Albanian Shqip
Pronunciation:	[ʃcip]
Spoken in:	Albania (official), Kosovo (official), Republic of Macedonia (official in the municipalities where there are more than 20% ethnic Albanian inhabitants), Montenegro (Official; spoken in Ulcinj Municipality and parts of Bar, Plav, Rožaje, and Podgorica Municipalities), Serbia (Spoken in Preševo Valley and partially spoken in Medveđa municipality), Greece (Spoken in parts of Epirus and by communities in Boeotia, Euboea, and The Peloponnese), U.S.A. (CA or NJ), Italy (spoken by communities in southern Italy and sicily), Germany,United Kingdom,Turkey,Switzerland, Canada & other countries. This article is about the country in southern Europe For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Albania topics. The Republic of Macedonia (Република Montenegro ( British English) Montenegrin / Serbian: PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE LANGUAGES WITHOUT CONSENSUS ON THE TALK PAGE! Ulcinj ( Montenegrin / Serbian Cyrillic: Улцињ Albanian: Ulqin or Ulqini, Italian: Dulcigno, Ülgün Bar ( Montenegrin and Serbian Cyrillic: Бар Italian: Antivari, Albanian: Tivari, Greek: Θηβάριον Plav ( Plavë or Plava) is a town in north-eastern Montenegro. Rožaje ( Montenegrin Cyrillic: Рожаје is a town in northeastern Montenegro. Podgorica ( Montenegrin / Serbian: Подгорица Podgorica ˈpɔdgɔˌriʦa is the Capital and largest city of Montenegro Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country The Preševo Valley Albanian: Lugina e Preshevës) ( Serbian: Прешевска Долина or Preševska Dolina; is a geographical region Medveđa ( Serbian Cyrillic: Медвећа; Medvegja is a town and municipality in Jablanica District of Serbia, bordering Kosovo. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Epirus (from Ionic Greek Ήπειρος - Ēpeiros, Doric Greek: Ἅπειρος - Apeiros, in Albanian Boeotia, Beotia, or Bœotia ( Greek: Βοιωτία - English biːˈoʊʃiə formerly Cadmeis was a region of Ancient Greece, north of the For the mythological figure see Euboea (mythology Euboea ( Modern Greek, Εύβοια - Évia &mdash The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus ( Greek: Πελοπόννησος Pelopónnisos; see also List of Greek place names) is a large Peninsula The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Sicily ( Italian and Sicilian: Sicilia) is an autonomous region of Italy. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page
Region:	Southeastern Europe
Total speakers:	6,000,000[1]
Language family:	Indo-European  Satem languages   Albanian
Writing system:	Latin alphabet (Albanian variant)
Official status
Official language in:	Albania  Kosovo  Macedonia  Montenegro and recognised as minority language in:  Serbia  Italy. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. The modern Albanian alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, and consists of 36 letters History The modern Latin-based Albanian This article is about the country in southern Europe For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Albania topics. The Republic of Macedonia (Република Montenegro ( British English) Montenegrin / Serbian: PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE LANGUAGES WITHOUT CONSENSUS ON THE TALK PAGE! Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	sq
ISO 639-2:	alb (B)	sqi (T)
ISO 639-3:	variously: sqi – Albanian (generic) aln – Gheg aae – Arbëreshë aat – Arvanitika als – Tosk
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages Gheg (or Geg) is one of the two major dialects of the Albanian language. Arbëresh, Arbërisht or Arbërishte is the dialect of the Albanian language spoken by the Arbëreshë; the Albanian-speaking minorities in Italy Arvanitika or Arvanitic ( Albanian: Arbërisht, Greek: αρβανίτικα arvanitika) is the variety of Albanian Tosk is the southern dialect of the Albanian language. The line of demarcation between Tosk and Gheg (the northern dialect is the Shkumbin River. In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Albanian (Gjuha shqipe pronounced [ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ]) is an Indo-European language spoken by nearly 6 million people,^[1] primarily in Albania and Kosovo, but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including the west of Macedonia, Montenegro, and southern Serbia. This article is about the country in southern Europe For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Albania topics. The Republic of Macedonia (Република Montenegro ( British English) Montenegrin / Serbian: PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE LANGUAGES WITHOUT CONSENSUS ON THE TALK PAGE! Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country Albanian is also spoken by communities in Greece, along the eastern coast of southern Italy, and on the island of Sicily. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Sicily ( Italian and Sicilian: Sicilia) is an autonomous region of Italy. Additionally, speakers of Albanian can be found elsewhere throughout the latter two countries resulting from a modern diaspora, originating from the Balkans, that also includes Scandinavia, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Low Countries, Australia, Turkey and the United States. Terminology and usage As a cultural term "Scandinavia" has no official definition and is subject to usage by those who identify with the culture in question as well Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the countries on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine, Scheldt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches The United States of America —commonly referred to as the

Contents 1 Classification 1.1 Comparison with other Indo-European languages 2 Geographic distribution 2.1 Official status 2.2 Dialects 2.2.1 Notable phonological and lexicological differences between Tosk and Gheg 3 Sounds 3.1 Consonants 3.2 Vowels 4 Grammar 5 Vocabulary 5.1 Cognates with Illyrian 5.2 Early borrowing from Greek 5.3 Gothic borrowings 6 Writing system 7 History 7.1 Linguistic affinities 7.2 Historical presence and location 7.3 Linguistic influences 7.4 Historical considerations 8 See also 9 References 10 Bibliography 11 External links

Classification

Albanian was proven to be an Indo-European language in 1854 by the German philologist Franz Bopp. Comparative linguistics (originally comparative Philology) is a branch of Historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages in order to Franz Bopp ( September 14, 1791 – October 23, 1867) was a German linguist known for extensive comparative work on The Albanian language comprises its own branch of the Indo-European language family.

