Is There a Third-Person Personal Pronoun in Albanian?

Alexander Murzaku

College of Saint Elizabeth


The focus of the present paper is a classification of Albanian pronouns that begin with an "a-" and "k-" (deictic particles for distant and near, respectively). In conventional grammars, the "a-" pronouns are classified as personal pronouns of the third person as well as demonstrative pronouns. On the Web, which is an excellent source for statistical research, significant results are achieved in the study of closed class of words such as the deictic pronouns. Having analyzed data from the Web, the study concludes that these pronouns have very similar distributions. From all the cases under investigation, as well as a collocations analysis, the study concludes that the "a-" particle always keeps its deictic marking, thus remaining a true demonstrative pronoun. As a consequence, it can be said that Albanian has a defective, almost non-existent third-person personal pronoun paradigm.