Basic Albanian Phrases
Albanian Language
Albanian Home Page
Albanian Vocab Sample

Albanian Language, Indo-European language spoken in Albania, parts of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (including almost all of the Serbian region of Kosovo), and isolated pockets in the south of Italy and Greece. Two major Albanian dialects have been developing in different ways for about 1000 years: Gheg, spoken in northern Albania, above the Shkumbin River; and Tosk, found to the south of that river, as well as in the Italian and Greek enclaves. The speakers of these dialects, for the most part, can understand one another. 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.

Albanian constitutes a separate branch of the Indo-European language family. Its grammar is most similar to that of Modern Greek and Romanian. The vocabulary includes many loanwords from Latin, Romanian, and Balkan languages.