Some scholars believe that Albanian derives from Illyrian^[2][3]while others,^[4] claim that it derives from Daco-Thracian. The Illyrian languages are a group of Indo-European languages that were spoken in the western part of the Balkans in former times by groups identified as The Dacian language was spoken by the ancient inhabitants of Dacia. The Thracian language was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times by the Thracians in South-Eastern Europe (Illyrian and Daco-Thracian, however, may have formed a sprachbund, see Thraco-Illyrian. A Sprachbund (ˈʃpraːxbʊnt in German plural Sprachbünde) from the German word for “language union” also known as a linguistic area, convergence Thraco-Illyrian is a hypothesis that the Thraco-Dacian and Illyrian languages comprise a distinct branch of Indo-European. )

Establishing longer relations, Albanian is often compared to Balto-Slavic on the one hand and Germanic on the other, both of which share a number of isoglosses with Albanian. An isogloss is the geographical boundary or delineation of a certain linguistic feature e Moreover, Albanian has undergone a vowel shift in which stressed, long o has fallen to a, much like in the former and opposite the latter. Likewise, Albanian has taken the old relative jos and innovatively used it exclusively to qualify adjectives, much in the way Balto-Slavic has used this word to provide the definite ending of adjectives.

Comparison with other Indo-European languages

Albanian	muaj	i ri / e re	nënë	motër	natë	hundë	tre	i zi /e zezë	i kuq / e kuqe	i/e gjelbër/blertë	i/e verdhë	ujk
Other Indo-European languages
Sanskrit	māsa	nava	mātṛ	svasṛ	nakti	nasa	tri	kāla	rudhira	hari	pīta	vṛka
Persian	māh	nou	mādar	xāhar	shab	damāg	se	siāh	sorkh	sabz	zard	gorg
English	month	new	mother	sister	night	nose	three	black	red	green	yellow	wolf
Latin	mēnsis	novus	māter	soror	nox	nasus	trēs	āter, niger	ruber	viridis	flāvus, gilvus	lupus
Romanian	luna	nou/noi	mamă	soră	noapte	nas	trei	negru	roşu	verde	galben	lup
Italian	mese	nuovo	madre/mamma	sorella	notte	naso	tre	nero	rosso	verde	giallo	lupo
Irish	mí	nua	máthair	deirfiúr	oiche	srón	trí	dubh	dearg	glas, uaine	buí	mac tíre, faolchú
Welsh	mis	newydd	mam	chwaer	nos	trwyn	tri	du (/di/)	coch, rhudd	gwyrdd, glas	melyn	blaidd
Latvian	mēnesis	jauns	māte	māsa	nakts	deguns	trīs	melns	sarkans	zaļš	dzeltens	vilks
Ancient Greek	μήν mēn	νέος néos	μήτηρ mētēr	αδελφή adelphē	νύξ núx	ῥίς rhís	τρεῖς treĩs	μέλας mélas	ἐρυθρός eruthrós	χλωρός khlōrós	ξανθός xanthós	λύκος lúkos
Bulgarian	месец mesec	нов nov	майка majka	сестра sestra	нощ nošt	нос nos	три tri	черен čeren	червен červen	зелен zelen	жълт žălt	вълк vălk
Serbian	месец mesec	нов nov	мајка majka	сестра sestra	ноћ noć	нос nos	три tri	црн crn	црвен crven	зелен zelen	жут žut	вук vuk
Croatian	mjesec	nov	majka	sestra	noć	nos	tri	crn	crven	zelen	žut	vuk
Lithuanian	mėnesis/mėnuo	naujas	mama	sesuo/sesė	naktis	nosis	trys	juoda	raudona	žalia	geltona	vilkas

Geographic distribution

Indo-European topics
Indo-European languages
Albanian · Armenian · Baltic Celtic · Germanic · Greek Indo-Iranian (Indo-Aryan, Iranian) Italic · Slavic   extinct: Anatolian · Paleo-Balkans (Dacian, Phrygian, Thracian) · Tocharian
Indo-European peoples
Albanians · Armenians Balts · Celts · Germanic peoples Greeks · Indo-Aryans Iranians · Latins · Slavs historical: Anatolians (Hittites, Luwians) Celts (Galatians, Gauls) · Germanic tribes Illyrians · Italics  · Sarmatians Scythians  · Thracians  · Tocharians Indo-Iranians (Rigvedic tribes, Iranian tribes)
Proto-Indo-Europeans
Language · Society · Religion
Urheimat hypotheses
Kurgan hypothesis · Anatolia Armenia · India · PCT
Indo-European studies

