Albanian /xh/ and the Allolanguage

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Albanian /xh/ and the Allolanguage
Matthew C. Curtis The Ohio State
University Albanian Linguistics
Workshop University of Chicago Feb. 28, 2009
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Gjergj Skenderbeu
Xhorxh Bushi
Gjergj Fishta
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Gjergj Skenderbeu, Gjergj Fishta, and Xhorxh Bushi
/gj/ voiced palatal stop Many Proto
Indo-European sources (g, gh, s,
j)? Widespread in native vocabulary and
pre-Ottoman borrowings /xh/ voiced
palatoalveolar affricate No Direct PIE source
(?)? Mainly in borrowings from Turkish and
English.
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• Words containing the phoneme /xh/ with one
  exception (xhvishem undress) can all be
  attributed to borrowings
• Turkish xhep pocket, xham glass, xhami
  mosque, xhuxhmaxhuxh dwarf
• Italian xhiro turn, trip, stroll, xhirim
  filming
• English xhip jeep, menaxhoj to manage,
  buxhet budget, axhenda agenda

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Main Claim Albanian /xh/ is xenophonemic in
that 1) It marks foreign terms and ideas 2)
Historically it is used primarily for
borrowings 3) Within the standard language it is
used disproportionately more frequently in
prelinguistic, paralinguistic, and metalinguistic
contexts
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• As expected, xh has the lowest frequency of any
  phoneme in Albanian
• It occurs 961 times in a corpus of 4,340,522
  phonemes
• Occurs at a frequency of 2.21 per 10,000
  phonemes

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Prelanguage

• Foreign
• Islam xhami mosque, hoxha muezzin, xhenet
  heaven, xhehenem hell
• Colloquial
• penxhere window, tenxhere plate, filxhan
  cup, xhezve coffee pot
• Domestic/familial
• xhan spirit, dear (term of affection), xhaxhi
  mister (childish, cf. Zotëri), xhika granny,
  baxhanak brother-in-law, xhaxhai paternal
  uncle

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25
497
127
41
18
41
25
9
163
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Paralanguage

• /xh/ appears in some very expressive uses
• xheder troublemaker
• ma bëj xhevap get someone back
• bëj xhamaz to spy on someone, to swindle
• xhabaxhi freeloader
• iku xhytyrym get out of here, stupid
• xhuxhmaxhuxh dwarf

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36,876
2,647
3,730
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68 / 662
551 / 662
43 / 662
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68 / 2647
551 / 36876
43 / 3730
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129 / 300,682
138 / 364,925
Distribution of /xh/ (3.78 per 10,000 for
newsprint, 4.2 for music lyrics) between song
lyrics and newsprint is significant (p.01).
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Metalanguage
Song lyrics xhevahira, borxhin, cigarxhi,
xhvishem, gajdexhiu, xhelozia, xham, xhami,
axhamiu, valixhen, xhamadani, zinxhir, xhanin,
penxhere, xhevahir, xhaxhi, xhini, Sinan Hoxha,
Xhenete, Maxhar Pashes, Imer Hoxha, Haxhi Pasha
Gazeta Express 3/31/2008 aftësi menaxheriale,
menaxhim, menaxhohen, menaxheri, xhiruan,
xhirimi, xhirollogari, buxheti, xhiro,
tinejxherët, Xheri, një profesor (Xh.Sh.),
Llojd Xhorxh, Xhemail Ibishi, Rexhep Krasniqi,
Visar Sermaxhaj, Rexhai Surroi, Behxhet Pacolli,
Xhepri, Xhemile Xhepri, Nexhmi Krasniqi, Lorik
Haxhiu, Naxhafi (toponym),
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Distribution of /xh/Names vs. other words
13.95
49.28
51.72
86.05
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718,269
86,294
631,975
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946 / 718,269
351 / 86,294
595 / 703,253
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Conclusions

• /xh/ is
• Peripheral to the Albanian phonological system
• The most infrequent of all Albanian phonemes
• More likely to be used in allolinguistic
  contexts, Foreign, Expressive, Artistic, and
  Naming uses
• Hence, /xh/ is xenophonemic
• Albanian vocabulary and phonology may
• have several layers of borrowings that may be
  accessible synchronically
• Show that borrowings from Turkish that have not
  been incorporated as readily into the native
  phonology like previous borrowings

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