Albanian (also known as Shqip), forms a branch of the Indo-European language ifamily all by itself. It is spoken by 7.3 million people in Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Turkey, and by immigrant communities world-wide. Albanian was finally proven to be an Indo-European language only in 1854.
Although there is no consensus among scholars about its origin, it is generally believed that the ancestors of Albanian split from Proto-Indo-European about 4,000 years ago.
Where did the Albanian language and Albanians come from?
Status
Standard Albanian (based on the Tosk dialect) is the national language of Albania where it is spoken by 2.9 million people (Ethnologue).
Albanian (based on the Gheg dialect) is the de facto provincial language of Kosovo (Ethnologue).
Dialects
Top
There are two principal dialects of Albanian that are mutually unintelligible due to significant linguistic differences between the two. The Shkumbin River in Albania divides the country into two dialect areas.
Tosk (toskërishtja) is spoken by around 3 million people south of the Shkumbin River. It is also spoken in Italy, Greece and in small communities of Albanian immigrants in Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, and the United States (Ethnologue). Standard Albanian is based on the Tosk dialect. Tosk has three varieties: Arbereshe spoken in Italy; Arvanitika spoken in Greece, and Tosk spoken in Albania.
Gheg (gegërishtja) is spoken by 2.8 million people north of the Shkumbin River. It is also spoken in Serbia and Montenegro and in the Republic of Macedonia (Ethnologue).
Structure
Sound system
Tosk dialects have 7 vowel and 29 consonant phonemes, i.e., sounds that make a difference in word meaning. Gheg dialects have between 14 and 19 vowel phonemes.
Vowels
Tosk has seven vowel phonemes which are given below. Gheg differentiates between short and long and between oral and nasal varieties of these vowels. The vowel phonemes of Tosk are given below (based on Wikipedia).
Front
Central
Back
Unrounded
Rounded
Close
i
y
u
Mid
e
ə
Open
a
ɔ
/y/ =ue in statue
/ə/ = a in about
/ɔ/ =o in bog
Consonants
Tosk has a rich system of consonants. They are presented in the table below (based on Wikipedia).
Bilabial
Labio-
dental
Dental
Alveolar
Post-alveolar
Palatal
Velar
Glottal
Stops
voiceless
p
t
k
voiced
b
d
g
Fricatives
voiceless
f
θ
s
ʃ
h
voiced
v
ð
z
ʒ
Affricate
voiceless
ts
tʃ
c
voiced
dz
dʒ
ɟ
Nasals
m
n
ɲ
Lateral
l ɬ
Trill
r
Tap
ɾ
Semivowels
w
j
/θ/ = th in thin
/ð/ = th in that
/ʃ/ = sh in shop
/ʒ/ = s in treasure
/tʃ/ = ch in chap
/dʒ/ = j in jam
/c/ = no equivalent in English
/ɟ/ = no equivalent in English
/ɲ/ = first n in canyon
/ɬ/ = ll in bull
/r/ = rr in Spanish perro ‘dog’
/ɾ/ = r in Spanish pero ‘but’
Stress
Stress normally falls on the last syllable of the stem.
Grammar
The grammar of Albanian is quite complex. It shares some features with the grammars of other Balkan languages, such as Romanian and Greek.
Nouns, adjectives, articles, and pronouns
Albanian nouns are marked for the following grammatical categories:
There are three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter.
Tehre are two two numbers: singular and plural.
There are 4 declensions.
There are 6 cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, vocative. The vocative case occurs in only a few nouns.
Definite articles are attached to the end of nouns (as in Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Romanian), e.g., zog ‘bird’, zogu ‘the bird’, shtëpi ‘house’, shtëpia ‘the house’.
Adjectives generally follow the noun they modify and agree with it in gender, number and case.
Adjectives require a particle preceding them that agrees with the noun they modify, e.g., in një burrë i madh‘a big man’,the noun burrë ‘man’ is modified by madh ‘big’ which is preceded by i which agrees with burrë ‘man’.
Verbs
The verb system of Albanian is extremely complex due to the large number of moods, each of which has several tenses. Verbs agree with their subjects in person and number. Verbs have the following grammatical categories:
three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd
two numbers: singular, plural
six moods: indicative, subjunctive, admirative, conditional, optative, imperative
Each mood has several tenses, e.g., Indicative – 8; subjunctive – 4, admirative – 4, conditional – 2, optative – 2, imperative – 1.
Verbs have two forms, e.g., laj/ ‘I wash’, and lahem ‘I am washed’, or ‘I wash myself”.
An unusual feature of the verb phrase is that when a definite noun is the direct object of the sentence, a pronoun in the objective case that repeats this information is inserted into the verb phrase; e.g., i-a dhash‘ librin atij is literally ‘him it I gave the book to him’.