Albanian is spoken by nearly 6 million people^[1] mainly in Albania, Kosovo, Italy, Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece, Turkey, and by immigrant communities in many countries such as Belgium, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Italy, Sweden, Turkey (Europe), Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Switzerland and Australia. Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Romanian or Daco-Romanian ( dated: Rumanian or Roumanian; self designation limba română, ˈlimba roˈmɨnə is a Romance Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Irish (ga ''Gaeilge'' is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish. Welsh ( cy Cymraeg or cy y Gymraeg, kəmˈrɑːɨɡ and {{IPA|[ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]}}, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic Latvian language (latviešu valoda is the official state language of Latvia. The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c Bulgarian (български език IPA: ɛzˈik is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group Serbian (sr-Cyrl српски језик sr-Latn ''srpski jezik'' is a South Slavic language, Croatian language ( hrvatski jezik) is a South Slavic language which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina in neighbouring Lithuanian ( lietuvių kalba) is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognised as one of the official languages of the European Union. The Armenian language (hy հայերեն լեզու hajɛɹɛn lɛzu —, conventional short form) is an Indo-European language spoken by the Armenian The Baltic languages are a group of related languages belonging to the Indo-European language family and spoken mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic" a branch of the greater Indo-European Language family. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages The Indo-Aryan languages (within the context of Indo-European studies also Indic) are a branch of the Indo-European language family The Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily Indo-Iranian. The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family's Centum branch The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages) a group of closely related Languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages The Anatolian languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages which were spoken in Asia Minor, the best attested of them being the Hittite language The Paleo-Balkan languages were the Indo-European languages that were spoken in the Balkans in Ancient times. The Dacian language was spoken by the ancient inhabitants of Dacia. The Phrygian language was the Indo-European language of the Phrygians a people from Thrace who later migrated to Asia Minor. The Thracian language was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times by the Thracians in South-Eastern Europe Tocharian or Tokharian is one of the branches of the Indo-European language family. } Albanians (Shqiptarët are an Ethnic group and a Nation, in the sense of sharing a common Albanian culture speaking the Albanian language The Armenians (Հայեր Hayer) are a Nation and Ethnic group originating in the Caucasus and in the Armenian Highlands A large The Balts or Baltic peoples (People who live by the Baltic Sea) defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European Modern Celts are those peoples who are speakers of Celtic languages, or who consider themselves or have been considered by others to participate in a Celtic culture This is a list of Germanic peoples. Classical philosophy The Greeks assigned names to populations they considered distinct based on the city-state ( The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions The Iranian people are a collection of Ethnic groups defined along linguistic lines as speaking Iranian languages. Latin is the name of various peoples or ethnicities related to the Latium region in the Italian Peninsula, to the Latin language, or to its descendants Anatolia (Anadolu Ανατολία Anatolía) or Asia minor, comprising most of modern Turkey, is the geographic region bounded by the Black The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a language of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family and established Luwian (sometimes spelled Luvian) is an extinct language of the Anatolian branch of the Celts (ˈkɛlts or /ˈsɛlts/, see Names of the Celts Ancient Galatia was an area in the highlands of central Anatolia in modern Turkey. Gaul (Gallia was the Roman name for the region of Western Europe comprising present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western The Germanic peoples are a historical group of Indo-European -speaking peoples originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Germanic Illyrians has come to refer to a broad ill-defined " Indo-European " group of peoples who inhabited the western Balkans ( Illyria, roughly Ancient peoples of Italy are all those peoples that lived in Italy (including the islands of Sicily and Sardinia) before the Roman domination The Sarmatians, Sarmatae or Sauromatae ( Old Iranian Sarumatah 'archer' Σαρμάτες The Scythians or Scyths (Σκύθες Σκύθοι were an Iranian speaking people of horse-riding Nomadic pastoralists who dominated the Pontic "Thracians" also refers to modern inhabitants of Thrace, regardless of ethnicity The Tocharians were the Tocharian -speaking inhabitants of the Tarim basin, making them the easternmost speakers of an Indo-European language in antiquity Indo-Iranian peoples consist of the Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Dardic and Nuristani peoples that is speakers of Indo-Iranian languages The Indo-Aryan tribes mentioned in the Rigveda are described as semi- Nomadic pastoralists subdivided into temporary settlements ( vish, viś and headed Ancient Iranian peoples who settled Greater Iran in the 2nd millennium BC first appear in Assyrian records in the 9th century BC. The Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language, who likely lived around 4000 BC, during the Copper Age and the The society of the Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE existed during the Bronze Age (roughly fifth to fourth millennium BC and has been reconstructed The existence of similarities among the deities and religious practices of the Indo-European (IE peoples allows glimpses of a common Proto-Indo-European The question of the homeland ( Urheimat) of the Proto-Indo-European peoples and their Proto-Indo-European language has been a recurring topic in Indo-European The Kurgan hypothesis (also theory or model) is a model of early Indo-European origins, which postulates that the Kurgan culture of the Pontic steppe The Anatolian hypothesis is also called Renfrew's NDT; it proposes that the dispersal ( Discontinuity) of Proto-Indo-Europeans originated in Neolithic The Armenian hypothesis of the Proto-Indo-European Urheimat, based on the Glottalic theory suggests that the Proto-Indo-European language The Out of India theory ( OIT, also called the Indian Urheimat Theory) is the proposition that the Indo-European language family originated in The Paleolithic Continuity Theory (or PCT,Italian La teoria della continuità) is a Hypothesis suggesting that the hypothetical Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies is a field of Linguistics dealing with Indo-European languages, both current and extinct The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics.

Official status

Albanian in a revised form of the Tosk dialect is the official language of Albania and Kosovo; and is official in the municipalities where there are more than 22% ethnic Albanian inhabitants in the Republic of Macedonia. Tosk is the southern dialect of the Albanian language. The line of demarcation between Tosk and Gheg (the northern dialect is the Shkumbin River. An official language is a Language that is given a special legal status in a particular Country, State, or other territory This article is about the country in southern Europe For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Albania topics. The Republic of Macedonia (Република It is also an official language of Montenegro where it is spoken in the municipalities with ethnic Albanian populations. Montenegro ( British English) Montenegrin / Serbian: PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE THE LANGUAGES WITHOUT CONSENSUS ON THE TALK PAGE!

Dialects

Albanian can be divided into two main dialects, Gheg and Tosk. Gheg (or Geg) is one of the two major dialects of the Albanian language.

