Albanian Language History Classification Geographic Distribution

Some eminent scholars in the field of Albanian language have been Johann Georg von Hahn , Franz Bopp, Gustav Meyer , Norbert Jokl, Eqrem Çabej , Stuart Edward Mann , Carlo Tagliavini , Wacław Cimochowski , Eric Pratt Hamp and Agnija Desnickaja .

1 History

Albanian (Shqip)
Spoken in:	Albania, Serbia and Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Italy, and other countries
Region:	Eastern Europe
Total speakers:	8 million
Ranking:	(Not in top 100)
Genetic classification:	Indo-European Albanian
Official status
Official language of:	Albania, KosovoKosovo and Metohija ( Serbian: Albanian: Kosova , usually called just Kosovo is an autonomous province of Serbia (which together with Montenegro constitutes Serbia and Montenegro). It is currently administered by the United Nations following the recent Ko, Republic of Macedonia
Regulated by:	-
Language codes
ISO 639ISO 639 is one of several international standards that lists short codes for language names. ISO 639 consists of different parts, of which two parts are currently published. The other parts are works in progress. Parts of ISO 639 There are two items for I-1	sq
ISO 639-2	sqi
SIL	ALS, ALN, AAE, AAT
Linguasphere	55-A

The oldest known Albanian printed book, Meshari [1] or missal, was written by Gjon BuzukuGjon Buzuku ( 16th century) was an Albanian Catholic clergyman who wrote the first known printed book in Albanian. Gjon Buzuku came from North Albania. He probably lived in or near Venice. There are claims that he was the bishop of two dioceses in North A, a Catholic cleric, in 1555. The first Albanian school is believed to have been opened by Franciscans in 1638 in Pdhanë .

2 Classification

Albanian was proved to be an Indo-European language in the 1850s, that is thought by some to derive principally from either the Illyrian languages or the Dacian language, both spoken in the south-eastern Europe two millennia ago, and forms part of no known wider sub-group within the Indo-European family.

3 Geographic distribution

3.1 Dialects

There are two principal dialects of limited mutual intelligibility: Tosk and Gheg. The geographical border of the two dialects has traditionally been the Shkumbini River in Albania, with Gheg being spoken north of the river, and Tosk south of the river. The two dialects have phonological as well as lexicological differences. Tosk is spoken in southern and central Albania, by the Arbëreshë of Italy, among the Albanian minority of Greece: the Çam and the Arvanites, and in small communities of Albanian immigrants in Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, and United States. Gheg (or Geg) is spoken in northern Albania and by the Albanians of Serbia and Montenegro (including the province of Kosovo) as well as those of the Republic of Macedonia. Since after World War II there have been efforts to standardize on one dialect called Standard or Literary Albanian that borrows most heavily from the Tosk dialect. Two books that were published in the 1970s, Drejtshkrimi i gjuhës shqipe and Fjalori drejtshkrimor i gjuhës shqipe, contained prescribed orthographical rules and dictionary definitions respectively.

3.2 Official status

Albanian, in the Tosk dialect, is the official language of Albania. Albanian is also one of the official languages of Kosovo, and of the Republic of Macedonia.

4 Sounds

letter	SAMPA - example	letter	SAMPA - example
a	a - Spanish la	n	n - gun
b	b - burn	nj	J - Spanish niña
c	ts - hats	o	O - four
ç	tS - church	p	p - opera
d	d - dance	q	c - Close to hit you
dh	D - this	r	4 - Spanish pero
e	E - let	rr	r - Spanish perro
ë	@ - allowed (ë is a schwa)	s	s - save
f	f - fight	sh	S - shun
g	g - gun	t	t - tell
gj	J\ - Close to did you	th	T - thought
h	h - hope	u	u - doom
i	i - eat	v	v - victory
j	j - year	x	dz - adze
k	k - king	xh	dZ - jungle
l	l - lee	y	y - French du jour
ll	l_G - tell	z	z - zone
m	m - mother	zh	Z - vision

Note: all sounds in words used for comparison are those of the English language unless otherwise noted.

(146KB Ogg file)

Albanians transliterate foreign words in their own way, even from the Latin alphabet; thus Josh McDowell is transliterated Xhosh Mekdauëll. Each sound is approximated by one or more of the 36 letters of the alphabet, therefore words are spelled as they sound.

4.1 Vowels

The Albanian alphabet has seven vowels: A, E, Ë, I, O, U, Y.

4.2 Consonants

There are also 29 consonants: B, C, Ç, D, Dh, F, G, Gj, H, J, K, L, Ll, M, N, Nj, P, Q, R, Rr, S, Sh, T, Th, V, X, Xh, Z, Zh.

5 Vocabulary

Albanian split from the Proto-Indo-European language about 4000 years ago and most of the basic words are derived directly from it. Some of these words have cognates in Romanian and it is believed that the language spoken by the Dacians before the romanization was a language related to proto-Albanian.

Major influences over Albanian were ancient Greek and with the expansion of the Roman Empire, Latin. After the Slavs arrived in the Balkans, another source of Albanian vocabulary were the Slavic languages, especially Bulgarian. Like for all Balkan languages, the rise of the Ottoman Empire meant an influx of Turkish words.

6 Writing system

The Albanian alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, with the addition of the letters ë, ç, and nine digraphs to account for certain sounds in pronunciations. Until 1908, when the Latin alphabet was introduced in Albanian, the Greek alphabet, Cyrillic alphabet, and the Ottoman Turkish version of the Arabic alphabet had been used to write Albanian.

7 Examples

Albanian: shqip /Sk_jip/ (shkEEp)
hello: tungjatjeta /tun g_jat jE ta/ (tUhn-ngIAt-IEta)
good-bye: mirupafshim /mi ru paf Sim/ (mEEr-Uh-oA-fshEEm)
please: ju lutem /ju lu tEm/ (iU LU-tehm)
thank you: faleminderit /fa 5E min dE rit/ (fAh-leh-mEE-nde-rEEt)
that one: atë /a t@/ (ATEH)
how much? sa është? /sa @S t@/ (sAh ush-te)
English: anglisht /an gliSt/ (ahn-GLEE-sht)
yes: po /po/ (POE)
no: jo /jo/ (IOH)
sorry: më fal /m@ fal/ (mUh FAL)
I don't understand: nuk kuptoj /nuk kup toj/ (nUhk KUP-toi)
where's the bathroom?: ku është banjoja? /ku @S t@ ba Jo ja/ (kuh ush-tEh bA-nio-jA)
generic toast: gëzuar /g@ zu ar/ (gUh-zuh-ar)
Do you speak English?: flisni Anglisht? /flis ni an gliSt/ (flee-snEE ahn-GLEE-sht)

Note: All the sounds above are in the Ogg Vorbis format.

8 See also

9 External links

Sample of 3 different type of Albanian Language:

Indo-European languages Languages of Albania Languages of Italy

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