Southern Gheg
| Southern Gheg | |
|---|---|
| Region | Albania (Durrës, Elbasan, Tiranë), western Macedonia between Debar and Struga |
Native speakers | (no estimate available) |
|
Indo-European
| |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
Southern Gheg is a dialect 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 dialect on which Standard Albanian was based from 1916 to 1952.
Classification
Southern Gheg is one of the two dialects of Gheg Albanian, along with Northern Gheg. Southern Gheg is the Gheg dialect with the least differences from Tosk. It can be divided further into Central Gheg, which is the dialect spoken by the majority of the Albanians in Macedonia, and Middle Gheg, which is spoken in the central regions of Albania including the country's capital, Tiranë.[1]
History
Until the late 16th century the Gheg dialect that was used most in literature was the northwestern variant of Shkodër. Later, Southern Gheg became the most used Gheg dialect in literary works.[2]
Sources
- ↑ Hinrichs, Uwe; Buttner, Uwe (1999). Handbuch der Sudosteuropa-Linguistik. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 285. ISBN 9783447039390. Retrieved 5 April 2011.
- ↑ Horvath, Barbara M.; Vaughan, Paul (1991). Community languages: a handbook. Multilingual Matters. p. 19. ISBN 9781853590917. Retrieved 6 April 2011.