The Shkumbin river is roughly the dividing line, with Gheg spoken north of the Shkumbin and Tosk south of it. The Shkumbin ( Albanian indefinite form the definite form is Shkumbini, occasionally spelled Skumbi in English is a River in central Albania The Gheg literary language has been documented since 1462. Until the Communists took power in Albania, the standard was based on Gheg. Although the literary versions of Tosk and Gheg are mutually intelligible, many of the regional dialects are not. Tosk is divided into many sub-dialects. The main groups are Northern Tosk (Berat, Pojan, Vlorë, Struga) and Labërisht (Labëria). Labëria is a region in southern Albania roughly reaching from Vlorë south to the Greek border near Sarandë, incorporating Gjirokastra and In Greece, the Çam and the Arvanites speak different Tosk sub-dialects. Cham Albanians, or Chams ( Albanian: Çamë Greek: Τσάμηδες Tsámidhes) are a group of ethnic Albanians who originally resided The sub-dialect of the Arvanites is only partially intelligible with other Tosk sub-dialects, such that it can be regarded as a separate language, Arvanitika. Arvanitika or Arvanitic ( Albanian: Arbërisht, Greek: αρβανίτικα arvanitika) is the variety of Albanian A distinct Tosk sub-dialect has been preserved in the Albanian-founded village of Mandritsa in southern Bulgaria. Mandritsa (Мандрица "small dairy" Mandrica or Mandricë Μανδρίτσα is a village in southernmost Bulgaria, part of Ivaylovgrad The state of Bulgaria (България transliterated bg-Latn ''Balgaria'' The country preserves the traditions (in ethnic name language and alphabet of the First Bulgarian Tosk sub-dialects related to Arvanitika and called Arbërisht are spoken by the Arbëreshë, descendants of 15th and 16th century immigrants in southeastern Italy, in small communities in the regions of Sicily, Calabria, Basilicata, Campania, Molise, Abruzzi, and Puglia. Arbëresh, Arbërisht or Arbërishte is the dialect of the Albanian language spoken by the Arbëreshë; the Albanian-speaking minorities in Italy Arbëreshë are an ethnic community living in Italy, especially the regions of Calabria and Sicily. Calabria ( Latin: Brutium) is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of Basilicata is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west Apulia ( Puglia) to the east Calabria to Campania is a region of Southern Italy in Europe. The region has a population of around 5 Molise is a region of Southern Italy, the second smallest of the regions Apulia ( Italian: Puglia) is a region in southeastern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east the Ionian Sea Tosk sub-dialects are spoken by most members of the large Albanian immigrant communities of Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, and the United States.

Gheg is spoken in Northern Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, and in parts of Montenegro. Each area of Northern Albania has its own sub-dialect: Tiranë, Durrës, Elbasan and Kavaja; Kruja and Laçi; Mati, Dibra and Mirdita; Lezhë, Shkodër, Krajë, Ulqin; etc. Malësia e Madhe, Rugova, and villages scattered alongside the Adriatic Coast form the northmost sub-dialect of Albania today. There are many other sub-dialects in the region of Kosovo and in parts of southern Montenegro, and in Republic of Macedonia. The sub-dialects of Malsia e Madhe and Dukagjini near Shkodra are being lost because the younger generations prefer to speak the sub-dialect of Shkodra.

Gheg and Tosk differ mainly by:

1. rhotacism - Gheg has n where Tosk has r
2. late Proto-Albanian ā + tautosyllabic nasal > Gheg low-central or low-back vowel; > Tosk mid-central, or low-front-to-central vowel
3. Proto-Albanian ō > uo > Gheg vo, Tosk va
4. infinitival use of verbal adjective preceded in Gheg by me and in Tosk by për të
5. difference in lexemes, noun plurals, suppletion of the aorist system of the verb

Subdialects may vary based on:

1. retention or loss of final schwa (-ë)
2. devoicing of final voiced segments
3. treatment of intervocalic and final nj
4. treatment of clusters of nasal + voiced stop
5. development of anaptyctic homorganic stops after nasals that follow a stressed vowel and precede unstressed -ël or -ër
6. treatment of vowel clusters ie, ye, and ua
7. treatment of stressed /e/ before a nasal

Notable phonological and lexicological differences between Tosk and Gheg

Standard form	Tosk form	Gheg form	Translation
Shqipëri	Shqipëri	Shqypni/ Shipni/ Shqipni	Albania
një	një	nji / njâ/ njo	a/one
nëntë	nëntë	nândë/nant/non	nine
është	është	âsht /osht/ â	is
bëj	bëj	bâj/boj	do
emër	emër	êmën	name
pjekuri	pjekuri	pjekuni	maturity
gjendje	gjëndje	gjêndje	situation
zog	zok	zog	bird
mbret	mbret	mret	king
për të punuar	për të punuar	me punue/me punau	to work
rërë	rërë	rânë/zall	sand
qenë	qënë	kênë / kânë	been (part. In Articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a Consonant is the point of contact where an Obstruction )
dëllinjë	enjë	bërshê	juniper
baltë	baltë	bâltë / lloç	mud
cimbidh	mashë	danë	tongs

( ˆ ) denotes nasal vowels, which are a common feature of Gheg. A nasal vowel is a Vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through Nose as well as the Mouth.

Sounds

Standard Albanian has 7 vowels and 29 consonants. In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal Gheg uses long and nasal vowels which are absent in Tosk. Gheg (or Geg) is one of the two major dialects of the Albanian language. In Linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a Vowel sound A nasal vowel is a Vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through Nose as well as the Mouth. Tosk is the southern dialect of the Albanian language. The line of demarcation between Tosk and Gheg (the northern dialect is the Shkumbin River. Another peculiarity is the mid-central vowel "ë" reduced at the end of the word. The stress is fixed mainly on the penultimate syllable.

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n		ɲ
Plosive	p  b			t  d		c  ɟ	k  ɡ
Affricate				ts  dz	tʃ  dʒ
Fricative		f  v	θ  ð	s  z	ʃ  ʒ			h
Trill				r
Flap				ɾ
Approximant				l  ɫ		j

IPA	Description	Written as	Pronounced as in
p	Voiceless bilabial plosive	p	pen
b	Voiced bilabial plosive	b	bat
t	Voiceless alveolar plosive	t	tan
d	Voiced alveolar plosive	d	debt
c	Voiceless palatal plosive	q	similar to get you
ɟ	Voiced palatal plosive	gj	similar to told you
k	Voiceless velar plosive	k	car
g	Voiced velar plosive	g	go
ts	Voiceless alveolar affricate	c	hats
dz	Voiced alveolar affricate	x	goods
tʃ	Voiceless postalveolar affricate	ç	chin
dʒ	Voiced postalveolar affricate	xh	jet
θ	Voiceless dental fricative	th	thin
ð	Voiced dental fricative	dh	then
f	Voiceless labiodental fricative	f	far
v	Voiced labiodental fricative	v	van
s	Voiceless alveolar fricative	s	son
z	Voiced alveolar fricative	z	zip
ʃ	Voiceless postalveolar fricative	sh	show
ʒ	Voiced postalveolar fricative	zh	vision
h	Voiceless glottal fricative	h	hat
m	Bilabial nasal	m	man
n	Alveolar nasal	n	not
ɲ	Palatal nasal	nj	Spanish señor
j	Palatal approximant	j	yes
l	Alveolar lateral approximant	l	lean
ɫ	Velarized alveolar lateral approximant	ll	ball
r	Alveolar trill	rr	Spanish hierro
ɾ	Alveolar tap	r	Spanish aro

