Geographic distribution

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 (Southern Montenegro and Southern Serbia), the UN protectorate 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 (at the behest of the Dictator Enver Hoxha, himself a Tosk speaker). 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.


Official status

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

Vowels

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


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.



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 there is a theory that the language spoken by the Dacians before the Romanization was a language related to proto-Albanian.

It is not certain whether ancient Greek influenced the early Albanian language. With the expansion of the Roman Empire, Latin, more specifically, the Balkan Latin (which was the ancestor of Romanian), would exert a great influence on Albanian. 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. Like for all Balkan languages, the rise of the Ottoman Empire meant an influx of Turkish words.

A Brief History of the Albanian Language

 

The Albanian language belongs to the Indo-European family of languages but has its own specifics, similar to Greek or Armenian, which means it does not have any direct similarities with other languages in the same family.

The Albanian language is spoken by Albanians who descend from the ancient Illyrian tribes that occupied the western part of the Balkan peninsula. It is recognized to be the continuation of the Illyrian language. Unfortunately, there are no written documents to provë this theory so the connection between the two languages is only indirectly supported through the names of people, places and historical studies.

The first document in written Albanian dates from the 16th century when the book, Meshari by Gjon Buzuku, was published in 1555.

During the middle-ages, there was a largë exodus of Albanians into Greece, where today, an archaic dialect of Albanian is still spoken. The Albanian language was also spoken in the Chameria region of northern Greece, but due to the ethnic cleansing of Albanians by Greeks there, many Albanians took refuge in Turkey or returned to Albania. The remaining population has been forbidden to speak Albanian.

After the death of the great Albanian national hero, Skenderbeg, and the occupation of Albania by the Ottoman Empire, thousands of Albanians migrated to southern Italy and Sicily. Today, some 200,000 Albanians called Arbëresh remain there and speak a very old Albanian dialect.

The national literary Albanian language was formed during the middle of the last century. At that time, there were two main dialects used: the northern dialect, Gege, and the southern dialect, Tosk.

Both dialects were incorporated into one in 1972 during a language congress held in Tiranë where most of the Gege dialect was incorporated into the Tosk dialect and was declared the official, unified Albanian language and was subsequently accepted by all Albanians of the former Yugoslavia.

Where is the Albanian language spoken today?

Today, the Albanian language is spoken in Albania and within the ethnic Albanian areas of the former Yugoslavia, such as Kosova, Macedonia, Montenegro and South Serbia. But in these regions, where daily political repression has become a way of life, the Albanian language is also suffering setbacks as a result of the widespread discrimination against Albanians.

 

The Elbasan script was invented around the middle of the 18th century and named after the city of Elbasan in central Albania where it was used.


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Albanian (Arbëreshë)

Statistics Italy (80,000) - Total (80,000)
Classification Indo-European | Albanian

Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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Albanian (Tosk)

Statistics: Albania (3,202,000) - Germany (25,000) - Turkey (15,000) - Ukraine (5,000) - Belgium (3,000) - Canada (.) - Egypt (.) - United States (.) - Total (3,300,000) Classification Indo-European | Albanian


Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, seks, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

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Yeah right

Take a look here: http://www.language-museum.com/a/albanian-gheg.php

I know, this is wrong!