Datojnë

Datojnë is a verb form in Albanian that is used to express the act of dating in the sense of assigning or determining a calendar date for an event, document, or artifact. In contemporary usage, it appears primarily in formal, archival, historiographic, and archaeological contexts where establishing a date is important for building a chronology. In everyday speech, Albanian speakers more commonly use other expressions for social dating, while datojnë remains a term associated with dating in the sense of temporal designation.

Etymology and form: The term is linked to the Albanian noun data, meaning date. Datojnë is the present tense form used with third-person plural subjects. It exemplifies how Albanian forms tense and person by combining a root related to date with a suffix pattern common to the language’s verb conjugations. The word can function transitively, describing the act of assigning a date to an item rather than implying romantic dating.

Usage and nuances: In libraries, archives, museums, and scholarly writing, datojnë appears when describing the process of dating materials or events. It helps situate objects within a historical timeline and supports relative or absolute dating, depending on the evidence available. The term is generally more technical and registers higher precision and methodological care than everyday expressions of time labeling.

See also: Date, Dating, Chronology, Albanian language.

Notes: As with any dating activity, the use of datojnë may reflect uncertainty when sources are incomplete. Context determines whether the dating is exact (a specific year) or approximate (a period or era).