One of Albania’s unique characteristics is its language. Albanian (gjuha shqipe) creates a separate branch of the Indo-European language family and Albanians are proud of this exclusivity.
However, this does not mean that Albanian is free from foreign influences. Thanks to its shared history and cultural proximity, it has adopted many words from Latin, Turkish, Greek and South Slavic languages.
Albanian is divided into two main dialects: Geg which is spoken mainly in in the north of the country and Kosovo (about two-thirds of all Albanian speakers overall) and Tosk spoken mainly in the south of the country.
Albanian uses Latin and has 36 letters. Two letters contain diacritics (ç, ë) and the alphabet also includes nine digraphs (dh, gj, ll, nj, rr, sh, th, xh, zh).
When travelling, keep in mind that Albanian has two forms for each noun – definite and indefinite – including for place names. For example, the indefinite form of the name of the capital is Tiranë, and the definite form is Tirana. Traffic signs are far from uniform in their approach to this linguistic phenomenon, and you will certainly encounter both versions on the roads or at bus stations.
In my guide, all the place names are in the indefinite form except for Tirana which is an internationally well-established toponym. The geographical names that include other descriptions such as rivers, lakes, mountains, and castles are written in definite form in feminine simply because the are more in use in English. Therefore: Vjosa Valley (not Vjosë Valley), Bovilla Lake (not Bovillë Lake) and Gjirokastra Castle (not Gjirokastër Castle).
Pronunciation
A – cut
B – broad
C – pizza
Ç – check
D – dog
Dh – that
E – get
Ë – the cat
F – fact
G – garage
Gj – endure
I – pick
J – year
K – kite
L – log
Ll – a double ‘l’ sound
M – math
Nj – union
O – pot or brought
P – pat
Q – mature
R – road
Rr – a double ‘r’ sound
S – soup
Sh – shadow
T – tin
Th – through
U – bush or noon
V – vote
X – kids
Xh – judge
Y – German ü
Z – zoo
Zh – pleasure
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