was included for comparison purposes. All participants engaged in a controlled speech production task, with the data segmented to extract acoustic values pertaining to the first three formants and the duration of Greek vowels. Bayesian regression models were employed for the subsequent statistical analysis. The results demonstrated differences in the first three formants of certain vowels and the duration of all vowels. These differences can be attributed to the crosslinguistic effect of HL on the dominant language, as well as the interplay between the dynamic and internalized language system of the speakers and the complex effect of the sociophonetic context. These outcomes contribute to the hypothesis positing the emergence of deflected phonetic categories among a distinctive group of bilinguals, namely HSs. Furthermore, this study underscores the significance of a comprehensive exploration of the sociophonetic context of HSs for a nuanced understanding of their phonetic patterns.

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“…Unlike neighbouring Balkan countries, where linguistic maps are readily available [33][34][35][36][37], the dialectal varieties of modern Greek (especially those of the mainland), although well-studied at the regional level, have rarely been researched under the lens of comparative historical linguistics, nor have they been mapped [38]. As a result, the boundaries of Greek dialectal varieties, their phylogenetic relationships, their contact with different idiomatic forms of Greek or other languages, as well as the historical processes that shaped their evolution and distribution, have often remained elusive [38].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toad zoonyms mirror the linguistic and demographic history of Greece

Davranoglou

Embirikos

2023

PLoS ONE

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The common toad (Bufo bufo) has been the subject of many folk tales and superstitions in Western Europe, and as a result, it is characterised by numerous common names (zoonyms). However, the zoonyms of the toad and its associated traditions have remained unexplored in the Balkans, one of Europe’s linguistic hotspots. In the present study, it was attempted to fill this knowledge gap by focusing on Greece, where more than 7.700 individuals were interviewed both in the field and through online platforms, in order to document toad zoonyms from all varieties and dialects of Greek, as well as local non-Greek languages such as Arvanitika, South Slavic dialects, and Vlach. It was found that the academically unattested zoonyms of the toad provide an unmatched and previously unexplored linguistic and ethnographic tool, as they reflect the linguistic, demographic, and historical processes that shaped modern Greece. This is particularly pertinent in the 21st century, when a majority of the country’s dialects and languages are in danger of imminent extinction–and some have already gone silent. Overall, the present study shows the significance of recording zoonyms of indigenous and threatened languages as excellent linguistic and ethnographic tools that safeguard our planet’s ethnolinguistic diversity and enhance our understanding on how pre-industrial communities interacted with their local fauna. Furthermore, in contrast to all other European countries, which only possess one or only a few zoonyms for the toad, the Greek world boasts an unmatched 37 zoonyms, which attest to its role as a linguistic hotspot.

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Northern Tosk Albanian

Cited by 5 publications

References 28 publications

Sound Change in Albanian Monolinguals and Albanian–English Sequential Bilingual Returnees in Tirana, Albania

Sound Change in Albanian Monolinguals and Albanian–English Sequential Bilingual Returnees in Tirana, Albania

Acoustic Characteristics of Greek Vowels Produced by Adult Heritage Speakers of Albanian

Toad zoonyms mirror the linguistic and demographic history of Greece

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