Albanian Optative and Its Expression in German Teaching and Translation Practices

Year 2017, Volume: 4 Issue: 1, 51 - 58, 30.06.2017

Mihallaq Zılexhıu

Abstract

This
article is an attempt to accentuate the meanings expressedby the Optative Mood
in Albanian language, then through various examples to offer the way of its
expression in German. All examples are from Albanian literature translated into
German as well as from the experience gathered while working with German language
students at the University of Tirana. The Optative Mood is present in a few
languages and its expression and its meanings in foreign languages taught to
students or in which they translate is a feature requiring special access by
teachers and translators. Exactly through the examples given in this paper we
aim to highlight its special features and present various possible ways of its
expression in German. That is why we are specially focused on: The way of
Optative Mood formation in Albanian, Different meanings expressed through this
mood, Various versions of its translation in German. We are of the opinion,
that on this basis should be clarified all German language teachers, pupils and
students who study German as well as all those who practice it as translators. The
most commonly encountered keywords are: Optative Mood; The meaning of optative
mood; Expressive means of optative; the optative modality. Here are some of the
definitions we have found for the Optative Mood: In Albanian Grammar book :
Gramatika e Gjuhës Shqipe1,Botimi I Akademisë së Shkencave. “By Optative Mood,
we express the mode of wish in the form of congratulations or curse." Wikipedia:
Optative Mood in some languages is an explicit way of verb, in some others it
has become one with the subjunctive, while many languages do not possess it at
all. It is a nonreal mood as it refers to the events we want to happen, but
that is not necessarily what is happening. “The optative mood/ˈɒptətɪv/ or
/ɒpˈteɪtɪv/[1] (abbreviatedOPT) is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or
hope. It is similar to the cohortative mood, and is closely related to the
subjunctive mood.” Glottopedia: Optative Mood is a partial morphological
category of verb and partial category of the mood in several languages (eg in
Old Greek, in Finish, in Romanian, Turkish) where it differs from Conjunctive. As
we can see from the above definitions, the Albanian language is one of the few
that owns this mood of verb. In other Indo-European languages, the optative
mood has transferred to the subjunctive, which did not happen in the Albanian
language where the moods not only have not melted to one another, but have even
increased more differences. Since German does not possess it as such, then it
uses different morphological, syntactic and semantic means to express the
meanings of the optative mood. Thus, in German are used: subjunctive,
indicative, modal verbs, intonation, exclamation mark or even different
exclamations. Unlike the Albanian with six verbal moods, there are only three
in German: Indicative, Subjunctive and Imperative (Helbig/Buscha). Compared to
Albanian, there are no Admirative, Conditional and Optative mood in German. Different
German linguists either accept or do not accept the existence of Optative Mood
in German, but in spite of these attitudes, we do not find it expressed in a
particular form with the relevant morphological paradigms as it is the case of
Albanian language. Unlike in German, Albanian possesses the relevant
morphological paradigm for expressing the Optative mood. However, the history
of the development of the Optative mood in Albanian has not yet been studied
exhaustively.

Keywords

Albanian, Optative, Expression, German, Translation

References

• Academy of Sciences Tirana. (2002). Grammar of Albanian Language. 1. Publication of the Academy of Sciences Tirana.
• Helbig, G., & Buscha, J. (1970). Deutsche Grammatik Ein Handbuchfür den Ausländerunterricht. Langenscheid. Verlag EnzyklopӒdie, Berlin.
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• Kadare, İ. (2000). Kronikë në Gur. Onufri
• Kadare, İ. (2012). Chronik in Stein. Fischer Verlag. Shabana, D. (1977). About grammatical categories of mood and time in Albanian. SF, 3. Buchholz, Oda – Fiedler, Wilfried 51987). Albanische Grammar. Verlag Enzyklopädie.