Cover not available
Part of
Perfects in Indo-European Languages and Beyond
Edited by Robert Crellin and Thomas Jügel
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 352] 2020
► pp. 505–548

Chapter 15
The perfect system of Old Albanian (Geg variety)

| University of Vienna
The Old Geg perfect system has a morphology resembling that of neighbouring Romance perfects (‘have’/‘be’ + past participle). It is a major sub-system of the verbal system, using nearly all synthetic forms of the auxiliary. Moreover, there are surcomposé forms. The present perfect usually has a resultative or existential reading, other readings being very rare. The past tenses of the perfect system indicate anteriority to a reference point in past time. Among the surcomposé forms, there is a pluperfect of the perfect, which indicates a second, deeper layer of anteriority. The non-indicative forms of the perfect system serve as past-tense counterparts to the respective non-indicative categories of the synthetic verbal system. Finally, the Old Geg present perfect gives rise to the so-called admirative, a present expressing the speaker’s surprise, disbelief, irony or doubt, or his or her unwillingness to vouch for the truth of the statement given.
Keywords: evidentiality mood, admirative, Old Albanian, Old Geg, ‘have’/‘be’ perfects
Article outline
  • 1.General characteristics: Affiliation, areal relationships, attestation, and sources of Albanian
    • 1.1The most important Old Geg literary sources
    • 1.2The transcription system used
  • 2.Terminology
  • 3.An overview of the Tense-Aspect-Mood system of Old Geg
    • 3.1The Tense-Aspect-Mood system of the Old Geg synthetic verbal stems
    • 3.2The perfect system
    • 3.3The future/conditional system
  • 4.The voice system
  • 5.Origin and functions of the Old Geg aorist; syncretism in the early history of Albanian
    • 5.1Origin of the aorist
    • 5.2Functions of the aorist in Old Geg
  • 6.The perfect system of Old Geg
    • 6.1Morphology of the perfect system
    • 6.2The functions of the present perfect indicative of Old Geg
      • 6.2.1Resultative readings
      • 6.2.2Existential readings
      • 6.2.3Persistent-situation readings
      • 6.2.4Other readings of the perfect
    • 6.3The function of the imperfect past perfect indicative
    • 6.4The function of the aorist past perfect indicative
    • 6.5The function of the present perfect indicative II
    • 6.6The function of the imperfect past perfect indicative II
    • 6.7The function of the present perfect subjunctive; general remarks on the non-indicative subcategories of the perfect system
    • 6.8The function of the imperfect past perfect subjunctive
    • 6.9The function of the present perfect optative
  • 7.The inverted univerbated perfect and the rise of the admirative
    • 7.1Morphology of the inverted univerbated perfect (iup)
    • 7.2Functions of iup tenses and moods in Buzuku
      • 7.2.1The function of the imperfect indicative iup and the imperfect subjunctive iup
      • 7.2.2The function of the present indicative iup
      • 7.2.3The function of the present perfect indicative iup
    • 7.3More on the rise of the admirative in Old Geg: The evidence of Budi
  • 8.Summary
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 23 September 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.352.15sch
References (42)
References
Sources of Old Albanian
Bardhi = Demiraj, Bardhyl. ed. 2008. Dictionarium Latino Epiroticum: una cum nonnullis usitatioribus loquendi formulis. Per R. D. Franciscum Blanchum. Shkodër: Botime françeskane.Google Scholar
Bogdani = Omari, Anila (ed.). 2005. Pjetër Bogdani. Cuneus prophetarum (Çeta e Profetëve): Botim kritik me një studim hyrës, faksimile të origjinalit, transkriptim e shënime. Tiranë: Akademia e Shkencave.Google Scholar
Budi DC = Svane, Gunnar (ed.). 1985. Pjetër Budi. Dottrina christiana (1618). With a Transcription into Modern Orthography and a Concordance (Sprog og Mennesker 9). Århus: Institut for Lingvistik, Aarhus Universitet.Google Scholar
Budi RR = Svane, Gunnar (ed.). 1986a. Pjetër Budi. Rituale romanum (1621). With a transcription into modern orthography and a concordance (Sprog og Mennesker 13). Århus: Institut for Lingvistik, Aarhus Universitet.Google Scholar
Budi SC = Svane, Gunnar (ed.). 1986b. Pjetër Budi. Speculum confessionis (1621). With a Transcription into Modern Orthography and a Concordance (Sprog og Mennesker 11). Århus: Institut for Lingvistik, Aarhus Universitet.Google Scholar
Buzuku = Ressuli, Namik. (ed.). 1958. Il »Messale« di Giovanni Buzuku. Riproduzione e trascrizione. Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.Google Scholar
Secondary literature
Ashta, Kolë. 2000. Leksiku historik i gjuhës shqipe I. Shkodër: Luigj Gurakuqi.Google Scholar
Buchholz, Oda & Wilfried Fiedler. 1987. Albanische Grammatik. Leipzig: VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie Leipzig.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan, Revere D. Perkins & William Pagliuca. 1994. The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard. 1981. Aspect: An introduction to the study of verbal aspect and related problems. Corrected reprint. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
