Albanian dialects

The Albanian language is composed of many dialects, divided into two major groups: Gheg and Tosk. The Shkumbin river is roughly the geographical dividing line, with Gheg spoken north of the Shkumbin and Tosk south of it.

Historical considerations

The characteristics of the Albanian dialects Tosk and Gheg, in the treatment of the native and loanwords from other languages, have led to the conclusion that the dialectal split preceded the Slavic migration to the Balkans.

According to the view of Demiraj, during the process of dialect split Albanian populations were roughly in their present location, while Eric Hamp notes that "it must be relatively old, that is, dating back into the post-Roman first millennium. As a guess, it seems possible that this isogloss reflects a spread of the speech area, after the settlement of the Albanians in roughly their present location, so that the speech area straddled the Jireček Line".

Gheg dialects

Gheg is divided into four sub-dialects: Northwest Gheg, Northeast Gheg, Central Gheg, and Southern Gheg. Northwest Gheg is spoken throughout Montenegro, northwestern Kosovo (west of Pejë), Lezhë, northwestern Mirditë, southwestern Tropojë, western Gusinje, western Pukë, and Shkodër. Northeast Gheg is spoken throughout most of Kosovo, Preshevë, Has, northeastern Mirditë, eastern parts of villages of Shalë commune of Shkodër, eastern parts of villages of other communes of Shkodër bordered with Tropojë, eastern Pukë, eastern Gjakovë, eastern Gusinje, Kukës, Tropojë, and northern Tetovë. Central Gheg is spoken in Debar, Gostivar, Krujë, northern Durrës, northern Tirana, Peshkopi, southern Lezhë, southern Mirditë, Mat, Bulqizë, eastern Strugë, Kumanovo, and southern Tetovë. Southern Gheg is spoken in Durrës, northern Elbasan, northern Pogradec, Librazhd, northern Peqin, southern Bulqizë, Kavajë, Rrogozhinë, northwest Strugë, and Tirana. One fairly divergent dialect is the Upper Reka dialect, which is however classified as Central Gheg. There is also a diaspora dialect in Croatia, the Arbanasi dialect.

Gheg features

*No rhotacism: Proto-Albanian ''*-n-'' remains ''-n-'' (e.g. ''râna'' "sand").
*Proto-Albanian ''*ō'' becomes ''vo''.
*Nasal vowels: Gheg retains the nasal vowels of late Proto-Albanian and the late Proto-Albanian ''*â'' plus a nasal remains ''â'' (e.g. ''nândë'' "nine"). Although, the quality of the vowel varies by dialect, , , , etc. Some Northeast and Northwest Gheg dialects preserve the nasal in words such as "five" while other Gheg dialects do not, "five".
*Monophthongization: Occurs in some dialects of Shkodër in a few words, e.g. ''voe'' "egg" and ''hae'' "food".
*Phonological vowel length: There is often phonological vowel length in most Gheg dialects. Some dialects of Shkodër have a three length distinction in vowels, for example, short: "yoke", long: "pen", and extra-long: "yokes".
*a-vowel: In some dialects occurring in some certain words ''a'' may become a diphthong (e.g. for ''ballë'' "forehead") or become (e.g. for ''larg'' "far").
*ë-vowel: Final -ë drops and often lengthens the preceding vowel.
*i-vowel: The ''i'' vowel in the word ''dhi'' (goat) can be realized as various vowels in the Central Gheg dialects: (Krujë), (Mountainous Krujë), or (Mat), as well as or in other regions.
*o-vowel: The ''o'' derounds to in some words in some dialects (e.g. for ''sot'' "today" in Krujë and among some Muslim speakers in Shkodër).
*u-vowel: The ''u'' vowel in different dialects occurring some words may vary, for example ''rrush'' "grape" may be , , , , or .
*y-vowel: The ''y'' vowel can remain as ''y'' (e.g. ''dy'' "two" in much of the Gheg speaking areas), derounded to ''i'' (e.g. "two" in Debar), or becomes more open and less rounded to (e.g. "two" in Mat and Mountainous Krujë). In other words in Central Gheg, the ''y'' vowel can become as in for ''sy'' "eye" (Mat and Krujë).
*bj/pj: These may yield ''bgj'' or ''pq'' in some dialects (e.g. ''pqeshkë'' for ''pjeshkë'' "peach" in Negotin).
*bl/pl/fl: These may become bj/pj/fj or even bgj/pq in some dialects (e.g. ''pjak'' for ''plak'' "old" in Toplica or for ''plak'' "old" in Negotin).
*dh and ll: These sounds may interchange in some words in some dialects, especially in the dialects of Kavajë, Tirana, and Durrës where ll completely replaces dh.
*h: This may drop in any position in some dialects.
*mb/nd: Consonant clusters such as ''nd'' vary greatly by sub-dialect: ''nder'' "honor" can realized as , , , , , or .
*q/gj: In the Gheg dialects, ''q'' and ''gj'' may remain palatal stops and , change to postalveolar affricates and (and thus merging with Albanian ''ç'' and ''xh''), change to alveolo-palatal affricates and , or even change to alveolo-palatal fricatives and .
*tj/dj: These may become palatal stops and in some dialects.

