Albanian language

Albanian
Shqip
Pronunciation	[ʃcip]
Spoken in	Primarily in Southeastern Europe and by the Albanian diaspora worldwide.
Native speakers	ca. 7.3 million  (1989–2007)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Albanian
Dialects	Gheg Tosk
Writing system	Latin (Albanian alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Albania  Kosovo and recognised as a minority language in:  Italy  Macedonia  Montenegro  Romania  Serbia
Regulated by	officially by the Social Sciences and Albanological Section of the Academy of Sciences of Albania
Language codes
ISO 639-1	sq
ISO 639-2	alb (B) sqi (T)
ISO 639-3	sqi – Macrolanguage individual codes: aln – Gheg aae – Arbëreshë aat – Arvanitika als – Tosk
Linguasphere	55-AAA-aaa to 55-AAA-ahe (25 varieties)
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Albanian (gjuha shqipe, pronounced [ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ], or shqip Albanian pronunciation: [ʃcip]) is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people,^[1] primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an autochthonous (native) Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece. Albanian is also spoken in centuries-old Albanian colonies in southern Greece, southern Italy,^[2] Sicily, and Ukraine.^[3] Additionally, speakers of Albanian can be found elsewhere throughout the latter two countries resulting from a modern diaspora, originating from the Balkans, that also includes Scandinavia, Switzerland, Germany, United Kingdom, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Singapore, Brazil, Canada and the United States.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Linguistic affinities 1.2 Linguistic influences 1.3 Latin element of the Albanian language 1.4 Historical presence and location 1.5 Historical considerations 2 Script 3 Literary tradition 3.1 Earliest undisputed texts 3.2 Disputed earlier text 3.3 Ottoman period 4 Standard Albanian 5 Classification 5.1 Origin 5.2 (Old) Albanian 5.3 Proto-IE features 5.4 Albanian-PIE phonological correspondences 6 Geographic distribution 6.1 Standard 7 Dialects 8 Phonology 8.1 Consonants 8.2 Vowels 8.2.1 Schwa 9 Grammar 9.1 Albanian word order 9.2 Numerals 10 Vocabulary 10.1 Cognates with Illyrian 10.2 Early Greek loans 10.3 Gothic loans 11 See also 12 References 13 Bibliography 14 External links

History

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Origins · History

Linguistic affinities

The Albanian language is a distinct Indo-European language that does not belong to any other existing branch. Sharing lexical isoglosses with Greek, Balto-Slavic, and Germanic, the word stock of Albanian is quite distinct. Once hastily grouped with Germanic and Balto-Slavic by the merger of PIE *ǒ and *ǎ into *ǎ in a supposed "northern group",^[4] Albanian has proven to be distinct from these two, as this vowel shift is only part of a larger push chain that affected all long vowels.^[5] Albanian does share with Balto-Slavic two features: (1) a lengthening of syllabic consonants before voiced obstruents and (2) a distinct treatment of long syllables ending in a sonorant.^[6] Conservative features of Albanian include the retention of the distinction between active and middle voice, present tense and aorist.

Albanian is considered to have evolved from an extinct Paleo-Balkan language, usually taken to be either Illyrian or Thracian. See also Thraco-Illyrian and Messapian language.

Linguistic influences

The earliest loanwords attested in Albanian are from Doric Greek while the heaviest influence was that of Latin. The period during which Proto-Albanian and Latin interacted was protracted and drawn out roughly from 2nd century BC to 5th century AD.^[7] This is born out into roughly three layers of borrowings, the largest number belonging to the second layer. The first, with the fewest borrowings, was a time of less important interaction. The final period, probably preceding the Slavic or Germanic invasions, also has a notably smaller amount of borrowings. Each layer is characterized by a different treatment of most vowels, the first layer having several that follow the evolution of Early Proto-Albanian into Albanian; 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 7th c. AD and 9th c. AD, 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 c. AD, 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 c. AD. Their movement is probably related to the expansion of the Bulgarian empire into Albania around that time. This fact places the Albanians in the western or central Balkans at a rather early date.

