Albanian language

Geographic distribution

Dialects

There are two principal dialects, Tosk and Gheg, which are mutually intelligible, except in their more extreme forms. The geographical border of the two dialects has traditionally been the Shkumbini River in Albania, with Gheg being spoken north of the river, and Tosk south of the river. The two dialects have phonological as well as lexicological differences.

Related Topics:
Tosk - Gheg - Shkumbini River - Phonological - Lexicological

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Tosk is the dialect spoken by most members of the large Albanian immigrant communities that have recently arrived in these two countries, and in smaller Albanian communities in Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, and United States.

Related Topics:
Ukraine - Turkey - Egypt - United States

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Gheg (or Geg) is spoken in northern Albania and by the Albanians of Serbia and Montenegro (Southern Montenegro and Southern Serbia), the UN protectorate of Kosovo, as well as those of the Republic of Macedonia.

Related Topics:
Serbia and Montenegro - Republic of Macedonia

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Since after World War II there have been efforts to create a Standard or Literary Albanian that borrows most heavily from the Tosk dialect (at the behest of the dictator Enver Hoxha, himself a Tosk speaker). The Congress on the Orthography of Albanian, held in 1972 with the additional participation of delegates from the Yugoslav territories of Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro and Calabria (Italy), established a unified literary language. The resulting orthographic rules were codified in such tomes as Drejtshkrimi i gjuhës shqipe (1973) and Fjalori drejtshkrimor i gjuhës shqipe (1976)

Related Topics:
World War II - Enver Hoxha

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Official status

Albanian, in the Tosk dialect, is the official language of Albania. Albanian is also one of the official languages of Kosovo, and of the Republic of Macedonia.

Related Topics:
Albania - Kosovo - Republic of Macedonia

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