Malsia Albanian

The Northwestern Gheg subdialect encompasses three main Albanian ethnographic regions: Malësia e Madhe, Shkodër and Lezhë. Within the Northwestern Gheg, the area of Malësia e Madhe shows different phonological, syntactic, and lexical patterns than the areas of Shkodër and Lezhë. For this reason, Malsia e Madhe Albanian can be considered a distinct variety of Northwestern Gheg. The different features of this variety can be traced to the historical and geographic isolation of the mountainous region of Malësia e Madhe (Albanian for 'Great Highlands').

The early isolated Malsia Albanian has preserved archaic features of Proto-Albanian and Proto-Indo-European in comparison to other Gheg varieties and to Tosk, such as the word-initial voiceless and voiced stops. Whereas Tosk Albanian has homorganic nasal-stop clusters, having produced a shift from the proto form that featured a word-initial stop to a nasal-stop cluster, which was achieved by placing a prefix ''en-'' (< PAlb preposition 'in'). Gheg Albanian is in a transitional position, featuring nasals that resulted from reduced nasal-stop clusters.

Examples of the formation of nasal-stop clusters by placing the prefix with unstressed word-initial vowel are: Tosk 'to fill', from PAlb (vs. Malsia ); Tosk 'where, from where', from PAlb (vs. Malsia ); Tosk 'to thrust, put on point', from PAlb (vs. Malsia ); Tosk 'to stretch', from PAlb (vs. Malsia ).

The PAlb preposition 'in' has been preserved solely in the Malsia Albanian dialect, whereas in the other Gheg varieties and in Tosk it has been reanalyzed as a prefix attached to other lexical terms, no longer existing as a preposition.

Transitional dialects

The transitional dialects are spoken in southern Elbasan so-called ''Greater Elbasan'' (Cërrik, Dumre, Dushk, Papër, Polis, Qafe, Shpat, Sulovë, Thanë), southern Peqin, northwestern Gramsh, northern Kuçovë, northern Berat, extreme southwestern Kavajë, northern and central Lushnjë and southern Librazhd (Bërzeshtë, Rrajcë), and Flazian-Falazdim-whish spoken in north of Albania.

Transitional features

*Rhotacism: Proto-Albanian *-n- becomes -r- (e.g. Gheg râna < rêra, rëra "sand").
*Proto-Albanian *ō becomes ''vo'' in the western sub-dialects or ''va'' in the central and eastern sub-dialects.
*Nasal vowels: In some sub-dialects of Transitional, some nasal vowels denasalize (e.g. rora "sand" in Sulovë) while in other words the nasals are retained: ''sŷ'' "eye" (Dumre, Shpat, Sulovë).
*ô-vowel: Some sub-dialects have ''ô'' for ''â'' in some words (e.g. ''ôma'' "taste" in Sulovë).
*Mb/Nd: Clusters such as ''mb'' become ''m'' in some dialects (e.g. ''kôma'' for standard ''këmba'' "leg").

Tosk dialects

Tosk is divided into five sub-dialects: Northern Tosk, Labërisht, Çam, Arvanitika, and Arbëresh. Northern Tosk is spoken in Berat, Fier, Skrapar, southern Kuçovë, southern Lushnjë, extreme southeastern Elbasan, most of Gramsh, Kolonjë, northern Mallakastër, northern Vlorë, Korçë, Ohër, Devoll, Përmet, east of the Vjosë river of Tepelenë, southern Struga (western shore of Lake Ohër), Pogradec, Prespa and northern Vlorë. Lab (or ''Labërisht'') is spoken in southern Vlorë, Dukat, Himarë, southern Mallakastër, Delvinë, southern Çepan of Skrapar, eastern and southern Kolonjë, eastern and southern Leskovik, western and southern Përmet, west of the Vjosë river of Tepelenë, Gjirokastër and Sarandë. Çam is spoken in southern Sarandë (Konispol, Ksamil, Markat, Xarrë) and in parts of northern Greece. Tosk dialects are spoken by most members of the large Albanian immigrant communities of Egypt, Turkey, and Ukraine. Çamërisht is spoken in North-western Greece, while Arvanitika is spoken by the Arvanites in southern Greece, mainly Peloponnese, Attica, Euboea, and the adjacent islands. Arbëresh is spoken by the Arbëreshë, descendants of 15th and 16th century migrants who settled in southeastern Italy, in small communities in the regions of Sicily, Calabria, Basilicata, Campania, Molise, Abruzzi, and Apulia.