According to the central hypothesis of a project undertaken by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, Old Albanian had a significant influence on the development of many Balkan languages. Intensive research now aims to confirm this theory. Albanian is being researched using all available texts before a comparison with other Balkan languages is carried out. The outcome of this work will include the compilation of a lexicon providing an overview of all Old Albanian verbs.^[8]

Latin element of the Albanian language

Jernej Kopitar (1829) 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".^[9] Kopitar gave examples such as Albanian "qiqer" from Latin cicer, "qytet" from civitas, "peshk" from piscis, and "shëngjetë" from sagitta. The hard pronunciations of Latin ⟨c⟩ and ⟨g⟩ are retained as palatal and velar stops in the Albanian loanwords. Gustav Meyer (1888)^[10] and Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke (1914)^[11] later corroborated this.

Eqrem Çabej also noticed, among other things, the archaic Latin elements in Albanian:^[12]

1. Latin /au/ becomes Albanian /a/ in the earliest borrowings: aurum → "ar", gaudium → "gas", laurus → "lar". But Latin /au/ is retained in later borrowings: causa → "kafshë", laud → "lavd".
2. Latin /ō/ becomes Albanian /e/ in the oldest Latin borrowings: pōmum → "pemë", hōra → "herë". An analogous mutation occurred from Proto-Indo-European to Albanian; PIE *nōs became Albanian "ne", PIE *ōkt- became Albanian "tetë" etc.
3. Latin unstressed internal syllables become lost in Albanian: cubitus → "kut", medicus → "mjek", padul → "pyll". An analogous mutation occurred from Proto-Indo-European to Albanian. In contrast, in later Latin borrowings, the internal syllable is retained: paganus → "i pëganë"/"i pëgërë", plaga → "plagë" etc.
4. Latin /tj/, /dj/, /kj/ palatalized to Albanian /s/, /z/, /c/: vitius → "ves", ratio → "(a)rësye", radius → "rreze", facies → "faqe", socius → "shoq" etc.

Haralambie Mihăescu demonstrated that

• some 85 Latin words have survived in Albanian but not in any Romance language. A few examples include bubulcus → bujk, hibernalia → mërrajë, sarcinarius → shelqëror, trifurcus → tërfurk, accipiter → qift, *musconea → mushkonjë, chersydrus → kulshedër, spleneticum → shpnetkë/shpretkë, solanum → shullг/shullë.^[13]
• 151 Albanian words of Latin origin cannot be found in Romanian. A few examples include Albanian mik from Latin amicus, anmik or armik from inimicus, bekoj from benedicere, qelq from calix (calicis), kështjellë from castellum, qind from centum, gjel from gallus, gjymtyrë from iunctЇra, mjek from medicus, rjetë or rrjetë from rete, shërbej from servire, shpërej or shpresoj from sperare, vullnet from voluntas (voluntatis).^[14]
• some Albanian church terminology have phonetic features which demonstrate their very early borrowing from Latin. A few examples include Albanian lterll from Latin altare, engjëll from angelus, bekoj from benedicere, i krishtenë or i krishterë from christianus, kryq from crux (crucis), klishë or kishë from ecclesia, ipeshkv from episcopus, ungjill from evangelium, mallkoj from maledicere, meshë from missa, munëg or murg from monacus, i pëganë or i pëgërë from paganus.^[15]

Other authors^[16] have detected Latin loanwords in Albanian with an ancient sound pattern from the first century B.C., for example, Albanian qingëlë from Latin cingula and Albanian vjetër from Latin vetus/veteris. The Romance languages inherited these words from Vulgar Latin: Vulgar *cingla became N. Romanian chinga meaning 'belly band, saddle girth' and Vulgar veteran became N. Romanian batrân meaning 'old'.

Historical presence and location

The origin of the Albanians has been for some time a matter of dispute among historians. Most of them conclude that they are descendants of populations of the prehistoric Balkans, such as the Illyrians, Dacians or Thracians. Little is known about these peoples, and they blended into one another in Thraco-Illyrian and Daco-Thracian contact zones even in antiquity.

