Languages of Albania

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Languages of Albania
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Sign in Dollna Goricë in Albanian and Macedonian, with graffiti in Albanian
Official Albanian
Minority Greek, Macedonian, Romani, Serbian, Aromanian
Foreign English, Italian, German and many other European languages
Signed Albanian Sign Language
Keyboard layout

Albania is an ethnically homogeneous country, where the overwhelming majority of the population speaks Albanian, which is also the official language. It has two distinct dialects: Tosk, spoken in the south, and Gheg, spoken in the north. However, many Albanians can also speak foreign languages as Italian, Greek, French, German, and English, amongst others, due to the high numbers of Albanian diaspora and Albanian communities throughout the Balkans.

Contents

Although many ethnic Albanians (from within Albania and the wider Balkans and diaspora) around the world speak more than two languages and have been recognised as polyglots, Albania is the fourth highest nation in Europe in terms of the percentage of monolingual inhabitants, with 59.9% speaking only one language. [1] Italian is widely spoken throughout Albania. Greek, the language of the Greek national minority is focused in southern Albania; however, many Albanian nationals speak the Greek language due to immigration. Nowadays, knowledge of English is growing very rapidly, especially among the youth. Various languages are spoken by ethnic minorities: Greek, Aromanian, Macedonian, etc.

Status of Albanian

Distribution of languages of Albania
Albanian
 
98.7%
Greek
 
0.54%
Macedonian
 
0.16%

The Article 14 of the Albanian Constitution states that "The official language in the Republic of Albania is Albanian." [2] According to the 2011 population census, 2,765,610, 98.767% of the population declared Albanian as their mother tongue ("mother tongue is defined as the first or main language spoken at home during childhood"). [3]

Dialects

Standard Albanian is based in the Tosk dialect, spoken in the south. Gheg is spoken in the north and also by Kosovo Albanians and in Croatia Arbanasi, Upper Reka dialect, Istrian. The traditional border between the two dialects is the Shkumbin River. Although they are somewhat different, they are mutually intelligible. [4] [5] Other notable varieties, all of which are sub-dialects of Tosk, include Lab, Cham, Arbëresh spoken in Italy and Arvanitika, Arvanitic in Southern Greece.

Minority languages

Regions with a traditional presence of ethnic groups other than Albanian. Albania minorities.png
Regions with a traditional presence of ethnic groups other than Albanian.
Location of communities in Albania classified by language and religion AlbaniaTraditionalCommunitiesByLanguageAndReligion.png
Location of communities in Albania classified by language and religion

Greek

Wall writing in Dhermi. The text reads Welcome to Drymades in Greek. Welcome to Dhermi.jpg
Wall writing in Dhërmi. The text reads Welcome to Drymades in Greek.

Greek is the largest minority language of Albania and first largest foreign language. Because the number of Greeks in Albania is disputed, the exact number of native speakers of Greek is unknown. The Greeks of Albania speak a modern southern Greek dialect, known as Northern Epirote Greek. [6] Alongside Albanian loanwords, it retains some archaic forms and words that are no longer used in Standard Modern Greek, as well as in the Greek dialects of southern Epirus. Despite the relatively small distances between the various towns and villages, there exists some dialectal variation, [7] most noticeably in accent. [8] In addition, many Albanians have knowledge of Greek, mainly due to past immigration to Greece. Greek is co-official in numerous municipalities and regions in Southern Albania.

Aromanian

Aromanians in Albania.png
Language in Albania with %25.png
Left: Map showing the spread of Aromanians in Albania Right: A map showing the percentage of Albanian speakers as per Population and Housing census 2011.

