PHONETICS

Albanian and English Phonemes Compared

This short paper presents a comparative phonetic analysis of the Albanian and English phonemic inventories, focusing specifically on the vowel and consonant systems of both languages. The analysis begins by detailing the complete inventory of Albanian vowels and consonants. Subsequently, we map the phonetic proximity of these Albanian phonemes to their closest English counterparts, utilizing a comprehensive chart for visualization. The findings reveal a gradient of correspondence: while some Albanian phonemes exhibit close articulatory and acoustic similarity to English sounds, others demonstrate significant phonetic divergence. Importantly, the analysis identifies several Albanian phonemes without direct equivalents in the English inventory, highlighting areas of phonological contrasts and language acqusition difficulties for new learners.

PHONETICS

The Sounds of the Proto-Indo-European Language

This article explores the relationship between Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the theoretical ancestor of the Indo-European languages, and the Albanian language. Since no written records of PIE exist, its structure is reconstructed through linguistic theories, which, as all research, remain at the phase of hypothesis; even interpretation. This simple draft makes no new assertions or claims. Instead, it strives to provide a simple comparisons between the reconstructed vowels, consonants, and diphthongs of PIE with the sounds found in Literary Gheg (LG) and Literary Tosk (LT) of the Albanian language.