The place where the Albanian language was formed is uncertain, but analysis has suggested that it was in a mountainous region, rather than in a plain or seacoast:^[17] while the words for plants and animals characteristic of mountainous regions are entirely original, the names for fish and for agricultural activities (such as ploughing) are borrowed from other languages.^[18]

Historical considerations

The center of Albanian settlement remained the Mat River. In 1079 AD they are recorded farther south in the valley of the Shkumbin river.^[19] The Shkumbin, a seasonal stream that lay near the old Via Egnatia, is approximately the boundary of the primary dialect division for Albanian, Tosk-Gheg. The characteristics of Tosk and Geg in the treatment of the native and loanwords from other languages are evidence that the dialectal split preceded the Slavic migration to the Balkans^{[20] [21] [7]} which means that in that period (5th to 6th century AD) Albanians were occupying pretty much the same area around Shkumbin river, which straddled the Jirecek line.^{[22] [17]}

References to the existence of Albanian as a distinct language survive from the 14th century, but they failed to cite specific words. The oldest surviving documents written in Albanian are the "Formula e Pagëzimit" (Baptismal formula), "Un'te paghesont' pr'emenit t'Atit e t'Birit e t'Spertit Senit." (I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit) recorded by Pal Engjelli, Bishop of Durrës in 1462 in the Gheg dialect, and some New Testament verses from that period.

The oldest known Albanian printed book, Meshari or missal, was written in 1555 by Gjon Buzuku, a Roman Catholic cleric. In 1635, Frang Bardhi wrote the first Latin-Albanian dictionary. The first Albanian school is believed to have been opened by Franciscans in 1638 in Pdhanë.

Script

The Albanian language has been written using many different alphabets since the earliest records from the 15th century. The history of Albanian language orthography is closely related to the cultural orientation and knowledge of certain foreign languages among Albanian writers.^[23][24] The earliest written Albanian records come from the Gheg area in makeshift spellings based on Italian or Greek and sometimes in Turko-Arabic characters. Originally, the Tosk dialect was written in the Greek alphabet and the Gheg dialect was written in the Latin alphabet. Both dialects had also been written in the Ottoman Turkish version of the Arabic alphabet, Cyrillic, and some local 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 Monastir held by Albanian intellectuals from 14 to 22 November 1908, in Monastir (present day Bitola), which decided the alphabet and standardized spelling for standard Albanian down to the present. The alphabet is the Latin alphabet with the addition of the letters ë, ç, and nine digraphs.

Literary tradition

A 1332 document written in Latin by a monk, variously identified as either Guillaume Adam (Archbishop of Antivari in the Principality of Serbia from 1324 to 1341), or Brocardus Monacus (Frère Brochard), testifies to the existence of written Albanian prior to the earliest records so far discovered.^[25]

Earliest undisputed texts

The earliest known texts in Albanian:

• the "Formula e pagëzimit" (English: baptismal formula), which dates back to 1462 and was authored by Pal Engjëlli (or Paulus Angelus) (ca. 1417–1470), Archbishop of Durrës. Engjëlli was a close friend and counselor of Skanderbeg.^[26] 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 ("I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost"). It was discovered and published in 1915 by Nicolae Iorga.^[27]
• the Fjalori i Arnold von Harfit (English: Arnold Ritter von Harff's lexicon), which dates 1496.^[28]
• a song recorded on a piece of paper in the Greek alphabet which was retrieved from an old Codex that was written in Greek. The document is also called Albanian: Perikopeja e Ungjillit të Pashkëve or e Ungjillit të Shën Mateut, (English: The song of the Easter Gospel, or The song of the Saint Matthew's Gospel). Although the codex is dated 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.^[29]

The first book in Albanian is the Meshari (English: The Missal), written by Gjon Buzuku between 20 March 1554 to 5 January 1555. The book was written in the Gheg dialect in the Latin alphabet with some Slavic letters adapted for Albanian vowels. The book was discovered in 1740 by Gjon Nikollë Kazazi, the Albanian archbishop of Skopje. It contains the liturgies of the main holidays. There are also texts of prayers and rituals and catechetical texts. The grammar and the vocabulary are more archaic than those in the Gheg texts from the 17th century. The 188 pages of the book comprise about 154,000 words with a total vocabulary of ca. 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.^[30] In 1968 the book was published with transliterations and comments by linguists.

Disputed earlier text

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.^[31]

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 ...

