Albanian (endonym: shqip[ʃcip] , gjuha shqipe[ˈɟuhaˈʃcipɛ], or arbërisht[aɾbəˈɾiʃt]) is an Indo-European language and the only surviving representative of the Albanoid branch, which belongs to the Paleo-Balkan group. It is the native language of the Albanian people. Standard Albanian is the official language of Albania and Kosovo, and a co-official language in North Macedonia and Montenegro, where it is the primary language of significant Albanian minority communities. Albanian is recognized as a minority language in Italy, Croatia, Romania, and Serbia. It is also spoken in Greece and by the Albanian diaspora, which is generally concentrated in the Americas, Europe and Oceania. Albanian is estimated to have as many as 7.5 million native speakers.
to 55-AAA-ahe (25 varieties) 55-AAA-aaa to 55-AAA-ahe (25 varieties)
The dialects of the Albanian language in Southern Europe.
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
Albanian and other Paleo-Balkan languages had their formative core in the Balkans after the Indo-European migrations in the region. Albanian in antiquity is often thought to have been an Illyrian language for obvious geographic and historical reasons, or otherwise an unmentioned Balkan Indo-European language that was closely related to Illyrian and Messapic. The Indo-European subfamily that gave rise to Albanian is called Albanoid in reference to a specific ethnolinguistically pertinent and historically compact language group. Whether descendants or sisters of what was called 'Illyrian' by classical sources, Albanian and Messapic, on the basis of shared features and innovations, are grouped together in a common branch in the current phylogenetic classification of the Indo-European language family.
The first written mention of Albanian was in 1284 in a witness testimony from the Republic of Ragusa, while a letter written by Dominican Friar Gulielmus Adea in 1332 mentions the Albanians using the Latin alphabet in their writings. The oldest surviving attestation of modern Albanian is from 1462. The two main Albanian dialect groups (or varieties), Gheg and Tosk, are primarily distinguished by phonological differences and are mutually intelligible in their standard varieties, with Gheg spoken to the north and Tosk spoken to the south of the Shkumbin river. Their characteristics in the treatment of both native words and loanwords provide evidence that the split into the northern and the southern dialects occurred after Christianisation of the region (4th century AD), and most likely not later than the 6th century AD, hence possibly occupying roughly their present area divided by the Shkumbin river since the Post-Roman and Pre-Slavic period, straddling the Jireček Line.
Centuries-old communities speaking Albanian dialects can be found scattered in Greece (the Arvanites and some communities in Epirus, Western Macedonia and Western Thrace),Croatia (the Arbanasi), Italy (the Arbëreshë) as well as in Romania, Turkey and Ukraine. The Malsia e Madhe Gheg Albanian and two varieties of the Tosk dialect, Arvanitika in Greece and Arbëresh in southern Italy, have preserved archaic elements of the language.Ethnic Albanians constitute a large diaspora, with many having long assimilated in different cultures and communities. Consequently, Albanian-speakers do not correspond to the total ethnic Albanian population, as many ethnic Albanians may identify as Albanian but are unable to speak the language.
Standard Albanian is a standardised form of spoken Albanian based on Tosk.
Geographic distribution
Map of countries where Albanian holds official status:
Official language
Recognised minority language
The language is spoken by approximately 6 million people in the Balkans, primarily in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece. However, due to old communities in Italy and the large Albanian diaspora, the worldwide total of speakers is much higher than in Southern Europe and numbers approximately 7.5 million.
Europe
The Albanian language is the official language of Albania and Kosovo and a co-official language in North Macedonia and Montenegro. Albanian is a recognised minority language in Croatia, Italy, Romania and in Serbia. Albanian is also spoken by a minority in Greece, specifically in the Thesprotia and Preveza regional units and in a few villages in Ioannina and Florina regional units in Greece. It is also spoken by 450,000 Albanian immigrants in Greece, making it one of the commonly spoken languages in the country after Greek.
Albanian is the third most common mother tongue among foreign residents in Italy. This is due to a substantial Albanian immigration to Italy. Italy has a historical Albanian minority of about 500,000, scattered across southern Italy, known as Arbëreshë. Approximately 1 million Albanians from Kosovo are dispersed throughout Germany, Switzerland and Austria. These are mainly immigrants from Kosovo who migrated during the 1990s. In Switzerland, the Albanian language is the sixth most spoken language with 176,293 native speakers.
Albanian became an official language in North Macedonia on 15 January 2019.
Americas
There are large numbers of Albanian speakers in the United States, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Canada. Some of the first ethnic Albanians to arrive in the United States were the Arbëreshë. The Arbëreshë have a strong sense of identity and are unique in that they speak an archaic dialect of Tosk Albanian called Arbëresh.
In the United States and Canada, there are approximately 250,000 Albanian speakers. It is primarily spoken on the East Coast of the United States, in cities like New York City, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Detroit, as well as in parts of the states of New Jersey, Ohio, and Connecticut.[citation needed]
In Argentina, there are nearly 40,000 Albanian speakers, mostly in Buenos Aires.[need quotation to verify]
Asia and Africa
Approximately 1.3 million people of Albanian ancestry live in Turkey, with more than 500,000 recognizing their ancestry, language and culture. There are other estimates, however, that place the number of people in Turkey with Albanian ancestry and or background upward to 5 million. However, the vast majority of this population is assimilated and no longer possesses fluency in the Albanian language, though a vibrant Albanian community maintains its distinct identity in Istanbul to this day.
Egypt also lays claim to about 18,000 Albanians, mostly Tosk speakers. Many are descendants of the Janissary of Muhammad Ali Pasha, an Albanian who became Wāli, and self-declared Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. In addition to the dynasty that he established, a large part of the former Egyptian and Sudanese aristocracy was of Albanian origin. In addition to the recent emigrants, there are older diasporic communities around the world.
Oceania
Albanian is also spoken by Albanian diaspora communities residing in Australia and New Zealand.
Dialects
The dialects of the Albanian language
Albanian
Tosk
Northern Tosk
Labërisht
Cham
Arvanitika
Arbëresh
Gheg
Northwest Gheg
Northeast Gheg
Central Gheg
Southern Gheg
The Albanian language has two distinct dialects, Tosk which is spoken in the south, and Gheg spoken in the north. Standard Albanian is based on the Tosk dialect. The Shkumbin River is the rough dividing line between the two dialects.
Gheg is divided into four sub-dialects: Northwest Gheg, Northeast Gheg, Central Gheg and Southern Gheg. It is primarily spoken in northern Albania, Kosovo, and throughout Montenegro and northwestern North Macedonia. One fairly divergent dialect is the Upper Reka dialect, which is however classified as Central Gheg. There is also a diaspora dialect in Croatia, the Arbanasi dialect.
Tosk is divided into five sub-dialects, including Northern Tosk (the most numerous in speakers), Labërisht, Cham, Arvanitika, and Arbëresh. Tosk is spoken in southern Albania, southwestern North Macedonia and northern and southern Greece. Cham Albanian is spoken in North-western Greece, while Arvanitika is spoken by the Arvanites in southern Greece. In addition, Arbëresh is spoken by the Arbëreshë people, descendants of 15th and 16th century migrants who settled in southeastern Italy, in small communities in the regions of Sicily and Calabria. These settlements originated from the (Arvanites) communities probably of Peloponnese known as Morea in the Middle Ages. Among them the Arvanites call themselves Arbëror and sometime Arbëresh. The Arbëresh dialect is closely related to the Arvanites dialect with more Italian vocabulary absorbed during different periods of time.
Orthography
Albanian keyboard layout.
The Albanian language has been written using many alphabets since the earliest records from the 15th century. The history of Albanian language orthography is closely related to the cultural orientation and knowledge of certain foreign languages among Albanian writers. The earliest written Albanian records come from the Gheg area in makeshift spellings based on Italian or Greek. Originally, the Tosk dialect was written in the Greek alphabet and the Gheg dialect was written in the Latin script. Both dialects had also been written in the Ottoman Turkish version of the Arabic script, Cyrillic, and some local alphabets (Elbasan, Vithkuqi, Todhri, Veso Bey, Jan Vellara and others, see original Albanian alphabets). More specifically, the writers from northern Albania and under the influence of the Catholic Church used Latin letters, those in southern Albania and under the influence of the Greek Orthodox church used Greek letters, while others throughout Albania and under the influence of Islam used Arabic letters. There were initial attempts to create an original Albanian alphabet during the 1750–1850 period. These attempts intensified after the League of Prizren and culminated with the Congress of Manastir held by Albanian intellectuals from 14 to 22 November 1908, in Manastir (present day Bitola), which decided on which alphabet to use, and what the standardised spelling would be for standard Albanian. This is how the literary language remains. The alphabet is the Latin alphabet with the addition of the letters ⟨ë⟩, ⟨ç⟩, and ten digraphs: dh, th, xh, gj, nj, ng, ll, rr, zh and sh.
According to Robert Elsie:
The hundred years between 1750 and 1850 were an age of astounding orthographic diversity in Albania. In this period, the Albanian language was put to writing in at least ten different alphabets – most certainly a record for European languages. ... the diverse forms in which this old Balkan language was recorded, from the earliest documents to the beginning of the twentieth century ... consist of adaptations of the Latin, Greek, Arabic, and Cyrillic alphabets and (what is even more interesting) a number of locally invented writing systems. Most of the latter alphabets have now been forgotten and are unknown, even to the Albanians themselves.
Classification
Albanian within Indo-European language family tree based on "Ancestry-constrained phylogenetic analysis of Indo-European languages" by Chang et al. (January 2015).
Albanian constitutes one of the eleven major branches of the Indo-European language family, within which it occupies an independent position. In 1854, Albanian was demonstrated to be an Indo-European language by the philologistFranz Bopp. Albanian was formerly compared by a few Indo-European linguists with Germanic and Balto-Slavic, all of which share a number of isoglosses with Albanian. Other linguists linked the Albanian language with Latin, Greek and Armenian, while placing Germanic and Balto-Slavic in another branch of Indo-European. In current scholarship there is evidence that Albanian is closely related to Greek and Armenian, while the fact that it is a satem language is less significant.
Albanian in the Palaeo-Balkanic Indo-European branch based on the chapters "Albanian" (Hyllested & Joseph 2022) and "Armenian" (Olsen & Thorsø 2022) in Olander (ed.) The Indo-European Language Family
Messapic is considered the closest language to Albanian, grouped in a common branch titled Illyric in Hyllested & Joseph (2022). Hyllested & Joseph (2022) in agreement with recent bibliography identify Greco-Phrygian as the IE branch closest to the Albanian-Messapic one. These two branches form an areal grouping – which is often called "Balkan IE" – with Armenian. The hypothesis of the "Balkan Indo-European" continuum posits a common period of prehistoric coexistence of several Indo-European dialects in the Balkans prior to 2000 BC. To this group would belong Albanian, Ancient Greek, Armenian, Phrygian, fragmentary attested languages such as Macedonian, Thracian, or Illyrian, and the relatively well-attested Messapic in Southern Italy. The common features of this group appear at the phonological, morphological, and lexical levels, presumably resulting from the contact between the various languages. The concept of this linguistic group is explained as a kind of language league of the Bronze Age (a specific areal-linguistics phenomenon), although it also consisted of languages that were related to each other. A common prestage posterior to PIE comprising Albanian, Greek, and Armenian, is considered as a possible scenario. In this light, due to the larger number of possible shared innovations between Greek and Armenian, it appears reasonable to assume, at least tentatively, that Albanian was the first Balkan IE language to branch off. This split and the following ones were perhaps very close in time, allowing only a narrow time frame for shared innovations.
Albanian represents one of the core languages of the Balkan Sprachbund.
Glottolog and Ethnologue recognize four Albanian languages. They are classified as follows:
Indo-European
Albanian
Tosk
Northern Tosk Albanian
Southern Tosk
Arbëreshë Albanian
Arvanitika Albanian
Gheg Albanian
History
Historical documentation
The first attested written mention of the Albanian language was on 14 July 1284 in Ragusa in modern Croatia (Dubrovnik) when a crime witness named Matthew testified: "I heard a voice crying on the mountain in the Albanian language" (Latin: Audivi unam vocem, clamantem in monte in lingua albanesca).
The Albanian language is also mentioned in the Descriptio Europae Orientalis dated in 1308:
Habent enim Albani prefati linguam distinctam a Latinis, Grecis et Sclauis ita quod in nullo se intelligunt cum aliis nationibus. (Namely, the above-mentioned Albanians have a language that is different from the languages of Latins, Greeks and Slavs, so that they do not understand each other at all.)
The oldest attested document written in Albanian dates to 1462, while the first audio recording in the language was made by Norbert Jokl on 4 April 1914 in Vienna.
However, as Fortson notes, Albanian written works existed before this point; they have simply been lost. The existence of written Albanian is explicitly mentioned in a letter attested from 1332, and the first preserved books, including both those in Gheg and in Tosk, share orthographic features that indicate that some form of common literary language had developed.
By the Late Middle Ages, during the period of Humanism and the European Renaissance, the term lingua epirotica'Epirotan language' was preferred in the intellectual, literary, and clerical circles of the time, and used as a synonym for the Albanian language. Published in Rome in 1635, by the Albanian bishop and writer Frang Bardhi, the first dictionary of the Albanian language was titled Latin: Dictionarium latino-epiroticum'Latin-Epirotan dictionary'.
During the five-century period of the Ottoman presence in Albania, the language was not officially recognised until 1909, when the Congress of Dibra decided that Albanian schools would finally be allowed.[citation needed]
Linguistic affinities
Albanian is an isolate within the Indo-European language family; no other language has been conclusively linked to its branch. The only other languages that are the sole surviving members of a branch of Indo-European are Armenian and Greek.
The Albanian language is part of the Indo-Europeanlanguage family and the only surviving representative of its own branch, which belongs to the Paleo-Balkan group. Although it is still uncertain which ancient mentioned language of the Balkans it continues, or where in the region its speakers lived. In general, there is insufficient evidence to connect Albanian with one of those languages, whether Illyrian, Thracian, or Dacian.Among these possibilities, Illyrian is the most probable.
Although Albanian shares lexical isoglosses with Greek, Germanic, and to a lesser extent Balto-Slavic, the vocabulary of Albanian is quite distinct. In 1995, Taylor, Ringe, and Warnow used quantitative linguistic techniques that appeared to obtain an Albanian subgrouping with Germanic, a result which the authors had already reasonably downplayed.[clarification needed] Indeed, the Albanian and Germanic branches share a relatively moderate number of lexical cognates. Many shared grammatical elements or features of these two branches do not corroborate the lexical isoglosses. Albanian also shares lexical linguistic affinity with Latin and Romance languages. Sharing linguistic features unique to the languages of the Balkans, Albanian also forms a part of the Balkan linguistic area or sprachbund.
Historical presence and location
The place and the time that the Albanian language was formed are uncertain. The American linguist Eric Hamp has said that during an unknown chronological period a pre-Albanian population (termed as "Albanoid" by Hamp) inhabited areas stretching from Poland to the southwestern Balkans. Further analysis has suggested that it was in a mountainous region rather than on a plain or seacoast. The words for plants and animals characteristic of mountainous regions are entirely original, but the names for fish and for agricultural activities (such as ploughing) are borrowed from other languages.
A deeper analysis of the vocabulary, however, shows that could be a consequence of a prolonged Latin domination of the coastal and plain areas of the country, rather than evidence of the original environment in which the Albanian language was formed. For example, the word for 'fish' is borrowed from Latin, but not the word for 'gills' which is native. Indigenous are also the words for 'ship', 'raft', 'navigation', 'sea shelves' and a few names of fish kinds, but not the words for 'sail', 'row' and 'harbor'; objects pertaining to navigation itself and a large part of sea fauna. This rather shows that Proto-Albanians were pushed away from coastal areas in early times (probably after the Latin conquest of the region) and thus lost a large amount (or the majority) of their sea environment lexicon. A similar phenomenon could be observed with agricultural terms. While the words for 'arable land', 'wheat', 'cereals', 'vineyard', 'yoke', 'harvesting', 'cattle breeding', etc. are native, the words for 'ploughing', 'farm' and 'farmer', agricultural practices, and some harvesting tools are foreign. This, again, points to intense contact with other languages and people, rather than providing evidence of a possible linguistic homeland (also known as a Urheimat).[citation needed]
1905 issue of the magazine Albania, the most important Albanian periodical of the early 20th century
The centre of Albanian settlement remained the Mat River. In 1079, the Albanians were recorded farther south in the valley of the Shkumbin River. The Shkumbin, a 181 km long river that lies near the old Via Egnatia, is approximately the boundary of the primary dialect division for Albanian, Tosk and Gheg. The characteristics of Tosk and Gheg in the treatment of the native words and loanwords from other languages are evidence that the dialectal split preceded the Slavic migrations to the Balkans, which means that in that period (the 5th to 6th centuries AD), Albanians were occupying nearly the same area around the Shkumbin river, which straddled the Jireček Line.
References to the existence of Albanian as a distinct language survive from the 14th century, but they failed to cite 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'Spertit 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 linguists Stefan Schumacher and Joachim Matzinger (University of Vienna) assert that the first literary records of Albanian date from the 16th century. The oldest known Albanian printed book, Meshari, or "missal", was written in 1555 by Gjon Buzuku, a Roman Catholic cleric. In 1635, Frang Bardhi wrote the first Latin–Albanian dictionary. The first Albanian school is believed to have been opened by Franciscans in 1638 in .
One of the earliest Albanian dictionaries was written in 1693; it was the Italian manuscript Pratichae Schrivaneschae authored by the Montenegrin sea captain Julije Balović and includes a multilingual dictionary of hundreds of the most frequently used words in everyday life in Italian, Slavic, Greek, Albanian, and Turkish.
Pre-Indo-European substratum
Pre-Indo-European (PreIE) sites are found throughout the territory of Albania. Such PreIE sites existed in , , Burimas, Barç, Dërsnik in the Korçë District, Kamnik in Kolonja, Kolsh in the Kukës District, Rashtan in Librazhd, and Nezir in the Mat District. As in other parts of Europe, these PreIE people joined the migratory Indo-European tribes that entered the Balkans and contributed to the formation of the historical Paleo-Balkan tribes. In terms of linguistics, the pre-Indo-European substrate language spoken in the southern Balkans probably influenced pre-Proto-Albanian, the ancestor idiom of Albanian. The extent of this linguistic impact cannot be determined with precision due to the uncertain position of Albanian among Paleo-Balkan languages and their scarce attestation. Some loanwords, however, have been proposed, such as shegë 'pomegranate' or lëpjetë 'orach'; compare Pre-Greek λάπαθον, lápathon 'monk's rhubarb'.
Literary tradition
Meshari of Gjon Buzuku 1554–1555
Earliest undisputed texts
The earliest known texts in Albanian:
the formula e pagëzimit (Baptismal Formula), which dates back to 1462 and was authored by Pal Engjëlli (or Paulus Angelus) (c. 1417 – 1470), Archbishop of Durrës. Engjëlli was a close friend and counsellor of Skanderbeg. It was written in a pastoral letter for a synod at the Holy Trinity in Mat and read in Latin characters as follows: Unte paghesont premenit Atit et Birit et Spertit Senit (standard Albanian: Unë të pagëzoj në emër të Atit, të Birit e të Shpirtit të Shenjtë; English: "I baptise you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit"). It was discovered and published in 1915 by Nicolae Iorga.
the Fjalori i Arnold von Harfit (Arnold Ritter von Harff's lexicon), a short list of Albanian phrases with German glosses, dated 1496.
a song, recorded in the Greek alphabet, retrieved from an old codex that was written in Greek. The document is also called Perikopeja e Ungjillit të Pashkëve or Perikopeja e Ungjillit të Shën Mateut ("The Song of the Easter Gospel, or "The Song of Saint Matthew's Gospel"). Although the codex is dated to during the 14th century, the song, written in Albanian by an anonymous writer, seems to be a 16th-century writing. The document was found by Arbëreshë people who had emigrated to Italy in the 15th century.
Perikopeja e Ungjillit të Shën MateutPossibly the oldest surviving Albanian text, highlighted in red, from the Bellifortis manuscript, written by Konrad Kyeser around 1402–1405.The first book in Albanian is the Meshari ("The Missal"), written by Gjon Buzuku between 20 March 1554 and 5 January 1555. The book was written in the Gheg dialect in the Latin script with some Slavic letters adapted for Albanian vowels. The book was discovered in 1740 by Gjon Nikollë Kazazi, the Albanian archbishop of Skopje. It contains the liturgies of the main holidays. There are also texts of prayers and rituals and catechetical texts. The grammar and the vocabulary are more archaic than those in the Gheg texts from the 17th century. The 188 pages of the book comprise about 154,000 words with a total vocabulary of c. 1,500 different words. The text is archaic yet easily interpreted because it is mainly a translation of known texts, in particular portions of the Bible. The book also contains passages from the Psalms, the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Jeremiah, the Letters to the Corinthians, and many illustrations. The uniformity of spelling seems to indicate an earlier tradition of writing. The only known copy of the Meshari is held by the Apostolic Library. In 1968 the book was published with transliterations and comments by linguists.
The first printed work in Tosk Albanian is the Mbsuame e krështerë (in Italian: Dottrina cristiana) by Lekë Matrënga or (in Italian) Luca Matranga. It was published in 1592 and is written in an early form of the Arbëresh language (also known as Italo-Albanian).
Albanian scripts were produced earlier than the first attested document, formula e pagëzimit, but none yet have been discovered. We know of their existence by earlier references. For example, a French monk signed as "Broccardus" notes, in 1332, that "Although the Albanians have another language totally different from Latin, they still use Latin letters in all their books".
Disputed earlier texts
In 1967 two scholars claimed to have found a Letter text in Albanian inserted into the Bellifortis text, a book written in Latin dating to 1402–1405.
"A star has fallen in a place in the woods, distinguish the star, distinguish it.
Distinguish the star from the others, they are ours, they are. Do you see where the great voice has resounded? Stand beside it That thunder. It did not fall. It did not fall for you, the one which would do it. ... Like the ears, you should not believe ... that the moon fell when ... Try to encompass that which spurts far ...
Call the light when the moon falls and no longer exists ..."
Robert Elsie, a specialist in Albanian studies, considers that "The Todericiu/Polena Romanian translation of the non-Latin lines, although it may offer some clues if the text is indeed Albanian, is fanciful and based, among other things, on a false reading of the manuscript, including the exclusion of a whole line."
Ottoman period
In 1635, Frang Bardhi (1606–1643) published in Rome his Dictionarum latinum-epiroticum, the first known Latin-Albanian dictionary. Other scholars who studied the language during the 17th century include Andrea Bogdani (1600–1685), author of the first Latin-Albanian grammar book, (1637–1694) and others.
Indo-European features
Indo-European vocabulary
PIE phonological correspondences
Phonologically, Albanian is not so conservative. Like many IE stocks, it has merged the two series of voiced stops (e.g. both PIE *d and *dʰ became Albanian: d). In addition, voiced stops tend to disappear in between vowels. There is almost complete loss of final syllables and very widespread loss of other unstressed syllables (e.g. mik 'friend' from Lat. amicus). PIE *o appears as a (also as e if a high front vowel i follows), while PIE *ē and *ā become o, and PIE *ō appears as e.
The palatals, velars, and labiovelars show distinct developments, with Albanian showing the three-way distinction also found in Luwian. Labiovelars are for the most part differentiated from all other Indo-European velar series before front vowels, but they merge with the "pure" (back) velars elsewhere. The palatal velar series, consisting of Proto-Indo-European *ḱ and the merged *ģ and *ģʰ, usually developed into *th and *dh, but were depalatalised to merge with the back velars when in contact with sonorants. Because the original Proto-Indo-European tripartite distinction between dorsals is preserved in such reflexes, Albanian is therefore neither centum nor satem, despite having a "satem-like" realization of the palatal dorsals in most cases. Thus PIE *ḱ, *k, and *kʷ become th, q, and s, respectively (before back vowels PIE *ḱ becomes th, while *k and *kʷ merge as k).
A minority of scholars reconstruct a fourth laryngeal*h₄ allegedly surfacing as Alb. h word-initially, e.g. Alb. herdhe 'testicles' presumably from PIE *h₄órǵʰi- (rather than the usual reconstruction *h₃erǵʰi-), but this is generally not followed elsewhere, as h- has arisen elsewhere idiosyncratically (for example Alb. hark < Lat. arcus).