Word order
The normal word order in Albanian sentences is Subject-Verb-Object.
Vocabulary
Albanian has borrowed a great number of words from its neighbors. As a result of close contact with the Romans, Albanian has many Latin loanwords such as mik ‘friend,’ from Latin amicus. Another source of borrowed vocabulary are Slavic languages, especially Bulgarian. The rise of the Ottoman Empire also brought many Turkish words into the language.
Below is a list of common phrases and words in Albanian Tosk.
Tungjatjeta (tung)
Hello
Mirupafshim
Good bye
Ju lutem
Please
Faleminderit
Thank you
Më fal
Sorry
Yes
Po
No
Jo
Burrë
Man
Grua
Woman
Mirë
Good
Bad
Keq
Basic Albanian phrases
Below are the numerals 1-10 in Albanian Tosk.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
një
dy
tre
katër
pesë
gjashtë
shtatë
tetë
nëntë
dhjetë
Writing
The oldest surviving document in Albanian was written in 1462 in the Gheg dialect. The oldest known Albanian printed book was a missal written by a Catholic cleric in 1555. The first Albanian school is believed to have been opened by Franciscans in 1638. The first Latin-Albanian dictionary was written in 1635.
The modern Albanian alphabet is based on an extended Latin alphabet which was introduced in 1908. It consists of 36 letters some of which were adapted to represent Albanian sounds. Before that, Albanian was written using the Greek alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet, and the Turkish version of the Arabic alphabet. The table below lists the letters of the modern Albanian alphabet and their approximate pronunciation in English.
A a
B b
C c
Ç ç
D d
Dh dh
E e
Ë ë
F f
G g
Gj gj
H h
I i
J j
K k
L l
LL, ll
M m
N n
Nj nj
O o
P p
Q q
R r
R r
S s
T t
Th th
U u
V v
X x
Xh xh
Y y
Z z
Zh zh
ç = ch in chat
dh = th in these
gj = g in geese
j = y in yam
ll = ll in bull
nj = first n in canyon
r = Spanish r in pero ‘but’
rr = Spanish rr in perro ‘dog’
th = th in thin
x = ds in cads
xh = j in joy
zh = s in vision
Take a look at Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Albanian Tosk.
Deklarata e pergjithshme mbi te drejtat e njeriut
Neni 1.
Të gjithë njerëzit lindin të lirë dhe të barabartë në dinjitet dhe në të drejta. Ata kanë arsye dhe ndërgjegje dhe duhet të sillen ndaj njëri tjetrit me frymë vëllazërimi.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Since when does greek add the articles after the subject and in which parallel universe?
Romanian yes but dont write random stuff
Your comment is appreciated, but not your language. If you want to participate in this blog, please use language appropriate to the professional tone of this discussion. I hope that you will take this seriously.
Thank you for your comments. We are very happy to receive all the help we can get. You may be right about Albanian being a Category III language, but we go by the data from the Foreign Service Institute, and it may be unreliable in the case of Less Commonly Taught languages such as Albanian.
Greek does not have an enclitic definite article; besides Albanian and Romanian, the other Balkan languages that do have it are Bulgarian and Macedonian.
Apple: the apple:
Albanian: Mollë – molla
Bulgarian: ябълка – ябълката:
Macedonian: јаболко – јаболкото
Romanian: măr – mărul –
but Greek: μήλο – Το μήλο
There are no speakers of Albanian in Bulgaria. About a hundred years ago, the only village in Bulgaria whose population spoke Albanian was abandoned by religious reasons:
If youlern to speak Albanian you just lerned to write it. No one say it. Its not english or other languages. It is writen as it is spoken. No rules like in writen language like no other language. As you speak it you can whrite it. Simple as that.
Thank you. But I seriously doubt that any language can fully represent its sound system in writing, no matter how closely the orthography attempts to match the spoken language.
Albanian language is pronounced as it is written. You read every letter that you see, and or write every letter that you say while speaking. This is the easiest part about Albanian language, as for the grammar it is kind of difficult to learn.
No written language is an exact representation of the sound system, but some spelling systems are better than others at representing the spoken language. The reason is that the sound system is infinitely more nuanced and complex than the limited number of written symbols used to represent it.
Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, tap Settings, and then tap Change PC settings. (If you're using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, click Settings, and then click Change PC settings.)
Tap or click Time and language, and then tap or click Region and language, and then tap or click Add a language.
Browse for the language you want, and then tap or click it to add it to your language list.
Download and install a language pack
Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, tap Settings, and then tap Change PC settings. (If you're using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, click Settings, and then click Change PC settings.)
Tap or click Time and language, and then tap or click Region and language.
If the language says Language pack available, tap or click Options. Note: If you don't see Language pack available, you might be able to download the language pack at the Download Center.
