Albanian language

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The Albanian (in Albanian: gjuha shqipë, Albanian language; /ˈɟuˌha ˈʃciˌpə/) is an Indo-European macrolanguage spoken by some 5 to 6 million people, most of them in Albania, North Macedonia and in the partially recognized country of Kosovo, since in both countries Albanian is their majority language. There are also Albanian communities that speak it in Montenegro, Greece and Italy. The dialect spoken in the latter country is known as "arbëreshë".

Classification

The earliest known surviving written book in Albanian is Meshari ('Missary'), written by Catholic cleric Gjon Buzuku in 1555.

Albanian was shown to be an Adriatic language in the 1850s, and is now its own branch within the Indo-European language family.

It was initially suggested to be the only surviving of the Illyrian languages formerly spoken in the southwestern Balkans. However, there is now stronger evidence of its kinship with the ancient Dacian spoken in Moesia and Dacia. The main evidence is pre-Roman loanwords in modern Romanian, presumably from Dacian, which are clearly related to modern Albanian. It is also not clear whether the Dacian language and the Illyrian branch belonged to different branches of Indo-European, although most scholars think that they did.

Phylogenetic network for Indo-European languages, which shows a possible linguistic relationship between Albanian and Germanic. Red lines indicate not closely related linguistic contact branches.

On the other hand, studies of vocabulary derived from Proto-Indo-European and using techniques of quantum linguistics found that Albanian may be closely related to the Germanic languages and that together they would form a broader group called "German-Albanian" similar to the Italo-Celtic group that unites the Italic languages with the Celtic languages. This broad group may also include the Illyrian languages related to Albanian. However these "broad" they are generally not accepted by many linguists as they require more linguistic evidence to prove them.

Official Status

The rough dialect is the official language of Albania. Albanian is also one of the official languages of the partially recognized Republic of Kosovo, some cantons in North Macedonia, and some communes in southern Italy.

Dialects

Guego, cough, arbanite and arbërésh varieties.

Albanian is a language that is divided into various dialects grouped into two dialect groups: the gego (gheg) and the tosco (tosk), the latter official in Albania. The traditional border between both dialect groups has been the Shkumbin River: Guego is spoken to the north of the river and Tosco to the south.

Both groups differ in both phonological and lexical features. In Italy, ethnic Albanian communities established since the late 15th century speak a sub-dialect of Rough called arbëreshë. Also Arbanite, widespread in the XIX century in Greece, is a coarse subdialect.

Phonology

Albanian has seven vowels: /i ɛ a ə ɔ and u/ and 29 consonantal phonemes. The guego dialect has long vowels and nasals.

Vowels


	previous		central	post
closed	i [i]	and [and]		u [u]
average			ë [ scrolls]
almost open	e [			or []]
open			a [a]

*Phenotic picture of the Albanian vowels*
Fonemas	Written as...	Pronunciation as in...
/i/	i	Yes.
/	e	French mère
/a/	a	the
/^	ë	English about (schwa)
///	or	I do.
/y/	and	French du or ü in German Müller
/u/	u	♪

Consonants

Below is a table with the phonetic description of the Albanian consonants. The orthography and comparative pronunciation are shown in italics between square brackets:

Table of Albanian consonants according to IPA
		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Gloss
Nasal		m [m]		n [chuckles]n]		nj [chuckles] ]
Occlusive	sorda	p [chuckles]p]		t [chuckles]t]		q [chuckles]c]	k [chuckles]k]
Occlusive	Sonora	b [chuckles]b]		d [chuckles]d]		gj [chuckles]͡ offset͡]	g [chuckles]g]
Africada	sorda			c [chuckles]t]	ç [chuckles]t offset]
Africada	Sonora			x [chuckles]d]	xh [chuckles]d]
Fridge	sorda	f [chuckles]f]	th [chuckles]θ]	s [chuckles]s]	sh [chuckles]MIN]			h [chuckles]h]
Fridge	Sonora	v [chuckles]v]	dh [chuckles]ð]	z [chuckles]z]	zh [chuckles]♫]
Approximately	side			l [chuckles]l]			ll [chuckles]l]
Approximately	central					j [chuckles]j]
Vibrante	Simple.			r [chuckles]♥]
Vibrante	multiple			rr [chuckles]r]

Comments:

The Africans are pronounced as a sound (an occlusive and a fricative at the same point).
The palatal occlusives q and gj are also found in Hungarian (although with the digits gy and ty respectively).
The palatal nasal nj corresponds to the sound of the letter ñ Spanish.
The sound ll is a side guarded, similar to the Catalan ele or the English "dark l" in the word million.
The contrast between the vibrant r and rr It's identical to Spanish.

Vocabulary and pronunciation samples

Albanés: shqip /・cip/ (shkip)
Hi. Tungjatjeta /tun 'at 'j transformation ta(tun-gya-TIE-ta)
Goodbye. Mirupafshim /my ≤3(mi-ru-PAF-shim)
Please: Ju lutem /ju 'lu t(iU LU-tem) Hear
Thank you: Faleminderit /fa l transformation min d shifting(fa-le-min-de-rit)
That one. at /a(A-t(e))
How much?: Sa është? /'sa θ/ (SA esh-t)
English: anglisht /an 'gli impliedt(an-GLISHT)
Yes: po /pɔ(PO) Hear
No: ♪ /jɔ(iÓ) Hear
Sorry. më fal /mě 'fal/ (me FAL) Hear
I don't understand: nuk kuptoj /nuk 'kup tjj(nuk kup-TOi)
Where is the bathroom?: Ku është banjoja? /ku θ 't 'ba ja ja(ku ESH-t ba-ÑO-ia)
Brindis: gëzuar /gø zu a conscious(gue-SU-ar) Hear
Do you speak English?: Flisni Anglisht? /flis ni an 'gliьt(flis-ni an-GLISHT)
Snow: dëborë (devore)

Lexical comparison

Numerals in various varieties of Albanian are:

GLOSA	Guego	Tosco			Albanés Old	PROTO- ALBANÉS
GLOSA	Qosaj	Mandritsa	Albanés Standard	Arbërësh	Albanés Old	PROTO- ALBANÉS
'1'	Nji, njâ	and	një	një	nja	♪ Ainja
'2'	dy	gju	dy dy	di	do	*duwa
'3'	tre	Tri	tre t	tre	tre	♪
'4'	katër	kátrë	katër ^katθ	kartë	katërë	♪
'5'	pês	pésë	pesë ^pillars	pesë	pensë	*penće
'6'	gh'asht	g'áshtë	gjashtë ^ /a・tě / /a meantt	gjashtë	gjaštë	*seks-ti
'7'	shtat	shtátë	shtatë русскийtatě / ・ta supportt	shtatë	stat	*septa-ti
'8'	tet	tea	tetë ・t transformationtaxis / t transformation	tetë	tetë	*aktō-ti
'9'	nân(dë)	nënd	nënt ε / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /	nënt	nandë	♪ ¢ÜNun-ti
'10'	dhet	zjétë	dhjetë хðj-teaching/ ðj-tem	dhjetë	ðjetë	♪ Of course ♪ „deć-ti

Illustrious Albanologists

Some eminent linguists who have focused their studies on Albanian have included Johann Georg von Hahn, Franz Bopp, Gustav Meyer, Norbert Jokl, Eqrem Çabej, Stuart Edward Mann, Carlo Tagliavini, Wacław Cimochowski, Eric Pratt Hamp, Agnija Desnickaja and the sociolinguist Gjovalin Shkurtaj, director of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Tirana.