Mosquito Pills?

All throughout PST, my language teachers frequently told us that Albanian has far less words than English. Although I don’t know how it breaks down quantitatively, I know this fact is true just by speaking the language.

For example, when we went looking for gift wrap, I said that I didn’t know how to say “gift wrap” but that I hoped it was “leter.” Although I was joking, I was right anyhow. And that’s the reason I mention the word shortage. “Leter” can mean any of the following, depending on the circumstance and the word that it’s paired with: napkin, playing cards, paper, toilet paper, gift wrap, aluminum foil, a piece of paper or a game of card or sandpaper. What a wide variety! So it’s not enough to hear the word “leter,” but also the word that comes after it, since adjectives follow nouns in Albanian. One basic word noun with many different meanings.

Let’s move on to a verb that’s the same way. “Pi” means “to drink.” However, in conjunction with words like “cigarettes” and “pills” it means to drink or take medication. When my host mom saw how my legs had been annihilated by an army of mosquitoes, she asked me why I hadn’t “taken the pills for mosquitoes.” I had no idea what she was talking about. I thought to myself, “There are pills for mosquitoes?!” But what she really meant was “why haven’t you fumigated?” Apparently, not only does “pi ilac” mean “take medication,” but also “spray bug spray.”
But if you happen to hear about a pill for mosquitoes, let me know. I’ve been scratching so much that the only way to stop the scratching would be a pair of handcuffs.