Përndarja e zanores ë në gjuhën shqipe
The distribution of the vowel ë in Albanian

Summary/Abstract: The fundamental principle of the Albanian spelling is proclaimed as phonetic principle: words are spelled the same way as pronounced. But changes of spelling phenomena towards those of pronouncing, particularly the positions of the unstressed vowel ë as: pre-stressed ë, post-stressed ë and final ë do not prove equality between these two different principles’ systems.The aim of this paper is to investigate the distribution of sounds in Albanian language, to see if the sound distribution corresponds with the distribution of graphic letters in written language, and if the spelling determines pronunciation. The non-literary argumentative text of Robert C. Austin “Fan Noli dhe një revolucion i ikur” (Demokracia shqiptare në vitet 1920-1924) served as a corpus for distribution of the letters. The sounding distribution of pronunciation variants among speakers is transcripted according to the system “International Phonetic Alphabet” (IPA). The speakers are recorded by using voice recorder in “smartphone”: the speaker I was born in Gjakova, lives in Tirana; speaker II was born in Gjakova (originally coming from Plançor village of Gjakova), lives in Prishtina; speaker III was born in Berat, lives in Tirana; speaker IV was born in Tirana, lives in Tirana. During the phonetic interpretation, in the transcription analysis have emerged various alternatives among the speakers, distinguishing pairs of words by length, quality of vowels etc.Therefore, the substance of the paper is the issue of unstressed vowel ë, in all three pronunciation positions: pre-stressed ë, post-stressed ë and final ë, distribution of which will include quantitative calculated reports as well as their changes that receive different amounts according to difference of pronunciation variants of speakers – two Albanians of Kosova and two Albanians of Albania.

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