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Article published In: From and Towards Demonstratives: Grammaticalization processes and beyond
Edited by Veronica Orqueda and Berta González Saavedra
[Journal of Historical Linguistics 15:2] 2025
► pp. 315–342

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On the origin and development of the Albanian demonstratives

ORCiD logo with link | University of Basel | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Published online: 6 September 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhl.24010.ner
Abstract
Albanian has a two-term demonstrative system, with proximal masculine ky and feminine kjo ‘this’ contrasting with distal masculine ai and feminine ajo ‘that’. The distal pronouns double as personal pronouns of the third person. Both demonstratives arose from the composition of two deictic elements. The second element (with nominative singular masculine -i/-y, feminine -jo, and neuter -ta) is the same for both pronouns and probably continues the PIE demonstrative *se/o-, *te/o-, although some etymological details are not clear yet. The origin of the first elements k(ë)- resp. a- is also disputed. In this article I will first briefly sketch the morphology of the two demonstrative pronouns in Old Albanian and then proceed to a re-evaluation of the etymological scenarios that may explain the rise and grammaticalization of ky and ai.
Article outline
  • 1.The two demonstrative pronouns
    • 1.1Preliminary remarks
    • 1.2Presentation of the Old Geg material
    • 1.3Some morphological peculiarities
  • 2.Comparison with other IE languages
    • 2.1Demonstratives in Indo-European
    • 2.2Demonstratives in the individual languages
    • 2.3Reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European demonstratives
  • 3.Reconstruction of the Proto-Albanian demonstratives
    • 3.1Introductory remarks
    • 3.2Reflexes of the deictic and anaphoric pronoun PIE *so, *sah2, *tod in Albanian
    • 3.3Reconstruction of the inherited demonstrative in Pre-Proto-Albanian
    • 3.4Remarks on the reconstruction of individual endings
      • 3.4.1Nominative singular masculine
      • 3.4.2Nominative singular feminine
      • 3.4.3Accusative singular masculine and feminine
      • 3.4.4Nominative and accusative plural masculine and neuter
      • 3.4.5Instrumental singular and plural
      • 3.4.6Genitive / Dative singular
      • 3.4.7Genitive / Dative plural
      • 3.4.8Ablative singular
      • 3.4.9Ablative plural
  • 4.The origin of the deictic elements kë- and a-
    • 4.1Proximal kë-
    • 4.2Distal a-
  • 5.Which is the most probable scenario?
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (61)
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