Albanian

The two principal dialects, Gheg in the north and Tosk in the south, are separated roughly by the ShkumbinRiver. All of the Albanian dialects spoken in Italian and Greek enclaves are of the Tosk variety and seem to be related most closely to the dialect of Cameria in the extreme south of Albania. A few isolated outlying dialects of south Tosk origin are spoken in Bulgaria and Turkish Thrace but are of unclear date. The Albanian dialects of Istria and of Syrmia have become extinct.

The official language, written in a standard Roman alphabet adopted in 1909, was based on the south Gheg dialect of Elbasan from the beginning of the Albanian state until World War II and since has been modelled on Tosk. In Yugoslavia, Albanian speakers in the region of Kosovo in Serbia and in Macedonia speak eastern varieties of Gheg but since 1974 have widely adopted a common orthography with Albania.

The numbers from one to ten:

1. njė - nyeh
2. dy - doo (the 'oo' is like the 'ü' in über)
3. tre - trey
4. katėr - kater
5. pesė - pes
6. gjashtė - gyasht ('g' like in gerald)
7. shtatė - shtat
8. tetė - tet
9. nėntė - nund
10. dhiet - theeyet

Greetings:

• good morning - mirėmėngjes (meeruhminjays)
• good afternoon - mirėmbrėma (meeruhmbrema)
• good night - natėn e mirė (nahten ay meer)

Pleasantries:

• please - ju lutem (yoo lootem)
• thank you - faleminderit (fahlemeenderit)
• how are you? - si jeni? (see yeni)
• I'm fine - jam mirė (yahm meer)

This was all very useful to me when I was doing relief work in Albania and Kosovo, though most of my phrases were along the lines of, "Dy birra, ju lutem", which means, "Two beers please".

Al*ba"ni*an (#), a.

Of or pertaining to Albania, a province of Turkey.

n.

A native of Albania.

© Webster 1913.