Notes:

• The palatal stops /c/ and /ɟ/ have no English equivalent, so the pronunciation guide is approximate. In Phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a Consonant articulated with both Lips The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet In Phonetics, labiodentals are Consonants articulated with the lower Lip and the upper Teeth. Interdental consonants are produced by placing the blade of the Tongue against the upper Incisors This differs from a Dental consonant in that the Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior Alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets Postalveolar consonants are Consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the Alveolar ridge, placing them a bit further back in the Palatal consonants are Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the Hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth Glottal consonants are Consonants articulated with the Glottis. A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Affricate Consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or) but release as a fricative (such as or or occasionally into Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together In Phonetics, a trill is a Consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the Place of articulation. In Phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of Consonantal sound which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator (such as the Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants The voiceless bilabial plosive is a type of Consonantal sound used in many spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet The voiced bilabial plosive is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that The voiceless alveolar plosive is a type of Consonantal sound used in many spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet The voiced alveolar plosive is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that The voiceless palatal plosive is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that The voiced palatal plosive is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that The voiceless velar plosive is a type of Consonantal sound used in many spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet The voiced velar plosive is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that The voiceless alveolar affricate is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet The voiced alveolar affricate is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet The voiceless palato-alveolar affricate or domed postalveolar affricate is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages It is The voiced palato-alveolar affricate, also described as voiced domed postalveolar affricate, is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic The voiced dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet The voiceless labiodental fricative is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet The voiced labiodental fricative is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet The voiceless alveolar fricatives are Consonantal sounds The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a The voiced alveolar fricatives are Consonantal sounds The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents these sounds depends on whether a Sibilant The voiceless palato-alveolar fricative or domed postalveolar fricative ( IPA) is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The voiced palato-alveolar fricative or domed postalveolar fricative is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol The voiceless glottal transition, commonly called a " fricative " is a type of sound used in some spoken Languages which often behaves like a The bilabial nasal is a type of Consonantal sound used in almost all spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this The alveolar nasal is a type of Consonantal sound used in numerous spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents The palatal nasal is a type of Consonant, used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this The palatal approximant is a type of Consonantal sound used in many spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents The alveolar lateral approximant is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents The Velarized Alveolar lateral approximant, which may actually be Pharyngealized, also known as dark l is a type of Consonantal sound The alveolar trill is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental The alveolar tap or flap is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that Palatal stops can be found in other languages, for example, in Hungarian (where these sounds are spelled ty and gy respectively). Hungarian ( magyar nyelv) is a Uralic language (more specifically a Ugric language) unrelated to most other languages in Europe.
• The palatal nasal /ɲ/ corresponds to the sound of the Spanish ñ or the French or Italian digraph gn (as in gnocchi). It is pronounced as one sound, not a nasal plus a glide.
• The ll sound is a velarised lateral, close to English dark L. The Velarized Alveolar lateral approximant, which may actually be Pharyngealized, also known as dark l is a type of Consonantal sound
• The contrast between flapped r and trilled rr is the same as in Spanish. English does not have either of the two sounds phonemically (but tt in butter is pronounced as a flap r in most American dialects).
• The letter ç can be spelt ch on American English keyboards, both due to its English sound, but more importantly, due to analogy with Albanian usage of h to modify the sounds s, x and z writing those sh, xh and zh. (Usually, however, it's spelled simply c or more rarely q, which may cause confusion ; however, meanings are usually understood).

Vowels

IPA	Description	Written as	Pronounced as in
i	Close front unrounded vowel	i	bead
ɛ	Open-mid front unrounded vowel	e	bed
a	Open front unrounded vowel	a	Spanish casa
ə	Schwa	ë	about
ɔ	Open-mid back rounded vowel	o	four
y	Close front rounded vowel	y	French tu, German über
u	Close back rounded vowel	u	boot

Grammar

Albanian nouns are inflected by gender (masculine, feminine and neuter) and number (singular and plural). The close front unrounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents The open-mid front unrounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet The open front unrounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet In Linguistics, specifically Phonetics and Phonology, schwa can mean the following An unstressed and toneless neutral The open-mid back rounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet The close front rounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. The close back rounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents In Grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" Plural is a Grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the Referent in the real world There are 5 declensions with 6 cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative and vocative), although the vocative only occurs with a limited number of words. In Linguistics, declension (or declination) is the occurrence of Inflection in Nouns Pronouns and Adjectives indicating The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another In Linguistics, ablative case ( abbreviated ABL) is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic The vocative case is the case used for a Noun identifying the person (animal object etc The cases apply to both definite and indefinite nouns and there are numerous cases of syncretism. In Linguistics, syncretism is the identity of form of distinct morphological forms of a word The equivalent of a genitive is formed by using the prepositions i/e/të/së with the dative. In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another

The following shows the declension of the masculine noun mal (mountain):

	Indefinite Singular	Indefinite Plural	Definite Singular	Definite Plural
Nominative	mal (mountain)	male (mountains)	mali (the mountain)	malet (the mountains)
Accusative	mal	male	malin	malet
Genitive	i/e/të/së mali	i/e/të/së maleve	i/e/të/së malit	i/e/të/së maleve
Dative	mali	maleve	malit	maleve
Ablative	mali	maleve/malesh	malit	maleve