Tap or click Download. The download process might take a while, depending on your PC and the size of the language pack.
Set a language as your primary language
Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, tap Settings, and then tap Change PC settings. (If you're using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, click Settings, and then click Change PC settings.)
Tap or click Time and language, and then tap or click Region and language.
Tap or click the language that you want to see Windows in, and then tap or click Set as primary. The Will be display language after next sign-inmessage will appear under the language.
Tap or click Set as primary to move the language to the top of the list. If the language can become your Windows display language, you'll see Will be display language after next sign-in appear under the language.
Sign out of Windows, and then sign back in. When you change your primary language, your keyboard layout might also change. When signing back in to Windows, make sure you're using the right keyboard layout for entering your password. Otherwise, you might not be able to sign in. You can change your keyboard layout on the sign-in screen by tapping or clicking the language abbreviation button in the lower-right corner.
Change the keyboard layout or other method you use to type
Whenever you add a language, a keyboard layout or input method is added so you can enter text in the language. If you want to use a different keyboard layout or input method, you can add a new one or switch between the ones you have. Add a keyboard layout or input method for a language
Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, tap Settings, and then tap Change PC settings. (If you're using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, click Settings, and then click Change PC settings.)
Tap or click Time and language, and then tap or click Region and language.
Tap or click the language you want to add a keyboard to, and then tap or click Options.
Tap or click Add a keyboard, browse the input method list for the one you want to use, and then tap or click it.
Switch between keyboard layouts or input methods You can enter text with different keyboard layouts or input methods by switching between them. There are a few different ways to switch between keyboard layouts or input methods:
On a hardware keyboard, press and hold the Windows logo key , and then press the Spacebar to cycle through your input methods.
If you have a touchscreen, you can switch your touch keyboard layout by tapping or clicking the keyboard icon, and then tapping or clicking the keyboard layout you want to switch to. Language abbreviation button in the touch keyboard On the desktop taskbar, tap or click the language abbreviation in the notification area at the far right of the taskbar, and then tap or click the keyboard layout or input method you want to switch to. Language abbreviation button in the desktop taskbar
Change the default keyboard layout or input method
Windows Install or change a display language
You can change the language Windows uses to display text in wizards, dialog boxes, menus, and other items in the user interface. Some display languages are installed by default, while others require you to install additional language files.
Hide all To install a display language To install a Language Interface Pack (LIP), double-click the file to open the setup program. To install a language pack, follow these steps:
Open Region and Language by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking Clock, Language, and Region, and then clicking Region and Language.
Click the Keyboards and Languages tab.
Under Display language, click Install/uninstall languages, and then follow the steps. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. Note: The Display language section will be visible only if you have already installed a Language Interface Pack or if your edition of Windows supports a language pack. Language packs are available only in Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 7 Enterprise. To change your display language When you change the display language, the text in menus and dialog boxes for some programs might not be in the language that you want. This happens because the program might not support Unicode.
Open Region and Language by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking Clock, Language, and Region, and then clicking Region and Language.
Click the Keyboards and Languages tab.
Under Display language, choose a language from the list, and then click OK. Note: If you don't see the list of display languages, you need to install additional language files.
Change your keyboard layout
On the Language bar, click the Input language button, and then select an input language.
Click the Keyboard layout button, and then select a keyboard layout.
Note: If you don't see the Language bar, right-click the taskbar, point to Toolbars, and then click Language bar. To change the keyboard layout on the Welcome screen On the Welcome screen, click the Keyboard layout button, and then select a keyboard layout. Note: If you don't see the Keyboard layout button, you might not have more than one input language, or your regional and language settings might not be applied to reserved accounts.
Greek does not have an enclitic definite article; besides Albanian and Romanian, the other Balkan languages that do have it are Bulgarian and Macedonian.
Apple: the apple:
Albanian: Mollë – molla
Bulgarian: ябълка – ябълката:
Macedonian: јаболко – јаболкото
Romanian: măr – mărul –
but Greek: μήλο – Το μήλο
There are no speakers of Albanian in Bulgaria. About a hundred years ago, the only village in Bulgaria whose population spoke Albanian was abandoned by religious reasons:
If youlern to speak Albanian you just lerned to write it. No one say it. Its not english or other languages. It is writen as it is spoken. No rules like in writen language like no other language. As you speak it you can whrite it. Simple as that.
Thank you. But I seriously doubt that any language can fully represent its sound system in writing, no matter how closely the orthography attempts to match the spoken language.
Albanian language is pronounced as it is written. You read every letter that you see, and or write every letter that you say while speaking. This is the easiest part about Albanian language, as for the grammar it is kind of difficult to learn.
No written language is an exact representation of the sound system, but some spelling systems are better than others at representing the spoken language. The reason is that the sound system is infinitely more nuanced and complex than the limited number of written symbols used to represent it.