Dr. Robert Elsie, a specialist in Albanian studies, considers that "The Todericiu/Polena Romanian translation of the non-Latin lines, although it may offer some clues if the text is indeed Albanian, is fanciful and based, among other things, on a false reading of the manuscript, including the exclusion of a whole line^[32]

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.^[33]

Standard Albanian

Standard Albanian is based on the Tosk dialect. 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),^[34] Fjalori i Bashkimit (1908),^[34] Gazulli (1941).^[23][24] After World War II standardization was directed by the Institute of Albanian Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences of Albania.^[35][36] Two dictionaries were published in 1954, an Albanian language dictionary and a Russian–Albanian dictionary. New orthography rules were eventually published in 1967^[36] and 1973 (Drejtshkrimi i gjuhës shqipe (Orthography of the Albanian Language).^[37] More recent dictionaries from the Albanian government are Fjalori drejtshkrimor i gjuhës shqipe (1976) (Orthographic Dictionary of the Albanian Language)^[38] and Dictionary of Today's Albanian language (1980) (Albanian: Fjalori i sotëm i gjuhës shqipe).^[36][39]

Classification

Albanian was demonstrated to be an Indo-European language in 1854 by the philologist Franz Bopp. The Albanian language constitutes its own branch of the Indo-European language family.^[40]

Albanian was formerly compared by some Indo-Europeanists with Balto-Slavic and Germanic,^[41] both of which share a number of isoglosses with Albanian. Moreover, Albanian has undergone a vowel shift in which stressed, long o has fallen to a, much like in the former and opposite the latter. Likewise, Albanian has taken the old relative jos and innovatively used it exclusively to qualify adjectives, much in the way Balto-Slavic has used this word to provide the definite ending of adjectives. Other linguists link Albanian with Greek and Armenian, while placing Germanic and Balto-Slavic in another branch of Indo-European.^[42][43][44] Nakhleh, Ringe, and Warnow argued that Albanian can be placed at a variety of points within the Indo-European tree with equally good fit; determining its correct placement is hampered by the loss of much of its former diagnostic inflectional morphology and vocabulary.^[45]

Origin

Albanian is often seen as the descendant of Illyrian,^[46] although this hypothesis has been challenged by some linguists, who maintain that it derives from Dacian or Thracian.^[47] (Illyrian, Dacian, and Thracian, however, may have formed a subgroup or a sprachbund; see Thraco-Illyrian).

(Old) Albanian

According to the central hypothesis of a project undertaken by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, Old Albanian had a significant influence on the development of many Balkan languages. Intensive research now aims to confirm this theory. This little-known language is being researched using all available texts before a comparison with other Balkan languages is carried out. The outcome of this work will include the compilation of a lexicon providing an overview of all Old Albanian verbs.^[48]

Proto-IE features

The demonstrative pronoun *ko is ancestral to Albanian ky/kjo and English he.

Albanian and other Indo-European languages

Albanian	muaj	ri	nënë	motër	natë	hundë	tre	zi	kuq	gjelbërt	verdhë	ujk
Other Indo-European languages
English	month	new	mother	sister	night	nose	three	black	red	green	yellow	wolf
Lithuanian	mėnesis	naujas	motina	sesuo	naktis	nosis	trys	juodas	raudonas	žalias	geltonas	vilkas
Old Church Slavonic	měsęcь	novъ	mati	sestra	noštь	nosъ	tri(je)	črъnъ	črъvenъ	zelenъ	žьltъ	vlьkъ
Czech	měsíc	nový	matka	sestra	noc	nos	tři	černý	červený	zelený	žlutý	vlk
Ancient Greek	μήν mḗn	νέος néos	μήτηρ mḗter	ἀδελφή adelphḗ	νύξ nýks	ῥίς rhís	τρεῖς treîs	μέλας mélas	ἐρυθρός erythrós	χλωρός khlōrós	ξανθός ksanthós	λύκος lýkos
Armenian	ամիս amis	նոր nor	մայր mayr	քույր k'uyr	գիշեր gišer	քիթ k'it	երեք yerek'	սեւ sev	կարմիր karmir	կանաչ kanač	դեղին deġin	գայլ gayl
Latin	mēnsis	novus	māter	soror	nox	nāsus	trēs	āter, niger	ruber	viridis	flāvus	lupus
Irish	mí	nuadh	máthair	siúr	oidhche	srón	trí	dubh	ruadh	glas	buidhe	faolchú
Sanskrit	māsa	nava	mātṛ	svasṛ	nakta/nish	nasa	tri	kāla	rudhira	hari	pīta	vṛka

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 the voiced stops tend to disappear when 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 *a and *o appear as a (further 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 Luvian 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). Another remarkable retention is the preservation of initial *h₄ as Alb. h (all other laryngeals disappear completely).^[49]

