The Albanian language

Albanian language

Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by approximately 7.6 million people, primarily in Albania and Kosovo but also in other areas of the Balkans in which there is an Albanian population, including western Macedonia, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia and northwestern Greece...

 is divided into three major dialect

Dialect

The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

s: Gheg, Tosk, and a transitional dialect zone between them.
The Shkumbin

Shkumbin

Shkumbin is a river in central Albania, flowing into the Adriatic Sea. It is considered the dividing line for the two dialects of the Albanian language: Tosk and Gheg ....

 river is roughly the geographical dividing line, with Gheg spoken north of the Shkumbin and Tosk south of it.

Historical considerations

The characteristics of the Albanian dialects Tosk and Geg
in the treatment of the native and loanwords from other languages, have led to the conclusion that the dialectal split preceded the Slavic migration to the Balkans
According to another view during the process of dialect split Albanian populations were roughly in their present location.

Gheg dialects

Gheg is divided into four sub-dialects: Northwest Gheg, Northeast Gheg, Central Gheg, and Southern Gheg. Northwest Gheg is spoken throughout Montenegro, northwestern Kosovo( west of Pejë), Lezhë, northwestern Mirditë, Pukë and Shkodër. Northeast Gheg is spoken throughout most of Kosovo, Preševo, Has, northeastern Mirditë, Kukës, Tropojë, and northern Tetovo. Central Gheg is spoken in Debar, Gostivar, Krujë, Peshkopi, southern Mirditë, Mat, eastern Struga, and southern Tetovo. Southern Gheg is spoken in Durrës, northern Elbasan, northern Peqin, Kavajë, northwest Struga, and Tirana.

Gheg features

• No rhotacism
  Rhotacism
  Rhotacism refers to several phenomena related to the usage of the consonant r :*the excessive or idiosyncratic use of the r;...
  
  : Proto-Albanian *-n- remains -n- (e.g. râna "sand").
• Proto-Albanian *ō becomes vo.
• Nasal vowel
  Nasal vowel
  A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation...
  
  s: Gheg retains the nasal vowels of late Proto-Albanian and the late Proto-Albanian *â plus a nasal remains â (e.g. nândë "nine"). Although, the quality of the vowel varies by dialect, [ɑ̃], [ɒ̃], [ɔ̃], etc. Some Northeast and Northwest Gheg dialects preserve the nasal in words such as [pɛ̃s] "five" while other Gheg dialects do not, [pɛs] "five".
• Monophthongization: Occurs in some dialects of Shkodër in a few words (e.g. [vø̞ː] voe "egg") and [hɛ̞ː] hae "food".
• Phonological vowel length: There is often phonological vowel length in most Gheg dialects. Some dialects of Shkodër have a three length distinction in vowels, for example, short: [pɛ̃nˠ] "yoke", long: [pɛ̃ːnˠ] "pen", and extra-long: [pɛ̃ːːnˠ] "yokes".
• a-vowel: In some dialects occurring in some certain words a may become a diphthong (e.g. [bəaɫ] for ballë "forehead") or become [æ] (e.g. [læɾɡ] for larg "far").
• ë-vowel: Final -ë drops and often lengthens the preceding vowel.
• i-vowel: The i vowel in the word dhi (goat) can be realized as various vowels in the Central Gheg dialects: [ðəi] (Krujë), [ðei] (Mountainous Krujë), [ðɛi] or [ðei] (Mat), as well as [ðai] or [ðɔi] in other regions.
• o-vowel: The o derounds to [ʌ] in some words in some dialects (e.g. [sʌt] for sot "today" in Krujë and among some Muslims speakers in Shkodër).
• u-vowel: The u vowel in different dialects occurring some words may vary, for example rrush "grape" may be [ruʃ], [rauʃ], [rɔuʃ], [rɔʃ], or [roʃ].
• y-vowel: The y vowel can remain as y (e.g. dy "two" in much of the Gheg speaking areas), derounded to i (e.g. [di] "two" in Debar), or becomes more open and less rounded to [ʏ̜] (e.g. [dʏ̜] "two" in Mat and Mountainous Krujë). In other words in Central Gheg the y vowel can become [ø] as in [sø] for sy "eye" (Mat and Krujë).
• bj/pj: These may yield bgj or pq in some dialects (e.g. pqeshkë for pjeshkë "peach" in Negotin).
• bl/pl/fl: These may become bj/pj/fj or even bgj/pq in some dialects (e.g. pjak for plak "old" in Toplica or pqak for plak "old" in Negotin).
• dh and ll: These sounds may interchange in some words in some dialects.
• h: This may drop in any position in some dialects.
• mb/nd: Consonant clusters such as nd vary greatly by sub-dialect: nder "honor" can realized as [ndɛɾ], [nd͉ɛɾ], [ⁿdɛɾ], [dɛɾ], [nɛɾ], or [nˠɛɾ].
• q/gj: In the Gheg dialects, q and gj may remain palatal stops [c] and [ɟ], change to postalveolar affricates [t͡ʃ] and [d͡ʒ] (and thus merging with Albanian ç and xh), change to alveolo-palatal affricates [t͡ɕ] and [d͡ʑ], or even change to alveolo-palatal fricatives [ɕ] and [ʑ].
• tj/dj: These may become palatal stops [c] and [ɟ] in some dialects.

