In Albanian, Perëndí is the name of God, the sky and heaven, and is used capitalized to refer to the Supreme Being. The plural indefinite form is perëndí while the plural definite form is perëndítë, used uncapitalized to refer to the deities. Some dialectal alternative forms include: Perendí, Perenní, Perundí, Perudí, Perndí and Parandí. Although the Albanian root perëndoj, ultimately derived from Latinparentari, the passive correlate of parentare, has also been proposed, the complex formPerëndí is generally considered a compound of the rootsper-en- and -dí : The first element belongs to the family of Proto-Indo-European mythological names endowed with regular reflexes of the same root *per-, "to strike", and a suffix -en/n- which has reflexes also in other Indo-Europeandivine names like *peruhₓnos "the one with the thunder stone", or Perun/Perunŭ, the Slavic thunder god, cf. *Perkwunos, the Proto-Indo-European weather-god. The non-enlarged root *per- is found also in the HittitePeruna-, in the PamirPerun, cognate with PashtoPērunē, and probably in Ancient Greek κεραυνός an epithet of Zeus and the name of a separate deity, which might have been a synonymic substitution for the prohibited form *περαυνός. While velar enlargements are found in LithuanianPerkūnas, in Old NorseFjörgynn, in RigvedicParjanya and probably in ThracianPerkos/Perkon, a horseman hero. Terms from the root *pér-ur- and related to stone are also attested in Hitt. pēru, Aves. pauruuatā, and Sktpárvata. In the Albanian language, a word to refer to the lightning—considered in folk beliefs as the "fire of the sky"—is shkreptimë, a formation of :wikt:shkrep|shkrep meaning "to flash, tone, to strike ". An association between strike, stones and fire, can be related to the observation that one can kindle fire by striking stones against each other. The act of producing fire through a strike—reflected also in the belief that fire is residual within the oak trees after the thunder-god strikes them—indicates the potential of lightning in the myth of creation. The second element dí/día/dei derives from PIE *Dyēus, which is found also in the archaic Albanian divine name of the sky and thunder god Zojz, cognate with MessapianZis and GreekZeus. This element is thought to be contained also in another Albanain term for the Supreme Being: Zot, considered to be derived from Proto-Albanian*dźie̅u ̊ at-, an old compound for "heavenly father", from PIE :wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/dyew-|*dyew- + :wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/átta|*átta, thus a cognate with PIE *Dyḗus ph₂tḗr and with its descendants: IllyrianDei-pátrous, Sanskrit द्यौष्पितृ, Proto-Italic*djous patēr, Ancient Greek Ζεῦ πάτερ.
In Albanian folk beliefs the lightning was regarded as the "fire of the sky" and was considered the "weapon of the deity", indeed an Albanian word to refer to the lightning is :wikt:rrufe#Albanian|rrufeja, related to the Thracian rhomphaia, an ancient pole weapon. Albanians believed in the supreme powers of thunder-stones, which were believed to be formed during lightning strikes and to be fallen from the sky. Thunder-stones were preserved in family life as important cult objects. It was believed that bringing them inside the house could bring good fortune, prosperity and progress in people, in livestock and in agriculture, or that rifle bullets would not hit the owners of the thunder-stones. A common practice was to hung a thunder-stone pendant on the body of the cattle or on the pregnant woman for good luck and to contrast the evil eye. In Albanian culture, the heaviest type of oath swearing is taken by a thunder-stone "which comes from the sky". It was a very serious oath and people were afraid of it even though they were telling the truth. The act of absolving himself of any allegation of theft was performed in the following way: the thunder-stone was taken in the left hand and was touched by the right hand saying:
Rainmaking
Perëndi is especially invoked by Albanians in incantations and songs praying for rain. Rituals were performed in times of summer drought to make it rain, usually in June and July, but sometimes also in the spring months when there was severe drought. In different Albanian regions, for rainmaking purpose, people threw water upwards to make it subsequently fall to the ground in the form of rain. This was an imitative type of magic practice with ritual songs. In Nowruz or in the Albanian Spring Day, in particular, in some villages of the region of Kurvelesh in southern Albania people addressed the following prayer to the deity for plants and cattle: The following is a hetero-homometric ritual song for rainmaking which includes also the figure of Peperona, a traditional mythical character of Balkan folklore:
