Albanian

About Albanian

Albanian (Shqip) is the national and official language of Albania. It is an Indo-European language, forming its own isolated branch within the Indo-European language family. Thus it is not related closely to any other Indo-European language. It is an official language of Kosovo and spoken by the majority of the population as a native tongue. Albanian also enjoys co-official status in North Macedonia. The Albanian-speaking area spans across the Republic of Albania, the Preševo Valley of Serbia, and most of Kosovo, southern Montenegro, and a part of western North Macedonia.

Albanian has two main dialects, Gheg and Tosk, or the northern and southern dialects. The official standard is based on the Tosk dialect since the 1940s (both in Albania and in Kosovo, though the latter completely falls within the borders of the northern dialect), which is reported to be a "softer" version of the language by native speakers. The two dialects are mutually intelligible.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.