Albanian Language

Albanian Language, Indo-European language spoken in Albania, parts of Serbia, Montenegro, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Bulgaria, Turkey, and isolated pockets in Greece and southern Italy. Four major Albanian varieties have been developing in different ways for about 1,000 years: Gheg, spoken in northern Albania, Serbia (including almost all of the Serbian province of Kosovo), Montenegro, FYROM, and Bulgaria; Tosk, the official language of Albania, found south of the Shkumbin River in Albania, and in western Turkey; Arvanitika, spoken in parts (largely rural) of Greece, by mainly older speakers; and Arbëreshë, spoken in southern Italy.

The Albanian varieties are not all mutually intelligible, though Tosk is partially intelligible with Arvanitika. Because of the widening changes between the varieties, they are sometimes classed as separate languages in their own right, and also have their own dialects. Albanian constitutes a separate branch of the Indo-European language family and, because of its obscure history, no clear relationship with any other Indo-European group has been established. The Albanian branch is split into two further branches: Gheg (comprising Gheg Albanian) and Tosk (comprising Tosk, Arvanitika, and Arbëreshë). Albanian grammar is most similar to that of Modern Greek and Romanian. The vocabulary includes many loanwords from Latin, Romanian, and Balkan languages (see Slavic Languages).

A South Gheg dialect was used as the official language of Albania from 1909 until World War II; thereafter, the official language was based on Tosk. Written in Roman script, a limited amount of literature exists in Albanian, most of it produced after the 19th-century national revival.

Selected statistical data from Ethnologue: Languages of the World, SIL International.