Proto-Indo-European Labial Stops in Albanian

PIE	Albanian	PIE	Albanian
*p	p	*pékʷe/o—"cook"	pjek "to cook, roast, bake"
*b	b	*sorbéi̯e/o—"drink, slurp"	gjerb "to drink"
*bh	b	*bhaḱeha—"bean"	bathë "bean"

Proto-Indo-European Coronal Stops in Albanian

PIE	Albanian	PIE	Albanian
*t	t	*tuhx—"thou"	ti "you (singular)"
*d	d	*dihxtis—"light"	ditë "day"
	dh[* 1]	*pérde/o—"fart"	pjerdh "to fart"
	g	*dlh1gho—"long"	gjatë "long" (Tosk dial. glatë)
*dh	d	*dhégʷhe/o—"burn"	djeg "to burn"
	dh[* 1]	*ghórdhos—"enclosure"	gardh "fence"

1. ^ ^{a b} Between vowels or after r

Proto-Indo-European Palatal Stops in Albanian

PIE	Albanian	PIE	Albanian
*ḱ	th	*ḱéh1mi—"I say"	thom "I say"
	s[* 1]	*ḱuk—"horn"	sutë "doe"
	k[* 2]	*ḱreh2u—"limb"	krah "arm"
	ç/c[* 3]	*ḱentro—"to stick"	çandër "prop"
*ǵ	dh	*ǵómbhos—"tooth, peg"	dhëmb "tooth"
	d[* 4]	*ǵēusnō—"to enjoy"	dua "to love, want"
*ǵh	dh	*ĝhedi̯e/o—"to defecate"	dhjes "to defecate"
	d[* 4]	*ĝhr̥sdhi—"grain, barley"	drithë "grain"

1. ^ Before u̯/u or i̯/i
2. ^ Before sonorant
3. ^ Archaic relic
4. ^ ^{a b} Syllable-initial and followed by sibilant

Proto-Indo-European Velar Stops in Albanian

PIE	Albanian	PIE	Albanian
*k	k	*kághmi—"I catch, grasp"	kam "I have"
	q	*klau-ei̯e/o—"to weep"	qaj "to weep, cry" (Gheg qanj, Salamis kla)
*g	g	*h3lígos—"sick"	ligë "bad"
	gj	*h1reug—"to retch"	regj "to tan hides"
*gh	g	*ghórdhos—"enclosure"	gardh "fence"
	gj	*ghédni̯e/o—"get"	gjej "to find" (Gheg gjêj)

Proto-Indo-European Labialized Velar Stops in Albanian

PIE	Albanian	PIE	Albanian
*kʷ	k	*kʷehasleha—"cough"	kollë "cough"
	s	*kʷéle/o—"turn"	sjell "to fetch, bring"
	q	*kʷṓd—"that"	që "that"
*gʷ	g	*gʷr̥—"stone"	gur "stone"
	z	*gʷērhxu—"heaviness"	zor "heaviness; trouble"
*gʷh	g	*dhégʷhe/o—"to burn"	djeg "to burn"
	z	*h1en-dhogʷhéi̯e/o—"to ignite"	ndez "to kindle, turn on"

Proto-Indo-European *s in Albanian

PIE	Albanian	PIE	Albanian
*s	gj[* 1]	*séḱstis—"six"	gjashtë "six"
	h[* 2]	*nosōm—"us" (gen.)	nahe "us" (dat.)
	sh[* 3]	*bhreusinos—"break"	breshër "hail"
	th[* 4]	*gʷésdos—"leaf"	gjeth "leaf"
	h[* 5]	*sḱi-eh2—"shadow"	hije "shadow"
	f[* 6]	*spélnom—"speech"	fjalë "word"
	sht[* 7]	*h2osti "bone"	asht "bone"
	th[* 8]	*suh1s—"swine"	thi "boar"
	∅	*h1ésmi—"am"	jam "to be"

1. ^ Initial
2. ^ Between vowels
3. ^ Between vowels and after u̯/i̯/r/k (ruki law)
4. ^ Cluster -sd-
5. ^ Cluster -sḱ-
6. ^ Cluster -sp-
7. ^ Cluster -st-
8. ^ Dissimilation with following vowel