There are up to 200,000 Aromanians in Albania, a figure which includes people who do not speak the Aromanian language. [9] [10] They mostly live in the southern and central regions of the country. The Aromanians, under the name "Vlachs", are a recognized cultural minority in the Albanian law. [11]

Macedonian

According to the 1989 census, there were approximately 5,000 Macedonian language-speakers in Albania. Most of these people live in the southeastern part of the country in the Lake Prespa region. [12] Macedonians are an officially recognized minority in the Pustec Municipality. However, only the Macedonians living in Pustec are allowed to declare their nationality and language. Ethnic Macedonian organization claim that 120,000 to 350,000 Macedonians live in Albania. [13] They are politically represented by the Alliance of Macedonians for European Integration, which in the 2011 elections received around 2,500 votes. [14]

Romani

About 10,000 Romani people live in Albania today. They have preserved the language, despite the lack of education in that language. [15]

Serbo-Croatian

Serbo-Croatian is mostly spoken and understood in northern Albania, near the border of former Yugoslavian countries of Serbia and Montenegro. [16] The television phenomenon of Italian also happened to Serbo-Croatian, but to a lesser extent. [17]

Foreign languages

The most-widely spoken foreign languages in Albania are English, Italian and Greek.

A study carried out by Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union, analyzed the demography of the adult population 25-64 of several european countries as of 2016. The results of the Adult Education Survey, released in May 2018, showed that the 39.9% of the 25–64 years old is able to use at least one foreign language. The main foreign language known is English with 40.0%, followed by Italian with 27.8% and Greek with 22.9%. The English speakers were mostly young people, the knowledge of Italian is stable in every age group, while there is a decrease of the speakers of Greek in the youngest group. [18]

Italian

Italian is by far the best-known foreign language in Albania and used to have official status when the country was a protectorate of Italy. [16] Most Italian-speakers have not learnt the language in classrooms or from books, but rather by watching Italian television. [17] During the late communist regime, Albanians living in the towns along the Adriatic Sea coast had access to Italian television. [19] Many Albanians "grew skilled at rewiring their TVs to overcome [the] Albanian government's attempt to block Italian channels". [20] A large number of middle-aged and younger people grew up with the language and know it very well. [16]

Among the elderly, Italian is also common as the language was used in the educational system in the 1930s, after King Zog released a decree requiring all Albanian schools to teach Italian in 1933. [21]

Albania also is home to 19,000 ethnic Italians, who have aided the growth of the language in the country.

English

English is mostly popular among the younger generations of Albanians. [22] [ unreliable source? ] [23] [ unreliable source? ] As of 2006, more than 65% of Albanian children could speak fluent or semi-fluent English. [24]

The language came to Albania in 1921, when the Albanian Vocational School started to teach English with the sponsorship of the American Red Cross. The school operated until 1933. [21] The Albanian Government at the time decided to make English the country's second language. [25] Russian became the major language taught in schools after the Communists took control over the country. After the Soviet-Albanian Split in the 1960s, English came to compete with Russian. [21] A 2006 book by Mimoza Rista-Dema, a Ph.D. in Linguistics at Indiana University, describes the teaching of English during the communist era:

Although English was taught at schools, it was considered the language of Western imperialism and as a result, elements of its culture and civilization were offered to English learners selectively. [26]

Other

French lycées in Korçë and Gjirokastër operated during the communist era, because long-time leader of Communist Albania, Enver Hoxha studied in the University of Montpellier in France and upon his rise to power allowed their activity. Albania is a member of la Francophonie. Most French-speakers in Albania can be found in these two towns and surrounding areas, but also elsewhere in the country. [16] According to La Francophonie, Albania is home to 300,000 French speakers.

Russian began to be taught in schools and universities in the 1950s, when it was lingua franca of the Eastern Bloc countries. [21] It continued until the Soviet–Albanian split in early 1961. Many who learnt in at the time, have forgotten most of it due to lack of usage. [16]

After the ideological controversies with the USSR, Albania and China became closer. A number of Albanians studied in China and learnt Chinese there. After the collapse of communism in Albania in 1991, many young Albanians also traveled to China for education and learned the language. [16]

Other European languages are also present in Albania and spoken by Albanians. This is primarily due to the large Albanian diaspora that exists in Europe as well as strong emphasis on foreign languages in education.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albanians</span> Ethnic group native to Southern Europe

The Albanians are an ethnic group native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, culture, history and language. They primarily live in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia as well as in Croatia, Greece, Italy and Turkey. They also constitute a large diaspora with several communities established across Europe, the Americas and Oceania.

Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family. Out of a total European population of 744 million as of 2018, some 94% are native speakers of an Indo-European language. Within Indo-European, the three largest phyla in Europe are Romance, Germanic, and Slavic; they have more than 200 million speakers each and together account for close to 90% of Europeans. Smaller phyla of Indo-European found in Europe include Hellenic, Baltic, Albanian, Celtic, and Armenian ; Indo-Aryan, though a large subfamily of Indo-European, has a relatively small number of speakers in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demographics of Albania</span> Demographics of a country

Demographic features of the population of Albania include population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects. The demography of the Albania is monitored by the Institute of Statistics of Albania. The institute has performed demographic censuses since the 1920s. The latest census in Albania was performed in April 2011, and has been deemed as unreliable both within and outside Albania.

Arvanitika, also known as Arvanitic, is the variety of Albanian traditionally spoken by the Arvanites, a population group in Greece. Arvanitika was brought to southern Greece during the late Middle Ages by Albanian settlers who moved south from their homeland in present-day Albania in several waves. Arvanitika is today endangered, as its speakers have been shifting to the use of Greek and most younger members of the community no longer speak it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aromanians</span> Ethnic group native to the Balkans

The Aromanians are an ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgaria, northern and central Greece and North Macedonia, and can currently be found in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgaria, south-western and eastern North Macedonia, northern and central Greece, southern Serbia and south-eastern Romania. An Aromanian diaspora living outside these places also exists. The Aromanians are known by several other names, such as "Vlachs" or "Macedo-Romanians".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gheg Albanian</span> One of two major varieties of the Albanian language

Gheg is one of the two major varieties of Albanian, the other being Tosk. The geographic dividing line between the two varieties is the Shkumbin River, which winds its way through central Albania. Gheg is spoken in northern and central Albania, Kosovo, northwestern North Macedonia, southeastern Montenegro and southern Serbia by the Albanian dialectal subgroup known as Ghegs.

Minorities in Greece are small in size compared to Balkan regional standards, and the country is largely ethnically homogeneous. This is mainly due to the population exchanges between Greece and neighboring Turkey and Bulgaria, which removed most Muslims and those Christian Slavs who did not identify as Greeks from Greek territory. The treaty also provided for the resettlement of ethnic Greeks from those countries, later to be followed by refugees. There is no official information for the size of the ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities because asking the population questions pertaining to the topic have been abolished since 1951.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Greece</span>

The official language of Greece is Greek, spoken by 99% of the population. In addition, a number of non-official, minority languages and some Greek dialects are spoken as well. The most common foreign languages learned by Greeks are English, German, French and Italian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Struga Municipality</span> Municipality of North Macedonia

Municipality of Struga is a municipality in western North Macedonia. Struga is also the name of the town where the municipal seat is found. Struga Municipality is part of the Southwestern Statistical Region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of North Macedonia</span> Languages spoken in North Macedonia

The official language of North Macedonia is Macedonian, while Albanian has co-official status. Macedonian is spoken by roughly two-thirds of the population natively, and as a second language by much of the rest of the population. Albanian is the largest minority language. There are a further five national minority languages: Turkish, Romani, Serbian, Bosnian, and Aromanian. The Macedonian Sign Language is the country's official sign language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geographical distribution of Macedonian speakers</span>

The geographical distribution of speakers of Macedonian refers to the total number of native speakers of Macedonian, an East South Slavic language that serves as the official language of North Macedonia. Estimates of the number of native and second language speakers of Macedonian varies; the number of native speakers in the country ranges from 1,344,815 according to the 2002 census in North Macedonia to 1,476,500 per linguistic database Ethnologue in 2016. Estimates of the total number of speakers in the world include 3.5 million people. Macedonian is studied and spoken as a second language by all ethnic minorities in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albanian language</span> Indo-European language

Albanian is an Indo-European language and an independent branch of that language family. It is the descendant of a Paleo-Balkan language. Albanian is the official language of Albania and Kosovo, and a co-official language in North Macedonia and Montenegro, as well as a recognized minority language of Italy, Croatia, Romania and Serbia. It is also spoken in Greece and by the Albanian diaspora, which is generally concentrated in the Americas, Europe and Oceania. With perhaps as many as 7.5 million speakers, it comprises an independent branch within the Indo-European languages and is not closely related to any other modern language.

