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Albanian language
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by some six million inhabitants of the western Balkan peninsula of south-eastern Europe. There are two principal dialects of limited mutual intelligibility: Tosk, spoken in southern and central Albania and among the Albanian minority of north-western Greece; and Gheg (or Geg), spoken in northern Albania and by the Albanians of Kosovo, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Montenegro. Albanian is thought to derive principally from the Illyrian languages spoken in the region two millennia ago, and forms part of no known wider sub-group within the Indo-European family.
Albanian is written in the Latin alphabet, with some idiosyncratic pronunciations:
- ë is a schwa
- ç is English ch
- x is dz
- xh is dj (Hoxha is pronounced "hodge-a")
- zh is je (si in vision)
- q is ky.
Albanians transliterate foreign words in their own way, even from the Latin alphabet; thus Josh McDowell[?] is transliterated Xhosh Mekdauëll.
See also Common phrases in different languages and Albanian proverbs.
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