Umlauting Verbs in Albanian
An Element-Theoretic Approach
Abstract
By pursuing an analysis couched in Element Theory and Magnetic Grammar, the paper presents a more elegant alternative to the traditional grammatical description and classification of Albanian verbs traditionally described as undergoing umlaut or metaphony, i.e. alternation of the stem vowel between a/o, (j)e, and i in various persons of the present stem paradigm. In contrast to the traditional account, the analysis developed herein has the advantage of being purely phonological, i.e. strictly modular. In addition, it provides a ready-made solution for the seemingly ‘morphomic’ pattern in the Albanian umlauting verbs present tense paradigm.
Submitted: June 13, 2026 | Accepted: July 2, 2026 | Published Oct. 14, 2026 | Language: en
Keywords Morphome • Albanian • Element Theory • Metaphony (umlaut) • Verbs • Magnetic Grammar
Copyright © 2026 Gjorgje Bozhoviq. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/BES/2785-3187/2026/01/001