An Indo-European isolate forming its own branch — Albania's official language, also widely spoken in Kosovo and parts of North Macedonia and Montenegro.
Where it’s spoken
Albanian (Shqip) is the official language of Albania and Kosovo, and a co-official language of North Macedonia. Significant minority communities live in Montenegro, Serbia (the Preševo Valley), Italy (Arbëresh), Greece (Arvanitika), and Turkey. The Albanian diaspora in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the United States, and the UK numbers in the millions.
What it sounds like
Albanian forms its own independent branch of Indo-European, with no close relatives. It has two main dialects — Gheg in the north (including Kosovo) and Tosk in the south, the basis for the standard. It features 36 phonemes including aspirated rr/r contrast, retroflex consonants, and the distinct dh/th sounds.
How it’s written
Standard Albanian uses the Latin alphabet of 36 letters, including digraphs dh, gj, ll, nj, rr, sh, th, xh, and zh. The current orthography was standardized at the 1908 Manastir Congress, replacing earlier Greek, Cyrillic, and Arabic-script traditions.
History
Albanian first appears in writing in 1462. Its long obscurity and unique character lead linguists to debate its descent — most consider it the modern descendant of Illyrian, but other ancient Balkan languages have been proposed.
Find more languages by letter
Albanian starts with A and ends with N. Browse other languages along the same letter.
Languages that contain a letter from "Albanian":