The following table shows the declension of the feminine noun vajzë (girl)

	Indefinite Singular	Indefinite Plural	Definite Singular	Definite Plural
Nominative	vajzë (girl)	vajza (girls)	vajza (the girl)	vajzat (the girls)
Accusative	vajzë	vajza	vajzën	vajzat
Genitive	i/e/të/së vajze	i/e/të/së vajzave	i/e/të/së vajzës	i/e/të/së vajzave
Dative	vajze	vajzave	vajzës	vajzave
Ablative	vajze	vajzave/vajzash	vajzës	vajzave

The definite article is placed after the noun as in many other Balkan languages, for example Romanian and Bulgarian. The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another In Linguistics, ablative case ( abbreviated ABL) is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another In Linguistics, ablative case ( abbreviated ABL) is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic This is a list of languages spoken in the Balkans. With the exception of several Turkic languages Hungarian and Circassian all of them belong to the Indo-European family Romanian or Daco-Romanian ( dated: Rumanian or Roumanian; self designation limba română, ˈlimba roˈmɨnə is a Romance Bulgarian (български език IPA: ɛzˈik is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group

• The definite article can be in the form of noun suffixes, which vary with gender and case.
  • For example in singular nominative, masculine nouns add -i, or those ending in -g/-k, take -u (to avoid palatalization):
    • mal (mountain) / mali (the mountain);
    • libër (book) / libri (the book);
    • zog (bird) / zogu (the bird).
  • Feminine nouns take the suffix -(j)a:
    • veturë (car) / vetura (the car);
    • shtëpi (house) / shtëpia (the house);
    • lule (flower) / lulja (the flower).
• Neuter nouns take -t.

Albanian has developed an analytical verbal structure in place of the earlier synthetic system, inherited from Proto-Indo-European. For English usage of verbs see the wiki article English verbs. Its complex system of moods (6 types) and tenses (3 simple and 5 complex constructions) is distinctive among Balkan languages. Grammatical tense is a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at during or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs This is a list of languages spoken in the Balkans. With the exception of several Turkic languages Hungarian and Circassian all of them belong to the Indo-European family There are two general types of conjugation. In Linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a Verb, Noun or Adjective from its Principal parts by Inflection In Albanian the constituent order is subject verb object and negation is expressed by the particles nuk or s' in front of the verb, for example:

• Toni nuk flet anglisht "Tony does not speak English" ;
• Toni s'flet anglisht "Tony doesn't speak English" ;
• Nuk e di "I do not know" ;
• S'e di "I don't know". In Linguistic typology, subject-verb-object ( SVO) is a sentence structure where the subject comes first the Verb second and the object

In imperative sentences, the particle mos is used :

• Mos harro "do not forget!".

However, with verbs in the non-active form (forma joveprore), the verb is often in sentence-initial position :

• Parashikohet një ndërprerje "An interruption is anticipated".

Vocabulary

Cognates with Illyrian

See Illyrian languages

• brisa, "husk of grapes"; cf. The Illyrian languages are a group of Indo-European languages that were spoken in the western part of the Balkans in former times by groups identified as Alb bërsí "lees, dregs; mash" (< PA *brutiā)
• loúgeon, "pool"; cf. Alb lag "to wet, soak, bathe, wash" (< PA *lauga), lëgatë "pool" (< PA *leugatâ), lakshte "dew" (< PA *laugista)
• mandos, "small horse"; cf. Alb mëz, mâz "poney", Messapian Iuppiter Menzana, byname for Messapian supreme deity, Sanskrit mandura "stable for horses", Thracian Mezenai "the divine horseman", Manduria, town in Apulia founded by Messapians; cf. Manduria is a city and Comune of Apulia, Italy, in the Province of Taranto. Ro mânz.
• rhinos, "fog, mist"; cf. OAlb ren, mod. Alb re, rê "cloud" (< PA *rina)

Early borrowing from Greek

Early Greek words borrowed from Albanian are mainly commodity items and trade goods.

• bagëm "oil for anointment" < Gk báptisma "anointment"
• bletë "hive; bee" < dial. Gk mélitta "honey-bee" (Gk mélissa)^[5].
• brukë "tamarisk" < Gk mourikē
• drapër "sickle" < Gk (NW) drápanon
• kopsht "garden" < Gk (NW) kāpos
• kumbull "plum" < Gk kokkumēlon
• lakër "cabbage, green vegetables" < Gk lákhanon "green; vegetable"
• lëpjetë "orach, dock" < Gk lápathon
• lyej "to smear, oil" < *elaiwā < Gk elai(w)on "oil"
• mokër "millstone" < Gk (NW) mākhaná "device, instrument"
• mollë "apple tree" < Gk (NW) mālon "apple"
• ngjalë "eel" < Gk egchelys
• pjepër "melon" < Gk pépon "melon"
• presh "leek" < Gk práson
• shpellë "cave" < Gk spēlaion "cave"
• trumzë "thyme" < Gk thýmbra, thrýmbē

Gothic borrowings

• fat "groom, husband" < Goth brūþfaþs "bridegroom"^[6]
• magar "donkey, ass" < *margë < Goth *marh "horse"
• petk "herder's coat; clothing" < Goth paida; cf. OHG pfeit, OE pād
• shkulkë "branch indicating a pasture is off limits" < Goth skulka "guardian"
• shkumë "foam" < Goth scūma
• tirq "trousers" < Late Latin tubrucus < Goth *þiobroc "knee-britches"; cf. OHG dioh-bruoh

The earliest accepted documentation in the Albanian language is from the 15th century AD. The earliest reference to a Lingua Albanesca is from a 1285 document of Ragusa. ||-||-||-||-||-||-||} Dubrovnik (ˈdǔbro̞ːʋniːk Dalmatian: Ragusa; Latin: Ragusium, also Rhausium, Rhaugia; This is a time when Albanian Principalities start to be mentioned and expand inside and outside the Byzantine Empire. It is assumed that Greek and Balkan Latin (which was the ancestor of Romanian and other Balkan Romance languages), would exert a great influence on Albanian. The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c Proto-Romanian (also known as "Common Romanian" româna comună or "Ancient Romanian" străromâna) is a hypothetical Language considered Examples of words borrowed from Latin: qytet < civitas (city), qiell < caelum (sky), mik < amicus (friend).