. 1985. Tense. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Crellin, Robert. 2016. The syntax and semantics of the perfect active in literary Koine Greek. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Dahl, Eystein. 2010. Time, tense and aspect in early Vedic grammar: Exploring inflectional semantics in the Rigveda. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dahl, Östen. 1985. Tense and aspect systems. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Fiedler, Wilfried. 2004. Das albanische Verbalsystem in der Sprache des Gjon Buzuku (1555). Prishtinë: ASHAK.Google Scholar
Frâncu, Constantin. 2009. Gramatica limbii române vechi (1521–1780). Iași: Demiurg.Google Scholar
Friedman, Victor A. 2000. Confirmative/Nonconfirmative in Balkan Slavic, Balkan Romance, and Albanian, with additional observations on Turkish, Romani, Georgian, and Lak. In Lars Johanson & Bo Utas (eds.), Evidentials: Turkic, Iranian and neighbouring languages, 329–366. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006. Balkans as a linguistic area. In Keith Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of language & linguistics, 2nd edn., vol. 1, 657–672. Oxford: Elsevier. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2012. Perhaps mirativity is phlogiston, but admirativity is perfect: On Balkan evidential strategies. Linguistic Typology 16:3. 505–527. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hauge, Kjetil Rå. 1999. A short grammar of contemporary Bulgarian. Bloomington, IN: Slavica.Google Scholar
Holton, David, Peter Mackridge & Irene Philippaki-Warburton. 2012. Greek: A comprehensive grammar. 2nd edn., revised by Vassilios Spyropoulos. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kemmer, Suzanne. 1993. The middle voice. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kümmel, Martin. 2000. Das Perfekt im Indoiranischen. Wiesbaden: Reichert.Google Scholar
Leluda-Voß, Christina. 1997. Die Perfekterfassung und das neugriechische Perfekt. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Liosis, Nikos. 2010. If only Arvanitika had an admirative mood! Between evidentiality and counterfactuality. Zeitschrift für Balkanologie 46:2. 184–202.Google Scholar
Luther, Martin. 1534. Biblia / das iſt / die gantze Heilige Schrifft Deudsch. Wittenberg: Hans Lufft (facsimile edition, Cologne 2016: Taschen).Google Scholar
Meiser, Gerhard. 2003. Veni vidi vici: die Vorgeschichte des lateinischen Perfektsystems (Zetemata 113). Munich: C.H. Beck.Google Scholar
Mumm, Peter-Arnold. 2002. Retrospektivität im Rigveda: Aorist und Perfekt. In Heinrich Hettrich & Jeong-Soo Kim (eds.), Indogermanische Syntax: Fragen und Perspektiven, 157–188. Wiesbaden: Reichert.Google Scholar
Nadin, Lucia. 2012. Shqipëria e rigjetur. Albania ritrovata. Tiranë: Onufri.Google Scholar
Nestle, Eberhard & Barbara Aland. 2015. Novum Testamentum graece. 28th revised edn., 4th corrected printing. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft.Google Scholar
Newmark, Leonard, Philip Hubbard & Peter Prifti. 1982. Standard Albanian: A reference grammar for students. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Rijksbaron, Albert. 2006. The syntax and semantics of the verb in Classical Greek: An introduction. 3rd edn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rix, Helmut, Martin Kümmel, Thomas Zehnder, Reiner Lipp & Brigitte Schirmer. 2001. Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd edn. Wiesbaden: Reichert.Google Scholar
Roterodamus, Erasmus. 1516. Nouum instrumentum omne etc. Basle: Johannes Frobenius.Google Scholar
Schumacher, Stefan. 2005. ‘Langvokalische Perfekta’ in indogermanischen Einzelsprachen und ihr grundsprachlicher Hintergrund. In Gerhard Meiser & Olav Hackstein (eds.), Sprachkontakt und Sprachwandel: Akten der XI. Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, 17.–23. September 2000, Halle an der Saale, 591–626. Wiesbaden: Reichert.Google Scholar
Schumacher, Stefan & Joachim Matzinger. 2013. Die Verben des Altalbanischen: Belegwörterbuch, Vorgeschichte und Etymologie (Albanische Forschungen 33). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Thomas, Peter Wynn. 1996. Gramadeg y Gymraeg. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Thorne, David A. 1993. A comprehensive Welsh grammar. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Weber, Robert & Roger Gryson. 1994. Biblia sacra iuxta Vulgatam versionem. Editio quarta emendata. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft.Google Scholar
Wordsworth, John & Henry Julian White. 1898. Nouum Testamentum Domini nostri Iesu Christi latine: pars prior – Quattuor Euangelia. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Wordsworth, John, Henry Julian White, Hedley Frederick Davis Sparks & Arthur White Adams. 1954. Nouum Testamentum Domini nostri Iesu Christi latine: pars tertia – Actus Apostolorum – Epistulae Canonicae – Apocalypsis Iohannis. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Wright, William Aldis. 2010. The Holy Bible: Authorised (King James) Version. 5 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (originally published in 1909 as The English Bible in Five Volumes).Google Scholar