Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Language Woes

So I thought I would just briefly write a bit in Shqip just so some of you can get an idea of what the language looks like (kind of hard to explain the phonetics, but you can have fun anyways!).

Familja ime eshte e madhe. Ne shtepi banojne babai, mamaja, une dhe motra. Shtepia eshte e bukur, por e vogel. Ajo ka tre dhoma. Dhoma ime eshte shume komode. Babai im eshte pensionist. Ai eshte i gjate dhe i shendoshe. Mamaja quhet Ana. Ajo eshte infermiere. Mamaja ime eshte zemermire, punetore dhe shume e sjellshme. Vellai eshte femija i madh. Ai eshte mjek shume i mire dhe djale inteligjent. Ai eshte i martuar. Motra ime Elda eshte femija i mesem. Ajo eshte simpatike dhe beqare. Ne shtepi une jam vajza e vogel dhe me e mire.

...this is about the family and the conditions of the house. I’m sure you can pick out some kind of familiar words in there!

There are also some words that are VERY similar…and if you don’t have the phonetics of the language down…it can get pretty tricky! Examples… (and to kind of understand these, you must know that a “j” makes a “y” sound in Albanian)…

Pule = chicken Pulle = stamp
Byrek = spinach w/phylo dough Breke = underwear (really awkward to order at a restaurant)
Vajza = little girl Veze = eggs (always awkward to order 12 little girls at the market)
Vellai = brother Vjell = vomit (don’t really need to explain that one)

1 comment:

becca said...

Another really close one that has some akwardness is djale (boy) and djall (devil) I'm pretty sure I called my neighbor a devil through all of training (he kind of was one though!)