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Albanian

Albanian

Mirë se vjen – Welcome

Albanian (also known as Shqip), forms a branch of the Indo-European language ifamily all by itself. It is spoken by 7.3 million people in Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Turkey, and by immigrant communities world-wide. Albanian was finally proven to be an Indo-European language only in 1854.

Although there is no consensus among scholars about its origin, it is generally believed that the ancestors of Albanian split from Proto-Indo-European about 4,000 years ago.

Where did the Albanian language and Albanians come from?

 

Status

 

Dialects

There are two principal dialects of Albanian that are mutually unintelligible due to significant linguistic differences between the two. The Shkumbin River in Albania divides the country into two dialect areas.

 

Structure

Sound system

Tosk dialects have 7 vowel and 29 consonant phonemes, i.e., sounds that make a difference in word meaning. Gheg dialects have between 14 and 19 vowel phonemes.

 

Vowels

Tosk has seven vowel phonemes which are given below. Gheg differentiates between short and long and between oral and nasal varieties of these vowels. The vowel phonemes of Tosk are given below (based on Wikipedia).

Close
i
y
u
Mid
e
ə
Open
a
ɔ

 

Consonants

Tosk has a rich system of consonants. They are presented in the table below (based on Wikipedia).

Stops
voiceless
p
t
k
voiced
b
d
g
Fricatives
voiceless
f
θ
s
ʃ
h
voiced
v
ð
z
ʒ
Affricate
voiceless
ts
c
voiced
dz
ɟ
Nasals
m
n
ɲ
Lateral
l ɬ
Trill
r
Tap
ɾ
Semivowels
w
j

 

Stress

Stress normally falls on the last syllable of the stem.

 

Grammar

The grammar of Albanian is quite complex. It shares some features with the grammars of other Balkan languages, such as Romanian and Greek.

 

Nouns, adjectives, articles, and pronouns

Albanian nouns are marked for the following grammatical categories:

 

Verbs

The verb system of Albanian is extremely complex due to the large number of moods, each of which has several tenses. Verbs agree with their subjects in person and number. Verbs have the following grammatical categories:

 

Word order

The normal word order in Albanian sentences is Subject-Verb-Object.

 

Vocabulary

Albanian has borrowed a great number of words from its neighbors. As a result of close contact with the Romans, Albanian has many Latin loanwords such as mik ‘friend,’ from Latin amicus. Another source of borrowed vocabulary are Slavic languages, especially Bulgarian. The rise of the Ottoman Empire also brought many Turkish words into the language.

Below is a list of common phrases and words in Albanian Tosk.

Tungjatjeta (tung) Hello
Mirupafshim Good bye
Ju lutem Please
Faleminderit Thank you
Më fal Sorry
Yes Po
No Jo
Burrë Man
Grua Woman
Mirë Good
Bad Keq

 

Basic Albanian phrases

Below are the numerals 1-10 in Albanian Tosk.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
një
dy
tre
katër
pesë
gjashtë
shtatë
tetë
nëntë
dhjetë

 

Writing

The oldest surviving document in Albanian was written in 1462 in the Gheg dialect. The oldest known Albanian printed book was a missal written by a Catholic cleric in 1555. The first Albanian school is believed to have been opened by Franciscans in 1638. The first Latin-Albanian dictionary was written in 1635.

The modern Albanian alphabet is based on an extended Latin alphabet which was introduced in 1908. It consists of 36 letters some of which were adapted to represent Albanian sounds. Before that, Albanian was written using the Greek alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet, and the Turkish version of the Arabic alphabet. The table below lists the letters of the modern Albanian alphabet and their approximate pronunciation in English.

A a
B b
C c
Ç ç
D d
Dh dh
E e
Ë ë
F f
G g
Gj gj
H h
I i
J j
K k
L l
LL, ll
M m
N n
Nj nj
O o
P p
Q q
R r
R r
S s
T t
Th th
U u
V v
X x
Xh xh
Y y
Z z
Zh zh

 

Take a look at Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Albanian Tosk.

Deklarata e pergjithshme mbi te drejtat e njeriut
Neni 1.
Të gjithë njerëzit lindin të lirë dhe të barabartë në dinjitet dhe në të drejta. Ata kanë arsye dhe ndërgjegje dhe duhet të sillen ndaj njëri tjetrit me frymë vëllazërimi.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

 

 

Difficulty

Language Difficulty
How difficult is it to learn Albanian?
Albanian is considered to be a Category II language in terms of difficulty for speakers of English.

 

Basic resources

Albanian Language (Wikipedia)

Albanian (Ethnologue)

OLAC Resources in and about the Albanian language