Reflexes of PIE bilabial plosives in Albanian
PIE
Albanian
PIE
Albanian
*p
p
*pékʷ- 'to cook'
pjek 'to bake'
*bʰ / b
b
*srobʰ-éi̯e- 'to sip, gulp'
gjerb 'to sip'
Reflexes of PIE coronal plosives in Albanian
PIE
Albanian
PIE
Albanian
*t
t
*túh2 'thou'
ti 'you (singular)'
*d
d
*dih2tis 'light'
ditë 'day'
dh
*pérd- 'to fart'
pjerdh 'to fart'
g
*dl̥h1-tó- 'long'
gjatë 'long' (Tosk dial. glatë)
*dʰ
d
*dʰégʷʰ- 'burn'
djeg 'to burn'
dh
*gʰórdʰos 'enclosure'
gardh 'fence'
Between vowels or after r
Reflexes of PIE palatal plosives in Albanian
PIE
Albanian
PIE
Albanian
*ḱ
th
*ḱéh1smi 'I say'
them 'I say'
s
*ḱupo- 'shoulder'
sup 'shoulder'
k
*smeḱ-r̥ 'chin'
mjekër 'chin; beard'
ç/c
*ḱentro- 'to stick'
çandër 'prop'
*ǵ
dh
*ǵómbʰos 'tooth, peg'
dhëmb 'tooth'
*ǵʰ
dh
*ǵʰed-ioH 'I defecate'
dhjes 'I defecate'
d
*ǵʰr̥sdʰi 'grain, barley'
drithë 'grain'
Before u̯/u or i̯/i
Before sonorant
Archaic relic
Syllable-initial and followed by sibilant
Reflexes of PIE velar plosives in Albanian
PIE
Albanian
PIE
Albanian
*k
k
*kágʰmi 'I catch, grasp'
kam 'I have'
q
*kluH-i̯o- 'to weep'
qaj 'to weep, cry' (dial. kla(n)j)
*g
g
*h3lígos 'sick'
ligë 'bad'
gj
*h1reug- 'to retch'
regj 'to tan hides'
*gʰ
g
*gʰórdʰos 'enclosure'
gardh 'fence'
gj
*gʰédn-i̯e/o- 'to get'
gjej 'to find' (Old Alb. gjãnj)
Reflexes of PIE labiovelar plosives in Albanian
PIE
Albanian
PIE
Albanian
*kʷ
k
*kʷeh2sleh2 'cough'
kollë 'cough'
s
*kʷélH- 'to turn'
sjell 'to fetch, bring'
q
*kʷṓd
që 'that, which'
*gʷ
g
*gʷr̥H 'stone'
gur 'stone'
*gʷʰ
g
*dʰégʷʰ- 'to burn'
djeg 'to burn'
z
*dʰogʷʰéi̯e- 'to ignite'
ndez 'to kindle, light a fire'
Reflexes of PIE *s in Albanian
PIE
Albanian
PIE
Albanian
*s
gj
*séḱstis 'six'
gjashtë 'six'
h
*nosōm 'us' (gen.)
nahe 'us' (dat.)
sh
*bʰreusos 'broken'
breshër 'hail'
th
*suh1s 'swine'
thi 'pig'
∅
*h1ésmi 'I am'
jam 'I am'
*-sd-
th
*gʷésdos 'leaf'
gjeth 'leaf'
*-sḱ-
h
*sḱi-eh2 'shadow'
hije 'shadow'
*-sp-
f
*spélnom 'speech'
fjalë 'word'
*-st-
sht
*h2osti 'bone'
asht 'bone'
*-su̯-
d
*su̯eíd-r̥- 'sweat'
dirsë 'sweat'
Initial
Between vowels
Between u/i and another vowel (ruki law)
Dissimilation with following s
Reflexes of PIE sonorants in Albanian
PIE
Albanian
PIE
Albanian
*i̯
gj
*i̯éh3s- 'to gird'
(n)gjesh 'I gird; squeeze, knead'
j
*i̯uH 'you' (nom.)
ju 'you (plural)'
∅
*trei̯es 'three' (masc.)
tre 'three'
*u̯
v
*u̯os-éi̯e- 'to dress'
vesh 'to wear, dress'
*m
m
*meh2tr-eh2 'maternal'
motër 'sister'
*n
n
*nōs 'we' (acc.)
ne 'we'
nj
*eni-h1ói-no 'that one'
një 'one' (Gheg njâ, njo, nji)
∅ (Tosk) ~ nasal vowel (Gheg)
*pénkʷe 'five'
pesë 'five' (vs. Gheg pês)
r (Tosk only)
*ǵʰeimen 'winter'
dimër 'winter' (vs. Gheg dimën)
*l
l
*h3lígos 'sick'
ligë 'bad'
ll
*kʷélH- 'turn'
sjell 'to fetch, bring'
*r
r
*repe/o 'take'
rjep 'peel'
rr
*u̯rh1ḗn 'sheep'
rrunjë 'yearling lamb'
*n̥
e
*h1n̥men 'name'
emër 'name'
*m̥
e
*u̯iḱm̥ti 'twenty'
(një)zet 'twenty'
*l̥
li, il / lu, ul
*u̯ĺ̥kʷos 'wolf'
ujk 'wolf' (dialectal ulk)
*r̥
ri, ir / ru, ur
*ǵʰr̥sdom 'grain, barley'
drithë 'grain'
Before i, e, a
Before back vowels
Between vowels
Before C clusters, i, j
Reflexes of PIE laryngeals in Albanian
PIE
Albanian
PIE
Albanian
*h1
∅
*h1ésmi 'I am'
jam 'to be'
*h2
∅
*h2r̥tḱos 'bear'
ari 'bear'
*h3
∅
*h3ónr̥ 'dream'
ëndërr 'dream'
*h4
h
*h4órǵʰi 'testicles'
herdhe 'testicles'
Reflexes of PIE vowels in Albanian
PIE
Albanian
PIE
Albanian
*i
i
*sínos 'bosom'
gji 'bosom, breast'
e
*dwigʰeh2 'twig'
degë 'branch'
*ī < *iH
i
*dih2tis 'light'
ditë 'day'
*e
e
*pénkʷe 'five'
pesë 'five' (Gheg pês)
je
*wétos 'year' (loc.)
vjet 'last year'
*ē
o
*ǵʰēsreh2 'hand'
dorë 'hand'
*a
a
*bʰaḱeh2 'bean'
bathë 'bean'
e
*h2élbʰit 'barley'
elb 'barley'
*o
a
*gʰórdʰos 'enclosure'
gardh 'fence'
*ō
e
*h2oḱtōtis 'eight'
tetë 'eight'
*u
u
*súpnom 'sleep'
gjumë 'sleep'
*ū < *uH
y
*suHsos 'grandfather'
gjysh 'grandfather'
i
*muh2s 'mouse'
mi 'mouse'
Reflexes of PIE diphthongs in Albanian
PIE
Albanian
PIE
Albanian
*ey, *h1ey
i
*g'heymōn
dimër
*ay, *h2ey
e
*oy, *h3ey
e
*stoygho-
shteg
*ew, *h1ew
a
*aw, *h2ew
a
*h2ewg-
agim
*ow, *h3ew
a, ve-
Standard Albanian
Since World War II, standard Albanian used in Albania has been based on the Tosk dialect. Kosovo and other areas where Albanian is official adopted the Tosk standard in 1969.
Elbasan-based standard
Until the early 20th century, Albanian writing developed in three main literary traditions: Gheg, Tosk, and Arbëreshë. Throughout this time, a Gheg subdialect spoken around Elbasan served as lingua franca among the Albanians, but was less prevalent in writing. The Congress of Manastir of Albanian writers held in 1908 recommended the use of the Elbasan subdialect for literary purposes and as a basis of a unified national language. While technically classified as a southern Gheg variety, the Elbasan speech is closer to Tosk in phonology and practically a hybrid between other Gheg subdialects and literary Tosk.
Between 1916 and 1918, the Albanian Literary Commission met in Shkodër under the leadership of Luigj Gurakuqi with the purpose of establishing a unified orthography for the language. The commission, made up of representatives from the north and south of Albania, reaffirmed the Elbasan subdialect as the basis of a national tongue. The rules published in 1917 defined spelling for the Elbasan variety for official purposes. The commission did not, however, discourage publications in one of the dialects, but rather laid a foundation for Gheg and Tosk to gradually converge into one.
When the Congress of Lushnje met in the aftermath of World War I to form a new Albanian government, the 1917 decisions of the Literary Commission were upheld. The Elbasan subdialect remained in use for administrative purposes and many new writers embraced it for creative writing. Gheg and Tosk continued to develop freely and interaction between the two dialects increased.
Tosk standard
At the end of World War II, however, the new communist regime radically imposed the use of the Tosk dialect in all facets of life in Albania: administration, education, and literature. Most Communist leaders were Tosks from the south. Standardisation was directed by the Albanian Institute of Linguistics and Literature of the Academy of Sciences of Albania. Two dictionaries were published in 1954: an Albanian language dictionary and a Russian–Albanian dictionary. New orthography rules were eventually published in 1967 and in 1973 with the Drejtshkrimi i gjuhës shqipe (Orthography of the Albanian Language).
Until 1968, Kosovo and other Albanian-speaking areas in Yugoslavia followed the 1917 standard based on the Elbasan dialect, though it was gradually infused with Gheg elements in an effort to develop a Kosovan language separate from communist Albania's Tosk-based standard. Albanian intellectuals in the former Yugoslavia consolidated the 1917 standard twice in the 1950s, culminating with a thorough codification of orthographic rules in 1964. The rules already provided for a balanced variety that accounted for both Gheg and Tosk dialects, but only lasted through 1968. Viewing divergences with Albania as a threat to their identity, Kosovars arbitrarily adopted the Tosk project that Tirana had published the year before. Although it was never intended to serve outside of Albania, the project became the "unified literary language" in 1972, when approved by a rubberstamp Orthography Congress. Only about 1 in 9 participants were from Kosovo. The Congress, held at Tirana, authorized the orthography rules that came out the following year, in 1973.
More recent dictionaries from the Albanian government are Fjalori Drejtshkrimor i Gjuhës Shqipe (1976) (Orthographic Dictionary of the Albanian Language) and Dictionary of Today's Albanian language (Fjalori i Gjuhës së Sotme Shqipe) (1980). Prior to World War II, dictionaries consulted by developers of the standard have included Lexikon tis Alvanikis glossis (Albanian: Fjalori i Gjuhës Shqipe (Kostandin Kristoforidhi, 1904),Fjalori i Bashkimit (1908), and Fjalori i Gazullit (1941).
Calls for reform
Since the fall of the communist regime, Albanian orthography has stirred heated debate among scholars, writers, and public opinion in Albania and Kosovo, with hardliners opposed to any changes in the orthography, moderates supporting varying degrees of reform, and radicals calling for a return to the Elbasan dialect. Criticism of Standard Albanian has centred on the exclusion of the 'me + participle' infinitive and the Gheg lexicon. Critics say that Standard Albanian disenfranchises and stigmatises Gheg speakers, affecting the quality of writing and impairing effective public communication. Supporters of the Tosk standard view the 1972 Congress as a milestone achievement in Albanian history and dismiss calls for reform as efforts to "divide the nation" or "create two languages." Moderates, who are especially prevalent in Kosovo, generally stress the need for a unified Albanian language, but believe that the 'me + participle' infinitive and Gheg words should be included. Proponents of the Elbasan dialect have been vocal, but have gathered little support in the public opinion. In general, those involved in the language debate come from diverse backgrounds and there is no significant correlation between one's political views, geographic origin, and position on Standard Albanian.
Many writers continue to write in the Elbasan dialect but other Gheg variants have found much more limited use in literature. Most publications adhere to a strict policy of not accepting submissions that are not written in Tosk. Some print media even translate direct speech, replacing the 'me + participle' infinitive with other verb forms and making other changes in grammar and word choice. Even authors who have published in the Elbasan dialect will frequently write in the Tosk standard.
In 2013, a group of academics for Albania and Kosovo proposed minor changes to the orthography. Hardline academics boycotted the initiative, while other reformers have viewed it as well-intentioned but flawed and superficial.
Education
Albanian is the medium of instruction in most Albanian schools. The literacy rate in Albania for the total population, age 9 or older, is about 99%. Elementary education is compulsory (grades 1–9), but most students continue at least until a secondary education. Students must pass graduation exams at the end of the 9th grade and at the end of the 12th grade in order to continue their education.
Phonology
Standard Albanian has seven vowels and 29 consonants. Like English, Albanian has dental fricatives /θ/ (like the th in thin) and /ð/ (like the th in this), written as ⟨th⟩ and ⟨dh⟩, which are rare cross-linguistically.
Gheg uses long and nasal vowels, which are absent in Tosk, and the mid-central vowel ë is lost at the end of the word. The stress is fixed mainly on the last syllable. Gheg n (femën: compare English feminine) changes to r by rhotacism in Tosk (femër).
The contrast between flapped r and trilled rr is the almost the same as in Spanish or Armenian. However, in most of the dialects, as also in standard Albanian, the single r changes from an alveolar flap /ɾ/ to an alveolar approximant [ɹ].
The palatal nasal /ɲ/ corresponds to the Spanish ñ and the French and Italian gn. 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 letter ç is sometimes written ch due to technical limitations, in analogy to the other digraphs xh, sh, and zh. Usually it is written simply c or more rarely q with context resolving any ambiguities.
The sounds spelled with q and gj show variation. They may range between occurring as palatal affricates [c͡ç,ɟ͡ʝ] or as palatal stops [c,ɟ] among dialects. Some speakers merge them into the palatoalveolar sounds ç and xh. This is especially common in Northern Gheg, but is increasingly the case in Tosk as well. Other speakers reduced them into /j/ in consonant clusters, such as in the word fjollë, which before standardisation was written as fqollë ( < Medieval Greek φακιολης).
The ng can be pronounced as /ŋ/ in final position, otherwise it is an allophone of n before k and g.
Before q and gj, n is always pronounced /ɲ/ but this is not reflected in the orthography.
ë can also range to an open-mid sound [ɜ] in the Northern Tosk dialect.
Mid sounds /e,o/ can also be heard as more open-mid sounds [ɛ,ɔ], in free variation.
Schwa
The schwa in Albanian has a great degree of variability from extreme back to extreme front articulation. Although the Indo-European schwa (*ə or *-h₂-) was preserved in Albanian, in some cases it was lost, possibly when a stressed syllable preceded it. Until the standardisation of the modern Albanian alphabet, in which the schwa is spelled as ⟨ë⟩, as in the work of Gjon Buzuku in the 16th century, various vowel letters and digraphs were employed, including ⟨ae⟩ by Lekë Matrënga and ⟨é⟩ by Pjetër Bogdani in the late 16th and early 17th century. Within the borders of Albania, the phoneme is pronounced about the same in both the Tosk and the Gheg dialect due to the influence of standard Albanian. However, in the Gheg dialects spoken in the neighbouring Albanian-speaking areas of Kosovo and North Macedonia, the phoneme is still[clarification needed] pronounced as back and rounded.
Grammar
Albanian has a canonical word order of SVO (subject–verb–object) like English and many other Indo-European languages. Albanian nouns are categorised by gender (masculine, feminine and neuter) and inflected for number (singular and plural) and case. There are five declensions and six cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, and vocative), although the vocative only occurs with a limited number of words (such as 'bir' ("son"), vocative case: biro, zog ("bird") vocative case: zogo), and the forms of the genitive and dative are identical (a genitive construction employs the prepositions i/e/të/së alongside dative morphemes). Some dialects also retain a locative case, which is not present in standard Albanian (e.g. "në malt" loc.sg.def). The cases apply to both definite and indefinite nouns, and there are numerous cases of syncretism.
The following shows the declension of mal (mountain), a noun in the masculine class which takes "i" in the definite singular:
Indefinite
Definite
singular
plural
singular
plural
Nominative
një mal (a mountain)
male (several mountains)
mali (the mountain)
malet (the mountains)
Accusative
një mal
male
malin
malet
Genitive
i/e/të/së një mali
i/e/të/së maleve
i/e/të/së malit
i/e/të/së maleve
Dative
një mali
maleve
malit
maleve
Ablative
(prej) një mali
(prej) malesh
(prej) malit
(prej) maleve
The following shows the declension of the noun zog (bird), a noun in the masculine class which takes "u" in the definite singular:
Indefinite
Definite
singular
plural
singular
plural
Nominative
një zog (a bird)
zogj (birds)
zogu (the bird)
zogjtë (the birds)
Accusative
një zog
zogj
zogun
zogjtë
Genitive
i/e/të/së një zogu
i/e/të/së zogjve
i/e/të/së zogut
i/e/të/së zogjve
Dative
një zogu
zogjve
zogut
zogjve
Ablative
(prej) një zogu
(prej) zogjsh
(prej) zogut
(prej) zogjve
The following table shows the declension of the noun vajzë (girl) in the feminine class:
Indefinite
Definite
singular
plural
singular
plural
Nominative
një vajzë (a girl)
vajza (girls)
vajza (the girl)
vajzat (the girls)
Accusative
një vajzë
vajza
vajzën
vajzat
Genitive
i/e/të/së një vajze
i/e/të/së vajzave
i/e/të/së vajzës
i/e/të/së vajzave
Dative
një vajze
vajzave
vajzës
vajzave
Ablative
(prej) një vajze
(prej) vajzash
(prej) vajzës
(prej) vajzave
The definite article is placed after the noun as in many other Balkan languages, like in Romanian, Macedonian and Bulgarian.
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/-h take -u (to avoid palatalization):
mal (mountain) / mali (the mountain);
libër (book) / libri (the book);
zog (bird) / zogu (the bird).
Nouns in the feminine class take the suffix -(i/j)a:
veturë (car) / vetura (the car);
shtëpi (house) / shtëpia (the house);
lule (flower) / lulja (the flower).
Nouns in the neuter class take -t.
Albanian has developed an analytical verbal structure in place of the earlier synthetic system, inherited from Proto-Indo-European. Its complex system of moods (six types) and tenses (three simple and five complex constructions) is distinctive among Balkan languages. There are two general types of conjugations.
Albanian has a series of verb forms called miratives or admiratives. These may express surprise on the part of the speaker, but may also have other functions, such as expressing irony, doubt, or . The Albanian use of admirative forms is unique in the Balkan context. In English, the expression of surprise can be rendered by 'oh, look!' or 'lookee there!'; the expression of doubt can be rendered by 'indeed!'; the expression of neutral reportedness can be rendered by 'apparently'.
Ti flet shqip. "You speak Albanian." (indicative)
Ti folke shqip! "You (surprisingly) speak Albanian!" (admirative)
Rruga është e mbyllur. "The street is closed." (indicative)
Rruga qenka e mbyllur. "(Apparently,) The street is closed." (admirative)
For more information on verb conjugation and on inflection of other parts of speech, see Albanian morphology.
Word order
Albanian word order is relatively free.[citation needed] To say 'Agim ate all the oranges' in Albanian, one may use any of the following orders, with slight pragmatic differences:
SVO: Agimi i hëngri të gjithë portokallët.
SOV: Agimi të gjithë portokallët i hëngri.
OVS: Të gjithë portokallët i hëngri Agimi.
OSV: Të gjithë portokallët Agimi i hëngri.
VSO: I hëngri Agimi të gjithë portokallët.
VOS: I hëngri të gjithë portokallët Agimi.
However, the most common order is subject–verb–object.
The verb can optionally occur in sentence-initial position, especially with verbs in the passive form (forma joveprore):
Parashikohetnjë ndërprerje "An interruption is anticipated".
Negation
Verbal negation in Albanian is mood-dependent, a trait shared with some fellow Indo-European languages such as Greek.
In indicative, conditional, or admirative sentences, 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".
Subjunctive, imperative, optative, or non-finite forms of verbs are negated with the particle mos:
Mos harro "Do not forget!".
Numerals
një—one
tetëmbëdhjetë—eighteen
dy—two
nëntëmbëdhjetë—nineteen
tri/tre—three
njëzet—twenty
katër—four
njëzet e një—twenty-one
pesë—five
njëzet e dy—twenty-two
gjashtë—six
tridhjetë—thirty
shtatë—seven
dyzet/katërdhjetë—forty
tetë—eight
pesëdhjetë—fifty
nëntë—nine
gjashtëdhjetë—sixty
dhjetë—ten
shtatëdhjetë—seventy
njëmbëdhjetë—eleven
tetëdhjetë—eighty
dymbëdhjetë—twelve
nëntëdhjetë—ninety
trembëdhjetë—thirteen
njëqind—one hundred
katërmbëdhjetë—fourteen
pesëqind—five hundred
pesëmbëdhjetë—fifteen
një mijë—one thousand
gjashtëmbëdhjetë—sixteen
një milion—one million
shtatëmbëdhjetë—seventeen
një miliard—one billion
Notes
In certain dialects, numerals with an extra syllable may undergo metrical syncope. For example, pesëmbëdhjetë becomes pesëmet.
Vigesimal system
Beside the Indo-European decimal numeration, there are also remnants of the vigesimal system, as njëzet'twenty' and dyzet'forty'. The Arbëreshë in Italy and Arvanites in Greece may still use trezet'sixty' and katërzet'eighty'. Albanian is the only Balkan language that has preserved the Pre-Indo-European vigesimal system.
Lexicon
This section should specify the language of its non-English content, using {{lang}}, {{transliteration}} for transliterated languages, and {{IPA}} for phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriate ISO 639 code. Wikipedia's multilingual support templates may also be used.See why.(April 2020)
Albanian is known within historical linguistics as a case of a language which, although surviving through many periods of foreign rule and multilingualism, saw a "disproportionately high" influx of loans from other languages augmenting and replacing much of its original vocabulary.[clarification needed] Of all the foreign influences in Albanian, the deepest reaching and most impactful was the absorption of loans from Latin in the Classical period and its Romance successors afterward. Scholars have estimated a great number of Latin loanwords in Albanian, some even claiming 60% of the Albanian vocabulary.
Major work in reconstructing Proto-Albanian has been done with the help of knowledge of the original forms of loans from Ancient Greek, Latin and Slavic, while Ancient Greek loanwords are scarce the Latin loanwords are of extreme importance in phonology. The presence of loanwords from more well-studied languages from time periods before Albanian was attested, reaching deep back into the Classical Era, has been of great use in phonological reconstructions for earlier ancient and medieval forms of Albanian. Some words in the core vocabulary of Albanian have no known etymology linking them to Proto-Indo-European or any known source language, and as of 2018 are thus tentatively attributed to an unknown, unattested, pre-Indo-European substrate language; some words among these include zemër (heart) and hekur (iron). Some among these putative pre-IE words are thought to be related to putative pre-IE substrate words in neighboring Indo-European languages, such as lule (flower), which has been tentatively linked to Latin lilia and Greek leirion.
Lexical distance of Albanian to other languages in a lexicostatistical analysis by Ukrainian linguist Tyshchenko shows the following results (the lower figure, the higher similarity): 49% Slovenian, 53% Romanian, 56% Greek, 82% French, 86% Macedonian, 86% Bulgarian.
Cognates with Illyrian
Illyrian term
description
Corresponding Albanian term
Andena, Andes, Andio, Antis
Personal Illyrian names based on a root-word and- or ant-, found in both the southern and the Dalmatian-Pannonian (including modern Bosnia and Herzegovina) onomastic provinces
Alb. andë (northern Albanian dialect, or Gheg) and ëndë (southern Albanian dialect or Tosk) "appetite, pleasure, desire, wish"
aran
"field"
Alb. arë; plural ara
Ardiaioi/Ardiaei
name of an Illyrian people
connected to hardhi "vine-branch, grape-vine", with a sense development similar to Germanic *stamniz, meaning both stem, tree stalk and tribe, lineage.[citation needed]
Alb. bind "to convince" or "to make believe", përbindësh "monster"
*bounon
"hut, cottage"
Alb bun
*brisa
"husk of grapes"
Alb bërsí "lees, dregs; mash" ( < PA *brutiā)
Barba-
"swamp", toponym from Metubarbis
Alb. bërrakë "swampy soil"
Daesitiates
name of an Illyrian people
Alb. dash "ram", corresponding contextually with south Slavonic dasa "ace", which might represent a borrowing and adaptation from Illyrian or even Proto-Albanian.
*mal
"mountain"
Alb mal "mountain"
*bardi
"white"
Alb bardhë "white"
*drakoina
"supper"
Alb. darke, dreke "supper, dinner"[page needed]
*drenis
"deer"
Alb. indef. dre, def. dreni "deer"
*delme
"sheep"
Alb. dele, Gheg delme "sheep"
*dard
"pear"
Alb. dardhë "pear"
sīca
"dagger"
Alb indef. thikë or def. thika "knife"
Ulc-
"wolf" (pln. Ulcinium)
Alb ujk "wolf", ulk (Northern Dialect)
*loúgeon
"pool"
Alb lag, legen "to wet, soak, bathe, wash" ( < PA * lauga), lëgatë "pool" ( < PA *leugatâ), lakshte "dew" ( < PA laugista)
*mag-
"great"
Alb. madh "big, great"
*mantía
"bramblebush"
Old and dial. Alb mandë "berry, mulberry" (mod. Alb mën, man)[citation needed]
rhinos
"fog, mist"
Old Alb ren "cloud" (mod. Alb re, rê) ( < PA *rina)
Vendum
"place"
Proto-Alb. wen-ta (Mod. Alb. vend)[page needed]
Early linguistic influences
The earliest loanwords attested in Albanian come from Doric Greek, whereas the strongest influence came from Latin. Some scholars argue that Albanian originated from an area located east of its present geographic spread due to the several common lexical items found between the Albanian and Romanian languages. However it does not necessarily define the genealogical history of Albanian language, and it does not exclude the possibility of Proto-Albanian presence in both Illyrian and Thracian territory.
The period during which Proto-Albanian and Latin interacted was protracted, lasting from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. Over this period, the lexical borrowings can be roughly divided into three layers, the second of which is the largest. The first and smallest occurred at the time of less significant interaction. The final period, probably preceding the Slavic or Germanic invasions, also has a notably smaller number of borrowings. Each layer is characterised by a different treatment of most vowels: the first layer follows the evolution of Early Proto-Albanian into Albanian; while 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 palatalisation.
A brief period followed, between the 7th and the 9th centuries, that was marked by heavy borrowings from South Slavic, some of which predate the "o-a" shift common to the modern forms of this language group.
Early Greek loans
There are some 30 Ancient Greek loanwords in Proto-Albanian. Many of these reflect a dialect which voiced its aspirants, as did the Macedonian dialect. Other loanwords are Doric; these words mainly refer to commodity items and trade goods and probably came through trade with a now-extinct intermediary.
According to Huld (1986), the following come from a Greek dialect without any significant attestation called "Makedonian" because it was akin to the native idiom of the Greek-speaking population in the Argead kingdom:
llërë; "elbow" < *ὠlénā
brukë; "tamarisk" < *mīrýkhā
mëllagë; 'mallow' < *malákhā (with the reflex of /ɡ/ for Greek <χ> indicating a dialectal voicing of the what came as an aspirate stop from Greek)
maraj "fennel" < *márathrion (cf Romanian mărar(iu), Ionic márathron; with the Albanian simplification of -dri̯- to -j- reflecting that of earlier *udri̯om to ujë "water")
Latin influence
Scholars have estimated a great number of Latin loanwords in Albanian, some even claiming 60% of the Albanian vocabulary. They include many frequently used core vocabulary items, including shumë ("very", from Latin summus), pak ("few", Latin paucus), ngushtë ("narrow", Latin angustus), pemë ("tree", Latin poma), vij ("to come", Latin veniō), rërë ("sand", Latin arena), drejt ("straight", Latin directus), kafshë ("beast", Latin causa, meaning "thing"), and larg ("far away", Latin largus).
Jernej Kopitar (1780–1844) was the first to note Latin's influence on Albanian and claimed "the Latin loanwords in the Albanian language had the pronunciation of the time of Emperor Augustus". Kopitar gave examples such as Albanian qiqer 'chickpea' from Latin cicer, qytet 'city, town' from civitas, peshk 'fish' from piscis, and shigjetë 'arrow' from sagitta. The hard pronunciations of Latin ⟨c⟩ and ⟨g⟩ are retained as palatal and velar stops in the Albanian loanwords. Gustav Meyer (1888) and Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke (1914) later corroborated this. Meyer noted the similarity between the Albanian verbs shqipoj "to speak clearly, enunciate" and shqiptoj "to pronounce, articulate" and the Latin word excipiō (meaning "to welcome"). Therefore, he believed that the word Shqiptar "Albanian person" was derived from shqipoj, which in turn was derived from the Latin word excipere. Johann Georg von Hahn, an Austrian linguist, had proposed the same hypothesis in 1854.
Eqrem Çabej also noticed, among other things, the archaic Latin elements in Albanian:
Latin /au/ becomes Albanian /a/ in the earliest loanwords: aurum → ar 'gold'; gaudium → gaz 'joy'; laurus → lar 'laurel'. Latin /au/ is retained in later loans, but is altered in a way similar to Greek: causa 'thing' → kafshë 'thing; beast, brute'; laud → lavd.
Latin /oː/ becomes Albanian /e/ in the oldest Latin loans: pōmus → pemë 'fruit tree'; hōra → herë 'time, instance'. An analogous mutation occurred from Proto-Indo-European to Albanian; PIE *nōs became Albanian ne 'we', PIE *oḱtṓw + suffix -ti- became Albanian tetë 'eight', etc.
Latin unstressed internal and initial syllables become lost in Albanian: cubitus → kub 'elbow'; medicus → mjek 'physician'; palūdem 'swamp' → Vulgar Latin*padūle → pyll 'forest'. An analogous mutation occurred from Proto-Indo-European to Albanian. In contrast, in later Latin loanwords, the internal syllable is retained: paganus → pagan; plaga → plagë 'wound', etc.
Latin /tj/, /dj/, /kj/ palatalized to Albanian /s/, /z/, /c/: vitium → ves 'vice; worries'; ratiōnem → arsye 'reason'; radius → rreze 'ray; spoke'; faciēs → faqe 'face, cheek'; socius → shok 'mate, comrade', shoq 'husband', etc. In turn, Latin /s/ was altered to /ʃ/ in Albanian.
Haralambie Mihăescu demonstrated that:
Some 85 Latin words have survived in Albanian but not (as inherited) in any Romance language. A few examples include Late Latin celsydri → dial. kulshedër → kuçedër 'hydra', hībernus → vërri 'winter pasture', sarcinārius 'used for packing, loading' → shelqëror 'forked peg, grapnel, forked hanger', sōlānum 'nightshade', lit. 'sun plant' → shullë(r) 'sunny place out of the wind, sunbathed area', splēnēticus → shpretkë 'spleen', trifurcus → tërfurk 'pitchfork'.
151 Albanian words of Latin origin were not inherited in Romanian. A few examples include Latin amīcus → Albanian mik 'friend', inimīcus → armik 'foe, enemy', ratiōnem → arsye, benedīcere → bekoj, bubulcus 'ploughman, herdsman' → bulk, bujk 'peasant', calicis → qelq 'drinking glass', castellum → kështjellë 'castle', centum → qind 'hundred', gallus → gjel 'rooster', iunctūra → gjymtyrë 'limb; joint', medicus → mjek 'doctor', retem → rrjetë 'net', spērāre → dial. shp(ë)rej, shpresoj 'to hope', pres 'to await', voluntās (voluntātis) → vullnet 'will; volunteer'.
Some Albanian church terminology has phonetic features which demonstrate their very early borrowing from Latin. A few examples include Albanian bekoj 'to bless' from benedīcere, engjëll 'angel' from angelus, kishë 'church' from ecclēsia, i krishterë 'Christian' from christiānus, kryq 'cross' from crux (crucis), (obsolete) lter 'altar' from Latin altārium, mallkoj 'to curse' from maledīcere, meshë 'mass' from missa, murg 'monk' from monachus, peshkëp 'bishop' from episcopus, and ungjill 'gospel' from ēvangelium.
Other authors have detected Latin loanwords in Albanian with an ancient sound pattern from the 1st century BC,[clarification needed] for example, Albanian qingël(ë) 'saddle girth; dwarf elder' from Latin cingula and Albanian e vjetër 'old, aged; former' from vjet but influenced by Latin veteris. The Romance languages inherited these words from Vulgar Latin: cingula became (via *clinga) Romanian chingă 'girdle; saddle girth', and veterānus became Romanian bătrân 'old'.
Albanian, Basque, and the surviving Celtic languages such as Breton and Welsh are the non-Romance languages today that have this sort of extensive Latin element dating from ancient Roman times, which has undergone the sound changes associated with the languages. Other languages in or near the former Roman area either came on the scene later (Turkish, the Slavic languages, Arabic) or borrowed little from Latin despite coexisting with it (Greek, German), although German does have a few such ancient Latin loanwords (Fenster 'window', Käse 'cheese').
Romanian scholars such as Vatasescu and Mihaescu, using lexical analysis of the Albanian language, have concluded that Albanian was heavily influenced by an extinct Romance language that was distinct from both Romanian and Dalmatian. Because the Latin words common to only Romanian and Albanian are significantly fewer in number than those that are common to only Albanian and Western Romance, Mihaescu argues that the Albanian language evolved in a region with much greater contact with Western Romance regions than with Romanian-speaking regions, and located this region in present-day Albania, Kosovo and Western Macedonia, spanning east to Bitola and Pristina.
Slavic influence
After the Slavs arrived in the Balkans, the Slavic languages became an additional source of loanwords. Contact between Albanian with the Slavic languages lasted very intensively for almost four centuries, and continued even in the late Middle Ages. Slavic loanwords in Albanian constitute a less studied area in literature. Per Vladimir Orel (1998),[page needed] there are about 556 Slavic loanwords in Albanian.
Turkish influence
The rise of the Ottoman Empire meant an influx of Turkish words; this also entailed the borrowing of Persian and Arabic words through Turkish. Some Turkish personal names, such as Altin, are common. There are some loanwords from Modern Greek, especially in the south of Albania. Many borrowed words have been replaced by words with Albanian roots or modern Latinised (international) words. According to calculations mentioned by Emanuele Banfi (1985), the total number of Turkish loanwords in Albanian is about two thousand. However, when taking into account obsolete and rare words, and restricted dialectalisms, their number is considerably larger.
Gothic
Albanian is also known to possess a small set of loans from Gothic, with early inquiry into the matter done by Norbert Jokl and Sigmund Feist, though such loans had been claimed earlier in the 19th century by early linguists such as Gustav Meyer. Many words claimed as Gothic have now been attributed to other origins by later linguists of Albanian (fat and tufë, though used for major claims by Huld in 1994, are now attributed to Latin, for example), or may instead be native to Albanian, inherited from Proto-Indo-European. Today, it is accepted that there are a few words from Gothic in Albanian, but for the most part they are scanty because the Goths had few contacts with Balkan peoples.
Martin Huld defends the significance of the admittedly sparse Gothic loans for Albanian studies, however, arguing that Gothic is the only clearly post-Roman and "pre-Ottoman" language after Latin with a notable influence on the Albanian lexicon (the influence of Slavic languages is both pre-Ottoman and Ottoman). He argues that Gothic words in Albanian are attributable to the late fourth and early fifth centuries during the invasions of various Gothic speaking groups of the Balkans under Alaric, Odoacer, and Theodoric. He argues that Albanian Gothicisms bear evidence for the ordering of developments within Proto-Albanian at this time: for example, he argues Proto-Albanian at this stage had already shifted /uː/ to /y/ as Gothic words with /uː/ reflect with /u/ in Albanian, not /y/ as seen in most Latin and ancient Greek loans, but had not yet experienced the shift of /t͡s/ to /θ/, since loans from Gothic words with /θ/ replace /θ/ with /t/ or another close sound.
Notable words that continue to be attributed to Gothic in Albanian by multiple modern sources include:
tirk "felt gaiters, white felt" (cf Romanian tureac "top of boot") < Gothic *θiuh-brōks- or *θiuhbrōkeis, cf Old High German theobrach "gaiters"
shkumë "foam" < Gothic *skūm-, perhaps via an intermediary in a Romance *scuma (cf. Romanian spumă)
gardh "fence, garden" is either considered a native Albanian word that was loaned into Romanian as gard
zverk "nape, back of neck" < Gothic *swairhs; the "difficult" word having various otherwise been attributed (with phonological issues) to Celtic, Greek or native development.
horr "villain, scoundrel" and horre "whore" < Gothic *hors "adulterer, cf Old Norse hóra "whore"
punjashë "purse", diminutive of punjë < Gothic puggs "purse" (cf. Romanian pungă)
Patterns in loaning
Although Albanian is characterised by the absorption of many loans, even, in the case of Latin, reaching deep into the core vocabulary, certain semantic fields nevertheless remained more resistant. Terms pertaining to social organisation are often preserved, though not those pertaining to political organisation, while those pertaining to trade are all loaned or innovated.
Hydronyms present a complicated picture; the term for "sea" (det) is native and an "Albano-Germanic" innovation referring to the concept of depth, but a large amount of maritime vocabulary is loaned. Words referring to large streams and their banks tend to be loans, but lumë ("river") is native, as is rrymë (the flow of water). Words for smaller streams and stagnant pools of water are more often native, but the word for "pond", pellg is in fact a semantically shifted descendant of the old Greek word for "high sea", suggesting a change in location after Greek contact. Albanian has maintained since Proto-Indo-European a specific term referring to a riverside forest (gjazë), as well as its words for marshes. Albanian has maintained native terms for "whirlpool", "water pit" and (aquatic) "deep place", leading Orel to speculate that the Albanian Urheimat likely had an excess of dangerous whirlpools and depths.
Regarding forests, words for most conifers and shrubs are native, as are the terms for "alder", "elm", "oak", "beech", and "linden", while "ash", "chestnut", "birch", "maple", "poplar", and "willow" are loans.
The original kinship terminology of Indo-European was radically reshaped; changes included a shift from "mother" to "sister", and were so thorough that only three terms retained their original function, the words for "son-in-law", "mother-in-law" and "father-in-law". All the words for second-degree blood kinship, including "aunt", "uncle", "nephew", "niece", and terms for grandchildren, are ancient loans from Latin.
The Proto-Albanians appear to have been cattle breeders given the vastness of preserved native vocabulary pertaining to cow breeding, milking and so forth, while words pertaining to dogs tend to be loaned. Many words concerning horses are preserved, but the word for horse itself is a Latin loan.
The map does not indicate where the language is majority or minority.
"... in Figure 2.1 are listed three subfamilies which contain only one language each: the Albanian, Hellenic, and Armenian subfamilies. These three languages – Albanian, Greek, and Armenian – are isolates within the Indo-European family showing no closer connection to any other Indo-European languages or to each other." — Pereltsvaig (2012) pp. 30–31
"It is generally accepted that Albanians continue one of the ancient languages of the Balkans, although scholars disagree on which language they spoke and what area of the Balkans they occupied before the Slavs' migration to the Balkans." — Curtis (2011) p. 16(p 16)
"So while linguists may debate about the ties between Albanian and older languages of the Balkans, and while most Albanians may take the genealogical connection to Illyrian as incontrovertible, the fact remains that there is simply insufficient evidence to connect Illyrian, Thracian, or Dacian with any language, including Albanian." — Curtis (2011) p. 18(p 18)
"The most probable predecessor of Albanian was Illyrian since much of present-day Albania was inhabited by the Illyrians during the Antiquity, but the comparison of the two languages is impossible because almost nothing is known about Illyrian ... It is a-priori less probable to assume that a single language was spoken in the whole Illyricum, from the river Arsia in Istria, to Epirus in Greece, when such a linguistic uniformity is found nowhere else in Europe before the Roman conquest. Moreover, the examination of personal names and toponyms from Illyricum shows that several onomastic areas can be distinguished, and these onomastic areas just might correspond to different languages spoken in ancient Illyricum. If Illyrians actually spoke several different languages, the question arises: From which Illyrian language did Albanian develop? – and that question cannot be answered until new data are discovered." — Ranko (2012)[page needed][full citation needed]
Klein, Jared; Brian, Joseph; Fritz, Matthias (2018). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Walter de Gruyter. p. 1800. ISBN9783110542431.
"Language and alphabet Article 13". Constitution of Montenegro. WIPO. 19 October 2007. Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian and Croatian shall also be in the official use.
"Application of the Charter in Serbia" (PDF). European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. 11 June 2013. pp. 4–5, 9.
Franceschini, Rita (2014). "Italy and the Italian-Speaking Regions". In Fäcke, Christiane (ed.). Manual of Language Acquisition. Walter de Gruyter GmbH. p. 546. ISBN9783110394146.
"Reservations and Declarations for Treaty No.148 – European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages". Council of Europe. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2015.
Coretta, Stefano; Riverin-Coutlée, Josiane; Kapia, Enkeleida; Nichols, Stephen (2022). "Northern Tosk Albanian". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 53 (3). Illustration of the IPA: 1–23. doi:10.1017/S0025100322000044. hdl:20.500.11820/ebce2ea3-f955-4fa5-9178-e1626fbae15f.
Orel 2000, p. 12; Matzinger 2018, p. 1790; Matasović 2019, p. 39; Hamp 1963, p. 104; Katicic 2012, p. 184: "And yet we know that it is the continuation of a language spoken in the Balkans already in ancient times. This has been proved by the fact that there are Ancient Greek loan words in Albanian".
Fatjona Mejdini (3 May 2013). "Albania Aims to Register its Huge Diaspora". Balkan Insight. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
Friedman, Victor (2022). "The Balkans". In Salikoko Mufwene, Anna Maria Escobar (ed.). The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact: Volume 1: Population Movement and Language Change. Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN9781009115773.
Lazaridis, Iosif; Alpaslan-Roodenberg, Songül; et al. (26 August 2022). "The genetic history of the Southern Arc: A bridge between West Asia and Europe". Science. 377 (6609): eabm4247. doi:10.1126/science.abm4247. PMC10064553. PMID 36007055. S2CID 251843620.
Coretta, Stefano; Riverin-Coutlée, Josiane; Kapia, Enkeleida; Nichols, Stephen (16 August 2022). "Northern Tosk Albanian". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 53 (3): 1122–1144. doi:10.1017/S0025100322000044. hdl:20.500.11820/ebce2ea3-f955-4fa5-9178-e1626fbae15f. Though the origin of the language has been debated, the prevailing opinion in the literature is that it is a descendant of Illyrian (Hetzer 1995).
Matasović 2019, p. 5: "Much has been written about the origin of the Albanian language. The most probable predecessor of Albanian was Illyrian, since much of the present-day Albania was inhabited by the Illyrians during the Antiquity, but the comparison of the two languages is impossible because almost nothing is known about Illyrian, despite the fact that two handbooks of that language have been published (by Hans Krahe and Anton Mayer)... examination of personal names and toponyms from Illyricum shows that several onomastic areas can be distinguished, and these onomastic areas just might correspond to different languages spoken in ancient Illyricum. If Illyrians actually spoke several different languages, the question arises -from which 'Illyrian' language did Albanian develop, and that question cannot be answered until new data are discovered. The single "Illyrian" gloss preserved in Greek (rhínon 'fog') may have the reflex in Alb. (Gheg) re͂ 'cloud' (Tosk re)< PAlb. *ren-."
Beekes 2011, p. 25: "It is often thought (for obvious geographic reasons) that Albanian descends from ancient Illyrian (see above), but this cannot be ascertained as we know next to nothing about Illyrian itself."
Fortson 2010, p. 446: "Albanian forms its own separate branch of Indo-European; it is the last branch to appear in written records. This is one of the reasons why its origins are shrouded in mystery and controversy. The widespread assertion that it is the modern–day descendant of Illyrian, spoken in much the same region during classical times ([...]), makes geographic and historical sense but is linguistically untestable since we know so little about Illyrian."
Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 11: "Although there are some lexical items that appear to be shared between Romanian (and by extension Dacian) and Albanian, by far the strongest connections can be argued between Albanian and Illyrian. The latter was at least attested in what is historically regarded as Albanian territory and there is no evidence of any major migration into Albanian territory since our records of Illyrian occupation. The loan words from Greek and Latin date back to before the Christian era and suggest that the ancestors of the Albanians must have occupied Albania by then to have absorbed such loans from their histori-cal neighbors. As the Illyrians occupied Albanian territory at this time, they are the most likely recipients of such loans."
Villar, Francisco (1996). Los indoeuropeos y los orígenes de Europa (in Spanish). Madrid: Gredos. pp. 313–314, 316. ISBN84-249-1787-1.
"...these innovations, as those that are also evident in different varieties of Gheg, are not such as to impede communication between speakers of the two dialects. Furthermore, the major part of the Albanian lexicon is common to the two dialects."
Fortson 2010, p. 446: "The two dialects are mutually intelligible in their standard varieties, although numerous subdialects exist that show considerable variation, especially in the north and northeast of the Geg–speaking area."
"The river Shkumbin in central Albania historically forms the boundary between those two dialects, with the population on the north speaking varieties of Geg and the population on the south varieties of Tosk."
"It is the case of the evolution of stressed /a-/ and partly stressed /e-/ in front of a nasal consonant to /ë-/ in thee southern dialect. While the evolution /a-/ > /ë/ in front of a nasal consonant has involved the southern dialect, the evolution /e-/ > /-ë/ in the same phonetic conditions has not taken place in the northern part and partly in the eastern part of that dialect (...). This phonetic phenomenon has appeared earlier than rhotacism, as it is clearly evidenced in such examples as llanë > llërë, ranë > rërë etc., in which the evolution /a-/ > /ë-/ could not take place before /-r-/. Since this phonetic change has not appeared in the Slavic loanwords of Albanian, but has involved mainly the I.E. inherited words as well as the loans from Old Greek (compare mokënë > mokërë < mākhanāʼ etc.) and from Latin (compare ranë > rërë > arena etc.), it has generally been acknowledged that it has taken place in the pre-Slavic period of Albanian. Its sporadic appearance in a very reduced number of Slavic loanwords is due to the action of analogy with similar cases of inherited or more ancient loans of Albanian."
"In Tosk /a/ before a nasal has become a central vowel (shwa), and intervocalic /n/ has become /r/. These two sound changes have affected only the pre-Slav stratum of the Albanian lexicon, that is the native words and loanwords from Greek and Latin."
Douglas Q. Adams (January 1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis. pp. 9, 11. ISBN978-1-884964-98-5. The Greek and Latin loans have undergone most of the far-reaching phonological changes which have so altered the shape of inherited IE words while Slavic and Turkish words do not show these changes. Thus Albanian must have acquired much of its present form by the time Slavs entered into the Balkans in the fifth and sixth centuries AD [middle of p. 11] [...] The loan words from Greek and Latin date back to before the Christian era [p. 9] [...] Even very common words such as mik ʻfriendʼ (< Lat amicus) or këndoj ʻI sing; readʼ (< Lat cantāre) come from Latin and attest to a widespread intermingling of pre-Albanian and Balkan Latin speakers during the Roman period, roughly from the second century BC to the fifth century AD. [before middle of p. 11]
Fortson 2010, p. 448: "The dialectal split into Geg and Tosk happened sometime after the region became Christianized in the fourth century AD: Christian Latin loanwords show Tosk rhotacism, such as Tosk murgu 'monk' (Geg mungu) from Lat. monachus."
"...such sporadic analogical cases do not reverse the generally acknowledged conclusion that this dialectal peculiarity as a phonetic process has appeared in pre-Slavic period of Albanian and is relatively more ancient than the rhotacism. It has most probably appeared not later than the V-VI centuries A.D."
See also Hamp 1963 The isogloss is clear in all dialects I have studied, which embrace nearly all types possible. It must be relatively old, that is, dating back into the post-Roman first millennium. As a guess, it seems possible that this isogloss reflects a spread of the speech area, after the settlement of the Albanians in roughly their present location, so that the speech area straddled the Jireček Line.
"And, as it was pointed out in §3, since the dialectal differentiations have appeared in a certain geographical area, one is entitled to draw the conclusion that the speakers of the northern and southern dialects have been present in their actual areas in the Post-Roman and Pre-Slavic period of Albanian."
Euromosaic project (2006). "L'arvanite/albanais en Grèce" (in French). Brussels: European Commission. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
"Albanians in Italy". Archived from the original on 21 January 2012. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
"Robert Elsie". The Albanian Language. 25 November 1972. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
Dedvukaj, Lindon; Ndoci, Rexhina (2023). "Linguistic variation within the Northwestern Gheg Albanian dialect". Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America. 8 (1). Linguistic Society of America: 5501. doi:10.3765/plsa.v8i1.5501.
Dedvukaj, Lindon; Gehringer, Patrick (2023). "Morphological and phonological origins of Albanian nasals and its parallels with other laws". Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America. 8 (1). Linguistic Society of America: 5508. doi:10.3765/plsa.v8i1.5508.
Mai, Nicola. "The Albanian diaspora-in-the-making: media, migration and social exclusion." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31, no. 3 (2005): 543–561.
de Rapper, Gilles. "Albanians facing the Ottoman past: the case of the Albanian diaspora in Turkey." (2005).
Gkaintartzi, Anastasia, Aspasia Chatzidaki, and Roula Tsokalidou. "Albanian parents and the Greek educational context: Who is willing to fight for the home language?." International Multilingual Research Journal 8, no. 4 (2014): 291–308.
"Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo (with amendments I-XXVI)". Library of Congress. Article 5 [Languages] 1. The official languages in the Republic of Kosovo are Albanian and Serbian....
Trandafili, Evis; Meçe, Elinda Kajo; Duka, Enea (2020). Appice, Annalisa; Ceci, Michelangelo; Loglisci, Corrado; Manco, Giuseppe; Masciari, Elio; Ras, Zbigniew W. (eds.). Complex Pattern Mining: New Challenges, Methods and Applications. Springer Nature. p. 89. ISBN978-3-030-36617-9. It [Albanian] is the official language of Albania, the co-official language of Kosovo, and the co-official language of many western municipalities of the Republic of Macedonia. Albanian is also spoken widely in some areas in Greece, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia, and in some towns in southern Italy and Sicily.
"Linguistic diversity among foreign citizens in Italy". Statistics of Italy. 25 July 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
"Macedonia's Albanian-Language Bill Becomes Law". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 15 January 2019.
"Albanian migration" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 September 2016. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
Saunders, Robert A. (2011). Ethnopolitics in Cyberspace: The Internet, Minority Nationalism, and the Web of Identity. Lanham: Lexington Books. p. 98. ISBN9780739141946. In addition to the recent emigrants, there are older diasporic communities around the world. There are upwards of 5 million ethnic Albanians in the Turkish Republic; however, the vast majority of this population is assimilated and no longer possesses fluency in the language, though a vibrant Albanian community maintains its distinct identity in Istanbul to this day. Egypt also lays claim to some 18,000 Albanians, supposedly lingering remnants of Mohammad Ali's army.
Gjinari, Jorgji. Dialektologjia shqiptare
The river Shkumbin in central Albania historically forms the boundary between those two dialects, with the population on the north speaking varieties of Geg and the population on the south varieties of Tosk. (page 23) Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World By Keith Brown, Sarah Ogilvie Contributor Keith Brown, Sarah Ogilvie Edition: illustrated Published by Elsevier, 2008 ISBN0-08-087774-5, ISBN978-0-08-087774-7
Prendergast, Eric (2017). The Origin and Spread of Locative Determiner Omission in the Balkan Linguistic Area (Ph.D). University of California Berkeley. p. 87.
The Italo-Albanian villages of southern Italy Issue 25 of Foreign field research program, report, National Research Council (U.S.) Division of Earth Sciences Volume 1149 of Publication (National Research Council (U.S.)) Foreign field research program, sponsored by Office of Naval research, report; no.25 Issue 25 of Report, National Research Council (U.S.). Division of Earth Sciences Volume 1149 of (National Academy of Sciences. National Research Council. Publication) Author George Nicholas Nasse Publisher National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, 1964 page 24-25 link
Nasse, George Nicholas (1964). The Italo-Albanian Villages of Southern Italy. National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council. ISBN9780598204004.
Schumacher, Stefan (2020). "The perfect system of Old Albanian (Geg variety)". In Robert Crellin; Thomas Jügel (eds.). Perfects in Indo-European Languages and Beyond. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory. Vol. 352. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN978-90-272-6090-1.
Fortson 2010, p. 446: "Albanian forms its own separate branch of Indo-European; it is the last branch to appear in written records."
Watkins, Calvert. "Proto-Indo-European: Comparison and Reconstruction", in The Indo-European Languages, Anna Giacalone Ramat and Paolo Ramat, eds. London: Routledge, 1998.
Google Books, Mallory, J. P. and Adams, D. Q.: The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World
JHholm.de Archived 11 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Holm, Hans J.: The Distribution of Data in Word Lists and its Impact on the Subgrouping of Languages. In: Christine Preisach, Hans Burkhardt, Lars Schmidt-Thieme, Reinhold Decker (eds.): Data Analysis, Machine Learning, and Applications. Proc. of the 31st Annual Conference of the German Classification Society (GfKl), University of Freiburg, 7–9 March 2007. Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg-Berlin
HJholm.de Archived 5 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine A possible Homeland of the Indo-European Languages And their Migrations in the Light of the Separation Level Recovery (SLRD) Method – Hans J. Holm
Sowa, Wojciech (2020). "Thracian Tracio". Palaeohispanica: 810–811. doi:10.36707/palaeohispanica.v0i20.377. ISSN 1578-5386.
Thorsø, Rasmus (2019). "Two Balkan Indo-European Loanwords". In Matilde Serangeli; Thomas Olander (eds.). Dispersals and Diversification: Linguistic and Archaeological Perspectives on the Early Stages of Indo-European. Brill's Studies in Indo-European Languages & Linguistics. Vol. 19. Brill. pp. 251–262. ISBN9789004416192.
Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Albanian". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2022). "Albanian". Ethnologue (25th ed.). SIL International. Archived from the original on 8 April 2022.
Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond (1976). Migrations and invasions in Greece and adjacent areas. Noyes Press. p. 57. ISBN978-0-8155-5047-1.
Zeitschrift für Balkanologie. R. Trofenik. 1990. p. 102.
Tibor Živković, Vladeta Petrović, Aleksandar Uzelac, Dragana Kunčer: Anonymi Descriptio Europae Orientalis : Anonimov opis istočne Evrope. January 2013. Edition: Izvori za srpsku istoriju. Publisher: Istorijski institut. Editor: Srđan Rudić. ISBN978-86-7743-102-0
Robert Elsie (2010). Historical Dictionary of Albania. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 216. ISBN978-0-8108-6188-6.
Fortson 2010, pp. 447–448: "But it is likely that there were earlier works which have vanished. The earliest preserved books both in Geg and in Tosk share features of spelling that point to some kind of common literary language having already developed, and a letter written by a Dominican friar named Gulielmus Adea in 1332 says that the inhabitants of Albania had a language very different from Latin but used the Latin alphabet in their writings, suggesting (if not proving) an already–existing written Albanian tradition."
Bartl, Peter (1995). Albanien: vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart (in German). Michigan: Pustet. p. 86. ISBN9783791714516.
Pereltsvaig, Asya (2012). "Indo-European languages". Languages of the World: An introduction. Cambridge University Press. pp. 30–31. ISBN978-1-107-37791-2.
Fine, J.A. (1991). The Early Medieval Balkans. University of Michigan Press. pp. 10–11. ISBN9780472081493 – via Google Books.
In his latest book, Eric Hamp supports the thesis that the Illyrian language belongs to the Northwestern group, that the Albanian language is descended from Illyrian, and that Albanian is related to Messapic which is an earlier Illyrian dialect (Comparative Studies on Albanian, 2007).
Woodard, Roger D. (2008). The Ancient Languages of Europe. Cambridge University Press. ISBN9780521684958. The modern Albanian language, it has been conjectured, is descendent directly from ancient Illyrian ...
Curtis, Matthew Cowan (30 November 2011). Slavic-Albanian Language Contact, Convergence, and Coexistence. ISBN9781267580337. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
Matasovic, Ranko (2012). "A grammatical sketch of Albanian for students of Indo-European".
"Introduction to Albanian". lrc.la.utexas.edu. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
Taylor, Ann; Ringe, Donald; Warnow, Tandy (August 1995). Written at Manchester, UK. Smith, John Charles; Bentley, Delia (eds.). Historical Linguistics 1995: Selected papers. 12th International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Vol. 1 – General issues and non-Germanic Languages. Amsterdam, NL: John Benjamins Publishing (published 2000). p. 400. ISBN9027236666.
Vermeer, Willem (2008). "The prehistory of the Albanian vowel system: A preliminary exploration". Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics. 32: 591–608. ISSN 0169-0124. JSTOR 40997529.
Sampson, Rodney (1997). "Rebecca Posner, The Romance Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, xvi + 376 pp. 0 521 28139 3". Journal of French Language Studies (book review). 7 (2): 227–229. doi:10.1017/S0959269500003793. ISSN 1474-0079. S2CID 230472704.
Posner, Rebecca (1966). The Romance Languages: A linguistic introduction (1st ed.). United States of America: Anchor Books. p. 3. ISBN084460853X.
Friedman, Victor A. (2011). "The Balkan languages and Balkan linguistics". Annual Review of Anthropology. 40: 275–291. doi:10.1146/annurev-anthro-081309-145932. ISSN 0084-6570. JSTOR 41287733.
Lindstedt, Jouko (2000). "Linguistic balkanization: Contact-induced change by mutual reinforcement". Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics. 28: 231–246. ISSN 0169-0124. JSTOR 40997168.
Bayraktar, Uğur Bahadır (15 December 2011). "Mythifying the Albanians: A Historiographical Discussion on Vasa Efendi's "Albania and the Albanians"". Balkanologie. Revue d'Études Pluridisciplinaires. XIII (1–2). doi:10.4000/balkanologie.2272.
Curtis, Matthew Cowan (30 November 2011). Slavic-Albanian Language Contact, Convergence, and Coexistence. p. 17. ISBN9781267580337. ... for example, argues that from some indeterminate time a pre-Albanian (in Hamp's terms, Albanoid) population inhabited areas stretching from Poland to the current area
Tripod.co, Eric Hamp, "The position of Albanian, Ancient IE dialects, Proceedings of the Conference on IE linguistics held at the University of California, Los Angeles, April 25–27, 1963, ed. By Henrik Birnbaum and Jaan Puhvel. "It is clear that in the Middle Ages the Albanians extended farther north (Jokl, Albaner §2); that there are persuasive arguments which have been advanced against their having extended as far as the Adriatic coast—the fact that Scodra 'Scutari' (Shkodër) shows un-Albanian development (see §6 below), that there is no demonstrated old maritime vocabulary (see above), and that there are few ancient Greek loans (Jokl, Albaner §5; but see §5 below)
Kazhdan, Alexander (Ed.) (1991). Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press. pp. 52–53. ISBN978-0-19-504652-6.
Demiraj, Shaban. Prejardhja e shqiptarëve në dritën e dëshmive të gjuhës shqipe.(Origin of Albanians through the testimonies of the Albanian language) Shkenca (Tirane) 1999
Schumacher, Stefan (2016). "The development of the PIE middle in Albanian". In Bjarne Simmelkjær Sandgaard Hansen; Benedicte Nielsen Whitehead; Thomas Olander; Birgit Anette Olsen (eds.). Etymology and the European Lexicon: Proceedings of the 14th Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, 17–22 September 2012, Copenhagen. Wiesbaden: Reichert – via Academia.edu.
Müller, Peter O.; Ohnheiser, Ingeborg; Olsen, Susan; Rainer, Franz, eds. (2016). "171. Albanian". Word-Formation: An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe. Vol. 5. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. p. 3124. doi:10.1515/9783110424942. ISBN9783110424942.
Pantić, Miroslav (1990). Književnost na tlu Crne Gore i Boke Kotorske od XVI do XVIII veka. Serbian Literary Guild. p. 98. ISBN9788637901907.
Newmark, Leonard; Hubbard, Philip; Prifti, Peter R. (1982). Standard Albanian: a reference grammar for students. Andrew Mellon Foundation. p. 3. ISBN9780804711296. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
Francisc Pall (1971). "Di nuovo sulle biografie scanderbegiane del XVI secolo". Revue des études sud-est européennes (in French). 9 (1). Academia Republicii Socialiste România, Academia Republicii Populare Romîne: 102. Retrieved 28 May 2010.
Anamali, Skënder (2002). Historia e popullit shqiptar në katër vëllime (in Albanian). Vol. I. Botimet Toena. p. 311. OCLC 52411919.
Bardhyl Demiraj (2018). "100. The evolution of Albanian". In Fritz, Matthias; Joseph, Brian; Klein, Jared (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN978-3-11-054036-9. and the outcomes of the three dorsal series suggest that Albanian, like Luwian, may have origi- nally retained this three-way opposition intact and therefore is neither centum nor satem, despite the clear satem-like outcome of its palatal dorsals in most instances
J. P. Mallory; Douglas Q. Adams (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture. Taylor & Francis. ISBN978-1-884964-98-5. ISBN1-884964-98-2, ISBN978-1-884964-98-5
de Vaan, Michiel (2018). "The phonology of Albanian". In Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Vol. 3. Walter de Gruyter. p. 1757. but h- has arisen secondarily in words such as hark 'curve' ← Latin arcus, which renders h- non-probative
Kostallari, Androkli (1973). Drejtshkrimi i gjuhës shqipe. "Instituti i Gjuhësisë dhe i Letërsisë" ( in "Akademia e Shkencave e RPS të Shqipërisë", today "Akademia e Shkencave e Republikës së Shqipërisë").
Kamusella, Tomasz (2016). "The idea of a Kosovan language in Yugoslavia's language politics" (PDF). International Journal of the Sociology of Language (242): 217–237. doi:10.1515/ijsl-2016-0040. hdl:10023/11804. S2CID55005555. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 January 2024 – via St Andrews Research Repository.
"Drejtshkrimi Prishtinë 1964". Wikisource. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
Kostallari, Androkli (1976). Fjalori drejtshkrimor i gjuhës shqipe. "Instituti i Gjuhësisë dhe i Letërsisë" (in "Akademia e Shkencave e RPS të Shqipërisë", today "Akademia e Shkencave e Republikës së Shqipërisë").[dead link]
Akademia e Shkencave e RPS të Shqipërisë (1980). Fjalori i Gjuhës së Sotme Shqipe. Tirana: Academy of Sciences of Albania.
Vrapi, Julia (27 April 2013). "Emil Lafe: Këshilli Ndërakademik për Gjuhën Shqipe ecën pa busull, ende pa një platformë shkencore të miratuar njëzëri". Sot.com.al.
Kolgjini, Julie M. (2004). Palatalisation in Albanian : an acoustic investigation of stops and affricates. PhD Dissertation, University of Texas at Arlington. ISBN0496859366.
Granser, Thedor; Moosmüller, Sylvia. "The schwa in Albanian" (PDF). Institute of Acoustics of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
de Vaan, Michiel. "PIE *e in Albanian" (PDF). p. 72. Retrieved 16 December 2010.
Elsie, Robert; London Centre for Albanian Studies (2005). Albanian literature: a short history. I.B.Tauris. p. 16. ISBN978-1-84511-031-4.
Maxwell, Daniel Newhall. (1979). A Crosslinguistic Correlation between Word Order and Casemarking institution. Bloomington: Indiana University Pub.
Breu, W. (2021) Italo-Albanian: Balkan Inheritance and Romance Influence p. 154
Friedman, Victor A. (1986). "Evidentiality in the Balkans: Bulgarian, Macedonian and Albanian" (PDF). In Chafe, Wallace L.; Nichols, Johanna (eds.). Evidentiality: The Linguistic Coding of Epistemology. Ablex. pp. 168–187. ISBN978-0-89391-203-1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 March 2018. Retrieved 12 May 2023. p. 180.
Friedman, Victor (2021). "The Epic Admirative in Albanian". In Scaldaferri, Nicola (ed.). Wild Songs, Sweet Songs: The Albanian Epic in the Collections of Milman Parry and Albert B. Lord. Publications of the Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature Series. Vol. 5. In collaboration with Victor Friedman, John Kolsti, Zymer U. Neziri. Harvard University, Center for Hellenic Studies. ISBN9780674271333.
Hamp, Eric Pratt (3 June 2011). "Albanian". In Gvozdanovic, Jadranka (ed.). Indo-European Numerals. Walter de Gruyter. p. 869. ISBN978-3-11-085846-4.
Shkurtaj, Gjovalin (1972). "Vëzhgime rreth të folmëve të banorëve të Bregut të Matës, ishullit të Lezhës dhe ishullit të Shëngjinit". Studime Filologjike (in Albanian) (2). Akademia e Shkencave e RPSSH, Instituti i Gjuhësisë dhe i Letërsisë: 96.
Matasovic, Ranko (2018). A Grammatical Sketch of Albanian for students of Indo-European. p. 6.
Sawicka, Irena. "A Crossroad Between West, East and Orient–The Case of Albanian Culture." Colloquia Humanistica. No. 2. Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2013. Page 97: "Even according to Albanian linguists, Albanian vocabulary is composed in 60 percent of Latin words from different periods... When albanological studies were just emerging, it happened that Albanian was classified as a Romance language. Already there exists the idea of a common origin of both Albanian and Rumanian languages. The Rumanian grammar is almost identical to that of Albanian, but it may be as well the effect of later convergence within the Balkan Sprachbund.."
"Excel File_Lexical-Distance-Matrix". Alternative Transport. 19 November 2016.
"How much does language change when it travels?". Alternative Transport. 4 May 2015.
Adzanela, Ardian (1 January 1970). "Cultural Treasure of Bosnia and Herzegovina edition-Prehistoric and Ancient Period- Book 2- Illyrian Bosnia and Herzegovina-an Overview of a Cultural Legacy/ Ancient Illyrians of Bosnia and Herzegovina | Ardian Adžanela Adzanela Axhanela". Academia.edu.
Suart E. Mann (1977). An Albanian Historical Grammar. Buske. ISBN978-3-87118-262-4.
Sborník prací Filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity : Řada klasická. 3 June 2008.
Ushaku, Ruzhdi, Hulumtime etnoliguistike, chapter: The continuation of Illyrian Bind in Albanian Mythology and Language, Fakulteti filologjise, Prishtine, 2000, p. 46-48
Mayani, Zĕchariă (1962). The Etruscans begin to speak. Souvenir Press.
"Illyrian Glossary". bizland.com. Archived from the original on 17 June 2011.
Stipčević, Aleksandar (1977). The Illyrians: history and culture. Noyes Press. ISBN9780815550525.
Linguistic Society of America (1964). Language, Volumes 1–3. Linguistic Society of America.
Huld, Martin E. (1986). "Accentual Stratification of Ancient Greek Loanwords in Albanian". Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung. 99 (2): 245–253.
Orel 2000, p. 23: "Latin loanwords are of extreme importance for the history of Albanian phonology, especially its vocalism. The duration of the borrowing was so long that loanwords reflect several distinct chronological stages."
Curtis, Matthew Cowan (30 November 2011). Slavic-Albanian language contact, convergence, and coexistence. pp. 17–18. ISBN9781267580337. One other point that some scholars make is the fact that Albanian and Romanian share many lexical items; this has led some to believe that Albanian originated east of its present geographical spread (Georgiev 1957; Hamp 1994)...it does not necessarily determine the genealogical history of the language, nor does it rule out the possibility of Proto-Albanian being present in both Illyrian and Thracian territory.
The Field of Linguistics, Volume 2 Volume 1 of World of linguistics Authors Bernd Kortmann, Johan Van Der Auwera Editors Bernd Kortmann, Johan Van Der Auwera Publisher Walter de Gruyter, 2010 ISBN3-11-022025-3, ISBN978-3-11-022025-4 p.412
Ancient Indo-European dialects: proceedings, Volume 1963 Ancient Indo-European Dialects: Proceedings, University of California, Los Angeles. Center for Research in Languages and Linguistics Authors Henrik Birnbaum, Jaan Puhvel, University of California, Los Angeles. Center for Research in Languages and Linguistics Editors Henrik Birnbaum, Jaan Puhvel Publisher University of California Press, 1966 p.102
Orel 2000 postulates a Vulgar Latin intermediary for no good reason. Mallory & Adams (1997) erroneously give the word as native, from *melítiā, the protoform underlying Greek mélissa; however, this protoform gave Albanian mjalcë "bee", which is a natural derivative of Proto-Albanian * melita; "honey" (mod. mjaltë).
Meyer, Gustav. Die lateinischen Elemente im Albanesischen. (In: Grцbers Grundriss, I; I.Auflage) (1888), p. 805
Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm. Rumanisch, romanisch, albanesisch. (Mitteilungen des Romanischen Instituts an der Universitet Wien. I. Heilderberg 1914), p. 32
Bardhyl Demiraj (2010). Wir sind die Deinen. Studien zur albanischen Sprache, Literatur und Kulturgeschichte, dem Gedenken an Martin Camaj (1925–1992) gewidmet. Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN978-3-447-06221-3.
Çabej, Eqrem. Karakteristikat e huazimeve latine të gjuhës shqipe. SF 1974/2 (In German RL 1962/1) pp. 13-51
Jokl, Norbert (1929). "Balkangermanisches und Germanisches in Albanischen". Festschrift der 57. Versammlung deutscher Philologen und Schulmänner in Salzberg. Baden bei Wien: 105–137.
Feist, Sigmund (1939). Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprafche. Leiden: Brill.
Ajeti, Idriz (1968). "La présence de l'albanais dans les parlers des populations slaves de la Péninsule balkanique à la lumière de la langue et de la toponymie". Studia Albanica. 2: 131–136.
Ajeti, Idriz (1972). "Për historinë e marrëdhënieve të hershme gjuhësore shqiptare-sllave". Studime Filologjike. 4: 83–94. (reprint in Gjurmime albanologjike – Seria e shkencave filologjike II – 1972. Pristina: 1974, pp. 33–44).
Arapi, Inna (2010). Der Gebrauch von Infinitiv nagger und Konjunktiv im Altalbanischen mit Ausblick auf das Rumänische. Hamburg: Kovač.
Banfi, Emanuele (1991). Storia linguistica del sud-est europeo: Crisi della Romània balcanica tra alto e basso medioevo. Milan: Franco Angeli.
Beekes, Robert Stephen Paul (2011). de Vaan, Michiel (ed.). Comparative Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction (2nd ed.). John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN978-90-272-1185-9.
Bihiku, Koço (1980). A history of Albanian literature. Tirana: 8 Nëntori Publishing House. OCLC 9133663.
Bonnet, Guillaume (1998). Les mots latins de l'albanais. Paris: L'Harmattan. ISBN9782738460349.
Bopp, Franz (1855). Über das Albanesische in seinen verwandtschaftlichen Beziehungen. Berlin: J. A. Stargardt.
Boretzky, Norbert (1975). Phonologie und Morphologie der albanischen Turzismen. Der türkische Einfluss auf das Albanische. Vol. 1. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Boretzky, Norbert (1975). Wörterbuch der albanischen Turzismen. Der türkische Einfluss auf das Albanische. Vol. 2. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Buchholz, Oda; Fiedler, Wilfried (1987). Albanische Grammatik (in German). Leipzig: VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie. ISBN978-3-324-00025-3.
Çabej, Eqrem (1962). "Disa probleme themelore të historisë së vjetër të gjuhës shqipe". Buletin i Universitetit Shtetëror të Tiranës. Seria e Shkencave Shoqërore. 4: 117–148. (In German Studia Albanica 1 (1964))
Çabej, Eqrem (1962). "Zur Charakteristik der lateinischen Lehnwörter im Albanischen". Revue roumaine de linguistique (in German). 7 (1): 161–199.
Çabej, Eqrem (1974). "Karakteristikat e huazimeve latine të gjuhës shqipe". Studime Filologjike (in Albanian). 2: 14–51.
Çabej, Eqrem. "Rreth disa çështjeve të historisë së gjuhës shqipe", Buletin i Universitetit Shtetëror të Tiranës. Seria e Shkencave Shoqërore 3 (1963): 69–101. (In Romanian Studii și cercetări lingvistiche 4 (1954))
Çabej, Eqrem. "Mbi disa rregulla të fonetikës historike të shqipes", Studime Filologjike 2 (1970): 77–95 (In German "Über einige Lautregeln des Albanischen", Die Sprache 18 (1972): 132–54)
Çabej, Eqrem (1972). "L'ancien nom national des albanais". Studia Albanica. 1: 1–40.
Çabej, Eqrem (1972). "Problemi i vendit të formimit të gjuhës shqipe". Studime Filologjike. 4: 3–27.
Çabej, Eqrem. Studime etimologjike në fushë të shqipes. 7 vols. Tirana: Akademia et Shkencave e Republikës Popullore të Shqipërisë, Instituti i Gjuhësisë dhe i Letërsisë, 1976–2014.
Camaj, Martin (1966). Albanische Wortbildung. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Camaj, Martin (1984). Albanian Grammar. Translated by Fox, Leonard. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Camarda, Demetrio (1864). Saggio di grammatologia comparata sulla lingua albanese. Livorno: Successore di Egisto Vignozzi.
Camarda, Demetrio (1866). Appendice al saggio di grammatologia comparata sulla lingua albanese. Prato.
Campbell, George L., ed. (2000). "Albanian". Compendium of the World's Languages. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 50–57.
Cimochowski, Wacław (1950). "Recherches sur l'histoire du sandhi dans la langue albanaise". Lingua Posnaniensis. 2: 220–255.
Cimochowski, Wacław (1960). "Des recherches sur la toponomastique de l'Albanie". Lingua Posnaniensis. 8: 133–145.
Cimochowski, Wacław (1973). "Pozicioni gjuhësor i ilirishtes ballkanike në rrethin e gjuhëve indoevropiane". Studime Filologjike. 2.
Coretta, Stefano; Riverin-Coutlée, Josiane; Kapia, Enkeleida; Nichols, Stephen (2022). "Northern Tosk Albanian". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 53 (3): 1–23. doi:10.1017/S0025100322000044. hdl:20.500.11820/ebce2ea3-f955-4fa5-9178-e1626fbae15f.
Demiraj, Shaban (1998). "Albanian". In Giacalone Ramat, Anna; Ramat, Paolo (eds.). The Indo-European Languages. London: Routledge. pp. 480–501. ISBN9780415064491.
Demiraj, Shaban (1986). Gramatikë historike e gjuhës shqipe. Tirana: 8 Nëntori.
Demiraj, Shaban (1988). Gjuha shqipe dhe historia e saj. Tirana: Shtëpia botuese e librit universitar.
Demiraj, Shaban (1996). Fonologjia historike e gjuhës shqipe. Tirana: Akademia e Shkencave e Shqiperise, Instituti i Gjuhesise dhe i Letersise. OCLC 39182610.
Demiraj, Shaban (1999). Prejardhja e shqiptarëve në dritën e dëshmive të gjuhës shqipe. Tirana: Shkenca. ISBN9789992765470.
Demiraj, Shaban (2006). The origin of the Albanians: linguistically investigated. Tirana: Academy of Sciences of Albania. ISBN978-99943-817-1-5.
Demiraj, B.; Esposito, A. (2009). "Albanian". In Brown, Keith; Ogilvie, Sarah (eds.). Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World. Elsevier. ISBN978-0-08-087774-7.
Demiraj, Bardhyl (2010). "Gli insediamenti degli albanesi nell'alto medioevo" (PDF). In Belluscio, Gianni; Mendicino, Antonino (eds.). Scritti in onore di Eric Pratt Hamp per il suo 90 compleanno. Rende: Università della Calabria. pp. 73–83.
Demiraj, Bardhyl (2012). "La Maledizione dell'Epirota (1483)". Res Albanicae. I (1). Palermo: 133–149.
De Simone, Carlo (1986). "Gli illiri del Sud. Tentativo di una definizione". Iliria. 1.
Desnickaja, Agnija (1968). Albanskij jazyk i ego dialekty. Leningrad: Nauka.
de Vaan, Michiel (2018). "The Phonology of Albanian". Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Vol. 3. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 1732–1749.
Domi, Mahir (1974). "Prapashtesa ilire dhe shqipe, përkime dhe paralelizma". Studime Filologjike. 4.
Domi, Mahir (1975). "Considérations sur les traits communs ou parallèles de l'albanais avec les autres langues balkaniques et sur leur étude". Studia Albanica. 1.
Fortson, Benjamin Wynn IV (2010). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN978-1-4443-5968-8.
Friedman, Victor A. (2020). "The Balkans". In Adamou, Evangelia; Matras, Yaron (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Language Contact. Routledge Handbooks in Linguistics. Routledge. pp. 385–403. ISBN9781351109147.
Genesin, Monica (1998). "Albanian". In Price, Glanville (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe. Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 4–8.
Gjinari, Jorgji (1968). "Për historinë e dialekteve të gjuhës shqipe". Studime Filologjike. 4.
Gjinari, Jorgji (1969). "Mbi vazhdimësinë e ilirishtes në gjuhën shqipe". Studime Filologjike. 3.
Gjinari, Jorgji (1970). Dialektologjia shqiptare. Pristina: Universiteti.
Gjinari, Jorgji (1976). "Struktura dialektore e shqipes e parë në lidhje me historinë e popullit". Studime Filologjike. 3.
Gjinari, Jorgji (1982). "Dëshmi të historisë së gjuhës shqipe për kohën dhe vendin e formimit të popullit shqiptar". Studime Filologjike. 3.
Gjinari, Jorgji; Beci, Bahri; Shkurtaj, Gjovalin; Gosturani, Xheladin (2007). Atlasi dialektologjik i gjuhës shqipe. Vol. 1. Naples: Università degli Studi di Napoli L'Orientali.
Hamp, Eric P. (1963). "The Position of Albanian, Ancient IE dialects". In Birnbaum, Henrik; Puhvel, Jaan (eds.). Proceedings of the Conference on IE linguistics held at the University of California, Los Angeles, April 25–27, 1963.
Hamp, Eric; Adams, Douglas (August 2013). "The Expansion of the Indo-European Languages: An Indo-Europeanist's Evolving View" (PDF). Sino-Platonic Papers. 239.
Hamp, Eric P. (1994). "Albanian". In Asher, R. E. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Vol. 1. Oxford: Pergamon. pp. 65–67.
Huld, Martin E. (1984). Basic Albanian Etymologies. Columbus, OH: Slavica Publishers.
Hyllested, Adam; Joseph, Brian (2022). "Albanian". The Indo-European Language Family. Cambridge University Press. pp. 223–245. doi:10.1017/9781108758666.013. ISBN9781108499798.
Imami, Petrit (2011). Origjina e fjalëve të gjuhës shqipe (in Albanian). Prishtinë.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Ismajli, Rexhep (2015). Eqrem Basha (ed.). Studime për historinë e shqipes në kontekst ballkanik [Studies on the History of Albanian in the Balkan context] (in Albanian). Prishtinë: Kosova Academy of Sciences and Arts, special editions CLII, Section of Linguistics and Literature.
Katicic, Radoslav (2012). Ancient Languages of the Balkans. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN978-3111568874.
Kocaqi, Altin (2013). Dokumente historiko-gjuhësore: vëndi i shqipes ndër gjuhët evropiane. Albania: Marin Barleti. ISBN978-9995604707.
Kopitar, Jernej K. (1829). "Albanische, walachische und bulgarische Sprache". Jahrbücher der Literatur (Wien). 46: 59–106.
Kretschmer, Paul (1896). Einleitung in die Geschichte der griechischen Sprache. Göttingen.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Kretschmer, Paul (1935). "Sprachliche Vorgeschichte des Balkans". Revue internationale des études balkaniques. 2 (1): 41–48.
Lloshi, Xhevat (1994). Reiter, Norbert; Hinrichs, Uwe; van Leeuwen-Turnovcova, Jirina (eds.). Substandard Albanian and Its Relation to Standard Albanian. Sprachlicher Standard und Substandard in Südosteuropa und Osteuropa: Beiträge zum Symposium vom 12.-16. Oktober 1992 in Berlin. Berlin: Otto Harrassowitz. pp. 184–194.
Lloshi, Xhevat (1999). "Albanian". In Hinrichs, Uwe (ed.). Handbuch der Südosteuropa-Linguistik. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. pp. 277–299.
Lloshi, Xhevat (2008). Rreth alfabetit të shqipes: me rastin e 100-vjetorit të Kongresit të Manastirit. Skopje–Pristina–Tirana: Logos-A. ISBN9789989582684.
Lambertz, Maximilian. Lehrgang des Albanischen. 3 vols., vol. 1: Albanisch-deutsches Wörterbuch; vol. 2: Albanische Chrestomathie; vol. 3: Grammatik der albanischen Sprache. Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften 1954; Berlin 1955; Halle an der Saale 1959.
Mallory, J.P.; Adams, D. Q. (1997). "Albanian language". Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. London: Fitzroy Dearborn. pp. 8–11.
Matasović, Ranko (2019). A Grammatical Sketch of Albanian for Students of Indo European(PDF). Zagreb. p. 39.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Matzinger, Joachim (2009). "Die Albaner als Nachkommen der Illyrier aus der Sicht der historischen Sprachwissenschaft". In Schmitt, Oliver Jens; Frantz, Eva (eds.). Albanische Geschichte: Stand und Perspektiven der Forschung. Munich: R. Oldenburg Verlag. pp. 13–35.
Matzinger, Joachim. "Der lateinisch-albanische Sprachkontakt und seine Implikationen für Vorgeschichte des Albanischen und der Albaner", in Südosteuropäische Romania: Siedlungs-/Migrationsgeschichte und Sprachtypologie. Edited by Wolfgang Dahmen et al. Tübingen: Narr Verlag, 2012, pp. 75–103.
Matzinger, Joachim (2018). "The Lexicon of Albanian". In Klein, Jared; Joseph, Brian; Fritz, Matthias (eds.). Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics. Vol. 3. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN978-3-11-054243-1.
Mayer, Anton. Die Sprache der alten Illyrier. 2 vols. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1957/1959.
Mann, Stuart E. (1977). An Albanian Historical Grammar. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.
Meyer, Gustav. "Albanesische Studien I. Die Pluralbildungen der albanesischen Nomina", in Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften 104 (1883): 257–362.
Miklosich, Franz. Albanische Forschungen. 2 vols., vol. 1: Die slavischen Elemente im Albanischen; vol. 2: Die romanischen Elemente im Albanischen. Vienna: Karl Gerold's Sohn, 1870.
Mihăescu, Haralambie (1966). "Les éléments latins de la langue albanaise". Révue des études sud-est européennes. 4: 5–33, 323–53.
Mihăescu, Haralambie (1978). La langue latine dans le sud-est de l'Europe. Bucharest and Paris: Editura Academiei and Les Belles Lettres.
Newmark, Leonard; Hubbard, Philip; Prifti, Peter (1982). Standard Albanian: A Reference Grammar for Students. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Ölberg, Hermann (1977). "Einige Uberlegungen zur Autochtonie der Albaner auf der Balkanhalbinsel". In Ölberg, Hermann M. (ed.). Akten der internationalen albanologischen Kolloquiums, Innsbruck, 1972, zum Gedächtnis an Norbert Jokl. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck.
Ölberg, Hermann (1982). "Kontributi i gjuhësisë për çështjen e atdheut ballkanik të shqiptarëve". Studime Filologjike. 3.
Olsen, Birgit Anette; Thorsø, Rasmus (2022). "Armenian". In Olander, Thomas (ed.). The Indo-European Language Family : A Phylogenetic Perspective. Cambridge University Press. pp. 202–222. doi:10.1017/9781108758666.012. ISBN9781108758666.
Pedersen, Holger (1894). "Bidrag til den albanesiske Sproghistorie". Festskrift til Vilhelm Tomsen. Kopenhagen: Gyldendal. pp. 246–257.
Albanian endonym shqip ʃcip gjuha shqipe ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ or arberisht aɾbeˈɾiʃt is an Indo European language and the only surviving representative of the Albanoid branch which belongs to the Paleo Balkan group It is the native language of the Albanian people Standard Albanian is the official language of Albania and Kosovo and a co official language in North Macedonia and Montenegro where it is the primary language of significant Albanian minority communities Albanian is recognized as a minority language in Italy Croatia Romania and Serbia It is also spoken in Greece and by the Albanian diaspora which is generally concentrated in the Americas Europe and Oceania Albanian is estimated to have as many as 7 5 million native speakers AlbanianShqip ArberishtPronunciation ʃcip ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ aɾbeˈɾiʃt Native toAlbania Kosovo Greece Italy Montenegro North Macedonia SerbiaEthnicityAlbaniansNative speakers7 5 million 2017 Language familyIndo European AlbanoidAlbanianEarly formsProto Indo European Proto AlbanianDialectsGheg Arbanasi Istrian Upper Reka Malsia e Madhe Tosk Arberesh Arvanitika Cham Lab Writing systemLatin Albanian alphabet Albanian BrailleOfficial statusOfficial language in Albania Kosovo North Macedonia co official Montenegro co official Recognised minority language in Italy Serbia Croatia RomaniaRegulated byAcademy of Sciences of Albania Academy of Sciences and Arts of KosovoLanguage codesISO 639 1 span class plainlinks sq span ISO 639 2 span class plainlinks alb span a href wiki ISO 639 2 B class mw redirect title ISO 639 2 B B a span class plainlinks sqi span a href wiki ISO 639 2 T class mw redirect title ISO 639 2 T T a ISO 639 3 a href https iso639 3 sil org code sqi class extiw title iso639 3 sqi sqi a inclusive code Individual codes a href https iso639 3 sil org code aae class extiw title iso639 3 aae aae a Arberesh a href https iso639 3 sil org code aat class extiw title iso639 3 aat aat a Arvanitika a href https iso639 3 sil org code aln class extiw title iso639 3 aln aln a Gheg a href https iso639 3 sil org code als class extiw title iso639 3 als als a ToskGlottologalba1267Linguasphereto 55 AAA ahe 25 varieties 55 AAA aaa to 55 AAA ahe 25 varieties The dialects of the Albanian language in Southern Europe This article contains IPA phonetic symbols Without proper rendering support you may see question marks boxes or other symbols instead of Unicode characters For an introductory guide on IPA symbols see Help IPA Albanian and other Paleo Balkan languages had their formative core in the Balkans after the Indo European migrations in the region Albanian in antiquity is often thought to have been an Illyrian language for obvious geographic and historical reasons or otherwise an unmentioned Balkan Indo European language that was closely related to Illyrian and Messapic The Indo European subfamily that gave rise to Albanian is called Albanoid in reference to a specific ethnolinguistically pertinent and historically compact language group Whether descendants or sisters of what was called Illyrian by classical sources Albanian and Messapic on the basis of shared features and innovations are grouped together in a common branch in the current phylogenetic classification of the Indo European language family The first written mention of Albanian was in 1284 in a witness testimony from the Republic of Ragusa while a letter written by Dominican Friar Gulielmus Adea in 1332 mentions the Albanians using the Latin alphabet in their writings The oldest surviving attestation of modern Albanian is from 1462 The two main Albanian dialect groups or varieties Gheg and Tosk are primarily distinguished by phonological differences and are mutually intelligible in their standard varieties with Gheg spoken to the north and Tosk spoken to the south of the Shkumbin river Their characteristics in the treatment of both native words and loanwords provide evidence that the split into the northern and the southern dialects occurred after Christianisation of the region 4th century AD and most likely not later than the 6th century AD hence possibly occupying roughly their present area divided by the Shkumbin river since the Post Roman and Pre Slavic period straddling the Jirecek Line Centuries old communities speaking Albanian dialects can be found scattered in Greece the Arvanites and some communities in Epirus Western Macedonia and Western Thrace Croatia the Arbanasi Italy the Arbereshe as well as in Romania Turkey and Ukraine The Malsia e Madhe Gheg Albanian and two varieties of the Tosk dialect Arvanitika in Greece and Arberesh in southern Italy have preserved archaic elements of the language Ethnic Albanians constitute a large diaspora with many having long assimilated in different cultures and communities Consequently Albanian speakers do not correspond to the total ethnic Albanian population as many ethnic Albanians may identify as Albanian but are unable to speak the language Standard Albanian is a standardised form of spoken Albanian based on Tosk Geographic distributionMap of countries where Albanian holds official status Official language Recognised minority language The language is spoken by approximately 6 million people in the Balkans primarily in Albania Kosovo North Macedonia Serbia Montenegro and Greece However due to old communities in Italy and the large Albanian diaspora the worldwide total of speakers is much higher than in Southern Europe and numbers approximately 7 5 million Europe The Albanian language is the official language of Albania and Kosovo and a co official language in North Macedonia and Montenegro Albanian is a recognised minority language in Croatia Italy Romania and in Serbia Albanian is also spoken by a minority in Greece specifically in the Thesprotia and Preveza regional units and in a few villages in Ioannina and Florina regional units in Greece It is also spoken by 450 000 Albanian immigrants in Greece making it one of the commonly spoken languages in the country after Greek Albanian is the third most common mother tongue among foreign residents in Italy This is due to a substantial Albanian immigration to Italy Italy has a historical Albanian minority of about 500 000 scattered across southern Italy known as Arbereshe Approximately 1 million Albanians from Kosovo are dispersed throughout Germany Switzerland and Austria These are mainly immigrants from Kosovo who migrated during the 1990s In Switzerland the Albanian language is the sixth most spoken language with 176 293 native speakers Albanian became an official language in North Macedonia on 15 January 2019 Americas There are large numbers of Albanian speakers in the United States Argentina Chile Uruguay and Canada Some of the first ethnic Albanians to arrive in the United States were the Arbereshe The Arbereshe have a strong sense of identity and are unique in that they speak an archaic dialect of Tosk Albanian called Arberesh In the United States and Canada there are approximately 250 000 Albanian speakers It is primarily spoken on the East Coast of the United States in cities like New York City Boston Chicago Philadelphia and Detroit as well as in parts of the states of New Jersey Ohio and Connecticut citation needed In Argentina there are nearly 40 000 Albanian speakers mostly in Buenos Aires need quotation to verify Asia and Africa Approximately 1 3 million people of Albanian ancestry live in Turkey with more than 500 000 recognizing their ancestry language and culture There are other estimates however that place the number of people in Turkey with Albanian ancestry and or background upward to 5 million However the vast majority of this population is assimilated and no longer possesses fluency in the Albanian language though a vibrant Albanian community maintains its distinct identity in Istanbul to this day Egypt also lays claim to about 18 000 Albanians mostly Tosk speakers Many are descendants of the Janissary of Muhammad Ali Pasha an Albanian who became Wali and self declared Khedive of Egypt and Sudan In addition to the dynasty that he established a large part of the former Egyptian and Sudanese aristocracy was of Albanian origin In addition to the recent emigrants there are older diasporic communities around the world Oceania Albanian is also spoken by Albanian diaspora communities residing in Australia and New Zealand DialectsThe dialects of the Albanian languageAlbanian Tosk Northern Tosk Laberisht Cham Arvanitika Arberesh Gheg Northwest Gheg Northeast Gheg Central Gheg Southern Gheg The Albanian language has two distinct dialects Tosk which is spoken in the south and Gheg spoken in the north Standard Albanian is based on the Tosk dialect The Shkumbin River is the rough dividing line between the two dialects Gheg is divided into four sub dialects Northwest Gheg Northeast Gheg Central Gheg and Southern Gheg It is primarily spoken in northern Albania Kosovo and throughout Montenegro and northwestern North Macedonia One fairly divergent dialect is the Upper Reka dialect which is however classified as Central Gheg There is also a diaspora dialect in Croatia the Arbanasi dialect Tosk is divided into five sub dialects including Northern Tosk the most numerous in speakers Laberisht Cham Arvanitika and Arberesh Tosk is spoken in southern Albania southwestern North Macedonia and northern and southern Greece Cham Albanian is spoken in North western Greece while Arvanitika is spoken by the Arvanites in southern Greece In addition Arberesh is spoken by the Arbereshe people descendants of 15th and 16th century migrants who settled in southeastern Italy in small communities in the regions of Sicily and Calabria These settlements originated from the Arvanites communities probably of Peloponnese known as Morea in the Middle Ages Among them the Arvanites call themselves Arberor and sometime Arberesh The Arberesh dialect is closely related to the Arvanites dialect with more Italian vocabulary absorbed during different periods of time OrthographyAlbanian keyboard layout The Albanian language has been written using many alphabets since the earliest records from the 15th century The history of Albanian language orthography is closely related to the cultural orientation and knowledge of certain foreign languages among Albanian writers The earliest written Albanian records come from the Gheg area in makeshift spellings based on Italian or Greek Originally the Tosk dialect was written in the Greek alphabet and the Gheg dialect was written in the Latin script Both dialects had also been written in the Ottoman Turkish version of the Arabic script Cyrillic and some local alphabets Elbasan Vithkuqi Todhri Veso Bey Jan Vellara and others see original Albanian alphabets More specifically the writers from northern Albania and under the influence of the Catholic Church used Latin letters those in southern Albania and under the influence of the Greek Orthodox church used Greek letters while others throughout Albania and under the influence of Islam used Arabic letters There were initial attempts to create an original Albanian alphabet during the 1750 1850 period These attempts intensified after the League of Prizren and culminated with the Congress of Manastir held by Albanian intellectuals from 14 to 22 November 1908 in Manastir present day Bitola which decided on which alphabet to use and what the standardised spelling would be for standard Albanian This is how the literary language remains The alphabet is the Latin alphabet with the addition of the letters e c and ten digraphs dh th xh gj nj ng ll rr zh and sh According to Robert Elsie The hundred years between 1750 and 1850 were an age of astounding orthographic diversity in Albania In this period the Albanian language was put to writing in at least ten different alphabets most certainly a record for European languages the diverse forms in which this old Balkan language was recorded from the earliest documents to the beginning of the twentieth century consist of adaptations of the Latin Greek Arabic and Cyrillic alphabets and what is even more interesting a number of locally invented writing systems Most of the latter alphabets have now been forgotten and are unknown even to the Albanians themselves ClassificationAlbanian within Indo European language family tree based on Ancestry constrained phylogenetic analysis of Indo European languages by Chang et al January 2015 Albanian constitutes one of the eleven major branches of the Indo European language family within which it occupies an independent position In 1854 Albanian was demonstrated to be an Indo European language by the philologist Franz Bopp Albanian was formerly compared by a few Indo European linguists with Germanic and Balto Slavic all of which share a number of isoglosses with Albanian Other linguists linked the Albanian language with Latin Greek and Armenian while placing Germanic and Balto Slavic in another branch of Indo European In current scholarship there is evidence that Albanian is closely related to Greek and Armenian while the fact that it is a satem language is less significant Balkanic ArmenianGraeco Albanian Graeco Phrygian GreekPhrygian extinct Illyric Messapic extinct Albanian GhegToskAlbanian in the Palaeo Balkanic Indo European branch based on the chapters Albanian Hyllested amp Joseph 2022 and Armenian Olsen amp Thorso 2022 in Olander ed The Indo European Language Family Messapic is considered the closest language to Albanian grouped in a common branch titled Illyric in Hyllested amp Joseph 2022 Hyllested amp Joseph 2022 in agreement with recent bibliography identify Greco Phrygian as the IE branch closest to the Albanian Messapic one These two branches form an areal grouping which is often called Balkan IE with Armenian The hypothesis of the Balkan Indo European continuum posits a common period of prehistoric coexistence of several Indo European dialects in the Balkans prior to 2000 BC To this group would belong Albanian Ancient Greek Armenian Phrygian fragmentary attested languages such as Macedonian Thracian or Illyrian and the relatively well attested Messapic in Southern Italy The common features of this group appear at the phonological morphological and lexical levels presumably resulting from the contact between the various languages The concept of this linguistic group is explained as a kind of language league of the Bronze Age a specific areal linguistics phenomenon although it also consisted of languages that were related to each other A common prestage posterior to PIE comprising Albanian Greek and Armenian is considered as a possible scenario In this light due to the larger number of possible shared innovations between Greek and Armenian it appears reasonable to assume at least tentatively that Albanian was the first Balkan IE language to branch off This split and the following ones were perhaps very close in time allowing only a narrow time frame for shared innovations Albanian represents one of the core languages of the Balkan Sprachbund Glottolog and Ethnologue recognize four Albanian languages They are classified as follows Indo European Albanian Tosk Northern Tosk Albanian Southern Tosk Arbereshe Albanian Arvanitika Albanian Gheg AlbanianHistoryHistorical documentation The first attested written mention of the Albanian language was on 14 July 1284 in Ragusa in modern Croatia Dubrovnik when a crime witness named Matthew testified I heard a voice crying on the mountain in the Albanian language Latin Audivi unam vocem clamantem in monte in lingua albanesca The Albanian language is also mentioned in the Descriptio Europae Orientalis dated in 1308 Habent enim Albani prefati linguam distinctam a Latinis Grecis et Sclauis ita quod in nullo se intelligunt cum aliis nationibus Namely the above mentioned Albanians have a language that is different from the languages of Latins Greeks and Slavs so that they do not understand each other at all The oldest attested document written in Albanian dates to 1462 while the first audio recording in the language was made by Norbert Jokl on 4 April 1914 in Vienna However as Fortson notes Albanian written works existed before this point they have simply been lost The existence of written Albanian is explicitly mentioned in a letter attested from 1332 and the first preserved books including both those in Gheg and in Tosk share orthographic features that indicate that some form of common literary language had developed By the Late Middle Ages during the period of Humanism and the European Renaissance the term lingua epirotica Epirotan language was preferred in the intellectual literary and clerical circles of the time and used as a synonym for the Albanian language Published in Rome in 1635 by the Albanian bishop and writer Frang Bardhi the first dictionary of the Albanian language was titled Latin Dictionarium latino epiroticum Latin Epirotan dictionary During the five century period of the Ottoman presence in Albania the language was not officially recognised until 1909 when the Congress of Dibra decided that Albanian schools would finally be allowed citation needed Linguistic affinities Albanian is an isolate within the Indo European language family no other language has been conclusively linked to its branch The only other languages that are the sole surviving members of a branch of Indo European are Armenian and Greek The Albanian language is part of the Indo European language family and the only surviving representative of its own branch which belongs to the Paleo Balkan group Although it is still uncertain which ancient mentioned language of the Balkans it continues or where in the region its speakers lived In general there is insufficient evidence to connect Albanian with one of those languages whether Illyrian Thracian or Dacian Among these possibilities Illyrian is the most probable Although Albanian shares lexical isoglosses with Greek Germanic and to a lesser extent Balto Slavic the vocabulary of Albanian is quite distinct In 1995 Taylor Ringe and Warnow used quantitative linguistic techniques that appeared to obtain an Albanian subgrouping with Germanic a result which the authors had already reasonably downplayed clarification needed Indeed the Albanian and Germanic branches share a relatively moderate number of lexical cognates Many shared grammatical elements or features of these two branches do not corroborate the lexical isoglosses Albanian also shares lexical linguistic affinity with Latin and Romance languages Sharing linguistic features unique to the languages of the Balkans Albanian also forms a part of the Balkan linguistic area or sprachbund Historical presence and location The place and the time that the Albanian language was formed are uncertain The American linguist Eric Hamp has said that during an unknown chronological period a pre Albanian population termed as Albanoid by Hamp inhabited areas stretching from Poland to the southwestern Balkans Further analysis has suggested that it was in a mountainous region rather than on a plain or seacoast The words for plants and animals characteristic of mountainous regions are entirely original but the names for fish and for agricultural activities such as ploughing are borrowed from other languages A deeper analysis of the vocabulary however shows that could be a consequence of a prolonged Latin domination of the coastal and plain areas of the country rather than evidence of the original environment in which the Albanian language was formed For example the word for fish is borrowed from Latin but not the word for gills which is native Indigenous are also the words for ship raft navigation sea shelves and a few names of fish kinds but not the words for sail row and harbor objects pertaining to navigation itself and a large part of sea fauna This rather shows that Proto Albanians were pushed away from coastal areas in early times probably after the Latin conquest of the region and thus lost a large amount or the majority of their sea environment lexicon A similar phenomenon could be observed with agricultural terms While the words for arable land wheat cereals vineyard yoke harvesting cattle breeding etc are native the words for ploughing farm and farmer agricultural practices and some harvesting tools are foreign This again points to intense contact with other languages and people rather than providing evidence of a possible linguistic homeland also known as a Urheimat citation needed 1905 issue of the magazine Albania the most important Albanian periodical of the early 20th century The centre of Albanian settlement remained the Mat River In 1079 the Albanians were recorded farther south in the valley of the Shkumbin River The Shkumbin a 181 km long river that lies near the old Via Egnatia is approximately the boundary of the primary dialect division for Albanian Tosk and Gheg The characteristics of Tosk and Gheg in the treatment of the native words and loanwords from other languages are evidence that the dialectal split preceded the Slavic migrations to the Balkans which means that in that period the 5th to 6th centuries AD Albanians were occupying nearly the same area around the Shkumbin river which straddled the Jirecek Line References to the existence of Albanian as a distinct language survive from the 14th century but they failed to cite specific words The oldest surviving documents written in Albanian are the formula e pagezimit Baptismal formula Un te paghesont pr emenit t Atit e t Birit e t Spertit Senit I baptize thee in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit recorded by Pal Engjelli Bishop of Durres in 1462 in the Gheg dialect and some New Testament verses from that period The linguists Stefan Schumacher and Joachim Matzinger University of Vienna assert that the first literary records of Albanian date from the 16th century The oldest known Albanian printed book Meshari or missal was written in 1555 by Gjon Buzuku a Roman Catholic cleric In 1635 Frang Bardhi wrote the first Latin Albanian dictionary The first Albanian school is believed to have been opened by Franciscans in 1638 in One of the earliest Albanian dictionaries was written in 1693 it was the Italian manuscript Pratichae Schrivaneschae authored by the Montenegrin sea captain Julije Balovic and includes a multilingual dictionary of hundreds of the most frequently used words in everyday life in Italian Slavic Greek Albanian and Turkish Pre Indo European substratum Pre Indo European PreIE sites are found throughout the territory of Albania Such PreIE sites existed in Burimas Barc Dersnik in the Korce District Kamnik in Kolonja Kolsh in the Kukes District Rashtan in Librazhd and Nezir in the Mat District As in other parts of Europe these PreIE people joined the migratory Indo European tribes that entered the Balkans and contributed to the formation of the historical Paleo Balkan tribes In terms of linguistics the pre Indo European substrate language spoken in the southern Balkans probably influenced pre Proto Albanian the ancestor idiom of Albanian The extent of this linguistic impact cannot be determined with precision due to the uncertain position of Albanian among Paleo Balkan languages and their scarce attestation Some loanwords however have been proposed such as shege pomegranate or lepjete orach compare Pre Greek lapa8on lapathon monk s rhubarb Literary traditionMeshari of Gjon Buzuku 1554 1555Earliest undisputed texts The earliest known texts in Albanian the formula e pagezimit Baptismal Formula which dates back to 1462 and was authored by Pal Engjelli or Paulus Angelus c 1417 1470 Archbishop of Durres Engjelli was a close friend and counsellor of Skanderbeg It was written in a pastoral letter for a synod at the Holy Trinity in Mat and read in Latin characters as follows Unte paghesont premenit Atit et Birit et Spertit Senit standard Albanian Une te pagezoj ne emer te Atit te Birit e te Shpirtit te Shenjte English I baptise you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit It was discovered and published in 1915 by Nicolae Iorga the Fjalori i Arnold von Harfit Arnold Ritter von Harff s lexicon a short list of Albanian phrases with German glosses dated 1496 a song recorded in the Greek alphabet retrieved from an old codex that was written in Greek The document is also called Perikopeja e Ungjillit te Pashkeve or Perikopeja e Ungjillit te Shen Mateut The Song of the Easter Gospel or The Song of Saint Matthew s Gospel Although the codex is dated to during the 14th century the song written in Albanian by an anonymous writer seems to be a 16th century writing The document was found by Arbereshe people who had emigrated to Italy in the 15th century Perikopeja e Ungjillit te Shen MateutPossibly the oldest surviving Albanian text highlighted in red from the Bellifortis manuscript written by Konrad Kyeser around 1402 1405 The first book in Albanian is the Meshari The Missal written by Gjon Buzuku between 20 March 1554 and 5 January 1555 The book was written in the Gheg dialect in the Latin script with some Slavic letters adapted for Albanian vowels The book was discovered in 1740 by Gjon Nikolle Kazazi the Albanian archbishop of Skopje It contains the liturgies of the main holidays There are also texts of prayers and rituals and catechetical texts The grammar and the vocabulary are more archaic than those in the Gheg texts from the 17th century The 188 pages of the book comprise about 154 000 words with a total vocabulary of c 1 500 different words The text is archaic yet easily interpreted because it is mainly a translation of known texts in particular portions of the Bible The book also contains passages from the Psalms the Book of Isaiah the Book of Jeremiah the Letters to the Corinthians and many illustrations The uniformity of spelling seems to indicate an earlier tradition of writing The only known copy of the Meshari is held by the Apostolic Library In 1968 the book was published with transliterations and comments by linguists The first printed work in Tosk Albanian is the Mbsuame e kreshtere in Italian Dottrina cristiana by Leke Matrenga or in Italian Luca Matranga It was published in 1592 and is written in an early form of the Arberesh language also known as Italo Albanian Albanian scripts were produced earlier than the first attested document formula e pagezimit but none yet have been discovered We know of their existence by earlier references For example a French monk signed as Broccardus notes in 1332 that Although the Albanians have another language totally different from Latin they still use Latin letters in all their books Disputed earlier texts In 1967 two scholars claimed to have found a Letter text in Albanian inserted into the Bellifortis text a book written in Latin dating to 1402 1405 A star has fallen in a place in the woods distinguish the star distinguish it Distinguish the star from the others they are ours they are Do you see where the great voice has resounded Stand beside it That thunder It did not fall It did not fall for you the one which would do it Like the ears you should not believe that the moon fell when Try to encompass that which spurts far Call the light when the moon falls and no longer exists Robert Elsie a specialist in Albanian studies considers that The Todericiu Polena Romanian translation of the non Latin lines although it may offer some clues if the text is indeed Albanian is fanciful and based among other things on a false reading of the manuscript including the exclusion of a whole line Ottoman period In 1635 Frang Bardhi 1606 1643 published in Rome his Dictionarum latinum epiroticum the first known Latin Albanian dictionary Other scholars who studied the language during the 17th century include Andrea Bogdani 1600 1685 author of the first Latin Albanian grammar book 1637 1694 and others Indo European featuresIndo European