Syllabification of Bi-Consonantal Clusters Between Vowels in Albanian

Abstract

Syllabification is one of the most complex issues in Albanian phonetics. An extensive treatment of the topic was made by Dodi (2004), who, thanks to a thorough acquaintance with the existing literature on the area, also clearly states the drawbacks of the main theories of the syllable, based on material from the Albanian language. However, despite the huge research carried out and the important results achieved, the positions of linguists on syllabification remain different. One reason for this is that linguistic literature lacks an established definition of the syllable as a linguistic unit. In the present research on syllabification, we support some of the existing rules by bringing new arguments and making some additions in order to make them more convincing, with a view to improving and simplifying their practical application. We focus on syllable boundary when there are two consonants between vowels, based on the Sonority Sequencing Principle, on the Syllable Contact Law, the Dispersion Principle, and the Maximum Onset Principle.