The Greeks of Albania are ethnic Greeks who live in or originate from areas within modern Albania. After ethnic Albanians, they form the second largest ethnic group in the country. They are mostly concentrated in the south of the country, in the areas of the northern part of the historical region of Epirus, in parts of Vlorë County, Gjirokastër, Korçë and Berat County. The area is also known as Northern Epirus. Consequently, the Greeks hailing specifically from Southern Albania are also known as Northern Epirotes. The Greeks who live in the "minority zones" of Albania are officially recognised by the Albanian government as the Greek National Minority of Albania.

Albanians in Greece are people of Albanian ethnicity or ancestry who live in or originate from areas within modern Greece. They are divided into distinct communities as a result of different waves of migration. Albanians first migrated into Greece during the late 13th century. The descendants of populations of Albanian origin who settled in Greece during the Middle Ages are the Arvanites, who have been fully assimilated into the Greek nation and self-identify as Greeks. Today, they still maintain their distinct subdialect of Tosk Albanian, known as Arvanitika, although it is endangered as the younger generations no longer speak it due to language attrition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plikati</span> Place in Greece

Plikati is a village in the municipal unit of Mastorochoria, Ioannina regional unit, Greece. It is one of the northernmost villages in Epirus. In 2011 its population was 70. The village is situated at the foot of the Grammos mountains, at 1,240 m elevation, close to the Albanian border. Plikati is 3 km north of Gorgopotamos, 8 km west of Aetomilitsa, 9 km southeast of Ersekë (Albania) and 28 km north of Konitsa. Plikati has traditionally been populated by an Arvanite population and it is the only village today in Konitsa municipality where Albanian is still spoken. An Aromanian minority is also present in the village.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cham Albanian dialect</span> Dialect of the Albanian language

The Cham Albanian dialect, also called Cham Tosk or Arvanitika, is the dialect of the Albanian language spoken by the Cham Albanians, an ethnic Albanian minority in the Epirus region of northwestern Greece and in Konispol, southern Albania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Bulgaria</span> Overview of the languages of Bulgaria

The official language of Bulgaria is Bulgarian, which is spoken natively by 85% of the country's population. Other major languages are Turkish (9.1%), and Romani (4.2%). There are smaller numbers of speakers of Armenian, Aromanian, Romanian, Crimean Tatar, Gagauz and Balkan Gagauz, Macedonian and English. Bulgarian Sign Language has an estimated 37,000 signers.

The Albanians and their country Albania (Shqipëria) have been identified by many ethnonyms. The native endonym is Shqiptar. The name "Albanians" Latin: Albanenses/Arbanenses) was used in medieval Greek and Latin documents that gradually entered European languages from which other similar derivative names emerged. Linguists believe that the alb part in the root word originates from an Indo-European term for a type of mountainous topography, meaning "hill, mountain", also present in Alps. Through the root word alban and its rhotacized equivalents arban, albar, and arbar, the term in Albanian became rendered as Arbëreshë for the people and Arbëria for the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aromanians in Albania</span> Romance-speaking ethnic minority in Albania

The Aromanians in Albania are an officially recognised ethnic minority in Albania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albanian–Romanian linguistic relationship</span> Study of the similarities of the Albanian and Romanian languages

The Albanian–Romanian linguistic relationship is a field of the research of the ethnogenesis of both peoples. The common phonological, morphological and syntactical features of the two languages have been studied for more than a century. Both languages are part of the Balkan sprachbund but there are certain elements shared only by Albanian and Romanian and its close relatives descended from Common Romanian. Aside from Latin, and from shared Greek, Slavic and Turkish elements, other characteristics and words are attributed to the Paleo-Balkan linguistic base: Illyrian, Thracian, Dacian and/or Thraco-Illyrian, Daco-Thracian. Similarities between Romanian and Albanian are not limited to their common Balkan features and the assumed substrate words: the two languages share calques and proverbs, and display analogous phonetic changes.