Tosk features

*Rhotacism: Proto-Albanian ''*-n-'' becomes ''-r-'' (e.g. ''rëra'' "sand")
*Proto-Albanian ''*ō'' becomes ''va''.
*Nasal vowels: There is a lack of nasal vowels in Tosk (e.g. ''sy'' "eye") and Late Proto-Albanian ''*â'' plus a nasal becomes ''ë'' (e.g. ''nëntë'' "nine"). However, nasal vowels have been reported in the Lab dialects of Himarë and Kurvelesh and separately in the Lab dialect of Borsh..
*e-vowel: The ''e'' becomes ''ë'' in some dialects in some words ''qën'' for ''qen'' "dog" in Vjosë.
*ë-vowel: The ''ë'' may have several pronunciations depending on dialect: ''mëz'' "foal" is in Vuno) while ''ë'' is more backed in Labërisht. Final -ë drops in many Tosk dialects and lengthens the preceding vowel.
*y-vowel: The ''y'' vowel often derounds to ''i'' in the southern dialects Labërisht, Çam, Arvanitika and Arbëresh (e.g. ''dy'' "two" becomes ''di'').
*Dh and Ll: These sounds may interchange in some words in some dialects.
*H: This may drop in any position in some dialects.
*Gl/Kl: Some dialects such as Çam, Arberësh, and Arvanitika retain archaic ''kl'' and ''gl'' in place of ''q'' and ''gj'', to which they have shifted in other places (e.g. ''gjuhë'' "tongue" is ''gluhë'' in Çam, ''gluhë'' in Arberësh, and ''gljuhë'' in Arvanitika; "klumësh" for "qumësht" "milk" in Arbëresh).
*Rr: ''Rr'' becomes ''r'' in some dialects.

Other dialects

* Arbëresh dialect, spoken in parts of Southern Italy.
* Arvanitika dialect, spoken in part of Greece

Extinct dialects

* Istrian Albanian, spoken in parts of Istria until the late 19th century.

Comparison

Notes

References

* Voice recordings in different cities: https://web.archive.org/web/20120128173513/http://www.albanianlanguage.net/en/dialects4.html

Bibliography

*
*Byron, J. L. ''Selection among Alternates in Language Standardization: The Case of Albanian''. The Hague: Mouton, 1976.
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*Domi, Mahir et al. ''Dialektologjia shqiptare''. 5 vols. Tirana, 1971-1987.
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*Gjinari, Jorgji. ''Dialektologjia shqiptare''. Pristina: Universiteti, 1970.
*Gjinari, Jorgji, Bahri Beci, Gjovalin Shkurtaj, & Xheladin Gosturani. ''Atlasi dialektologjik i gjuhës shqipe'', vol. 1. Naples: Università degli Studi di Napoli L’Orientali, 2007.
*
* Lloshi, Xhevat. “Substandard Albanian and Its Relation to Standard Albanian”, in ''Sprachlicher Standard und Substandard in Südosteuropa und Osteuropa: Beiträge zum Symposium vom 12.-16. Oktober 1992 in Berlin''. Edited by Norbert Reiter, Uwe Hinrichs & Jirina van Leeuwen-Turnovcova. Berlin: Otto Harrassowitz, 1994, pp. 184–194.
*Lowman, G. S. "The Phonetics of Albanian", ''Language'', vol. 8, no. 4 (Dec., 1932);271–293.
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*Panov, M. and Sidanivoski, J. ''Gostivarskiot kraj''. Gostivar: Sobranie na opštinata, 1970.
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* Vehbiu, Ardian. “Standard Albanian and the Gheg Renaissance: A Sociolinguistic Perspective”, ''International Journal of Albanian Studies'' 1 (1997): 1–14.

External links

Robert Elsie's Recordings in many Albanian dialects

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Languages of Albania
Albanian