| Southern Geg | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in | Albania (Durrës, Elbasan, Tiranë), western Macedonia between Debar and Struga |
| Language family | |
| Writing system | Latin |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
Southern Geg is a subdialect of Gheg Albanian, one of the two major dialects of the Albanian language. It is spoken in central Albania and western Macedonia, while its Elbasan variant is the subdialect, on which Standard Albanian was based from 1916 to 1952.
Southern Geg is one of the two subdialects of Gheg Albanian along with northern Geg. As a dialect it is further divided into central Geg, which is the dialect spoken by the majority of the Albanians in Macedonia and middle Geg, spoken in the central regions of Albania including the country's capital, Tiranë.[1] It is also the Geg dialect with the least differences from the Tosk dialects.
Until the late 16th century the Gheg subdialect most used in literature was the northwestern variant of Shkodër. However, the southern Geg subdialect eventually became the most used Geg dialect in literary works.[2]