Transitional dialects

The transitional dialects are spoken in southern Elbasan (Cërrik, Dumre, Dushk, Papër, Polis, Qafe, Shpat, Sulovë, Thanë), southern Peqin, northwestern Gramsh, extreme southern Kavajë, northern and central Lushnjë, and southern Librazhd (Bërzeshtë, Rrajcë).

Transitional features

• Rhotacism: Proto-Albanian *-n- becomes -r- (e.g. râra "sand").
• Proto-Albanian *ō becomes vo in the western sub-dialects or va in the central and eastern sub-dialects.
• Nasal vowels: In some sub-dialects of Transitional, some nasal vowels denasalize (e.g. rora "sand" in Sulovë) while in other words the nasals are retained: sŷ "eye" (Dumre, Shpat, Sulovë).
• ô-vowel: Some sub-dialects have ô for â in some words (e.g. ôma "taste" in Sulovë).
• Mb/Nd: Clusters such as mb become m in some dialects (e.g. koma for standard këmba "leg").

Tosk dialects

Tosk is divided into five sub-dialects: Northern Tosk, Labërisht, Çam, Arvanitika and Arbëresh. Northern Tosk is spoken in Berat, Fier, extreme southeastern Elbasan, most of Gramsh, Kolonjë, Korçë, Ohrid, Përmet, east of the Vjosë river of Tepelenë, southern Struga (western shore of Lake Ohrid), Pogradec, Prespa and northern Vlorë. Labërisht is spoken in southern Vlorë, Dukat, Himarë, Mallakastër, Delvinë, west of the Vjosë river of Tepelenë, Gjirokastër and Sarandë. Çam

Cham Albanian dialect

The Cham Albanian dialect is the dialect of the Albanian language spoken by the Cham Albanians, an ethnic Albanian minority in the Epirus region of northwestern Greece.-Classification:...

 is spoken in southern Sarandë (Konispol, Ksamil, Markat, Xarrë) and northern Greece. Tosk dialects are spoken by most members of the large Albanian immigrant communities of Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, Turkey, and Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. Çamërisht is spoken in North-western Greece, while Arvanitika is spoken by the Arvanites

Arvanites

Arvanites are a population group in Greece who traditionally speak Arvanitika, a dialect of the Albanian language. They settled in Greece during the late Middle Ages and were the dominant population element of some regions of the Peloponnese and Attica until the 19th century...

 in southern Greece, mainly Peloponnese

Peloponnese

The Peloponnese, Peloponnesos or Peloponnesus , is a large peninsula , located in a region of southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth...

, Attica

Attica

Attica is a historical region of Greece, containing Athens, the current capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea...

, Euboea

Euboea

Euboea is the second largest Greek island in area and population, after Crete. The narrow Euripus Strait separates it from Boeotia in mainland Greece. In general outline it is a long and narrow, seahorse-shaped island; it is about long, and varies in breadth from to...

 and adjacent islands. Arbëresh

Arbëresh language

Arbëreshë, also known as Arbërisht, is an ethnolect spoken by the Arbëreshë, the group of Albanian-speaking minorities in Italy.-Classification:...

 is spoken by the Arbëreshë

Arbëreshë

The Arbëreshë are a linguistic and ethnic Albanian minority community living in southern Italy, especially the regions of Apulia, Basilicata, Molise, Calabria and Sicily...

, descendants of 15th and 16th century immigrants in southeastern Italy, in small communities in the regions of Sicily, Calabria

Calabria

Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....

, Basilicata

Basilicata

Basilicata , also known as Lucania, is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south, having one short southwestern coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania in the northwest and Calabria in the southwest, and a...

, Campania

Campania

Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...

, Molise

Molise

Molise is a region of Southern Italy, the second smallest of the regions. It was formerly part of the region of Abruzzi e Molise and now a separate entity...

, Abruzzi, and Puglia.

Tosk features

• Rhotacism: Proto-Albanian *-n- becomes -r- (e.g. rëra "sand")
• Proto-Albanian *ō becomes va.
• Nasal vowels: There is a lack of nasal vowels in Tosk (e.g. sy "eye") and Late Proto-Albanian *â plus a nasal becomes ë (e.g. nëntë "nine").
• e-vowel: The e becomes ë in some dialects in some words qën for qen in Vjosë.
• ë-vowel: The ë may have several pronunciations depending on dialect: mëz "foal" is [mʌz] in Vuno) while ë is more backed in Labërisht. Final -ë drops in many Tosk dialects and lengthens the preceding vowel.
• y-vowel: The y vowel often derounds to i in Labërisht, Çam, Arvanitika and Arbëresh (e.g. dy "two" becomes di).
• Dh and Ll: These sounds may interchange in some words in some dialects.
• H: This may drop in any position in some dialects.
• Gl/Kl: Some dialects such as Çam, Arberësh, and Arvanitika retain kl and gl in place of q and gj (e.g. gjuhë "tongue" is gluhë in Çam, gluhë in Arberësh, and gljuhë in Arvanitika; "klumësh" for "qumësht" "milk" in Arbëresh).
• Rr: Rr becomes r in some dialects.

External links

• Robert Elsie's Recordings in many Albanian dialects