After the Slavs arrived in the Balkans, another source of Albanian vocabulary were the Slavic languages, especially Bulgarian. The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages) a group of closely related Languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages Bulgarian (български език IPA: ɛzˈik is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group The rise of the Ottoman Empire meant an influx of Turkish words; this also entailed the borrowing of Persian and Arabic words through Turkish. The Ottoman Empire (1299–1923 ( Old Ottoman Turkish: دولتْ علیّه عثمانیّه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish Turkish ( tr Türkçe IPA) is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Surprisingly the Persian words seem to have been absorbed the most. Some loanwords from Modern Greek also exist especially in the south of Albania. A lot of the loaned words have been resubstituted from Albanian rooted words or modern Latinized (international) words.

Writing system

Full article: Albanian alphabet

Albanian has been written using many different alphabets since the 15th century. The modern Albanian alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, and consists of 36 letters History The modern Latin-based Albanian The earliest written Albanian records come from the Gheg area in makeshift spellings based on Italian or Greek and sometimes in Turko-Arabic characters. Originally, the Tosk dialect was written in the Greek alphabet and the Gheg dialect was written in the Latin alphabet. The Greek alphabet (Ελληνικό αλφάβητο is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early They have both also been written in the Ottoman Turkish version of the Arabic alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet, and some local alphabets. Ottoman Turkish (Osmanlıca or tr ''Osmanlı Türkçesi'' Ottoman Turkish ota-Latn ''lisân-ı Osmânî'' is the variety of the Turkish language that was used as the The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. The Cyrillic alphabet (səˈrɪlɪk also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters is actually a family of Alphabets, subsets of which are used by

In 1908 an official, standardized Albanian spelling was developed, based on a Gheg dialect and using the Latin alphabet with the addition of the letters ë, ç, and nine digraphs. A digraph, bigraph, or digram is a pair of characters used to write one Phoneme (distinct sound or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond After World War II the official language changed in that it adopted the Tosk dialect as its model.

History

Linguistic affinities

The Albanian language is a distinct Indo-European language that does not belong to any other existing branch. Sharing lexical isoglosses with Greek, Balto-Slavic, and Germanic, the word stock of Albanian is quite distinct. An isogloss is the geographical boundary or delineation of a certain linguistic feature e The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. Hastily tied to Germanic and Balto-Slavic by the shift of PIE *ā to *ō in a supposed "northern group",^[7] Albanian has proven to be distinct from the other two groups as this vowel shift is only part of a larger push chain that affected all long vowels. ^[8] Admittedly, Albanian does share with Balto-Slavic two features: a lengthening of syllabic consonants before voiced obstruents and a distinct treatment of long syllables ending in a sonorant. ^[9] However, Albanian is best known for its singular conservatism, having retained the distinction between active and middle voice, present and aorist, three series of tectal consonants before front vowels (e. g. , palatals, velars, and labio-velars), and initial PIE *h₄ as an h. ^[10]

Albanian is considered to have its closest linguistic affinity to and to have evolved from an extinct Paleo-Balkan language, usually taken to be either Illyrian or Dacian or Thracian. The Paleo-Balkan languages were the Indo-European languages that were spoken in the Balkans in Ancient times. The Illyrian languages are a group of Indo-European languages that were spoken in the western part of the Balkans in former times by groups identified as The Dacian language was spoken by the ancient inhabitants of Dacia. The Thracian language was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times by the Thracians in South-Eastern Europe See also Thraco-Illyrian and Messapian language. Thraco-Illyrian is a hypothesis that the Thraco-Dacian and Illyrian languages comprise a distinct branch of Indo-European. Messapian (also known as Messapic) is an extinct Indo-European language of South-eastern Italy, once spoken in the region of Apulia.

Historical presence and location

Even the name Albanian is of some dispute. It appears at the first time in the 2nd c. AD in Late Greek as Albanoí (later Byz Gk Arbanitai) and thereafter in similar forms, including obsolete Albanian Arbër/Arbën; however, these last two stem directly from Vulgar Latin *Albanus, most likely borrowed from Greek Albanoí; the adjective too, arbëresh/arbënesh, are derived from Latin albanensis. This same name appears in Slavic and was used to name the town of Labëri "Laberia", from South Slavic labanĭja, from earlier *olbanĭja.

While it is considered established that the Albanians originated in the Balkans, the exact location from which they spread out is hard to pinpoint. Despite varied claims, it seems that the Albanians came from slightly farther north (Kosovo) and inland (Northwest Macedonia) than would suggest the present borders of Albania, with a homeland concentrated in the mountains. The purely linguistic reasons are listed below.

• First, Albanian has few early Greek borrowings, most of which are from the Northwest dialect, probably via the islands off the coast of Albania, e. g. WGk (Doric) mākhaná gave Alb mokër "mill" and WGk drápanon gave Alb drapër "sickle".
• Similarly, the Illyrian coast is not a likely source since Albanian has no inherited nautical or indigenous sea-faring terminology, and has instead supplemented this absence with subsequent borrowing from Latin or Greek or recent metaphorical lexical creations.
• Third, toponyms along the coast, in contrast with native penultimate accent (ex: mbësë "niece" < PA nepō'tia), often show substratal antepenultimate accent (ex: Durrës < Dúrrhachium; Pojanë < Apóllonia), though there are some exceptions (Vlorë < Aulónā vs. Greek Aúlon).
• Also, some consider Albanian to be the source for a small number of grammatical and lexical similarities shared by otherwise dissimilar languages including Romanian, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, and to some extent Greek. The Balkan Sprachbund or linguistic area is the ensemble of Areal features —similarity in grammar syntax vocabulary and phonology—among languages of Based on their extent of grammaticalization, these include: the postposition of articles, the presence and grammatical use of schwa, object reduplication, admirative through verbal constructions, and the loss of infinitives.
• Finally, few if any Proto-Albanian place names exist in what was the former Roman province of Illyria.

