Albanian language

Albanian (/ælˈbeɪniən/; shqip [ʃcip] or gjuha shqipe [ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ]) is an Indo-European language spoken by the
Albanian
Albanians in the Balkans and the Albanian diaspora in the Americas, Europe and Oceania.[1][4] It comprises an
independent branch within the Indo-European languages and is not closely related to any other language in Europe. shqip
gjuha shqipe
Gheg and Tosk constitute the major dialects of the Albanian language with Gheg spoken in the north and Tosk spoken Pronunciation [ʃcip]
in the south of the Shkumbin. Standard Albanian is a standardised form of spoken Albanian based on the Tosk dialect.
Native to Albania, Greece,
It is the official language of Albania and Kosovo and a co-official language in North Macedonia as well as a minority Italy, Kosovo,
language of Italy, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia. Montenegro, North
Macedonia, Serbia
Centuries-old communities speaking Albanian dialects can be found scattered in Croatia (the Arbanasi), Greece (the
and Albanian
Arvanites and some communities in Epirus, Western Macedonia and Western Thrace),[5] Italy (the Arbëreshë)[6] as diaspora
well as in Romania, Turkey, and Ukraine.[7]
Native 5.4 million in the
speakers Balkans (2011)[1]
Language Indo-European
Contents family
Albanian
Geographic distribution Dialects Gheg
Europe
Tosk
Americas
Asia and Oceania Arbëresh
Arvanitika
Dialects
Orthography Writing Latin (Albanian
system alphabet)
Classification
Albanian Braille
History
Linguistic affinities Official status
Early linguistic influences Official Albania
Latin influence language in Kosovo
Historical presence and location North
Proto-IE features Macedonia[a]
Albanian–PIE phonological correspondences
Standard Albanian Montenegro[a][2]
Elbasan-based standard Recognised Italy
Tosk standard minority Serbia
Calls for reform language in Croatia
Education Romania
Phonology Regulated by Officially by the
Consonants Social Sciences
Vowels and Albanological
Schwa Section of the
Grammar Academy of
Word order Sciences of
Numerals Albania
Literary tradition Language codes
Earliest undisputed texts ISO 639-1 sq (https://www.lo
Disputed earlier texts
c.gov/standards/is
Ottoman period
o639-2/php/langcod
Vocabulary es_name.php?iso_63
Cognates with Illyrian
9_1=sq)
Loanwords
Early Greek loans ISO 639-2 alb (https://www.l

Gothic loans oc.gov/standards/i

Other loans so639-2/php/langco
des_name.php?code_
See also
ID=14) (B)
Notes
sqi (https://www.l
Bibliography oc.gov/standards/i
References so639-2/php/langco
External links
Geographic distribution des_name.php?code_
ID=14) (T)
The language is spoken by approximately 7 million people, primarily in Albania, Kosovo, Greece, Italy, North ISO 639-3 sqi – inclusive
Macedonia and Montenegro. However, due to the large Albanian diaspora, the worldwide total of speakers is much code
higher than in Southern Europe.[1] Individual codes:
aae – Arbëresh
aat – Arvanitika
Europe aln – Gheg
The Albanian language is the official language of Albania and Kosovo, and co-official in North Macedonia. Albanian als – Tosk

is a recognised minority language in Croatia, Italy, Montenegro, Romania and in Serbia. Albanian is also spoken by a Glottolog alba1267 (http://g
minority in Greece, specifically in the Thesprotia and Preveza regional units and in a few villages in Ioannina and lottolog.org/resou
Florina regional units in Greece.[5] It is also spoken by 450,000 Albanian immigrants in Greece. rce/languoid/id/al
ba1267)[3]
Albanian is the third most spoken language in Italy.[8] This is due to a substantial Albanian immigration to Italy. Italy
Linguasphere 55-AAA-aaa to 55-
has a historical Albanian minority of about 500,000, scattered across southern Italy, known as Arbëreshë.
AAA-ahe (25
Approximately 1 million Albanians from Kosovo are dispersed throughout Germany, Switzerland and Austria. These
varieties)
are mainly refugees from Kosovo who migrated during the Kosovo War. In Switzerland, the Albanian language is the
sixth most spoken language with 176,293 native speakers.

Albanian became an official language of the Republic of North Macedonia on January 15, 2019.[9]

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 Arbëreshë. Arbëreshe have a strong sense of identity, and
are unique in that they speak an archaic dialect of Tosk Albanian called Arbëreshë.
The dialects of the Albanian
In North America (United States and Canada) there are approximately 250,000 Albanian speakers. It is spoken in the language.
eastern area of the United States in cities like New York City, New Jersey, Boston, Philadelphia, Ohio, Connecticut (The map does not indicate where the
and Detroit. Greater New Orleans has a large Arbëresh community. Oftentimes, wherever there are Italians, there are a language is majority or minority.)
few Arbëreshe mixed with them. Arbëreshe Americans, therefore are often indistinguishable from Italian Americans
due to being assimilated into the Italian American community.[10]

In Argentina there are nearly 40,000 Albanian speakers, mostly in Buenos Aires.[11]

Asia and Oceania

Approximately 1.3 million people of Albanian ancestry live in Turkey, and 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.

In Egypt there are around 18,000 Albanians, mostly Tosk speakers.[12] 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.