Proto-Indo-European Sonorant Consonants in Albanian

PIE	Albanian	PIE	Albanian
*i̯	gj[* 1]	*i̯ése/o—"to ferment"	gjesh "to knead"
	j[* 2]	*i̯uhxs—"you" (nom.)	ju "you (plural)"
	∅[* 3]	*bhéri̯ō—"bear, carry"	bie(r) "to bring"
	h[* 4]	*strehai̯eha—"straw"	strohë "kennel"
*u̯	v	*u̯oséi̯e/o—"to dress"	vesh "to wear, dress"
*m	m	*mehatr-eha—"maternal"	motër "sister"
*n	n	*nos—"we"	ne "we"
	nj	*eni-h₁ói-no—"that one"	një "one" (Gheg njâ, njo)
	∅/^	*pénkʷe—"five"	pesë, Gheg pês "five"
	r	*ǵheimen—"winter"	dimër "winter" (Gheg dimën)
*l	l	*h3lígos—"sick"	ligë "bad"
	ll	*kʷéle/o—"turn"	sjell "to fetch, bring"
*r	r	*repe/o—"take"	rjep "peel"
	rr	*u̯rēn—"sheep"	rrunzë "female lamb"
*n̥	e	*h1n̥men—"name"	emër "name"
*m̥	e	*u̯iḱm̥ti—"twenty"	(një)zet "twenty"
*l̥	uj	*u̯l̥kʷos—"wolf"	ujk "wolf" (Chamian ulk)
*r̥	ri, ir	*ǵhr̥sdom—"grain, barley"	drithë "grain"

1. ^ Before i, e, a
2. ^ Before back vowels
3. ^ After front vowels
4. ^ After all other vowels

Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Albanian

PIE	Albanian	PIE	Albanian
*h1	∅	*h1ésmi—"am"	jam "to be"
*h2	∅	*h2r̥tḱos—"bear"	ari "bear"
*h3	∅	*h3ónr̥—"dream"	ëndërr "dream"
*h4	h	*h4órǵhii̯eha—"testicle"	herdhe "testicle"

Proto-Indo-European Vowels in Albanian

PIE	Albanian	PIE	Albanian
*i	i	*sinos—"bosom"	gji "bosom, breast"
	e	*du̯igheha—"twig"	degë "branch"
*ī	i	*dīhxtis—"light"	ditë "day"
*e	e	*pénkʷe—"five"	pesë "five" (Gheg pês)
	je	*u̯étos—"year" (loc.)	vjet "last year"
*ē	o	*ǵhēsr—"hand"	dorë "hand"
*a	a	*bhaḱeha- "bean"	bathë "bean"
	e	*haélbhit—"barley"	elb "barley"
*o	a	*ghórdhos—"enclosure"	gardh "fence"
*ō	e	*h2oḱtōtis—"eight"	tetë "eight"
*u	u	*supnos—"sleep"	gjumë "sleep"
*ū	y	*suhxsos—"grandfather"	gjysh "grandfather"
	i	*mūs—"mouse"	mi "mouse"

Geographic distribution

Albanian is spoken by nearly 7.6 million people^[1] mainly in Albania, Kosovo, Turkey, the Republic of Macedonia, Greece and Italy (Arbereshe); and by immigrant communities in many other countries, notably the United Kingdom, the USA, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Standard

Standard Albanian, based on the Tosk dialect of southern Albania, is the official language of Albania and Kosovo; and is also official in municipalities of the Republic of Macedonia where ethnic Albanians form more than 20% of the municipal population. It is also an official language of Montenegro, where it is spoken in the municipalities with ethnic Albanian populations.

Dialects

Albanian is divided into three major dialects: Gheg, Tosk, and a transitional dialect zone between them.^[50] The Shkumbin river is roughly the dividing line, with Gheg spoken north of the Shkumbin and Tosk south of it.^[51]

Phonology

Standard Albanian has 7 vowels and 29 consonants. 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 penultimate syllable. Gheg n (femën: compare English feminine) changes to r by rhotacism in Tosk (femër).

