Liebe albanische Freunde, ich möchte noch einmal ein paar Informationen über Ihre Sprache in [relation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian–Eastern_Romance_linguistic_parallels) zu meiner Muttersprache Rumänisch. Die meisten europäischen Sprachen machen diesen Unterschied, wie weiter unten erläutert [this question](https://www.reddit.com/r/romanian/comments/1byxlpo/is_there_a_colloquial_way_to_refer_to_a_foot_but/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button). Sogar Arabisch und Türkisch, soweit ich chatGPT vertrauen kann. Aber meine Muttersprache Rumänisch ist das nicht, und obwohl ich kein Albanisch spreche, habe ich den Eindruck, dass das so ist [Albanian](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/k%C3%ABmb%C3%AB) fehlt diese Unterscheidung ebenfalls. Das Gleiche könnte auch der Fall sein [Greek](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%80%CF%8C%CE%B4%CE%B9). Was ist auf Albanisch wirklich der Fall?
https://old.reddit.com/r/albania/comments/1bzlvas/does_albanian_language_have_two_clear_separate/
Von cipricusss
6 Comments
Këmba for the leg used as a synonym for the foot as well, but we have the word for foot that is “shputë” or “shputa e këmbës” basically means the foot of the leg.
Nope we don’t. It is always “këmbë” (kom/kam – dialect), Referring to both foot/leg.
When we learn from English to Albanian for example they specify that the foot is the bottom of “këmbë” (shputa or taban), but actually shputa/taban isn’t even “foot” in Albanian but literally the *bottom* of the foot.
Don’t rely too much on chatgpt mate… It can be delusional sometimes.
To add to the mix: we use the same name for fingers and toes. In Albanian, roughly translated is fingers and foot fingers. No distinct name as in english.
It’s funny because we’ve got every possible leg term: kërciri (shin), pulpa (calf), gjuri (knee), kofsha (thigh), kyçi (ankle) etc. but lack a word for the entirety of it and just use këmba (foot) to refer to it.
I am Albanian and, other than Albanian, I speak and write three additional languages fluently. We will gouge your eyes out if you say anything critical of our language. This is because our language has kept our identity as a nation throughout centuries of hardship and we sing praises about how beautiful and rich it is.
The Albanian language doesn’t develop and progress like other languages simply because of the puritanical approach that Albanians have towards it. Calling the Albanian language “rich” is utterly ridiculous because that would mean that it is on par with with some of the actually rich languages of the world like English, Spanish, German, French or Mandarin.
Not only do we not have a separate word for foot but we also do not even have separate words for “teach” and “learn”. Language puritans will jealously defend our language by screaming that “it is all derived from context, you don’t need a separate word!” disallowing any potential change. They jealously defend the “purity” of our language completely disregarding the fact that some of our oldest and “purest” words are, in fact, adopted from Latin. They will become hostile if any foreign words are used in Albanian quoting some obscure outdated expression that must be used instead.
It’s a sad state of affairs when it comes to the Albanian language; as one of the oldest languages in Europe it is, sadly, lagging behind other languages because language puritans will not allow it to evolve or develop. So, our language is slowly going out of use and dying off, ironically, in the name of it’s preservation.
After researching for a bit, we don’t, we use “këmbë” for both. I used to think “shputë” means “foot”, but it seemingly means “sole”. Please disregard the confusion in the comments.