vocabulary PIE phonological correspondences Phonologically Albanian is not so conservative Like many IE stocks it has merged the two series of voiced stops e g both PIE d and dʰ became Albanian d In addition voiced stops tend to disappear in between vowels There is almost complete loss of final syllables and very widespread loss of other unstressed syllables e g mik friend from Lat amicus PIE o appears as a also as e if a high front vowel i follows while PIE e and a become o and PIE ō appears as e The palatals velars and labiovelars show distinct developments with Albanian showing the three way distinction also found in Luwian Labiovelars are for the most part differentiated from all other Indo European velar series before front vowels but they merge with the pure back velars elsewhere The palatal velar series consisting of Proto Indo European ḱ and the merged g and gʰ usually developed into th and dh but were depalatalised to merge with the back velars when in contact with sonorants Because the original Proto Indo European tripartite distinction between dorsals is preserved in such reflexes Albanian is therefore neither centum nor satem despite having a satem like realization of the palatal dorsals in most cases Thus PIE ḱ k and kʷ become th q and s respectively before back vowels PIE ḱ becomes th while k and kʷ merge as k A minority of scholars reconstruct a fourth laryngeal h allegedly surfacing as Alb h word initially e g Alb herdhe testicles presumably from PIE h orǵʰi rather than the usual reconstruction h erǵʰi but this is generally not followed elsewhere as h has arisen elsewhere idiosyncratically for example Alb hark lt Lat arcus Reflexes of PIE bilabial plosives in Albanian PIE Albanian PIE Albanian p p pekʷ to cook pjek to bake bʰ b b srobʰ ei e to sip gulp gjerb to sip Reflexes of PIE coronal plosives in Albanian PIE Albanian PIE Albanian t t tuh2 thou ti you singular d d dih2tis light dite day dh perd to fart pjerdh to fart g dl h1 to long gjate long Tosk dial glate dʰ d dʰegʷʰ burn djeg to burn dh gʰordʰos enclosure gardh fence Between vowels or after r Reflexes of PIE palatal plosives in Albanian PIE Albanian PIE Albanian ḱ th ḱeh1smi I say them I say s ḱupo shoulder sup shoulder k smeḱ r chin mjeker chin beard c c ḱentro to stick cander prop ǵ dh ǵombʰos tooth peg dhemb tooth ǵʰ dh ǵʰed ioH I defecate dhjes I defecate d ǵʰr sdʰi grain barley drithe grain Before u u or i i Before sonorant Archaic relic Syllable initial and followed by sibilant Reflexes of PIE velar plosives in Albanian PIE Albanian PIE Albanian k k kagʰmi I catch grasp kam I have q kluH i o to weep qaj to weep cry dial kla n j g g h3ligos sick lige bad gj h1reug to retch regj to tan hides gʰ g gʰordʰos enclosure gardh fence gj gʰedn i e o to get gjej to find Old Alb gjanj Reflexes of PIE labiovelar plosives in Albanian PIE Albanian PIE Albanian kʷ k kʷeh2sleh2 cough kolle cough s kʷelH to turn sjell to fetch bring q kʷṓd qe that which gʷ g gʷr H stone gur stone gʷʰ g dʰegʷʰ to burn djeg to burn z dʰogʷʰei e to ignite ndez to kindle light a fire Reflexes of PIE s in Albanian PIE Albanian PIE Albanian s gj seḱstis six gjashte six h nosōm us gen nahe us dat sh bʰreusos broken bresher hail th suh1s swine thi pig h1esmi I am jam I am sd th gʷesdos leaf gjeth leaf sḱ h sḱi eh2 shadow hije shadow sp f spelnom speech fjale word st sht h2osti bone asht bone su d su eid r sweat dirse sweat Initial Between vowels Between u i and another vowel ruki law Dissimilation with following s Reflexes of PIE sonorants in Albanian PIE Albanian PIE Albanian i gj i eh3s to gird n gjesh I gird squeeze knead j i uH you nom ju you plural trei es three masc tre three u v u os ei e to dress vesh to wear dress m m meh2tr eh2 maternal moter sister n n nōs we acc ne we nj eni h1oi no that one nje one Gheg nja njo nji Tosk nasal vowel Gheg penkʷe five pese five vs Gheg pes r Tosk only ǵʰeimen winter dimer winter vs Gheg dimen l l h3ligos sick lige bad ll kʷelH turn sjell to fetch bring r r repe o take rjep peel rr u rh1ḗn sheep rrunje yearling lamb n e h1n men name emer name m e u iḱm ti twenty nje zet twenty l li il lu ul u ĺ kʷos wolf ujk wolf dialectal ulk r ri ir ru ur ǵʰr sdom grain barley drithe grain Before i e a Before back vowels Between vowels Before C clusters i j Reflexes of PIE laryngeals in Albanian PIE Albanian PIE Albanian h1 h1esmi I am jam to be h2 h2r tḱos bear ari bear h3 h3onr dream enderr dream h4 h h4orǵʰi testicles herdhe testicles Reflexes of PIE vowels in Albanian PIE Albanian PIE Albanian i i sinos bosom gji bosom breast e dwigʰeh2 twig dege branch i lt iH i dih2tis light dite day e e penkʷe five pese five Gheg pes je wetos year loc vjet last year e o ǵʰesreh2 hand dore hand a a bʰaḱeh2 bean bathe bean e h2elbʰit barley elb barley o a gʰordʰos enclosure gardh fence ō e h2oḱtōtis eight tete eight u u supnom sleep gjume sleep u lt uH y suHsos grandfather gjysh grandfather i muh2s mouse mi mouse Reflexes of PIE diphthongs in Albanian PIE Albanian PIE Albanian ey h1ey i g heymōn dimer ay h2ey e oy h3ey e stoygho shteg ew h1ew a aw h2ew a h2ewg agim ow h3ew a ve Standard AlbanianSince World War II standard Albanian used in Albania has been based on the Tosk dialect Kosovo and other areas where Albanian is official adopted the Tosk standard in 1969 Elbasan based standard Until the early 20th century Albanian writing developed in three main literary traditions Gheg Tosk and Arbereshe Throughout this time a Gheg subdialect spoken around Elbasan served as lingua franca among the Albanians but was less prevalent in writing The Congress of Manastir of Albanian writers held in 1908 recommended the use of the Elbasan subdialect for literary purposes and as a basis of a unified national language While technically classified as a southern Gheg variety the Elbasan speech is closer to Tosk in phonology and practically a hybrid between other Gheg subdialects and literary Tosk Between 1916 and 1918 the Albanian Literary Commission met in Shkoder under the leadership of Luigj Gurakuqi with the purpose of establishing a unified orthography for the language The commission made up of representatives from the north and south of Albania reaffirmed the Elbasan subdialect as the basis of a national tongue The rules published in 1917 defined spelling for the Elbasan variety for official purposes The commission did not however discourage publications in one of the dialects but rather laid a foundation for Gheg and Tosk to gradually converge into one When the Congress of Lushnje met in the aftermath of World War I to form a new Albanian government the 1917 decisions of the Literary Commission were upheld The Elbasan subdialect remained in use for administrative purposes and many new writers embraced it for creative writing Gheg and Tosk continued to develop freely and interaction between the two dialects increased Tosk standard At the end of World War II however the new communist regime radically imposed the use of the Tosk dialect in all facets of life in Albania administration education and literature Most Communist leaders were Tosks from the south Standardisation was directed by the Albanian Institute of Linguistics and Literature of the Academy of Sciences of Albania Two dictionaries were published in 1954 an Albanian language dictionary and a Russian Albanian dictionary New orthography rules were eventually published in 1967 and in 1973 with the Drejtshkrimi i gjuhes shqipe Orthography of the Albanian Language Until 1968 Kosovo and other Albanian speaking areas in Yugoslavia followed the 1917 standard based on the Elbasan dialect though it was gradually infused with Gheg elements in an effort to develop a Kosovan language separate from communist Albania s Tosk based standard Albanian intellectuals in the former Yugoslavia consolidated the 1917 standard twice in the 1950s culminating with a thorough codification of orthographic rules in 1964 The rules already provided for a balanced variety that accounted for both Gheg and Tosk dialects but only lasted through 1968 Viewing divergences with Albania as a threat to their identity Kosovars arbitrarily adopted the Tosk project that Tirana had published the year before Although it was never intended to serve outside of Albania the project became the unified literary language in 1972 when approved by a rubberstamp Orthography Congress Only about 1 in 9 participants were from Kosovo The Congress held at Tirana authorized the orthography rules that came out the following year in 1973 More recent dictionaries from the Albanian government are Fjalori Drejtshkrimor i Gjuhes Shqipe 1976 Orthographic Dictionary of the Albanian Language and Dictionary of Today s Albanian language Fjalori i Gjuhes se Sotme Shqipe 1980 Prior to World War II dictionaries consulted by developers of the standard have included Lexikon tis Alvanikis glossis Albanian Fjalori i Gjuhes Shqipe Kostandin Kristoforidhi 1904 Fjalori i Bashkimit 1908 and Fjalori i Gazullit 1941 Calls for reform Since the fall of the communist regime Albanian orthography has stirred heated debate among scholars writers and public opinion in Albania and Kosovo with hardliners opposed to any changes in the orthography moderates supporting varying degrees of reform and radicals calling for a return to the Elbasan dialect Criticism of Standard Albanian has centred on the exclusion of the me participle infinitive and the Gheg lexicon Critics say that Standard Albanian disenfranchises and stigmatises Gheg speakers affecting the quality of writing and impairing effective public communication Supporters of the Tosk standard view the 1972 Congress as a milestone achievement in Albanian history and dismiss calls for reform as efforts to divide the nation or create two languages Moderates who are especially prevalent in Kosovo generally stress the need for a unified Albanian language but believe that the me participle infinitive and Gheg words should be included Proponents of the Elbasan dialect have been vocal but have gathered little support in the public opinion In general those involved in the language debate come from diverse backgrounds and there is no significant correlation between one s political views geographic origin and position on Standard Albanian Many writers continue to write in the Elbasan dialect but other Gheg variants have found much more limited use in literature Most publications adhere to a strict policy of not accepting submissions that are not written in Tosk Some print media even translate direct speech replacing the me participle infinitive with other verb forms and making other changes in grammar and word choice Even authors who have published in the Elbasan dialect will frequently write in the Tosk standard In 2013 a group of academics for Albania and Kosovo proposed minor changes to the orthography Hardline academics boycotted the initiative while other reformers have viewed it as well intentioned but flawed and superficial Education Albanian is the medium of instruction in most Albanian schools The literacy rate in Albania for the total population age 9 or older is about 99 Elementary education is compulsory grades 1 9 but most students continue at least until a secondary education Students must pass graduation exams at the end of the 9th grade and at the end of the 12th grade in order to continue their education PhonologyStandard Albanian has seven vowels and 29 consonants Like English Albanian has dental fricatives 8 like the th in thin and d like the th in this written as th and dh which are rare cross linguistically Gheg uses long and nasal vowels which are absent in Tosk and the mid central vowel e is lost at the end of the word The stress is fixed mainly on the last syllable Gheg n femen compare English feminine changes to r by rhotacism in Tosk femer Consonants Albanian consonants Labial Dental Alveolar Post alveolar Palatal Velar Glottalplain velar Nasal m n ɲ ŋ Plosive voiceless p t c kvoiced b d ɟ ɡAffricate voiceless t s t ʃvoiced d z d ʒFricative voiceless f 8 s ʃ hvoiced v d z ʒApproximant l ɫ jFlap ɾTrill rIPA Description Written as English approximationm Bilabial nasal m mann Alveolar nasal n notɲ Palatal nasal nj canyonŋ Velar nasal ng bangp Voiceless bilabial plosive p spinb Voiced bilabial plosive b batt Voiceless alveolar plosive t standd Voiced alveolar plosive d debtk Voiceless velar plosive k scarɡ Voiced velar plosive g got s Voiceless alveolar affricate c hatsd z Voiced alveolar affricate x goodst ʃ Voiceless postalveolar affricate c chind ʒ Voiced postalveolar affricate xh jetc Voiceless palatal plosive q Latvian kirbisɟ Voiced palatal plosive gj Latvian gimenef Voiceless labiodental fricative f farv Voiced labiodental fricative v van8 Voiceless dental fricative th thind Voiced dental fricative dh thens Voiceless alveolar fricative s sonz Voiced alveolar fricative z zipʃ Voiceless postalveolar fricative sh showʒ Voiced postalveolar fricative zh visionh Voiceless glottal fricative h hatr Alveolar trill rr Spanish perroɾ Alveolar tap r Spanish perol Alveolar lateral approximant l leanɫ Velarized alveolar lateral approximant ll ballj Palatal approximant j yes Notes The contrast between flapped r and trilled rr is the almost the same as in Spanish or Armenian However in most of the dialects as also in standard Albanian the single r changes from an alveolar flap ɾ to an alveolar approximant ɹ The palatal nasal ɲ corresponds to the Spanish n and the French and Italian gn 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 letter c is sometimes written ch due to technical limitations in analogy to the other digraphs xh sh and zh Usually it is written simply c or more rarely q with context resolving any ambiguities The sounds spelled with q and gj show variation They may range between occurring as palatal affricates c c ɟ ʝ or as palatal stops c ɟ among dialects Some speakers merge them into the palatoalveolar sounds c and xh This is especially common in Northern Gheg but is increasingly the case in Tosk as well Other speakers reduced them into j in consonant clusters such as in the word fjolle which before standardisation was written as fqolle lt Medieval Greek fakiolhs The ng can be pronounced as ŋ in final position otherwise it is an allophone of n before k and g Before q and gj n is always pronounced ɲ but this is not reflected in the orthography Vowels Front Central BackClose i y uClose mid Mid e e oOpen aIPA Description Written as English approximationi Close front unrounded vowel i seedy Close front rounded vowel y French tu German Lugee Close mid front unrounded vowel e beara Open central unrounded vowel a care Schwa e abouto Close mid back rounded vowel o moreu Close back rounded vowel u poolNotes e can also range to an open mid sound ɜ in the Northern Tosk dialect Mid sounds e o can also be heard as more open mid sounds ɛ ɔ in free variation Schwa The schwa in Albanian has a great degree of variability from extreme back to extreme front articulation Although the Indo European schwa e or h was preserved in Albanian in some cases it was lost possibly when a stressed syllable preceded it Until the standardisation of the modern Albanian alphabet in which the schwa is spelled as e as in the work of Gjon Buzuku in the 16th century various vowel letters and digraphs were employed including ae by Leke Matrenga and e by Pjeter Bogdani in the late 16th and early 17th century Within the borders of Albania the phoneme is pronounced about the same in both the Tosk and the Gheg dialect due to the influence of standard Albanian However in the Gheg dialects spoken in the neighbouring Albanian speaking areas of Kosovo and North Macedonia the phoneme is still clarification needed pronounced as back and rounded GrammarAlbanian has a canonical word order of SVO subject verb object like English and many other Indo European languages Albanian nouns are categorised by gender masculine feminine and neuter and inflected for number singular and plural and case There are five declensions and six cases nominative accusative genitive dative ablative and vocative although the vocative only occurs with a limited number of words such as bir son vocative case biro zog bird vocative case zogo and the forms of the genitive and dative are identical a genitive construction employs the prepositions i e te se alongside dative morphemes Some dialects also retain a locative case which is not present in standard Albanian e g ne malt loc sg def The cases apply to both definite and indefinite nouns and there are numerous cases of syncretism The following shows the declension of mal mountain a noun in the masculine class which takes i in the definite singular Indefinite Definitesingular plural singular pluralNominative nje mal a mountain male several mountains mali the mountain malet the mountains Accusative nje mal male malin maletGenitive i e te se nje mali i e te se maleve i e te se malit i e te se maleveDative nje mali maleve malit maleveAblative prej nje mali prej malesh prej malit prej maleve The following shows the declension of the noun zog bird a noun in the masculine class which takes u in the definite singular Indefinite Definitesingular plural singular pluralNominative nje zog a bird zogj birds zogu the bird zogjte the birds Accusative nje zog zogj zogun zogjteGenitive i e te se nje zogu i e te se zogjve i e te se zogut i e te se zogjveDative nje zogu zogjve zogut zogjveAblative prej nje zogu prej zogjsh prej zogut prej zogjve The following table shows the declension of the noun vajze girl in the feminine class Indefinite Definitesingular plural singular pluralNominative nje vajze a girl vajza girls vajza the girl vajzat the girls Accusative nje vajze vajza vajzen vajzatGenitive i e te se nje vajze i e te se vajzave i e te se vajzes i e te se vajzaveDative nje vajze vajzave vajzes vajzaveAblative prej nje vajze prej vajzash prej vajzes prej vajzave The definite article is placed after the noun as in many other Balkan languages like in Romanian Macedonian and Bulgarian 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 h take u to avoid palatalization mal mountain mali the mountain liber book libri the book zog bird zogu the bird Nouns in the feminine class take the suffix i j a veture car vetura the car shtepi house shtepia the house lule flower lulja the flower Nouns in the neuter class take t Albanian has developed an analytical verbal structure in place of the earlier synthetic system inherited from Proto Indo European Its complex system of moods six types and tenses three simple and five complex constructions is distinctive among Balkan languages There are two general types of conjugations Albanian has a series of verb forms called miratives or admiratives These may express surprise on the part of the speaker but may also have other functions such as expressing irony doubt or The Albanian use of admirative forms is unique in the Balkan context In English the expression of surprise can be rendered by oh look or lookee there the expression of doubt can be rendered by indeed the expression of neutral reportedness can be rendered by apparently Ti flet shqip You speak Albanian indicative Ti folke shqip You surprisingly speak Albanian admirative Rruga eshte e mbyllur The street is closed indicative Rruga qenka e mbyllur Apparently The street is closed admirative For more information on verb conjugation and on inflection of other parts of speech see Albanian morphology Word order Albanian word order is relatively free citation needed To say Agim ate all the oranges in Albanian one may use any of the following orders with slight pragmatic differences SVO Agimi i hengri te gjithe portokallet SOV Agimi te gjithe portokallet i hengri OVS Te gjithe portokallet i hengri Agimi OSV Te gjithe portokallet Agimi i hengri VSO I hengri Agimi te gjithe portokallet VOS I hengri te gjithe portokallet Agimi However the most common order is subject verb object The verb can optionally occur in sentence initial position especially with verbs in the passive form forma joveprore Parashikohet nje nderprerje An interruption is anticipated Negation Verbal negation in Albanian is mood dependent a trait shared with some fellow Indo European languages such as Greek In indicative conditional or admirative sentences 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 Subjunctive imperative optative or non finite forms of verbs are negated with the particle mos Mos harro Do not forget Numeralsnje one tetembedhjete eighteendy two nentembedhjete nineteentri tre three njezet twentykater four njezet e nje twenty onepese five njezet e dy twenty twogjashte six tridhjete thirtyshtate seven dyzet katerdhjete fortytete eight pesedhjete fiftynente nine gjashtedhjete sixtydhjete ten shtatedhjete seventynjembedhjete eleven tetedhjete eightydymbedhjete twelve nentedhjete ninetytrembedhjete thirteen njeqind one hundredkatermbedhjete fourteen peseqind five hundredpesembedhjete fifteen nje mije one thousandgjashtembedhjete sixteen nje milion one millionshtatembedhjete seventeen nje miliard one billionNotes In certain dialects numerals with an extra syllable may undergo metrical syncope For example pesembedhjete becomes pesemet Vigesimal system Beside the Indo European decimal numeration there are also remnants of the vigesimal system as njezet twenty and dyzet forty The Arbereshe in Italy and Arvanites in Greece may still use trezet sixty and katerzet eighty Albanian is the only Balkan language that has preserved the Pre Indo European vigesimal system LexiconThis section should specify the language of its non English content using lang transliteration for transliterated languages and IPA for phonetic transcriptions with an appropriate ISO 639 code Wikipedia s multilingual support templates may also be used See why April 2020 Albanian is known within historical linguistics as a case of a language which although surviving through many periods of foreign rule and multilingualism saw a disproportionately high influx of loans from other languages augmenting and replacing much of its original vocabulary clarification needed Of all the foreign influences in Albanian the deepest reaching and most impactful was the absorption of loans from Latin in the Classical period and its Romance successors afterward Scholars have estimated a great number of Latin loanwords in Albanian some even claiming 60 of the Albanian vocabulary Major work in reconstructing Proto Albanian has been done with the help of knowledge of the original forms of loans from Ancient Greek Latin and Slavic while Ancient Greek loanwords are scarce the Latin loanwords are of extreme importance in phonology The presence of loanwords from more well studied languages from time periods before Albanian was attested reaching deep back into the Classical Era has been of great use in phonological reconstructions for earlier ancient and medieval forms of Albanian Some words in the core vocabulary of Albanian have no known etymology linking them to Proto Indo European or any known source language and as of 2018 are thus tentatively attributed to an unknown unattested pre Indo European substrate language some words among these include zemer heart and hekur iron Some among these putative pre IE words are thought to be related to putative pre IE substrate words in neighboring Indo European languages such as lule flower which has been tentatively linked to Latin lilia and Greek leirion Lexical distance of Albanian to other languages in a lexicostatistical analysis by Ukrainian linguist Tyshchenko shows the following results the lower figure the higher similarity 49 Slovenian 53 Romanian 56 Greek 82 French 86 Macedonian 86 Bulgarian Cognates with Illyrian Illyrian term description Corresponding Albanian termAndena Andes Andio Antis Personal Illyrian names based on a root word and or ant found in both the southern and the Dalmatian Pannonian including modern Bosnia and Herzegovina onomastic provinces Alb ande northern Albanian dialect or Gheg and ende southern Albanian dialect or Tosk appetite pleasure desire wish aran field Alb are plural araArdiaioi Ardiaei name of an Illyrian people connected to hardhi vine branch grape vine with a sense development similar to Germanic stamniz meaning both stem tree stalk and tribe lineage citation needed Bilia daughter Alb bije dial bileBindo Bindus an Illyrian deity cf Bihac Bosnia and Herzegovina Alb bind to convince or to make believe perbindesh monster bounon hut cottage Alb bun brisa husk of grapes Alb bersi lees dregs mash lt PA brutia Barba swamp toponym from Metubarbis Alb berrake swampy soil Daesitiates name of an Illyrian people Alb dash ram corresponding contextually with south Slavonic dasa ace which might represent a borrowing and adaptation from Illyrian or even Proto Albanian mal mountain Alb mal mountain bardi white Alb bardhe white drakoina supper Alb darke dreke supper dinner page needed drenis deer Alb indef dre def dreni deer delme sheep Alb dele Gheg delme sheep dard pear Alb dardhe pear sica dagger Alb indef thike or def thika knife Ulc wolf pln Ulcinium Alb ujk wolf ulk Northern Dialect lougeon pool Alb lag legen to wet soak bathe wash lt PA lauga legate pool lt PA leugata lakshte dew lt PA laugista mag great Alb madh big great mantia bramblebush Old and dial Alb mande berry mulberry mod Alb men man citation needed rhinos fog mist Old Alb ren cloud mod Alb re re lt PA rina Vendum place Proto Alb wen ta Mod Alb vend page needed Early linguistic influences The earliest loanwords attested in Albanian come from Doric Greek whereas the strongest influence came from Latin Some scholars argue that Albanian originated from an area located east of its present geographic spread due to the several common lexical items found between the Albanian and Romanian languages However it does not necessarily define the genealogical history of Albanian language and it does not exclude the possibility of Proto Albanian presence in both Illyrian and Thracian territory The period during which Proto Albanian and Latin interacted was protracted lasting from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD Over this period the lexical borrowings can be roughly divided into three layers the second of which is the largest The first and smallest occurred at the time of less significant interaction The final period probably preceding the Slavic or Germanic invasions also has a notably smaller number of borrowings Each layer is characterised by a different treatment of most vowels the first layer follows the evolution of Early Proto Albanian into Albanian while 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 palatalisation A brief period followed between the 7th and the 9th centuries that was marked by heavy borrowings from South Slavic some of which predate the o a shift common to the modern forms of this language group Early Greek loans There are some 30 Ancient Greek loanwords in Proto Albanian Many of these reflect a dialect which voiced its aspirants as did the Macedonian dialect Other loanwords are Doric these words mainly refer to commodity items and trade goods and probably came through trade with a now extinct intermediary draper sickle lt Northwest Greek drapanon blete hive bee lt Attic melitta bee vs Ionic melissa kumbull plum lt kokkumelon laker cabbage green vegetables lt lakhanon green vegetable lepjete orach dock lt lapathon lyej to smear to oil lt Proto Albanian elaiwanja lt elaiwa olive oil lt Greek elaion moker millstone lt Northwest makhana device instrument molle apple lt melon fruit pellembe palm of the hand lt palama pjeper melon lt pepōn presh leek lt prason trumze thyme lt Northwest thymbra thrymbre pellg pond pool lt pelagos high sea According to Huld 1986 the following come from a Greek dialect without any significant attestation called Makedonian because it was akin to the native idiom of the Greek speaking population in the Argead kingdom llere elbow lt ὠlena bruke tamarisk lt mirykha mellage mallow lt malakha with the reflex of ɡ for Greek lt x gt indicating a dialectal voicing of the what came as an aspirate stop from Greek maraj fennel lt marathrion cf Romanian mărar iu Ionic marathron with the Albanian simplification of dri to j reflecting that of earlier udri om to uje water Latin influence Scholars have estimated a great number of Latin loanwords in Albanian some even claiming 60 of the Albanian vocabulary They include many frequently used core vocabulary items including shume very from Latin summus pak few Latin paucus ngushte narrow Latin angustus peme tree Latin poma vij to come Latin veniō rere sand Latin arena drejt straight Latin directus kafshe beast Latin causa meaning thing and larg far away Latin largus Jernej Kopitar 1780 1844 was the first to note Latin s influence on Albanian and claimed the Latin loanwords in the Albanian language had the pronunciation of the time of Emperor Augustus Kopitar gave examples such as Albanian qiqer chickpea from Latin cicer qytet city town from civitas peshk fish from piscis and shigjete arrow from sagitta The hard pronunciations of Latin c and g are retained as palatal and velar stops in the Albanian loanwords Gustav Meyer 1888 and Wilhelm Meyer Lubke 1914 later corroborated this Meyer noted the similarity between the Albanian verbs shqipoj to speak clearly enunciate and shqiptoj to pronounce articulate and the Latin word excipiō meaning to welcome Therefore he believed that the word Shqiptar Albanian person was derived from shqipoj which in turn was derived from the Latin word excipere Johann Georg von Hahn an Austrian linguist had proposed the same hypothesis in 1854 Eqrem Cabej also noticed among other things the archaic Latin elements in Albanian Latin au becomes Albanian a in the earliest loanwords aurum ar gold gaudium gaz joy laurus lar laurel Latin au is retained in later loans but is altered in a way similar to Greek causa thing kafshe thing beast brute laud lavd Latin oː becomes Albanian e in the oldest Latin loans pōmus peme fruit tree hōra here time instance An analogous mutation occurred from Proto Indo European to Albanian PIE nōs became Albanian ne we PIE oḱtṓw suffix ti became Albanian tete eight etc Latin unstressed internal and initial syllables become lost in Albanian cubitus kub elbow medicus mjek physician paludem swamp Vulgar Latin padule pyll forest An analogous mutation occurred from Proto Indo European to Albanian In contrast in later Latin loanwords the internal syllable is retained paganus pagan plaga plage wound etc Latin tj dj kj palatalized to Albanian s z c vitium ves vice worries ratiōnem arsye reason radius rreze ray spoke facies faqe face cheek socius shok mate comrade shoq husband etc In turn Latin s was altered to ʃ in Albanian Haralambie Mihăescu demonstrated that Some 85 Latin words have survived in Albanian but not as inherited in any Romance language A few examples include Late Latin celsydri dial kulsheder kuceder hydra hibernus verri winter pasture sarcinarius used for packing loading shelqeror forked peg grapnel forked hanger sōlanum nightshade lit sun plant shulle r sunny place out of the wind sunbathed area spleneticus shpretke spleen trifurcus terfurk pitchfork 151 Albanian words of Latin origin were not inherited in Romanian A few examples include Latin amicus Albanian mik friend inimicus armik foe enemy ratiōnem arsye benedicere bekoj bubulcus ploughman herdsman bulk bujk peasant calicis qelq drinking glass castellum keshtjelle castle centum qind hundred gallus gjel rooster iunctura gjymtyre limb joint medicus mjek doctor retem rrjete net sperare dial shp e rej shpresoj to hope pres to await voluntas voluntatis vullnet will volunteer Some Albanian church terminology has phonetic features which demonstrate their very early borrowing from Latin A few examples include Albanian bekoj to bless from benedicere engjell angel from angelus kishe church from ecclesia i krishtere Christian from christianus kryq cross from crux crucis obsolete lter altar from Latin altarium mallkoj to curse from maledicere meshe mass from missa murg monk from monachus peshkep bishop from episcopus and ungjill gospel from evangelium Other authors have detected Latin loanwords in Albanian with an ancient sound pattern from the 1st century BC clarification needed for example Albanian qingel e saddle girth dwarf elder from Latin cingula and Albanian e vjeter old aged former from vjet but influenced by Latin veteris The Romance languages inherited these words from Vulgar Latin cingula became via clinga Romanian chingă girdle saddle girth and veteranus became Romanian bătran old Albanian Basque and the surviving Celtic languages such as Breton and Welsh are the non Romance languages today that have this sort of extensive Latin element dating from ancient Roman times which has undergone the sound changes associated with the languages Other languages in or near the former Roman area either came on the scene later Turkish the Slavic languages Arabic or borrowed little from Latin despite coexisting with it Greek German although German does have a few such ancient Latin loanwords Fenster window Kase cheese Romanian scholars such as Vatasescu and Mihaescu using lexical analysis of the Albanian language have concluded that Albanian was heavily influenced by an extinct Romance language that was distinct from both Romanian and Dalmatian Because the Latin words common to only Romanian and Albanian are significantly fewer in number than those that are common to only Albanian and Western Romance Mihaescu argues that the Albanian language evolved in a region with much greater contact with Western Romance regions than with Romanian speaking regions and located this region in present day Albania Kosovo and Western Macedonia spanning east to Bitola and Pristina Slavic influence After the Slavs arrived in the Balkans the Slavic languages became an additional source of loanwords Contact between Albanian with the Slavic languages lasted very intensively for almost four centuries and continued even in the late Middle Ages Slavic loanwords in Albanian constitute a less studied area in literature Per Vladimir Orel 1998 page needed there are about 556 Slavic loanwords in Albanian Turkish influence The rise of the Ottoman Empire meant an influx of Turkish words this also entailed the borrowing of Persian and Arabic words through Turkish Some Turkish personal names such as Altin are common There are some loanwords from Modern Greek especially in the south of Albania Many borrowed words have been replaced by words with Albanian roots or modern Latinised international words According to calculations mentioned by Emanuele Banfi 1985 the total number of Turkish loanwords in Albanian is about two thousand However when taking into account obsolete and rare words and restricted dialectalisms their number is considerably larger Gothic Albanian is also known to possess a small set of loans from Gothic with early inquiry into the matter done by Norbert Jokl and Sigmund Feist though such loans had been claimed earlier in the 19th century by early linguists such as Gustav Meyer Many words claimed as Gothic have now been attributed to other origins by later linguists of Albanian fat and tufe though used for major claims by Huld in 1994 are now attributed to Latin for example or may instead be native to Albanian inherited from Proto Indo European Today it is accepted that there are a few words from Gothic in Albanian but for the most part they are scanty because the Goths had few contacts with Balkan peoples Martin Huld defends the significance of the admittedly sparse Gothic loans for Albanian studies however arguing that Gothic is the only clearly post Roman and pre Ottoman language after Latin with a notable influence on the Albanian lexicon the influence of Slavic languages is both pre Ottoman and Ottoman He argues that Gothic words in Albanian are attributable to the late fourth and early fifth centuries during the invasions of various Gothic speaking groups of the Balkans under Alaric Odoacer and Theodoric He argues that Albanian Gothicisms bear evidence for the ordering of developments within Proto Albanian at this time for example he argues Proto Albanian at this stage had already shifted uː to y as Gothic words with uː reflect with u in Albanian not y as seen in most Latin and ancient Greek loans but had not yet experienced the shift of t s to 8 since loans from Gothic words with 8 replace 8 with t or another close sound Notable words that continue to be attributed to Gothic in Albanian by multiple modern sources include tirk felt gaiters white felt cf Romanian tureac top of boot lt Gothic 8iuh brōks or 8iuhbrōkeis cf Old High German theobrach gaiters shkume foam lt Gothic skum perhaps via an intermediary in a Romance scuma cf Romanian spumă gardh fence garden is either considered a native Albanian word that was loaned into Romanian as gard zverk nape back of neck lt Gothic swairhs the difficult word having various otherwise been attributed with phonological issues to Celtic Greek or native development horr villain scoundrel and horre whore lt Gothic hors adulterer cf Old Norse hora whore punjashe purse diminutive of punje lt Gothic puggs purse cf Romanian pungă Patterns in loaning Although Albanian is characterised by the absorption of many loans even in the case of Latin reaching deep into the core vocabulary certain semantic fields nevertheless remained more resistant Terms pertaining to social organisation are often preserved though not those pertaining to political organisation while those pertaining to trade are all loaned or innovated Hydronyms present a complicated picture the term for sea det is native and an Albano Germanic innovation referring to the concept of depth but a large amount of maritime vocabulary is loaned Words referring to large streams and their banks tend to be loans but lume river is native as is rryme the flow of water Words for smaller streams and stagnant pools of water are more often native but the word for pond pellg is in fact a semantically shifted descendant of the old Greek word for high sea suggesting a change in location after Greek contact Albanian has maintained since Proto Indo European a specific term referring to a riverside forest gjaze as well as its words for marshes Albanian has maintained native terms for whirlpool water pit and aquatic deep place leading Orel to speculate that the Albanian Urheimat likely had an excess of dangerous whirlpools and depths Regarding forests words for most conifers and shrubs are native as are the terms for alder elm oak beech and linden while ash chestnut birch maple poplar and willow are loans The original kinship terminology of Indo European was radically reshaped changes included a shift from mother to sister and were so thorough that only three terms retained their original function the words for son in law mother in law and father in law All the words for second degree blood kinship including aunt uncle nephew niece and terms for grandchildren are ancient loans from Latin The Proto Albanians appear to have been cattle breeders given the vastness of preserved native vocabulary pertaining to cow breeding milking and so forth while words pertaining to dogs tend to be loaned Many words concerning horses are preserved but the word for horse itself is a Latin loan See alsoLanguages portalAbetare Arberesh language Arvanitika Gheg Albanian Illyrian language IPA Albanian Messapic language Thraco Illyrian Tosk AlbanianNotesThe map does not indicate where the language is majority or minority in Figure 2 1 are listed three subfamilies which contain only one language each the Albanian Hellenic and Armenian subfamilies These three languages Albanian Greek and Armenian are isolates within the Indo European family showing no closer connection to any other Indo European languages or to each other Pereltsvaig 2012 pp 30 31 It is generally accepted that Albanians continue one of the ancient languages of the Balkans although scholars disagree on which language they spoke and what area of the Balkans they occupied before the Slavs migration to the Balkans Curtis 2011 p 16 p 16 So while linguists may debate about the ties between Albanian and older languages of the Balkans and while most Albanians may take the genealogical connection to Illyrian as incontrovertible the fact remains that there is simply insufficient evidence to connect Illyrian Thracian or Dacian with any language including Albanian Curtis 2011 p 18 p 18 The most probable predecessor of Albanian was Illyrian since much of present day Albania was inhabited by the Illyrians during the Antiquity but the comparison of the two languages is impossible because almost nothing is known about Illyrian It is a priori less probable to assume that a single language was spoken in the whole Illyricum from the river Arsia in Istria to Epirus in Greece when such a linguistic uniformity is found nowhere else in Europe before the Roman conquest Moreover the examination of personal names and toponyms from Illyricum shows that several onomastic areas can be distinguished and these onomastic areas just might correspond to different languages spoken in ancient Illyricum If Illyrians actually spoke several different languages the question arises From which Illyrian language did Albanian develop and that question cannot be answered until new data are discovered Ranko 2012 page needed full citation needed disputedReferencesRusakov 2017 p 552 Klein Jared Brian Joseph Fritz Matthias 2018 Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo European Linguistics Walter de Gruyter p 1800 ISBN 9783110542431 Language and alphabet Article 13 Constitution of Montenegro WIPO 19 October 2007 Serbian Bosnian Albanian and Croatian shall also be in the official use Franceschini 2014 pp 533 534 1 Application of the Charter in Serbia PDF European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages 11 June 2013 pp 4 5 9 Franceschini Rita 2014 Italy and the Italian Speaking Regions In Facke Christiane ed Manual of Language Acquisition Walter de Gruyter GmbH p 546 ISBN 9783110394146 Reservations and Declarations for Treaty No 148 European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages Council of Europe Archived from the original on 8 December 2015 Retrieved 3 December 2015 Coretta Stefano Riverin Coutlee Josiane Kapia Enkeleida Nichols Stephen 2022 Northern Tosk Albanian Journal of the International Phonetic Association 53 3 Illustration of the IPA 1 23 doi 10 1017 S0025100322000044 hdl 20 500 11820 ebce2ea3 f955 4fa5 9178 e1626fbae15f Orel 2000 p 12 Matzinger 2018 p 1790 Matasovic 2019 p 39 Hamp 1963 p 104 Katicic 2012 p 184 And yet we know that it is the continuation of a language spoken in the Balkans already in ancient times This has been proved by the fact that there are Ancient Greek loan words in Albanian Fatjona Mejdini 3 May 2013 Albania Aims to Register its Huge Diaspora Balkan Insight Retrieved 17 January 2017 Friedman Victor 2022 The Balkans In Salikoko Mufwene Anna Maria Escobar ed The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact Volume 1 Population Movement and Language Change Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics Cambridge University Press ISBN 9781009115773 Lazaridis Iosif Alpaslan Roodenberg Songul et al 26 August 2022 The genetic history of the Southern Arc A bridge between West Asia and Europe Science 377 6609 eabm4247 doi 10 1126 science abm4247 PMC 10064553 PMID 36007055 S2CID 251843620 Coretta Stefano Riverin Coutlee Josiane Kapia Enkeleida Nichols Stephen 16 August 2022 Northern Tosk Albanian Journal of the International Phonetic Association 53 3 1122 1144 doi 10 1017 S0025100322000044 hdl 20 500 11820 ebce2ea3 f955 4fa5 9178 e1626fbae15f Though the origin of the language has been debated the prevailing opinion in the literature is that it is a descendant of Illyrian Hetzer 1995 Matasovic 2019 p 5 Much has been written about the origin of the Albanian language The most probable predecessor of Albanian was Illyrian since much of the present day Albania was inhabited by the Illyrians during the Antiquity but the comparison of the two languages is impossible because almost nothing is known about Illyrian despite the fact that two handbooks of that language have been published by Hans Krahe and Anton Mayer examination of personal names and toponyms from Illyricum shows that several onomastic areas can be distinguished and these onomastic areas just might correspond to different languages spoken in ancient Illyricum If Illyrians actually spoke several different languages the question arises from which Illyrian language did Albanian develop and that question cannot be answered until new data are discovered The single Illyrian gloss preserved in Greek rhinon fog may have the reflex in Alb Gheg re cloud Tosk re lt PAlb ren Beekes 2011 p 25 It is often thought for obvious geographic reasons that Albanian descends from ancient Illyrian see above but this cannot be ascertained as we know next to nothing about Illyrian itself Fortson 2010 p 446 Albanian forms its own separate branch of Indo European it is the last branch to appear in written records This is one of the reasons why its origins are shrouded in mystery and controversy The widespread assertion that it is the modern day descendant of Illyrian spoken in much the same region during classical times makes geographic and historical sense but is linguistically untestable since we know so little about Illyrian Mallory amp Adams 1997 p 11 Although there are some lexical items that appear to be shared between Romanian and by extension Dacian and Albanian by far the strongest connections can be argued between Albanian and Illyrian The latter was at least attested in what is historically regarded as Albanian territory and there is no evidence of any major migration into Albanian territory since our records of Illyrian occupation The loan words from Greek and Latin date back to before the Christian era and suggest that the ancestors of the Albanians must have occupied Albania by then to have absorbed such loans from their histori cal neighbors As the Illyrians occupied Albanian territory at this time they are the most likely recipients of such loans Villar Francisco 1996 Los indoeuropeos y los origenes de Europa in Spanish Madrid Gredos pp 313 314 316 ISBN 84 249 1787 1 Friedman 2020 p 388 Matzinger 2018 p 1790 Ismajli 2015 p 45 Hamp amp Adams 2013 p 8 Trumper 2018 p 385 Hyllested amp Joseph 2022 p 235 Matasovic 2019 p 39 Demiraj amp Esposito 2009 p 23 these innovations as those that are also evident in different varieties of Gheg are not such as to impede communication between speakers of the two dialects Furthermore the major part of the Albanian lexicon is common to the two dialects Fortson 2010 p 446 The two dialects are mutually intelligible in their standard varieties although numerous subdialects exist that show considerable variation especially in the north and northeast of the Geg speaking area Demiraj amp Esposito 2009 p 23 The river Shkumbin in central Albania historically forms the boundary between those two dialects with the population on the north speaking varieties of Geg and the population on the south varieties of Tosk Demiraj 2006 p 102 It is the case of the evolution of stressed a and partly stressed e in front of a nasal consonant to e in thee southern dialect While the evolution a gt e in front of a nasal consonant has involved the southern dialect the evolution e gt e in the same phonetic conditions has not taken place in the northern part and partly in the eastern part of that dialect This phonetic phenomenon has appeared earlier than rhotacism as it is clearly evidenced in such examples as llane gt llere rane gt rere etc in which the evolution a gt e could not take place before r Since this phonetic change has not appeared in the Slavic loanwords of Albanian but has involved mainly the I E inherited words as well as the loans from Old Greek compare mokene gt mokere lt makhanaʼ etc and from Latin compare rane gt rere gt arena etc it has generally been acknowledged that it has taken place in the pre Slavic period of Albanian Its sporadic appearance in a very reduced number of Slavic loanwords is due to the action of analogy with similar cases of inherited or more ancient loans of Albanian Demiraj amp Esposito 2009 p 23 In Tosk a before a nasal has become a central vowel shwa and intervocalic n has become r These two sound changes have affected only the pre Slav stratum of the Albanian lexicon that is the native words and loanwords from Greek and Latin Douglas Q Adams January 1997 Encyclopedia of Indo European Culture Taylor amp Francis pp 9 11 ISBN 978 1 884964 98 5 The Greek and Latin loans have undergone most of the far reaching phonological changes which have so altered the shape of inherited IE words while Slavic and Turkish words do not show these changes Thus Albanian must have acquired much of its present form by the time Slavs entered into the Balkans in the fifth and sixth centuries AD middle of p 11 The loan words from Greek and Latin date back to before the Christian era p 9 Even very common words such as mik ʻfriendʼ lt Lat amicus or kendoj ʻI sing readʼ lt Lat cantare come from Latin and attest to a widespread intermingling of pre Albanian and Balkan Latin speakers during the Roman period roughly from the second century BC to the fifth century AD before middle of p 11 Fortson 2010 p 448 The dialectal split into Geg and Tosk happened sometime after the region became Christianized in the fourth century AD Christian Latin loanwords show Tosk rhotacism such as Tosk murgu monk Geg mungu from Lat monachus Demiraj 2010 pp 77 78 Rusakov 2017 p 559 Demiraj 2006 pp 102 103 such sporadic analogical cases do not reverse the generally acknowledged conclusion that this dialectal peculiarity as a phonetic process has appeared in pre Slavic period of Albanian and is relatively more ancient than the rhotacism It has most probably appeared not later than the V VI centuries A D See also Hamp 1963 The isogloss is clear in all dialects I have studied which embrace nearly all types possible It must be relatively old that is dating back into the post Roman first millennium As a guess it seems possible that this isogloss reflects a spread of the speech area after the settlement of the Albanians in roughly their present location so that the speech area straddled the Jirecek Line Demiraj 2006 p 103 And as it was pointed out in 3 since the dialectal differentiations have appeared in a certain geographical area one is entitled to draw the conclusion that the speakers of the northern and southern dialects have been present in their actual areas in the Post Roman and Pre Slavic period of Albanian Euromosaic project 2006 L arvanite albanais en Grece in French Brussels European Commission Retrieved 5 December 2016 Albanians in Italy Archived from the original on 21 January 2012 Retrieved 2 January 2012 Robert Elsie The Albanian Language 25 November 1972 Retrieved 17 January 2017 Dedvukaj Lindon Ndoci Rexhina 2023 Linguistic variation within the Northwestern Gheg Albanian dialect Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America 8 1 Linguistic Society of America 5501 doi 10 3765 plsa v8i1 5501 Dedvukaj Lindon Gehringer Patrick 2023 Morphological and phonological origins of Albanian nasals and its parallels with other laws Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America 8 1 Linguistic Society of America 5508 doi 10 3765 plsa v8i1 5508 Demiraj amp Esposito 2009 p 23 Mai Nicola The Albanian diaspora in the making media migration and social exclusion Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 31 no 3 2005 543 561 de Rapper Gilles Albanians facing the Ottoman past the case of the Albanian diaspora in Turkey 2005 Gkaintartzi Anastasia Aspasia Chatzidaki and Roula Tsokalidou Albanian parents and the Greek educational context Who is willing to fight for the home language International Multilingual Research Journal 8 no 4 2014 291 308 Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo with amendments I XXVI Library of Congress Article 5 Languages 1 The official languages in the Republic of Kosovo are Albanian and Serbian Trandafili Evis Mece Elinda Kajo Duka Enea 2020 Appice Annalisa Ceci Michelangelo Loglisci Corrado Manco Giuseppe Masciari Elio Ras Zbigniew W eds Complex Pattern Mining New Challenges Methods and Applications Springer Nature p 89 ISBN 978 3 030 36617 9 It Albanian is the official language of Albania the co official language of Kosovo and the co official language of many western municipalities of the Republic of Macedonia Albanian is also spoken widely in some areas in Greece southern Montenegro southern Serbia and in some towns in southern Italy and Sicily Linguistic diversity among foreign citizens in Italy Statistics of Italy 25 July 2014 Retrieved 1 April 2015 Macedonia s Albanian Language Bill Becomes Law Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty 15 January 2019 Albanian migration PDF Archived from the original PDF on 16 September 2016 Retrieved 9 July 2016 Saunders Robert A 2011 Ethnopolitics in Cyberspace The Internet Minority Nationalism and the Web of Identity Lanham Lexington Books p 98 ISBN 9780739141946 In addition to the recent emigrants there are older diasporic communities around the world There are upwards of 5 million ethnic Albanians in the Turkish Republic however the vast majority of this population is assimilated and no longer possesses fluency in the language though a vibrant Albanian community maintains its distinct identity in Istanbul to this day Egypt also lays claim to some 18 000 Albanians supposedly lingering remnants of Mohammad Ali s army Gjinari Jorgji Dialektologjia shqiptare The river Shkumbin in central Albania historically forms the boundary between those two dialects with the population on the north speaking varieties of Geg and the population on the south varieties of Tosk page 23 Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World By Keith Brown Sarah Ogilvie Contributor Keith Brown Sarah Ogilvie Edition illustrated Published by Elsevier 2008 ISBN 0 08 087774 5 ISBN 978 0 08 087774 7 Prendergast Eric 2017 The Origin and Spread of Locative Determiner Omission in the Balkan Linguistic Area Ph D University of California Berkeley p 87 The Italo Albanian villages of southern Italy Issue 25 of Foreign field research program report National Research Council U S Division of Earth Sciences Volume 1149 of Publication National Research Council U S Foreign field research program sponsored by Office of Naval research report no 25 Issue 25 of Report National Research Council U S Division of Earth Sciences Volume 1149 of National Academy of Sciences National Research Council Publication Author George Nicholas Nasse Publisher National Academy of Sciences National Research Council 1964 page 24 25 link Nasse George Nicholas 1964 The Italo Albanian Villages of Southern Italy National Academy of Sciences National Research Council ISBN 9780598204004 Lloshi 2008 p 12 Elsie Robert 2017 Albanian Alphabets Borrowed and Invented London UK CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform ISBN 9781544294094 Chang Will Chundra Cathcart January 2015 Ancestry constrained phylogenetic analysis supports the Indo European steppe hypothesis PDF Language 91 1 194 244 doi 10 1353 lan 2015 0005 S2CID 143978664 Retrieved 30 September 2020 Schumacher Stefan 2020 The perfect system of Old Albanian Geg variety In Robert Crellin Thomas Jugel eds Perfects in Indo European Languages and Beyond Current Issues in Linguistic Theory Vol 352 John Benjamins Publishing Company ISBN 978 90 272 6090 1 Fortson 2010 p 446 Albanian forms its own separate branch of Indo European it is the last branch to appear in written records Watkins Calvert Proto Indo European Comparison and Reconstruction in The Indo European Languages Anna Giacalone Ramat and Paolo Ramat eds London Routledge 1998 Google Books Mallory J P and Adams D Q The Oxford Introduction to Proto Indo European and the Proto Indo European World JHholm de Archived 11 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine Holm Hans J The Distribution of Data in Word Lists and its Impact on the Subgrouping of Languages In Christine Preisach Hans Burkhardt Lars Schmidt Thieme Reinhold Decker eds Data Analysis Machine Learning and Applications Proc of the 31st Annual Conference of the German Classification Society GfKl University of Freiburg 7 9 March 2007 Springer Verlag Heidelberg Berlin HJholm de Archived 5 September 2019 at the Wayback Machine A possible Homeland of the Indo European Languages And their Migrations in the Light of the Separation Level Recovery SLRD Method Hans J Holm Sowa Wojciech 2020 Thracian Tracio Palaeohispanica 810 811 doi 10 36707 palaeohispanica v0i20 377 ISSN 1578 5386 Thorso Rasmus 2019 Two Balkan Indo European Loanwords In Matilde Serangeli Thomas Olander eds Dispersals and Diversification Linguistic and Archaeological Perspectives on the Early Stages of Indo European Brill s Studies in Indo European Languages amp Linguistics Vol 19 Brill pp 251 262 ISBN 9789004416192 Hammarstrom Harald Forkel Robert Haspelmath Martin eds 2017 Albanian Glottolog 3 0 Jena Germany Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History Eberhard David M Simons Gary F Fennig Charles D eds 2022 Albanian Ethnologue 25th ed SIL International Archived from the original on 8 April 2022 Nicholas Geoffrey Lempriere Hammond 1976 Migrations and invasions in Greece and adjacent areas Noyes Press p 57 ISBN 978 0 8155 5047 1 Zeitschrift fur Balkanologie R Trofenik 1990 p 102 Tibor Zivkovic Vladeta Petrovic Aleksandar Uzelac Dragana Kuncer Anonymi Descriptio Europae Orientalis Anonimov opis istocne Evrope January 2013 Edition Izvori za srpsku istoriju Publisher Istorijski institut Editor Srđan Rudic ISBN 978 86 7743 102 0 Fortson 2010 p 446 Robert Elsie 2010 Historical Dictionary of Albania Rowman amp Littlefield p 216 ISBN 978 0 8108 6188 6 Fortson 2010 pp 447 448 But it is likely that there were earlier works which have vanished The earliest preserved books both in Geg and in Tosk share features of spelling that point to some kind of common literary language having already developed and a letter written by a Dominican friar named Gulielmus Adea in 1332 says that the inhabitants of Albania had a language very different from Latin but used the Latin alphabet in their writings suggesting if not proving an already existing written Albanian tradition Demiraj 2012 pp 132 133 Bihiku 1980 pp 14 15 Bartl Peter 1995 Albanien vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart in German Michigan Pustet p 86 ISBN 9783791714516 Pereltsvaig Asya 2012 Indo European languages Languages of the World An introduction Cambridge University Press pp 30 31 ISBN 978 1 107 37791 2 Sowa 2020 pp 810 811 Fine J A 1991 The Early Medieval Balkans University of Michigan Press pp 10 11 ISBN 9780472081493 via Google Books In his latest book Eric Hamp supports the thesis that the Illyrian language belongs to the Northwestern group that the Albanian language is descended from Illyrian and that Albanian is related to Messapic which is an earlier Illyrian dialect Comparative Studies on Albanian 2007 Woodard Roger D 2008 The Ancient Languages of Europe Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521684958 The modern Albanian language it has been conjectured is descendent directly from ancient Illyrian Curtis Matthew Cowan 30 November 2011 Slavic Albanian Language Contact Convergence and Coexistence ISBN 9781267580337 Retrieved 31 March 2017 Matasovic Ranko 2012 A grammatical sketch of Albanian for students of Indo European Introduction to Albanian lrc la utexas edu Retrieved 9 June 2023 Taylor Ann Ringe Donald Warnow Tandy August 1995 Written at Manchester UK Smith John Charles Bentley Delia eds Historical Linguistics 1995 Selected papers 12th International Conference on Historical Linguistics Vol 1 General issues and non Germanic Languages Amsterdam NL John Benjamins Publishing published 2000 p 400 ISBN 9027236666 Hyllested amp Joseph 2022 p 225 Vermeer Willem 2008 The prehistory of the Albanian vowel system A preliminary exploration Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics 32 591 608 ISSN 0169 0124 JSTOR 40997529 Sampson Rodney 1997 Rebecca Posner The Romance Languages Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1996 xvi 376 pp 0 521 28139 3 Journal of French Language Studies book review 7 2 227 229 doi 10 1017 S0959269500003793 ISSN 1474 0079 S2CID 230472704 Posner Rebecca 1966 The Romance Languages A linguistic introduction 1st ed United States of America Anchor Books p 3 ISBN 084460853X Friedman Victor A 2011 The Balkan languages and Balkan linguistics Annual Review of Anthropology 40 275 291 doi 10 1146 annurev anthro 081309 145932 ISSN 0084 6570 JSTOR 41287733 Lindstedt Jouko 2000 Linguistic balkanization Contact induced change by mutual reinforcement Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics 28 231 246 ISSN 0169 0124 JSTOR 40997168 Bayraktar Ugur Bahadir 15 December 2011 Mythifying the Albanians A Historiographical Discussion on Vasa Efendi s Albania and the Albanians Balkanologie Revue d Etudes Pluridisciplinaires XIII 1 2 doi 10 4000 balkanologie 2272 Curtis Matthew Cowan 30 November 2011 Slavic Albanian Language Contact Convergence and Coexistence p 17 ISBN 9781267580337 for example argues that from some indeterminate time a pre Albanian in Hamp s terms Albanoid population inhabited areas stretching from Poland to the current area Tripod co Eric Hamp The position of Albanian Ancient IE dialects Proceedings of the Conference on IE linguistics held at the University of California Los Angeles April 25 27 1963 ed By Henrik Birnbaum and Jaan Puhvel It is clear that in the Middle Ages the Albanians extended farther north Jokl Albaner 2 that there are persuasive arguments which have been advanced against their having extended as far as the Adriatic coast the fact that Scodra Scutari Shkoder shows un Albanian development see 6 below that there is no demonstrated old maritime vocabulary see above and that there are few ancient Greek loans Jokl Albaner 5 but see 5 below Kazhdan Alexander Ed 1991 Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium Oxford University Press pp 52 53 ISBN 978 0 19 504652 6 Mallory amp Adams 1997 p 9 Demiraj Shaban Prejardhja e shqiptareve ne driten e deshmive te gjuhes shqipe Origin of Albanians through the testimonies of the Albanian language Shkenca Tirane 1999 Schumacher Stefan 2016 The development of the PIE middle in Albanian In Bjarne Simmelkjaer Sandgaard Hansen Benedicte Nielsen Whitehead Thomas Olander Birgit Anette Olsen eds Etymology and the European Lexicon Proceedings of the 14th Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft 17 22 September 2012 Copenhagen Wiesbaden Reichert via Academia edu Muller Peter O Ohnheiser Ingeborg Olsen Susan Rainer Franz eds 2016 171 Albanian Word Formation An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe Vol 5 Berlin Boston De Gruyter p 3124 doi 10 1515 9783110424942 ISBN 9783110424942 Pantic Miroslav 1990 Knjizevnost na tlu Crne Gore i Boke Kotorske od XVI do XVIII veka Serbian Literary Guild p 98 ISBN 9788637901907 Demiraj 2006 pp 42 43 Demiraj 2006 pp 44 45 Orel 1998 pp 225 409 Newmark Leonard Hubbard Philip Prifti Peter R 1982 Standard Albanian a reference grammar for students Andrew Mellon Foundation p 3 ISBN 9780804711296 Retrieved 28 May 2010 Francisc Pall 1971 Di nuovo sulle biografie scanderbegiane del XVI secolo Revue des etudes sud est europeennes in French 9 1 Academia Republicii Socialiste Romania Academia Republicii Populare Romine 102 Retrieved 28 May 2010 Anamali Skender 2002 Historia e popullit shqiptar ne kater vellime in Albanian Vol I Botimet Toena p 311 OCLC 52411919 Lloshi 2008 p 97 Meshari National Library of Albania Retrieved 14 May 2010 Demiraj Shaban Albanian In Ramat and Ramat 2006 The Indo European Languages Page 480 Dumitru Todericiu An Albanian text older than the Christening Formula of 1462 in Magazin Istoric nr 8 Bucharest November 1967 Robert Elsie The Bellifortis text and early Albanian in Zeitschrift fur Balkanologie Berlin 22 February 1986 p 158 162 Marmullaku Ramadan 1975 Albania and the Albanians C Hurst p 17 ISBN 0903983133 Orel 2000 pp 66 70 71 Bardhyl Demiraj 2018 100 The evolution of Albanian In Fritz Matthias Joseph Brian Klein Jared eds Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo European Linguistics De Gruyter Mouton ISBN 978 3 11 054036 9 and the outcomes of the three dorsal series suggest that Albanian like Luwian may have origi nally retained this three way opposition intact and therefore is neither centum nor satem despite the clear satem like outcome of its palatal dorsals in most instances J P Mallory Douglas Q Adams 1997 Encyclopedia of Indo European culture Taylor amp Francis ISBN 978 1 884964 98 5 ISBN 1 884964 98 2 ISBN 978 1 884964 98 5 de Vaan Michiel 2018 The phonology of Albanian In Klein Jared Joseph Brian Fritz Matthias eds Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo European Linguistics Vol 3 Walter de Gruyter p 1757 but h has arisen secondarily in words such as hark curve Latin arcus which renders h non probative Schumacher Matzinger 2013 p 267 Matasovic 2019 p 11 Lloshi 2008 p 10 Kostallari Androkli 1973 Drejtshkrimi i gjuhes shqipe Instituti i Gjuhesise dhe i Letersise in Akademia e Shkencave e RPS te Shqiperise today Akademia e Shkencave e Republikes se Shqiperise Kamusella Tomasz 2016 The idea of a Kosovan language in Yugoslavia s language politics PDF International Journal of the Sociology of Language 242 217 237 doi 10 1515 ijsl 2016 0040 hdl 10023 11804 S2CID 55005555 Archived PDF from the original on 6 January 2024 via St Andrews Research Repository Drejtshkrimi Prishtine 1964 Wikisource Retrieved 26 May 2018 Kostallari Androkli 1976 Fjalori drejtshkrimor i gjuhes shqipe Instituti i Gjuhesise dhe i Letersise in Akademia e Shkencave e RPS te Shqiperise today Akademia e Shkencave e Republikes se Shqiperise dead link Akademia e Shkencave e RPS te Shqiperise 1980 Fjalori i Gjuhes se Sotme Shqipe Tirana Academy of Sciences of Albania Lloshi 2008 p 9 Vrapi Julia 27 April 2013 Emil Lafe Keshilli Nderakademik per Gjuhen Shqipe ecen pa busull ende pa nje platforme shkencore te miratuar njezeri Sot com al Kolgjini Julie M 2004 Palatalisation in Albanian an acoustic investigation of stops and affricates PhD Dissertation University of Texas at Arlington ISBN 0496859366 Buchholz amp Fiedler 1987 p 28 31 Granser Thedor Moosmuller Sylvia The schwa in Albanian PDF Institute of Acoustics of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Retrieved 15 December 2010 Orel 2000 p 3 de Vaan Michiel PIE e in Albanian PDF p 72 Retrieved 16 December 2010 Elsie Robert London Centre for Albanian Studies 2005 Albanian literature a short history I B Tauris p 16 ISBN 978 1 84511 031 4 Maxwell Daniel Newhall 1979 A Crosslinguistic Correlation between Word Order and Casemarking institution Bloomington Indiana University Pub Breu W 2021 Italo Albanian Balkan Inheritance and Romance Influence p 154 Friedman Victor A 1986 Evidentiality in the Balkans Bulgarian Macedonian and Albanian PDF In Chafe Wallace L Nichols Johanna eds Evidentiality The Linguistic Coding of Epistemology Ablex pp 168 187 ISBN 978 0 89391 203 1 Archived from the original PDF on 29 March 2018 Retrieved 12 May 2023 p 180 Friedman Victor 2021 The Epic Admirative in Albanian In Scaldaferri Nicola ed Wild Songs Sweet Songs The Albanian Epic in the Collections of Milman Parry and Albert B Lord Publications of the Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature Series Vol 5 In collaboration with Victor Friedman John Kolsti Zymer U Neziri Harvard University Center for Hellenic Studies ISBN 9780674271333 Hamp Eric Pratt 3 June 2011 Albanian In Gvozdanovic Jadranka ed Indo European Numerals Walter de Gruyter p 869 ISBN 978 3 11 085846 4 Shkurtaj Gjovalin 1972 Vezhgime rreth te folmeve te banoreve te Bregut te Mates ishullit te Lezhes dhe ishullit te Shengjinit Studime Filologjike in Albanian 2 Akademia e Shkencave e RPSSH Instituti i Gjuhesise dhe i Letersise 96 Demiraj 2006 p 43 Matasovic Ranko 2018 A Grammatical Sketch of Albanian for students of Indo European p 6 Sawicka Irena A Crossroad Between West East and Orient The Case of Albanian Culture Colloquia Humanistica No 2 Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk 2013 Page 97 Even according to Albanian linguists Albanian vocabulary is composed in 60 percent of Latin words from different periods When albanological studies were just emerging it happened that Albanian was classified as a Romance language Already there exists the idea of a common origin of both Albanian and Rumanian languages The Rumanian grammar is almost identical to that of Albanian but it may be as well the effect of later convergence within the Balkan Sprachbund Orel 2000 p 23 Matasovic Ranko 2018 Page 35 Orel 2000 p 191 Excel File Lexical Distance Matrix Alternative Transport 19 November 2016 How much does language change when it travels Alternative Transport 4 May 2015 Adzanela Ardian 1 January 1970 Cultural Treasure of Bosnia and Herzegovina edition Prehistoric and Ancient Period Book 2 Illyrian Bosnia and Herzegovina an Overview of a Cultural Legacy Ancient Illyrians of Bosnia and Herzegovina Ardian Adzanela Adzanela Axhanela Academia edu Suart E Mann 1977 An Albanian Historical Grammar Buske ISBN 978 3 87118 262 4 Sbornik praci Filozoficke fakulty brnenske univerzity Rada klasicka 3 June 2008 Ushaku Ruzhdi Hulumtime etnoliguistike chapter The continuation of Illyrian Bind in Albanian Mythology and Language Fakulteti filologjise Prishtine 2000 p 46 48 Mayani Zĕchariă 1962 The Etruscans begin to speak Souvenir Press Illyrian Glossary bizland com Archived from the original on 17 June 2011 Stipcevic Aleksandar 1977 The Illyrians history and culture Noyes Press ISBN 9780815550525 Linguistic Society of America 1964 Language Volumes 1 3 Linguistic Society of America Orel 1998 Diokletian und die Tetrarchie Aspekte einer Zeitenwende Millennium Studies 2004 ISBN 9783110182309 Price Roberto Salinas 2006 Homeric whispers intimations of orthodoxy in the Iliad and Odyssey Scylax Press p 72 ISBN 9780910865111 Eggebrecht Arne Roemer Museum Pelizaeus Museum 1988 Albanien Schatze aus dem Land der Skipetaren P von Zabern ISBN 9783805309783 Ancient Indo European dialects proceedings Volume 1963 Millennium Studies 1966 Suart E Mann 1977 An Albanian Historical Grammar Hamburg Buske ISBN 9783871182624 Fortson 2010 p 465 Huld Martin E 1986 Accentual Stratification of Ancient Greek Loanwords in Albanian Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Sprachforschung 99 2 245 253 Orel 2000 p 23 Latin loanwords are of extreme importance for the history of Albanian phonology especially its vocalism The duration of the borrowing was so long that loanwords reflect several distinct chronological stages Curtis Matthew Cowan 30 November 2011 Slavic Albanian language contact convergence and coexistence pp 17 18 ISBN 9781267580337 One other point that some scholars make is the fact that Albanian and Romanian share many lexical items this has led some to believe that Albanian originated east of its present geographical spread Georgiev 1957 Hamp 1994 it does not necessarily determine the genealogical history of the language nor does it rule out the possibility of Proto Albanian being present in both Illyrian and Thracian territory The Field of Linguistics Volume 2 Volume 1 of World of linguistics Authors Bernd Kortmann Johan Van Der Auwera Editors Bernd Kortmann Johan Van Der Auwera Publisher Walter de Gruyter 2010 ISBN 3 11 022025 3 ISBN 978 3 11 022025 4 p 412 Ancient Indo European dialects proceedings Volume 1963 Ancient Indo European Dialects Proceedings University of California Los Angeles Center for Research in Languages and Linguistics Authors Henrik Birnbaum Jaan Puhvel University of California Los Angeles Center for Research in Languages and Linguistics Editors Henrik Birnbaum Jaan Puhvel Publisher University of California Press 1966 p 102 Orel 2000 postulates a Vulgar Latin intermediary for no good reason Mallory amp Adams 1997 erroneously give the word as native from melitia the protoform underlying Greek melissa however this protoform gave Albanian mjalce bee which is a natural derivative of Proto Albanian melita honey mod mjalte Orel 2000 p 23 Orel 2000 p 102 Orel 1998 p 236 Bonnet Guillaum 1998 Les mots latins de l albanais Paris L Harmattan p 324 Orel 1998 p 318 Orel 2000 p 264 Kopitar 1829 p 254 Meyer Gustav Die lateinischen Elemente im Albanesischen In Grcbers Grundriss I I Auflage 1888 p 805 Meyer Lubke Wilhelm Rumanisch romanisch albanesisch Mitteilungen des Romanischen Instituts an der Universitet Wien I Heilderberg 1914 p 32 Bardhyl Demiraj 2010 Wir sind die Deinen Studien zur albanischen Sprache Literatur und Kulturgeschichte dem Gedenken an Martin Camaj 1925 1992 gewidmet Harrassowitz Verlag ISBN 978 3 447 06221 3 Cabej Eqrem Karakteristikat e huazimeve latine te gjuhes shqipe SF 1974 2 In German RL 1962 1 pp 13 51 Mihăescu 1966 pp 1 30 Mihăescu 1966 pp 1 21 Mihăescu 1966 pp 1 2 A Rosetti Istoria limbii romane 1986 pp 195 197 Madgearu Alexandru Gordon Martin The Wars of the Balkan Peninsula Their Medieval Origins pp 146 147 Banfi Emanuele 1985 Linguistica balcanica Bologna 162 Jokl Norbert 1929 Balkangermanisches und Germanisches in Albanischen Festschrift der 57 Versammlung deutscher Philologen und Schulmanner in Salzberg Baden bei Wien 105 137 Feist Sigmund 1939 Vergleichendes Worterbuch der gotischen Sprafche Leiden Brill Orel 1998 pp 456 457 468 Matasovic Ranko 2019 A Grammatical Sketch of Albanian for Students of Indo European Zagreb Page 39 Curtis M C 2012 Slavic Albanian language contact convergence and coexistence Archived 7 February 2023 at the Wayback Machine Page 19 Huld M E 1994 Albanian zverk Gothic swairhs Historische Sprachforschung Historical Linguistics 107 1 H pp 165 171 Pages 167 8 Orel 1998 pp 456 457 Orel 1998 p 424 Curtis M C 2012 Slavic Albanian language contact convergence and coexistence Archived 7 February 2023 at the Wayback Machine Page 107 Orel 1998 p 110 Fortson 2010 p 449 Huld M E 1994 Albanian zverk Gothic swairhs Historische Sprachforschung Historical Linguistics 107 1 H pp 165 171 Orel 1998 pp 526 527 Orel 1998 pp 150 151 Orel 1998 p 350 Orel 2000 p 263 Orel 2000 pp 264 265 Orel 2000 pp 266 267 Orel 2000 p 262 Orel 2000 pp 267 268 BibliographyAjeti Idriz 1968 La presence de l albanais dans les parlers des populations slaves de la Peninsule balkanique a la lumiere de la langue et de la toponymie Studia Albanica 2 131 136 Ajeti Idriz 1972 Per historine e marredhenieve te hershme gjuhesore shqiptare sllave Studime Filologjike 4 83 94 reprint in Gjurmime albanologjike Seria e shkencave filologjike II 1972 Pristina 1974 pp 33 44 Arapi Inna 2010 Der Gebrauch von Infinitiv nagger und Konjunktiv im Altalbanischen mit Ausblick auf das Rumanische Hamburg Kovac Banfi Emanuele 1985 Linguistica balcanica Bologna Zanichelli Banfi Emanuele 1991 Storia linguistica del sud est europeo Crisi della Romania balcanica tra alto e basso medioevo Milan Franco Angeli Beekes Robert Stephen Paul 2011 de Vaan Michiel ed Comparative Indo European Linguistics An Introduction 2nd ed John Benjamins Publishing Company ISBN 978 90 272 1185 9 Bihiku Koco 1980 A history of Albanian literature Tirana 8 Nentori Publishing House OCLC 9133663 Bonnet Guillaume 1998 Les mots latins de l albanais Paris L Harmattan ISBN 9782738460349 Bopp Franz 1855 Uber das Albanesische in seinen verwandtschaftlichen Beziehungen Berlin J A Stargardt Boretzky Norbert 1975 Phonologie und Morphologie der albanischen Turzismen Der turkische Einfluss auf das Albanische Vol 1 Wiesbaden Otto Harrassowitz Boretzky Norbert 1975 Worterbuch der albanischen Turzismen Der turkische Einfluss auf das Albanische Vol 2 Wiesbaden Otto Harrassowitz Buchholz Oda Fiedler Wilfried 1987 Albanische Grammatik in German Leipzig VEB Verlag Enzyklopadie ISBN 978 3 324 00025 3 Cabej Eqrem 1962 Disa probleme themelore te historise se vjeter te gjuhes shqipe Buletin i Universitetit Shteteror te Tiranes Seria e Shkencave Shoqerore 4 117 148 In German Studia Albanica 1 1964 Cabej Eqrem 1962 Zur Charakteristik der lateinischen Lehnworter im Albanischen Revue roumaine de linguistique in German 7 1 161 199 Cabej Eqrem 1974 Karakteristikat e huazimeve latine te gjuhes shqipe Studime Filologjike in Albanian 2 14 51 Cabej Eqrem Rreth disa ceshtjeve te historise se gjuhes shqipe Buletin i Universitetit Shteteror te Tiranes Seria e Shkencave Shoqerore 3 1963 69 101 In Romanian Studii și cercetări lingvistiche 4 1954 Cabej Eqrem Mbi disa rregulla te fonetikes historike te shqipes Studime Filologjike 2 1970 77 95 In German Uber einige Lautregeln des Albanischen Die Sprache 18 1972 132 54 Cabej Eqrem 1972 L ancien nom national des albanais Studia Albanica 1 1 40 Cabej Eqrem 1972 Problemi i vendit te formimit te gjuhes shqipe Studime Filologjike 4 3 27 Cabej Eqrem Studime etimologjike ne fushe te shqipes 7 vols Tirana Akademia et Shkencave e Republikes Popullore te Shqiperise Instituti i Gjuhesise dhe i Letersise 1976 2014 Camaj Martin 1966 Albanische Wortbildung Wiesbaden Otto Harrassowitz Camaj Martin 1984 Albanian Grammar Translated by Fox Leonard Wiesbaden Otto Harrassowitz Camarda Demetrio 1864 Saggio di grammatologia comparata sulla lingua albanese Livorno Successore di Egisto Vignozzi Camarda Demetrio 1866 Appendice al saggio di grammatologia comparata sulla lingua albanese Prato Campbell George L ed 2000 Albanian Compendium of the World s Languages Vol 1 2nd ed London Routledge pp 50 57 Cimochowski Waclaw 1950 Recherches sur l histoire du sandhi dans la langue albanaise Lingua Posnaniensis 2 220 255 Cimochowski Waclaw 1960 Des recherches sur la toponomastique de l Albanie Lingua Posnaniensis 8 133 145 Cimochowski Waclaw 1973 Pozicioni gjuhesor i ilirishtes ballkanike ne rrethin e gjuheve indoevropiane Studime Filologjike 2 Coretta Stefano Riverin Coutlee Josiane Kapia Enkeleida Nichols Stephen 2022 Northern Tosk Albanian Journal of the International Phonetic Association 53 3 1 23 doi 10 1017 S0025100322000044 hdl 20 500 11820 ebce2ea3 f955 4fa5 9178 e1626fbae15f Demiraj Bardhyl 1997 Albanische Etymologien Untersuchungen zum albanischen Erbwortschatz Amsterdam Rodopi ISBN 9042001615 Demiraj Shaban 1998 Albanian In Giacalone Ramat Anna Ramat Paolo eds The Indo European Languages London Routledge pp 480 501 ISBN 9780415064491 Demiraj Shaban 1986 Gramatike historike e gjuhes shqipe Tirana 8 Nentori Demiraj Shaban 1988 Gjuha shqipe dhe historia e saj Tirana Shtepia botuese e librit universitar Demiraj Shaban 1996 Fonologjia historike e gjuhes shqipe Tirana Akademia e Shkencave e Shqiperise Instituti i Gjuhesise dhe i Letersise OCLC 39182610 Demiraj Shaban 1999 Prejardhja e shqiptareve ne driten e deshmive te gjuhes shqipe Tirana Shkenca ISBN 9789992765470 Demiraj Shaban 2006 The origin of the Albanians linguistically investigated Tirana Academy of Sciences of Albania ISBN 978 99943 817 1 5 Demiraj B Esposito A 2009 Albanian In Brown Keith Ogilvie Sarah eds Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World Elsevier ISBN 978 0 08 087774 7 Demiraj Bardhyl 2010 Gli insediamenti degli albanesi nell alto medioevo PDF In Belluscio Gianni Mendicino Antonino eds Scritti in onore di Eric Pratt Hamp per il suo 90 compleanno Rende Universita della Calabria pp 73 83 Demiraj Bardhyl 2012 La Maledizione dell Epirota 1483 Res Albanicae I 1 Palermo 133 149 De Simone Carlo 1986 Gli illiri del Sud Tentativo di una definizione Iliria 1 Desnickaja Agnija 1968 Albanskij jazyk i ego dialekty Leningrad Nauka Desnickaja Agnija 1973 Language Interferences and Historical Dialectology Linguistics 113 41 57 Desnickaja Agnija 1990 Osnovy balkanskogo jazykoznanija Leningrad Nauka de Vaan Michiel 2018 The Phonology of Albanian Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo European Linguistics Vol 3 Berlin De Gruyter Mouton pp 1732 1749 Domi Mahir 1974 Prapashtesa ilire dhe shqipe perkime dhe paralelizma Studime Filologjike 4 Domi Mahir 1975 Considerations sur les traits communs ou paralleles de l albanais avec les autres langues balkaniques et sur leur etude Studia Albanica 1 Fortson Benjamin Wynn IV 2010 Indo European Language and Culture An Introduction 2nd ed Wiley Blackwell ISBN 978 1 4443 5968 8 Friedman Victor A 2020 The Balkans In Adamou Evangelia Matras Yaron eds The Routledge Handbook of Language Contact Routledge Handbooks in Linguistics Routledge pp 385 403 ISBN 9781351109147 Genesin Monica 1998 Albanian In Price Glanville ed Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe Oxford Blackwell pp 4 8 Gjinari Jorgji 1968 Per historine e dialekteve te gjuhes shqipe Studime Filologjike 4 Gjinari Jorgji 1969 Mbi vazhdimesine e ilirishtes ne gjuhen shqipe Studime Filologjike 3 Gjinari Jorgji 1970 Dialektologjia shqiptare Pristina Universiteti Gjinari Jorgji 1976 Struktura dialektore e shqipes e pare ne lidhje me historine e popullit Studime Filologjike 3 Gjinari Jorgji 1982 Deshmi te historise se gjuhes shqipe per kohen dhe vendin e formimit te popullit shqiptar Studime Filologjike 3 Gjinari Jorgji Beci Bahri Shkurtaj Gjovalin Gosturani Xheladin 2007 Atlasi dialektologjik i gjuhes shqipe Vol 1 Naples Universita degli Studi di Napoli L Orientali Hamp Eric P 1963 The Position of Albanian Ancient IE dialects In Birnbaum Henrik Puhvel Jaan eds Proceedings of the Conference on IE linguistics held at the University of California Los Angeles April 25 27 1963 Hamp Eric Adams Douglas August 2013 The Expansion of the Indo European Languages An Indo Europeanist s Evolving View PDF Sino Platonic Papers 239 Hamp Eric P 1994 Albanian In Asher R E ed Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics Vol 1 Oxford Pergamon pp 65 67 Huld Martin E 1984 Basic Albanian Etymologies Columbus OH Slavica Publishers Hyllested Adam Joseph Brian 2022 Albanian The Indo European Language Family Cambridge University Press pp 223 245 doi 10 1017 9781108758666 013 ISBN 9781108499798 Imami Petrit 2011 Origjina e fjaleve te gjuhes shqipe in Albanian Prishtine a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Ismajli Rexhep 2015 Eqrem Basha ed Studime per historine e shqipes ne kontekst ballkanik Studies on the History of Albanian in the Balkan context in Albanian Prishtine Kosova Academy of Sciences and Arts special editions CLII Section of Linguistics and Literature Katicic Radoslav 2012 Ancient Languages of the Balkans Walter de Gruyter ISBN 978 3111568874 Kocaqi Altin 2013 Dokumente historiko gjuhesore vendi i shqipes nder gjuhet evropiane Albania Marin Barleti ISBN 978 9995604707 Kopitar Jernej K 1829 Albanische walachische und bulgarische Sprache Jahrbucher der Literatur Wien 46 59 106 Kretschmer Paul 1896 Einleitung in die Geschichte der griechischen Sprache Gottingen a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Kretschmer Paul 1935 Sprachliche Vorgeschichte des Balkans Revue internationale des etudes balkaniques 2 1 41 48 Lloshi Xhevat 1994 Reiter Norbert Hinrichs Uwe van Leeuwen Turnovcova Jirina eds Substandard Albanian and Its Relation to Standard Albanian Sprachlicher Standard und Substandard in Sudosteuropa und Osteuropa Beitrage zum Symposium vom 12 16 Oktober 1992 in Berlin Berlin Otto Harrassowitz pp 184 194 Lloshi Xhevat 1999 Albanian In Hinrichs Uwe ed Handbuch der Sudosteuropa Linguistik Wiesbaden Otto Harrassowitz pp 277 299 Lloshi Xhevat 2008 Rreth alfabetit te shqipes me rastin e 100 vjetorit te Kongresit te Manastirit Skopje Pristina Tirana Logos A ISBN 9789989582684 Lambertz Maximilian Lehrgang des Albanischen 3 vols vol 1 Albanisch deutsches Worterbuch vol 2 Albanische Chrestomathie vol 3 Grammatik der albanischen Sprache Berlin Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften 1954 Berlin 1955 Halle an der Saale 1959 Mallory J P Adams D Q 1997 Albanian language Encyclopedia of Indo European Culture London Fitzroy Dearborn pp 8 11 Matasovic Ranko 2019 A Grammatical Sketch of Albanian for Students of Indo European PDF Zagreb p 39 a href wiki Template Cite book title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Matzinger Joachim 2009 Die Albaner als Nachkommen der Illyrier aus der Sicht der historischen Sprachwissenschaft In Schmitt Oliver Jens Frantz Eva eds Albanische Geschichte Stand und Perspektiven der Forschung Munich R Oldenburg Verlag pp 13 35 Matzinger Joachim Der lateinisch albanische Sprachkontakt und seine Implikationen fur Vorgeschichte des Albanischen und der Albaner in Sudosteuropaische Romania Siedlungs Migrationsgeschichte und Sprachtypologie Edited by Wolfgang Dahmen et al Tubingen Narr Verlag 2012 pp 75 103 Matzinger Joachim 2018 The Lexicon of Albanian In Klein Jared Joseph Brian Fritz Matthias eds Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo European Linguistics Vol 3 Walter de Gruyter ISBN 978 3 11 054243 1 Mayer Anton Die Sprache der alten Illyrier 2 vols Vienna Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften 1957 1959 Mann Stuart E 1977 An Albanian Historical Grammar Hamburg Helmut Buske Meyer Gustav Albanesische Studien I Die Pluralbildungen der albanesischen Nomina in Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch historischen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften 104 1883 257 362 Miklosich Franz Albanische Forschungen 2 vols vol 1 Die slavischen Elemente im Albanischen vol 2 Die romanischen Elemente im Albanischen Vienna Karl Gerold s Sohn 1870 Mihăescu Haralambie 1966 Les elements latins de la langue albanaise Revue des etudes sud est europeennes 4 5 33 323 53 Mihăescu Haralambie 1978 La langue latine dans le sud est de l Europe Bucharest and Paris Editura Academiei and Les Belles Lettres Newmark Leonard Hubbard Philip Prifti Peter 1982 Standard Albanian A Reference Grammar for Students Stanford Stanford University Press Olberg Hermann 1977 Einige Uberlegungen zur Autochtonie der Albaner auf der Balkanhalbinsel In Olberg Hermann M ed Akten der internationalen albanologischen Kolloquiums Innsbruck 1972 zum Gedachtnis an Norbert Jokl Innsbruck Institut fur Sprachwissenschaft der Universitat Innsbruck Olberg Hermann 1982 Kontributi i gjuhesise per ceshtjen e atdheut ballkanik te shqiptareve Studime Filologjike 3 Olsen Birgit Anette Thorso Rasmus 2022 Armenian In Olander Thomas ed The Indo European Language Family A Phylogenetic Perspective Cambridge University Press pp 202 222 doi 10 1017 9781108758666 012 ISBN 9781108758666 Pedersen Holger 1894 Bidrag til den albanesiske Sproghistorie Festskrift til Vilhelm Tomsen Kopenhagen Gyldendal pp 246 257 Pedersen Holger 1905 Albanesisch Kritischer Jahrbericht 9 1 206 217