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n		ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	p  b			t  d		c  ɟ	k  ɡ
Affricate				ts  dz	tʃ  dʒ
Fricative		f  v	θ  ð	s  z	ʃ  ʒ			h
Trill				r
Flap				ɾ
Approximant				l  ɫ		j

IPA	Description	Written as	Pronounced as in
p	Voiceless bilabial plosive	p	pen
b	Voiced bilabial plosive	b	bat
t	Voiceless alveolar plosive	t	tan
d	Voiced alveolar plosive	d	debt
c	Voiceless palatal plosive	q	~ cute
ɟ	Voiced palatal plosive	gj	~ legume
k	Voiceless velar plosive	k	car
ɡ	Voiced velar plosive	g	go
ts	Voiceless alveolar affricate	c	hats
dz	Voiced alveolar affricate	x	goods
tʃ	Voiceless postalveolar affricate	ç	chin
dʒ	Voiced postalveolar affricate	xh	jet
θ	Voiceless dental fricative	th	thin
ð	Voiced dental fricative	dh	then
f	Voiceless labiodental fricative	f	far
v	Voiced labiodental fricative	v	van
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
m	Bilabial nasal	m	man
n	Alveolar nasal	n	not
ɲ	Palatal nasal	nj	onion
ŋ	Velar nasal	ng	bang
j	Palatal approximant	j	yes
l	Alveolar lateral approximant	l	lean
ɫ	Velarized alveolar lateral approximant	ll	ball
r	Alveolar trill	rr	Spanish perro
ɾ	Alveolar tap	r	Spanish pero

Notes:

• 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 contrast between flapped r and trilled rr is the same as in Spanish.
• 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.

Vowels

IPA	Description	Written as	Pronounced as in
i	Close front unrounded vowel	i	seed
ɛ	Open-mid front unrounded vowel	e	bed
a	Open front unrounded vowel	a	father, Spanish casa
ə	Schwa	ë	about, Dutch de
ɔ	Open-mid back rounded vowel	o	law
y	Close front rounded vowel	y	French tu, German über
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.^[52] 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.^[53][54] The schwa in Albanian has a great degree of variability from extreme back to extreme front articulation.^[55] Within the borders of Albania the phoneme is pronounced about the same in in both the Tosk and the Gheg dialect due to the influence of standard Albanian. But in the Gheg dialects spoken in the neighbouring Albanian-speaking areas of Kosovo and Macedonia, the phoneme is still pronounced as back and rounded.^[55]

Grammar

Albanian has a canonical word order of SVO (subject–verb–object) like English and many other Indo-European languages.^[56] 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. Some dialects also retain a locative case which is not in standard Albanian. The cases apply to both definite and indefinite nouns and there are numerous cases of syncretism. The equivalent of a genitive is formed by using the prepositions i/e/të/së with the dative.

The following shows the declension of the masculine noun mal (mountain), a masculine noun which ends with "i":

	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 ends with "u":

	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	një i/e/të/së 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, for example Romanian 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 -(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 (6 types) and tenses (3 simple and 5 complex constructions) is distinctive among Balkan languages. There are two general types of conjugation.

Albanian word order

In Albanian the constituent 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 :

• Mos harro "do not forget!".

• 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.

Albanian verbs, like those of other Balkan languages, have an "admirative" mood (Albanian: mënyra habitore) which 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 by 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)

Numerals

një—one dy—two tre—three katër—four pesë—five gjashtë—six shtatë—seven tetë—eight nëntë—nine dhjetë—ten njëmbëdhjetë–eleven dymbëdhjetë—twelve trembëdhjetë—thirteen katërmbëdhjetë—fourteen pesëmbëdhjetë—fifteen gjashtëmbëdhjetë—sixteen shtatëmbëdhjetë—seventeen tetëmbëdhjetë—eighteen nëntëmbëdhjetë—nineteen njëzet—twenty njëzetenjë–twenty-one njëzetedy—twenty-two tridhjetë—thirty dyzet—forty pesëdhjetë—fifty gjashtëdhjetë—sixty shtatëdhjetë—seventy tetëdhjetë—eighty nëntëdhjetë—ninety njëqind—one hundred pesëqind—five hundred njëmijë—one thousand një milion—one million një miliard—one billion

Vocabulary

Cognates with Illyrian

• mal, "mountain"; cf. Alb mal^[57]
• bardi, "white"; cf. Alb bardhë^[58]
• drenis, "deer"; cf. Alb dre, dreni^[59]
• delme (sheep); cf. Alb dele (sheep)^[60]
• dard, "pear"; cf. Alb dardhë^[61]
• sīca, "dagger"; cf. Alb thikë or thika "knife"^[62]
• delme (sheep); cf. Alb dele (sheep)^[60]
• Ulc-, "wolf" (pln. Ulcinium); cf. Alb ujk "wolf":^[63]
• brisa, "husk of grapes"; cf. Alb bërsí "lees, dregs; mash" (< PA *brutiā)^[64]
• loúgeon, "pool"; cf. Alb lag, legen "to wet, soak, bathe, wash" (< PA *lauga), lëgatë "pool" (< PA *leugatâ), lakshte "dew" (< PA laugista)^[65]
• mantía "bramblebush"; Old and dial. Alb mandë "berry, mulberry" (mod. Alb mën, man)
• rhinos, "fog, mist"; cf. OAlb ren "cloud" (mod. Alb re, rê) (< PA *rina)^[66]

