Umlauting Verbs in Albanian An Element-Theoretic Approach

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.