Albanian is also spoken by Albanian diaspora communities residing in Australia and New Zealand.

The dialects of Albania

Dialects
The Albanian language has two distinct dialects, Tosk which is spoken in the south, and Gheg spoken in the north.[13]
Standard Albanian is based on the Tosk dialect. The Shkumbin river is the rough dividing line between the two
dialects.[14]

Gheg is divided into four sub-dialects, in Northwest Gheg, Northeast Gheg, Central Gheg, and Southern Gheg. It is The dialects of the Albanian
primarily spoken in northern Albania and throughout Montenegro, Kosovo and northwestern North Macedonia. One fairly language.

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, Çam, 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.

Orthography
The Albanian language has been written using many different alphabets since the earliest records from the 14th century.
The history of Albanian language orthography is closely related to the cultural orientation and knowledge of certain
foreign languages among Albanian writers.[15] 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 Albanian keyboard layout.
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 standardized 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:[16]

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.[16]

Classification
The Albanian language occupies an independent branch of the Indo-European language tree.[17] 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.[18]
Other linguists linked the Albanian language with Latin, Greek and Armenian, while placing Germanic and Balto-Slavic
in another branch of Indo-European.[19][20][21]

History
The first written mention of the Albanian language was on 14 July 1284 in Dubrovnik in modern Croatia when a crime
witness named Matthew testified: "I heard a voice shouting on the mountainside in the Albanian language" (Latin: Audivi
unam vocem, clamantem in monte in lingua albanesca).[22][23] The first audio recording of Albanian was made by
Tree of Indo-European
Norbert Jokl on April 4, 1914 in Vienna.[24] During the five-century period of the Ottoman presence in Albania, the
languages.
language was not officially recognized until 1909, when the Congress of Dibra decided that Albanian schools would
finally be allowed.[25]

Linguistic affinities
Albanian is considered an isolate within the Indo-European language family; no other language has been conclusively linked to its branch. The only other language that
is a sole surviving member of a branch of Indo-European is Armenian.

The Albanian language is part of the Indo-European language group and is considered to have evolved from one of the Paleo-Balkan languages of antiquity,[26][27][28]
although it is still uncertain which particular Paleo-Balkan language represents the ancestor of Albanian, or where in Southern Europe that population lived.[29] In
general there is insufficient evidence to connect Albanian with one of those languages, whether one of the Illyrian languages (which historians mostly confirm), or
Thracian and Dacian.[30] Among these possibilities, Illyrian is typically held to be the most probable, though insufficient evidence still clouds the discussion.[31]

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, using quantitative linguistic techniques, found that Albanian appears to comprise a "subgroup with Germanic". However, they argued that this fact
is hardly significant, as Albanian has lost much of its original vocabulary and morphology, and so this "apparently close connection to Germanic rests on only a couple
of lexical cognates – hardly any evidence at all".[32]

Early linguistic influences

The earliest loanwords attested in Albanian come from Doric Greek,[33] whereas the strongest influence came from Latin. According to Matthew C. Curtis, the
loanwords do not necessarily indicate the geographical location of the ancestor of Albanian language.[34] However, according to other linguists, the borrowed words
can help to get an idea about the place of origin and the evolution of the Albanian language.[35][36] According to another group of linguists, Albanian originates from
an area located east of its present geographic spread due to the several common lexical items found between the Albanian and Romanian languages.[37]

The period during which Proto-Albanian and Latin interacted was protracted, lasting from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD.[38] 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 characterized 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
palatalization.

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

Latin influence
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".[39] 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)[40]
and Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke (1914)[41] 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 excipio (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.[42]

Eqrem Çabej also noticed, among other things, the archaic Latin elements in Albanian:[43]

1. 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.
2. Latin /oː/ becomes Albanian /e/ in the oldest Latin loans: pōmus → pemë ‘fruit tree’; hōra → ora ‘hour’. An analogous mutation occurred from Proto-
Indo-European to Albanian; PIE *nōs became Albanian ne ‘we’, PIE *oḱtō + suffix -ti- became Albanian tetë ‘eight’, etc.
3. Latin unstressed internal and initial syllables become lost in Albanian: cubitus → kub ‘elbow’; medicus → mjek ‘physician’; palūdem ‘swamp’ → VL
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.
4. Latin /tj/, /dj/, /kj/ palatalized to Albanian /s/, /z/, /c/: vitium → ves ‘vice; worries’; rationem → 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.
kulshedër → kuçedër ‘hydra’, hībernus → vërri ‘winter pasture’, sarcinārius ‘used for packing, loading’ → shelqëror ‘forked peg, grapnel, forked
hanger’, solanum ‘nightshade’, lit. ‘sun plant’ → shullë(r) ‘sunny place out of the wind, sunbathed area’, splēnēticus → shpretkë ‘spleen’, trifurcus →
tërfurk ‘pitchfork’.[44]
151 Albanian words of Latin origin were not inherited in Romanian. A few examples include Latin amicus → Albanian mik ‘friend’, inimicus → armik
‘foe, enemy’, rationem → arsye, benedicere → 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 ‘await’, voluntās (voluntātis) → vullnet ‘will; volunteer’.[45]
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
monacus, peshkëp ‘bishop’ from episcopus, and ungjill ‘gospel’ from ēvangelium.[46]
Other authors[47] have detected Latin loanwords in Albanian with an ancient sound pattern from the 1st century BC, 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 Romanian chinga ‘girdle; saddle girth’, and Vulgar Latin 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’, Köln).

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.[48]

Historical presence and location

 The place and the time where the Albanian language was formed is
uncertain.[49] American linguist Eric Hamp stated that during an unknown
chronological period a pre-Albanian population (termed as "Albanoid" by
Hamp) inhabited areas stretching from Poland to the southwestern
Balkans.[50] Further analysis has suggested that it was in a mountainous
region rather than on a plain or seacoast:[51] while the words for plants and
animals characteristic of mountainous regions are entirely original, the
The location of the Albanoi tribe names for fish and for agricultural activities (such as ploughing) are
150 AD borrowed from other languages.[52] Illyrians, Dacians, Getae and
Thracians at 200 BC
A deeper analysis of the vocabulary, however, shows that this 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 where 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) thus losing large parts (or the majority) of sea environment lexicon. A similar phenomenon could be observed with agricultural terms. While the
words for 'arable land', 'corn', '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
Urheimat.

The centre of Albanian settlement remained the Mat river. In 1079, they were recorded farther south in the valley of the
Shkumbin river.[53] The Shkumbin, a seasonal stream 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 and loanwords from other languages are evidence that the dialectal split preceded the Slavic migration to the
Balkans,[54][55][38] 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.[56][51]

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.

Linguists Stefan Schumacher and Joachim Matzinger (University of Vienna) assert that the first literary records of
Albanian date from the 16th century.[57][58] 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
1905 issue of the magazine
first Albanian school is believed to have been opened by Franciscans in 1638 in Pdhanë.
Albania, the most important
Albanian periodical of the early
One of the earliest dictionaries of Albanian language was written in 1693 which was an Italian language manuscript
20th century
authored by Montenegrin sea captain Julije Balović Pratichae Schrivaneschae and includes a multilingual dictionary of
hundreds of the most often used words in everyday life in the Italian, Slavo-Illirico, Greek, Albanian and Turkish
languages.[59]

Proto-IE features
Although Albanian has been referred to as the "weird sister" for several words that do not correspond to IE cognates, it has retained many proto-IE features: for
example, the demonstrative pronoun *ḱi- is ancestral to Albanian ky/kjo, English he, and Russian sej but not to English this or Russian etot.

Albanian is compared to other Indo-European languages below, but note that Albanian has exhibited some notable instances of semantic drift (such as motër meaning
"sister" rather than "mother".
 Vocabulary of Albanian and other Indo-European languages
tre /
Albanian muaj ri nënë motër natë hundë zi kuq verdhë kaltër ujk
tri
*h₁reudʰ -
Proto-
*neu- *neh₂- *kʷr ̥snós ó- ~
Indo- *meh₁ns- *méh₂tēr *swésōr *nókʷts *treies *ǵʰ elh₃- *bʰ léh₁-uo- *wĺ̥kʷos
(i)o- s- *mel-n- h₁roudʰ -
European
ó-
English month new mother sister night nose three black red yellow blue wolf
āter,
Latin mēnsis novus māter soror noct- nāsus trēs ruber helvus flāvus lupus
niger
Lithuanian mė́nuo naũjas motė sesuõ naktìs nósis trỹs júodas raűdas geltas mė́lynas vilkas
Old три,
мѣсѧць новъ мати сестра ношть носъ чрънъ чръвенъ жлътъ син҄ ь влькъ
Church триѥ
měsęcь novъ mati sestra noštь nosъ črъnъ črъvenъ žlъtъ siņь vlьkъ
Slavonic tri, trije

Ancient μην- νέος μήτηρ ἀδελφή νυκτ- ῥιν- τρεῖς μέλας ἐρυθρός χλωρός ξανθός λύκος
Greek men- néos mḗtēr adelphḗ nukt- rhin- treîs mélas eruthrós khlōrós ksanthós lúkos

ամիս նոր մայր քույր գիշեր քիթ երեք սեւ կարմիր դեղին Կապույտ գայլ
Armenian
amis nor mayr k'uyr gišer k'it yerek' sev karmir deġin kapuyt gayl

Irish mí nua máthair deirfiúr oíche srón trí dubh dearg buí gorm faolchú

न त/ काल/ पीत/
मास नव मातृ वसृ नस ि िधर नील वृक
Sanskrit िनश ् कृ ण िहर य
māsa nava mātr ̥ svasr ̥ nasa tri rudhira nīla vr k̥ a
nakta/niś kāla/kr ṣ̥ ṇa pīta/hiraṇya

Albanian–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 *d and *dʰ became 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 *ē and *ā become o, and PIE *ō appears as e. The palatals, velars, and labiovelars all
remain distinct before front vowels, a conservation found otherwise in Luwian and related Anatolian languages. Thus PIE *ḱ, *k, and *kʷ become th, q, and s,
respectively (before back vowels *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-[60] (rather than the usual reconstruction *h₃erǵʰi-), but this is generally not followed
elsewhere.[61][62]

Reflexes of PIE bilabial plosives in Albanian

PIE Albanian PIE Albanian
*p p *pékʷ- 'to cook' pjek 'to bake'
*bʰ / b b ̯ 'to sip, gulp'
*srobʰ-éie- 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[* 1] *pérd- 'to fart' pjerdh 'to fart'

g *dlh̥ ₁-tó- 'long' gjatë 'long' (Tosk dial. glatë)

*dʰ d *dʰégʷʰ- 'burn' djeg 'to burn'

dh[* 1] *gʰórdʰos 'enclosure' gardh 'fence'

1. 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[* 1] *ḱupo- 'shoulder' sup 'shoulder'

k[* 2] *smeḱ-r̥ 'chin' mjekër 'chin; beard'

ç/c[* 3] *ḱentro- 'to stick' çandër 'prop'

*ǵ dh *ǵómbʰos 'tooth, peg' dhëmb 'tooth'

*ǵʰ dh *ǵʰed-ioH 'I defecate' dhjes 'I defecate'

d[* 4] *ǵʰr̥sdʰi 'grain, barley' drithë 'grain'

1. Before u̯ /u or i/i̯
2. Before sonorant
3. Archaic relic
4. 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 ̯ 'to weep'
*kluH-io- 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-ie/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'
z *gʷréh₂us 'heavy' zor 'hard, difficult'
*gʷʰ g *dʰégʷʰ- 'to burn' djeg 'to burn'
z ̯ 'to ignite'
*dʰogʷʰéie- ndez 'to kindle, light a fire'

Reflexes of PIE *s in Albanian

PIE Albanian PIE Albanian

*s gj[* 1] *séḱstis 'six' gjashtë 'six'

h[* 2] *nosōm 'us' (gen.) nahe 'us' (dat.)

sh[* 3] *bʰreusos 'broken' breshër 'hail'

th[* 4] *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 *su̯ eíd-r̥- 'sweat' dirsë 'sweat'

1. Initial
2. Between vowels
3. Between u/i and another vowel (ruki law)
4. Dissimilation with following s
 Reflexes of PIE sonorants in Albanian
PIE Albanian PIE Albanian

*i̯ gj[* 1] ̯ ₃s- 'to gird'

*iéh (n)gjesh 'I gird; squeeze, knead'

j[* 2] ̯ 'you' (nom.)

*iuH ju 'you (plural)'

∅[* 3] ̯ 'three' (masc.)

*treies tre 'three'

*u̯ v ̯ 'to dress'

*u̯ os-éie- 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 *u̯ rh₁ḗn 'sheep' rrunjë 'yearling lamb'
*n̥ e *h₁n̥ men 'name' emër 'name'
*m̥ e *u̯ iḱm̥ti 'twenty' (një)zet 'twenty'

*l̥ li, il[* 4] / lu, ul *u̯ ĺk̥ ʷos 'wolf' ujk 'wolf' (Chamian ulk)

*r ̥ ri, ir[* 4] / ru, ur *ǵʰr̥sdom 'grain, barley' drithë 'grain'

1. Before i, e, a
2. Before back vowels
3. Between vowels
4. 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'

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'

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.[63]
Elbasan-based standard
Until the early 20th century, Albanian writing developed in three main literary traditions: Gheg, Tosk, and Arbëreshë. Throughout this time, an intermediate 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.[63]

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.[63]

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 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.[63] Standardization was directed by the Albanian Institute of Linguistics and Literature of the
Academy of Sciences of Albania.[64] Two dictionaries were published in 1954: an Albanian language dictionary and a Russian–Albanian dictionary. New orthography
rules were eventually published in 1967[64] and 1973 Drejtshkrimi i gjuhës shqipe (Orthography of the Albanian Language).[65]

Until 1968, Kosovo and other Albanian-speaking areas in the former 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.[66] Albanian intellectuals in the
former Yugoslavia consolidated the 1917 twice in the 1950s, culminating with a thorough codification of orthographic rules in 1964.[67] 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.[63] 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)[68] and
Dictionary of Today's Albanian language (Fjalori Gjuhës së Sotme Shqipe) (1980).[64][69] 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),[70] Fjalori i Bashkimit (1908),[70] and Fjalori i Gazullit
(1941).[15]

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+' infinitive and the Gheg lexicon. Critics say that Standard Albanian disenfranchises and stigmatizes
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+' 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+' 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.[71] Hardline academics boycotted the initiative,[72] while other
reformers have viewed it as well-intentioned but flawed and superficial.[71] Media such as Rrokum and Java have offered content that is almost exclusively in the
Elbasan dialect. Meanwhile, author and linguist Agim Morina has promoted Shqipe e Përbashkët or Common Albanian, a neostandard or a reformed version of the
Tosk standard that aims at reflecting the natural development of the language among all Albanians.[73][63] Common Albanian incorporates the 'me+' infinitive,
accommodates for Gheg features, provides for dialect-neutral rules that favor simplicity, predictability, and usage trends.[74][75] Many modern writers have embraced
Common Albanian to various extents, especially in less formal writing.[76]

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 7 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).

Consonants

Alveolar Post-
Labial Dental Palatal Velar Glottal
plain velar.
alveolar

Nasal m n ɲ (ŋ)
voiceless p t k
Plosive
voiced b d ɡ
voiceless t͡s t͡ʃ c͡ç
Affricate
voiced d͡z d͡ʒ ɟ͡ʝ
voiceless f θ s ʃ h
Fricative
voiced v ð z ʒ
Approximant l ɫ j
Flap ɾ
Trill r
 IPA Description Written as English approximation
m Bilabial nasal m man
n Alveolar nasal n not
ɲ Palatal nasal nj ~onion
ŋ Velar nasal ng bang
p Voiceless bilabial plosive p spin
b Voiced bilabial plosive b bat
t Voiceless alveolar plosive t stand
d Voiced alveolar plosive d debt
k Voiceless velar plosive k scar
ɡ Voiced velar plosive g go
t͡s Voiceless alveolar affricate c hats
d͡z Voiced alveolar affricate x goods
t͡ʃ Voiceless postalveolar affricate ç chin
d͡ʒ Voiced postalveolar affricate xh jet
c͡ç Voiceless palatal affricate q ~china (RP)
ɟ͡ʝ Voiced palatal affricate gj ~gem (RP)
f Voiceless labiodental fricative f far
v Voiced labiodental fricative v van
θ Voiceless dental fricative th thin
ð Voiced dental fricative dh then
s Voiceless alveolar fricative s son
z Voiced alveolar fricative z zip
ʃ Voiceless postalveolar fricative sh show
ʒ Voiced postalveolar fricative zh vision
h Voiceless glottal fricative h hat
r Alveolar trill rr Spanish perro
ɾ Alveolar tap r Spanish pero
l Alveolar lateral approximant l lean
ɫ Velarized alveolar lateral approximant ll ball
j Palatal approximant j yes

Notes:

The contrast between flapped r and trilled rr is the same as in Spanish or Armenian. In most of the dialects, as also in standard Albanian, the single
"r" changes from an alveolar flap /ɾ/ into a retroflex flap [ɽ], or even an alveolar approximant [ɹ] when it is at the end of a word.
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 because of its use in English sound and its 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 position of q and gj sound is not clear. Many 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.[77] Other speakers reduced them into /j/ in consonant clusters, such as in the word
fjollë, which before standardization was written as fqollë ( < Medieval Greek φακιολης).
The ng can pronounced as /ŋ/ in final position, otherwise is an allophone of n before k and g.
Before q and gj, the n is always pronounced /ɲ/ but this is not reflected in the orthography.
/θ, ð, ɫ/ are interdental.

Vowels
 IPA Description Written as English approximation
i Close front unrounded vowel i seed
ɛ Open-mid front unrounded vowel e bed
a Open central unrounded vowel a father, Spanish casa
ə Schwa ë about, the
ɔ Open-mid back rounded vowel o law
y Close front rounded vowel y French tu, German Lüge
u Close back rounded vowel u boot

Schwa
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.[78] Until the
standardization 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 vowels and gliding
vowels were employed, including ae by Lekë Matrënga and é by Pjetër Bogdani in the late 16th and early 17th century.[79][80] The schwa in Albanian has a great
degree of variability from extreme back to extreme front articulation.[81] 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 pronounced as back and rounded.[81]

Grammar
Albanian has a canonical word order of SVO (subject–verb–object) like English and many other Indo-European languages.[82] Albanian nouns are inflected by gender
(masculine, feminine and neuter) and number (singular and plural). There are five declensions with six cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, and
vocative), although the vocative only occurs with a limited number of words, and the forms of the genitive and dative are identical (a genitive is produced when the
prepositions i/e/të/së are used with the dative). Some dialects also retain a locative case, which is not present in standard Albanian. 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 masculine noun which takes "i" in the definite singular:

Indefinite singular Indefinite plural Definite singular Definite plural

Nominative një mal (a mountain) male (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 masculine noun zog (bird), a masculine noun which takes "u" in the definite singular:

Indefinite singular Indefinite plural Definite singular Definite 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 feminine noun vajzë (girl):

Indefinite singular Indefinite plural Definite singular Definite 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).
Feminine nouns take the suffix -(i/j)a:

veturë (car) / vetura (the car);

shtëpi (house) / shtëpia (the house);
lule (flower) / lulja (the flower).
Neuter nouns take -t.
Albanian has developed an analytical verbal structure in place of the earlier synthetic system, inherited from Proto-Indo-European. 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 verbs, like those of other Balkan languages, have an "admirative" mood (mënyra habitore) that is used to indicate surprise on the part of the speaker or to
imply that an event is known to the speaker by report and not by direct observation. In some contexts, this mood can be translated using English "apparently".

Ti flet shqip. "You speak Albanian." (indicative)

Ti fliske 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.[83] 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.
However, the most common order is subject–verb–object, and negation is expressed by the particles nuk or s' in front of the verb, for example:

Toni nuk flet anglisht "Tony does not speak English";

Toni s'flet anglisht "Tony doesn't speak English";
Nuk e di "I do not know";
S'e di "I don't know".
However, the verb can optionally occur in sentence-initial position, especially with verbs in the non-active form (forma joveprore):

Parashikohet një ndërprerje "An interruption is anticipated".

In imperative sentences, the particle mos is used for negation:

Mos harro "do not forget!".

Numerals

një—one tetëmbëdhjetë—eighteen
dy—two nëntëmbëdhjetë—nineteen
tri/tre—three njëzet—twenty
katër—four njëzetenjë—twenty-one
pesë—five njëzetedy—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 njëmijë—one thousand
 gjashtëmbëdhjetë—sixteen një milion—one million
shtatëmbëdhjetë—seventeen një miliard—one billion

Literary tradition

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.[84] 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 baptize you in the
name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit"). It was discovered and published in 1915 by
Nicolae Iorga.[85]
the Fjalori i Arnold von Harfit (Arnold Ritter von Harff's lexicon), a short list of Albanian phrases with
German glosses, dated 1496.[86]
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.[87]
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 Meshari of Gjon Buzuku 1554–1555
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.[88] In 1968 the book was published with transliterations and comments by linguists.

Disputed earlier texts

In 1967 two scholars claimed to have found a brief text in Albanian inserted into the Bellifortis text, a book written in
Latin dating to 1402–1405.[89]

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 ...

Possibly the oldest surviving

Dr. Robert Elsie, a specialist in Albanian studies, considers that "The Todericiu/Polena Romanian translation of the Albanian text, highlighted in red, from
non-Latin lines, although it may offer some clues if the text is indeed Albanian, is fanciful and based, among other the Bellifortis manuscript, written by
Konrad Kyeser around 1402–1405.
things, on a false reading of the manuscript, including the exclusion of a whole line."[90]

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, Nilo Katalanos (1637–1694) and others.[91]

Vocabulary
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 augmenting and replacing much of its vocabulary.[92] Other languages influenced Albanian and high-end estimates classify
the majority of Albanian vocabulary as loanwords, suggesting that more than 90% of the present Albanian vocabulary is Latin, Greek, Slavic, Italian and Turkish
loanwords, with the biggest influence being Latin.[93] The chief sources of (Proto-) Albanian are (Ancient) Greek, Latin and Slavic, while Ancient Greek loanwords
are scarce the Latin loanwords are of extreme importance in phonology.[94] 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.[92] 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).[95] 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[96]

Lexical distance of Albanian in a lexicostatistical analysis of the Ukrainian linguist Tyshchenko(the lower figure - the higher similarity): 49% Slovenian, 53%
Romanian, 56% Greek, 82% French, 86% Macedonian, 86% Bulgarian.[97][98]

Cognates with Illyrian

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; cf. Alb. andë (northern Albanian dialect, or Gheg) and ëndë (southern Albanian
dialect or Tosk) "appetite, pleasure, desire, wish"; Andi proper name, Andizetes, an Illyrian people inhabiting the Roman province of Panonia.[99]
aran "field"; cf. Alb. arë; plural ara[100]
Ardiaioi/Ardiaei, name of an Illyrian people, cf. Alb. ardhja "arrival" or "descent", connected to hardhi "vine-branch, grape-vine", with a sense
development similar to Germanic *stamniz, meaning both stem, tree stalk and tribe, lineage. However, the insufficiency of this hypothesis is that so
far there is no certainty as to the historical or etymological development of either ardhja/hardhi or Ardiaioi, as with many other words.[99]
Bilia "daughter"; cf. Alb. bijë, dial. bilë[101]
Bindo/Bindus, an Illyrian deity from Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina; cf. Alb. bind "to convince" or "to make believe", përbindësh "monster".[102]
bounon, "hut, cottage"; cf. Alb bun[103]
brisa, "husk of grapes"; cf. Alb bërsí "lees, dregs; mash" ( < PA *brutiā)[104]
Barba- "swamp", a toponym from Metubarbis; possibly related to Alb. bërrakë "swampy soil"[104]
can- "dog"; related to Alb. qen[104]
Daesitiates, a name of an Illyrian people, cf. Alb. dash "ram", corresponding contextually with south Slavonic dasa "ace", which might represent a
borrowing and adaptation from Illyrian (or some other ancient language).[99]
mal, "mountain"; cf. Alb mal[105]
bardi, "white"; cf. Alb bardhë[106]
drakoina "supper"; cf. Alb. darke, dreke[107]
drenis, "deer"; cf. Alb dre, dreni[103]
delme "sheep"; cf. Alb dele, Gheg dialect delme[108]
dard, "pear"; cf. Alb dardhë[109]
Hyllus (the name of an Illyrian king); cf. Alb. yll (hyll in some northern dialects) "star", also Alb. hyj "god", Ylli proper name.[107]
sīca, "dagger"; cf. Alb thikë or thika "knife"[110]
Ulc-, "wolf" (pln. Ulcinium); cf. Alb ujk "wolf", ulk (Northern Dialect)[111]
loúgeon, "pool"; cf. Alb lag, legen "to wet, soak, bathe, wash" ( < PA *lauga), lëgatë "pool" ( < PA *leugatâ), lakshte "dew" ( < PA laugista)[112]
mag- "great"; cf. Alb. i madh "big, great"[104]
mantía "bramblebush"; Old and dial. Alb mandë "berry, mulberry" (mod. Alb mën, man)
rhinos, "fog, mist"; cf. Old Alb ren "cloud" (mod. Alb re, rê) ( < PA *rina)[113]
Vendum "place"; cf. Proto-Alb. wen-ta (Mod. Alb. vend)[107]

Loanwords

Early Greek loans

There are some 30 Ancient Greek loanwords in Albanian.[114] 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.[33]

bletë; "hive, bee" < Attic mélitta "bee" (vs. Ionic mélissa).[115]
drapër; "sickle" < (NW) drápanon[116]
kumbull; "plum" < kokkúmelon[116]
lakër; "cabbage, green vegetables" < láchanon "green; vegetable"[117]
lëpjetë; "orach, dock" < lápathon[118]
leva (lyej); "to smear, oil" < *liwenj < *elaiwā < Gk elai(w)ṓn "oil"
mokër; "millstone" < (NW) māchaná "device, instrument"[114]
mollë; "apple" < mēlon "fruit"[119]
pjepër; "melon" < pépōn
presh; "leek" < práson[117]
shpellë; "cave" < spḗlaion
trumzë; "thyme" < (NW) thýmbrā, thrýmbrē[116]

Gothic loans
Some Gothic loanwords were borrowed through Late Latin, while others came from the Ostrogothic expansion into parts of Praevalitana around Nakšić and the Gulf of
Kotor in Montenegro.

fat; "groom, husband" < Goth brūþfaþs "bridegroom"[120]

horr; "scoundrel", horrë; "hussy, whore" < Goth hors "adulterer", *hora "whore"
shkulkë; "boundary marker for pastures made of branches" < Late Latin sculca < Goth skulka "guardian"
shkumë; "foam" < Late Latin < Goth skūma
tirq; "trousers" < Late Latin tubrucus < Goth *þiobrok "knee-britches"; cf. OHG dioh-bruoh, Eng thigh, breeches

Other loans
It is assumed that Greek and Balkan Latin (the ancestor of Romanian and other Balkan Romance languages) exerted a great influence on Albanian. Examples of words
borrowed from Latin: qytet < civitas (city), qiell < caelum (sky), mik < amicus (friend), kape ditën < carpe diem (seize the day).

After the Slavs arrived in the Balkans, the Slavic languages became an additional source of loanwords. 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 Latinized
(international) words.

See also
Tosk Albanian
Gheg Albanian
Arbëresh language
Arvanitika
Illyrian languages
Messapian language
IPA/Albanian
Thraco-Illyrian
Abetare

Notes
^ Co-official language. [a]

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7. "Robert Elsie" (http://www.albanianlanguage.net/). The Albanian Language. 25 November 1972. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
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10. Edwin E. Jacques, The Albanians: An Ethnic History from Prehistoric Times to the Present, 1995
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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."
13. Gjinari, Jorgji. Dialektologjia shqiptare
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16. Elsie, Robert. (2017). Albanian Alphabets: Borrowed and Invented. London, UK: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
ISBN 9781544294094.
17. Fortson, Benjamin W (2004). Indo-European language and culture: an introduction (https://books.google.com/books?id=5hOtPBF6XWwC&printsec
=frontcover&dq='Indo-European+Language+and+Culture:++An+Introduction'&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false). Blackwell Publishing. p. 390. ISBN 1-
4051-0315-9. Retrieved 28 May 2010. Albanian forms its own separate branch of Indo-European; it is the last branch to appear in written records
18. Watkins, Calvert. "Proto-Indo-European: Comparison and Reconstruction", in The Indo-European Languages, Anna Giacalone Ramat and Paolo
Ramat, eds. London: Routledge, 1998.
19. Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=yfZZX1qjpvkC&printsec=frontcover#PPA111,M1), Mallory, J. P. and Adams, D. Q.: The Oxford
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20. JHholm.de (http://www.hjholm.de/SLRD.pdf), 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
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21. HJholm.de (http://www.hjholm.de/) A possible Homeland of the Indo-European Languages And their Migrations in the Light of the Separation Level
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23. Zeitschrift für Balkanologie (https://books.google.com/books?id=iLkWAQAAMAAJ). R. Trofenik. 1990. p. 102. Retrieved 23 January 2013.
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ISBN 978-0-8108-6188-6. Retrieved 30 September 2013.
25. Torte, Rexhep (4 August 2009). "Përfundoi shënimi i 100-vjetorit të Kongresit të Dibrës" (http://www.albaniapress.com/lajme/9518/Perfundoi-shenim
i-i-100-vjetorit-te-Kongresit-te-Dibres.html). Albaniapress.
26. Fine, JA. The Early medieval Balkans. University of Michigan Press, 1991. p. 11. Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=YbS9QmwDC
58C&printsec=frontcover&dq=isbn:0472081497&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false)
27. 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).
28. Roger D. Woodard. The ancient languages of Europe. "The modern Albanian language, it has been conjectured, is descendent directly from
ancient Illyrian ..."
29. Curtis, Matthew Cowan. "Slavic-Albanian Language Contact, Convergence, and Coexistence" (https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED546136). ProQuest LLC.
p. 16. Retrieved 31 March 2017. "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."
30. Curtis, Matthew Cowan. "Slavic-Albanian Language Contact, Convergence, and Coexistence" (https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED546136). ProQuest LLC.
p. 18. Retrieved 31 March 2017. "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"
31. Ranko Matasovic (2012). "A grammatical sketch of Albanian for students of Indo-European". "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 ... 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."
32. Ann Taylor; Donald Ringe; Tandy Warnow (2000). "Character based reconstruction of a linguistic cladogram". In John Charles Smith; Delia Bentley
(eds.). General issues and non-Germanic Languages (https://books.google.com.au/books?id=RtsLKLhCZ0EC&pg=PA392&dq=Character+Based+
Reconstruction+of+a+Linguistic+Cladogram+Albanian&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Albanian%20cognates&f=false). Historical
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34. Curtis, Matthew Cowan. "Slavic-Albanian language contact, convergence, and coexistence" (https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED546136). ProQuest LLC.
p. 16. "The number of loanwords is not necessarily a compelling argument for geographical placement, as loanwords may be replaced in
subsequent developments of the language (especially considering the copious borrowing that Albanian later did from Latin and Slavic before any
lexicon of Albanian was ever compiled) ... regarding the homeland of the Albanians."
35. Douglas Q. Adams (January 1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (https://books.google.it/books?id=tzU3RIV2BWIC&pg=PA11). Taylor &
Francis. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5. "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 historical neighbors. As the Illyrians
occupied the Albanian territory at this time, they are the most likely recipients of such loans."
36. Vladimir Orel (2000). A concise historical grammar of the Albanian language: reconstruction of Proto-Albanian (https://books.google.com/books?id=
xvKH56aT5mEC&pg). BRILL. p. 23. ISBN 978-90-04-11647-4. "Latin loanwords are of extreme importance for the history of Albanian phonology,
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37. Curtis, Matthew Cowan. "Slavic-Albanian language contact, convergence, and coexistence" (https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED546136). ProQuest LLC.
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UGTuebGM-gOuakocAN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAg). Books.google.com. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
111. Ancient Indo-European dialects: proceedings, Volume 1963 (https://books.google.com/books?id=0c9CAAAAIAAJ&q=%22ulk%22+%2B+Illyrian&dq
=%22ulk%22+%2B+Illyrian&hl=nl&ei=zxcHTvHGNMKa8QPj_cyvDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAQ).
Millennium Studies. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
112. An Albanian historical grammar (https://books.google.com/books?id=3LJiAAAAMAAJ&q=lo%C3%BAgeon+%2B+Illyrian&dq=lo%C3%BAgeon+%2
B+Illyrian&hl=nl&ei=dD4HTrJnyIQ6lOKdxQ0&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAQ). Books.google.com. 1977.
Retrieved 26 June 2011.
113. Indo-european language and culture: an introduction Blackwell textbooks in linguistics Author Benjamin W. Fortson Edition 2, illustrated, reprint
Publisher John Wiley and Sons, 2009 ISBN 1-4051-8896-0, ISBN 978-1-4051-8896-8 p.465
114. 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
115. Vladimir 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).
116. 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
117. A concise historical grammar of the Albanian language: reconstruction of Proto-Albanian Author Vladimir Ė. Orel Publisher BRILL, 2000 ISBN 90-
04-11647-8, ISBN 978-90-04-11647-4 p.23
118. A concise historical grammar of the Albanian language: reconstruction of Proto-Albanian Author Vladimir Ė. Orel Publisher BRILL, 2000 ISBN 90-
04-11647-8, ISBN 978-90-04-11647-4 p.102
119. Guillaum Bonnet, Les mots latins de l'albanais (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1998), 324.
120. The word fat has both the meaning of "fate, luck" and "groom, husband". This may indicate two separate words that are homophones, one derived
from Gothic and the other from Latin fātum; although, Orel (2000) sees them as the same word. Similarly, compare Albanian shortë "fate; spouse,
wife" which mirrors the dichotomy in meaning of fat but is considered to stem from one single source—Latin sortem "fate".

