Shtesat

Shtesat, in Albanian linguistics, are suffixes—affixes that attach to a word stem to form new words or to indicate grammatical information. They are a central element of Albanian morphology and are used across dialects to expand vocabulary and to express relationships such as definiteness, number, and, in some cases, tense or mood.

A defining feature of Albanian suffixation is that many grammatical forms are expressed by adding a suffix to the base word. The definite article is a prominent example: it is attached as a suffix to the noun, producing forms such as libër becoming libri (the book) and një for feminine nouns like shtëpi becoming shtëpia (the house). Besides definiteness, suffixes are used to form new words from stems (derivational suffixes), to create adjectives from nouns, to produce agent nouns, diminutives, and augmentatives, and to convey other semantic or grammatical nuances.

Suffixes are productive across the standard Albanian spectrum, though their distribution and form can vary by dialect and register. They can appear in stacked sequences, allowing speakers to convey multiple grammatical or semantic layers in a single word. In linguistic analysis, shtesat are treated as a key mechanism for word formation and inflection, helping to parse how meaning and grammatical role are built into a word from its core stem.

In summary, shtesat are a fundamental and versatile feature of Albanian morphology, enabling both the creation of new words and the marking of important grammatical information through suffixal attachment.