References

  1. ↑ "Foreign language skills statistics". Eurostat Statistics Explained. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
  2. ↑ "Constitution of the Republic of Albania" (PDF). Republic of Albania Council of Ministers. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 August 2012. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
  3. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-01-12. Retrieved 2012-06-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ↑ Baker, Colin; Jones, Sylvia Prys (1998). Encyclopedia of bilingualism and bilingual education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. p. 412. ISBN   9781853593628.
  5. ↑ Dana, Leo Paul (2001). Economies of the Eastern Mediterranean region : economic miracles in the making. Singapore [u.a.]: World Scientific. p. 47. ISBN   9789810244743.
  6. ↑ Appendix A. History & Diatopy of Greek. The story of pu: The grammaticalisation in space and time of a Modern Greek complementiser. December 1998. University of Melbourne.Nick Nicholas.
  7. ↑ Encyclopedia of the stateless nations: ethnic and national groups around the world. James Minahan. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002. ISBN   0-313-32384-4.
  8. ↑ Contested Spaces and Negotiated Identities in Dhermi/Drimades of Himare/Himara area, Southern Albania. Archived 2011-06-10 at the Wayback Machine Nataša Gregorič Bon. Nova Gorica 2008.
  9. ↑ According to INTEREG - quoted by Eurominority Archived 2006-07-03 at the Wayback Machine : Aromanians in Albania Archived 2014-11-22 at the Portuguese Web Archive, Albania's Aromanians; Reemerging into History
  10. ↑ Arno Tanner. The forgotten minorities of Eastern Europe: the history and today of selected ethnic groups in five countries. East-West Books, 2004 ISBN   978-952-91-6808-8, p. 218: "In Albania, Vlachs are estimated to number as many as 200,000"
  11. ↑ Schwandner-Sievers, Stephanie. "The Albanian Aromanians´ Awakening: Identity Politics and Conflicts in Post-Communist Albania" (PDF). European Centre for Minority Issues. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 January 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
  12. ↑ "Local self-government and decentralization: case of Albania. History, reformes and challenges" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
  13. ↑ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. "World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Albania : Macedonians". Unhcr.org. Retrieved 2013-07-26.
  14. ↑ "Results of the 2011 local elections of Albania" (PDF). Central Elections Commission of Albania. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 April 2018. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
  15. ↑ Hemming, Andreas (2010). Albania: family, society and culture in the 20th century. Münster: LIT. p. 132. ISBN   9783643501448.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Gloyer, Gillian (2008). Albania: the Bradt travel guide (3rd ed.). Chalfont St. Peter: Bradt Travel Guides. p. 44. ISBN   9781841622460.
  17. 1 2 Hemming, Andreas (2010). Albania: family, society and culture in the 20th century. Münster: LIT. p. 183. ISBN   9783643501448.
  18. ↑ "Press release of the Adult Education Survey" (PDF). Albanian Institute of Statistics. 10 May 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
  19. ↑ Pardo-de-Santayana, Manuel; Pieroni, Andrea; Puri, Rajindra K. (2010). Ethnobotany in the new Europe : people, health, and wild plant resources (1. publ. ed.). New York: Berghahn Books. p. 29. ISBN   9781845454562.
  20. ↑ McAdam, Marika; Jayne d' Arcy; Chris Deliso; Peter Dragicevic (2009). Western Balkans (2nd ed.). Footscray, Vic.: Lonely Planet. p. 96. ISBN   9781741047295.
  21. 1 2 3 4 Rista-Dema 2006, p. 14.
  22. ↑ Vorhees, Mara (2009). Eastern Europe (10th ed.). Footscray, Vic.: Lonely Planet. p.  43. ISBN   9781741048544.
  23. ↑ IBP USA Staff, International Business Publications, USA (2008). Albania Company Laws and Regulations Handbook. Int'l Business Publications. p. 228. ISBN   9781433069338.{{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  24. ↑ Rista-Dema 2006, p. 16.
  25. ↑ Rista-Dema 2006, p. 12.
  26. ↑ Rista-Dema 2006, p. 15.
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