External links
Albanian Lessons (http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/albol-0-X.html) (free online through the Linguistics Research Center (http://www.utex
as.edu/cola/lrctr/) at UT Austin)
Albanian Translation (https://web.archive.org/web/20130504064737/http://www.lingodict.com/albanian-dictionary-and-translator/)
Albanian Google Translate (https://translate.google.com/m/translate#sq/en/)
Albanian Dictionary (http://www.bablefishfx.com/english-to-albanian-translator/)
Albanian Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Albanian_Swadesh_list) (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list
appendix (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Swadesh_lists))
 Albanian basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database (http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=ne
w100\ier\alb&limit=-1)
Albanian Grammar, Victor A. Friedman (http://www.seelrc.org:8080/grammar/pdf/albanian_bookmarked.pdf)
Albanian Symbol Codes, Penn State website (http://sites.psu.edu/symbolcodes/languages/europe/albanian/)
Doctor John Bassett Trumper discussing the classification of Albanian within Indo-European (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slZUDZUc_-8) on
YouTube
The emblematic figure of the Albanian linguist, Pr. Eqrem ÇABEJ (1908–1980, by Prof. Remzi Përnaska (http://association-albania.com/La-figure-e
mblematique-du.html?var_mode=calcul) on the cultural website Albania (http://association-albania.com/) (fr), (sh), (en)

Dictionaries

Albanian Online Dictionary (40 000 lemmas) (http://www.fjalori.shkenca.org)

English – Albanian / Albanian – English (http://www.argjiro.net/fjalor)
Dictionary on Western Barbarisms and Albanian Responsible Words entry on the National Library of Albania (Hysenbegasi, Arion. Fjalor i
barbarizmave perëndimore në gjuhën shqipe dhe fjalëve përgjegjëse shqipe. Ombra GVG, Tirana, 2011) (http://www.bksh.al/adlib/scripts/wwwopa
c.exe?DATABASE=books&OPAC_URL=/adlib/expert/index_al.html&LANGUAGE=1&%250=63675&LIMIT=50)
Fjalor Shqip Online (https://fjale.al)
HathiTrust Digital Library (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ls?field1=ocr;q1=Albanian%20language;a=srchls)

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