Instead, given the overwhelming amount of shepherding and mountaineering vocabulary as well as the extensive influence of Latin, it is more likely the Albanians come from north of the Jireček Line, on the Latin-speaking side, perhaps in part from the late Roman province of Dardania from the western Balkans. The Jireček Line is an imaginary line through the ancient Balkans that divided the influences of the Latin (in the north and Greek (in the south languages However, archaeology has more convincingly pointed to the early Byzantine province of Praevitana (modern northern Albania) which shows an area where a primarily shepherding, transhumance population of Illyrians retained their culture. This area was based in the Mat district and the region of high mountains in Northern Albania, as well as in Dukagjin, Mirditë, and the mountains of Drin, from where the population would descend in the summer to the lowlands of western Albania, the Black Drin (Drin i zi) river valley, and into parts of Old Serbia. Indeed, the region's complete lack of Latin place names seems to imply little latinization of any kind and a more likely spot for the early medieval heart of Albanian territory, following the collapse of the Illyrian province.

Linguistic influences

The period during which Proto-Albanian and Latin interacted was protracted and drawn out over six centuries, 1st c. AD to 6th or 7th c. AD. This is born out into roughly three layers of borrowings, the largest number belonging to the second layer. The first, with the fewest borrowings, was a time of less important interaction. The final period, probably preceding the Slavic or Germanic invasions, also has a notably smaller amount of borrowings. Each layer is characterized by a different treatment of most vowels, the first layer having several that follow the evolution of Early Proto-Albanian into Albanian; later layers reflect vowel changes endemic to Late Latin and presumably Proto-Romance. Other formative changes include the syncretism of several noun case endings, especially in the plural, as well as a large scale palatalization.

A brief period followed, between 7th c. AD and 9th c. AD, that was marked by heavy borrowings from Southern Slavic, some of which predate the "o-a" shift common to the modern forms of this language group. Starting in the latter 9th c. AD, a period followed characterized by protracted contact with the Proto-Romanians, or Vlachs, though lexical borrowing seems to have been mostly one sided - from Albanian into Romanian. Such borrowing indicates that the Romanians migrated from an area where the majority was Slavic (i. e. Middle Bulgarian) to an area with a majority of Albanian speakers, i. e. Dardania, where Vlachs are recorded in the 10th c. AD. Their movement is probably related to the expansion of the Bulgarian empire into Albania around that time. This fact places the Albanians at a rather early date in the western or central Balkans.

Historical considerations

Indeed, the center of the Albanians remained the river Mat, and in 1079 AD they are recorded in the territory between Ohrid and Thessalonika as well as in Epirus.

Furthermore, the major Tosk-Gheg dialect division is based on the course of the Shkumbin River, a seasonal stream that lay near the old Via Egnatia. Since rhotacism postdates the dialect division, it is reasonable that the major dialect division occurred after the Christianization of the Roman Empire (4th c. AD) and before the eclipse of the East-West land-based trade route by Venetian seapower (10th c. AD).

References to the existence of Albanian as a distinct language survive from the 1300s, but without recording any specific words. The oldest surviving documents written in Albanian are the "Formula e Pagëzimit" (Baptismal formula), "Un'te paghesont' pr'emenit t'Atit e t'Birit e t'Spirit Senit. " (I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit) recorded by Pal Engjelli, Bishop of Durrës in 1462 in the Gheg dialect, and some New Testament verses from that period.

The oldest known Albanian printed book, Meshari or missal, was written by Gjon Buzuku, a Roman Catholic cleric, in 1555. Meshari ( Albanian for "Prayer Book" is the first Book written in Albanian language. Gjon Buzuku (16th century was an Albanian Catholic Clergyman who wrote the first known printed book in Albanian. The first Albanian school is believed to have been opened by Franciscans in 1638 in Pdhanë. The term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic In 1635, Frang Bardhi wrote the first Latin-Albanian dictionary. Frang Bardhi ( Latin: Franciscus Blancus, Italian: Francesco Bianchi) (1606-1643 was an early Albanian church figure and author

See also

• Albanian Wikipedia
• Arvanitika

References

Bibliography

• Encyclopædia Britannica, edition 15 (1985). The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) Article: Albanian language
• Huld, Martin E. Basic Albanian Etymologies. Columbus, OH: Slavica Publishers, 1984.
• Mallory, J. P. and D. Q. Adams, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
• Martin Camaj, Albanian Grammar, Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden
• Orel, Vladimir. A Concise Historical Grammar of the Albanian Language: Reconstruction of Proto-Albanian. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
• Xhelal Ylli, Andrej N. Sobolev, Albanskii toskskii govor sela Leshnja. Muenchen: Biblion Verlag, 2002. ISBN 3-932331-29-X
• Xhelal Ylli, Andrej N. Sobolev, Albanskii gegskii govor sela Muhurr. Muenchen: Biblion Verlag, 2003. ISBN 3-932331-36-2

External links

• Albanian Grammar
• Albanian online
• Ethnologue report on Albanian
• Modern Greek and Albanian with Japanese translation
• The Albanian language - overview
• Thracian the Albanian language

Samples of various Albanian dialects:

• Albanian (Gheg)
• Albanian (Tosk)
• Albanian (Arbëreshë)
• Albanian (Arvanitika)

Dictionaries:

• Albanian dictionary for Ispell
• English - Albanian 1
• English - Albanian 2
• English - Albanian 3
• Collection of Albanian bilingual dictionaries

Keyboard layouts:

• Prektora 1 ISO-8859-1 standardized layout for Windows XP (Albanian language)

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