Early Greek loans

There are some 30 ancient-Greek loanwords in Albanian, of which some relate to north-western Doric Greek, which point to contacts with Doric colonies in Albanian coast and inland.^[67] Early Greek loanwords borrowed into Albanian mainly denoted commodity items and trade goods.

• mokër "millstone" < Doric Greek mākhaná "device, instrument"^[68]
• mollë "apple" < Doric Greek mālon "device, instrument"^[68]
• drapër "sickle" < Doric Greek drápanon^[69]
• kumbull "plum" < Doric Greek kokkúmelon^[69]
• brukë "Tamariske" < Doric Greek murikh^[69]
• trumzë "thyme" < Doric Greek thýmbrā, thrýmbrē^[69]
• lakër "cabbage, green vegetables" < Gk lákhanon "green; vegetable"^[70]
• presh "leek" < Gk práson^[70]
• bagëm "oil for anointment" < Gk báptisma "anointment"^[70]
• lëpjetë "orach, dock" < Gk lápathon^[71]
• bletë "hive; bee" < Greco-Latin < Gk (Attic) mélitta "honey-bee" (vs. Gk (Ionic) mélissa).^[72]
• çiklamin "purple"^[73] < Ancient Greek kyklā́mīnos^[74]

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"^[75]
• gomar "donkey, ass" < *margë < Goth *marh "horse"
• horr "scoundrel", horrë "hussy, whore" < Goth hors "adulterer", *hora "whore"
• petkë, petëk "clothes, garment", petk "herder's coat" < Goth paida; cf. OHG pfeit, OE pād
• 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

The earliest accepted document in the Albanian language is from the 15th century AD. The earliest reference to a Lingua Albanesca is from a 1285 document of Ragusa. This is a time when Albanian Principalities start to be mentioned and expand inside and outside the Byzantine Empire. It is assumed that Greek and Balkan Latin (which was the ancestor of Romanian and other Balkan Romance languages), would exert a great influence on Albanian. Examples of words borrowed from Latin: qytet < civitas (city), qiell < caelum (sky), mik < amicus (friend).

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. Surprisingly the Persian words seem to have been absorbed the most. Some loanwords from Modern Greek also exist especially in the south of Albania. A lot of the borrowed words have been resubstituted from Albanian rooted words or modern Latinized (international) words.

See also

• Arbëresh language
• Arvanitika
• Gheg Albanian
• Tosk Albanian
• Illyrian languages
• Thraco-Illyrian
• List of Romanian words of possible Dacian origin - occasional correspondence in Albanian
• Dacian language

References

Bibliography

External links

• Drejtshkrimi i gjuhës shqipe (Orthography of the Albanian Language)
• Albanian phrasebook at Wikitravel
• Albanian Language and Literature Portal
• Learn Albanian
• Use your Albanian language skills
• Albanian Grammar
• Ethnologue report on Albanian
• Albanian Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
• Modern Greek and Albanian with Japanese translation
• The Albanian language – overview (Archived 2009-10-25)
• Thracian the Albanian language
• Books about Albania and the Albanian people (scribd.com) Reference of books (and some journal articles) about Albania and the Albanian people; their history, language, origin, culture, literature, etc. Public domain books, fully accessible online.
• Doctor John Bassett Trumper discussing the classification of Albanian within Indo-European

Samples of various Albanian dialects

• Scroll down for 3 different Albanian dialects: (Gheg) (Tosk) and (Arbëreshë)
• Albanian (Arvanitika)

Dictionaries

• Albanian Online Dictionary (40 000 lemmas)
• English – Albanian / Albanian – English
• English – Albanian
• New French – Albanian Dictionary
• French – Albanian Dictionary
• 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)
• English – Albanian Dictionary with big translation memory attached, glosbe

Keyboard layouts

• Prektora 1 ISO-8859-1 standardized layout for Windows XP (Albanian language)

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