There is no known language of the present or the past related to Albanian.
Some linguists consider it the descendant of Illyrian but that is yet to be proven due to the scarce knowledge of Illyrian.
Others connect it to Dacian and Thracian and some classify it under an Illyrian-Thracian branch.
It is spoken mainly in Albania, Kosovo,North Macedonia, neighbouring countries and around the world by about 8 million people.
Albanian is in fact a group of sister dialects the most important of them Tosk and Gheg.
There differences between them are in the vocabulary,grammar and phonology.
Gheg,for example, distinguishes between long and short vowels. It also has nasal vowels not present in Tosk.
Gheg âsht Tosk është - is
the diacritic above the â indicates a nasal vowel.
Other dialects are Cham, Arberesh and Arvanitic. The two latter dialects retain archaic characteristics.
Albanian dialects |
Albania is a small mountainous country on the Adriatic coast of the Balkans.