Objet
The Albanian Language
An independent branch of the Indo-European family with no close living relative, written in a 36-letter Latin…
En clair
Albanian nouns have a form with 'the' built into them. That is why you see Vlorë and Vlora, Berat and Berati, Shkodër and Shkodra. Both are correct; one just means 'the' town.
Explication synthétique
Albanian nouns have a form with 'the' built into them. That is why you see Vlorë and Vlora, Berat and Berati, Shkodër and Shkodra. Both are correct; one just means 'the' town.
Definite and indefinite
Albanian marks definiteness with a suffix rather than a separate word. Vlorë is 'Vlorë'; Vlora is 'the Vlorë'. Both appear constantly, including on road signs, and neither is wrong.
This Atlas uses the indefinite form as the page title (Vlorë, Shkodër, Berat) and gives the Albanian definite form alongside it, because that is the form you will most often see locally.
Letters that are not what they look like
- ë — a soft, often barely voiced vowel; frequently silent at the end of a word.
- ç — 'ch' as in church.
- xh — 'j' as in jam.
- gj — a soft 'dy' sound, roughly as in 'due' in British English.
- q — a soft 'ty' sound; not a 'k'.
- dh — 'th' as in this. th — 'th' as in thin.
- rr — a strongly rolled r, distinct from single r.
- y — as in French 'tu' or German 'ü'.
Common elements in place names
- Mal / Malësi — mountain / highlands (Malësi e Madhe).
- Ujë / Uji — water (Uji i Ftohtë, 'the cold water').
- Syri — eye (Syri i Kaltër, 'the blue eye').
- Kepi — cape (Kepi i Rodonit).
- Liqeni — lake (Liqeni i Ohrit).
- Qafa — pass or col (Qafa e Thorës).
- Fushë — plain or field (Fushë-Krujë).
- Bregdeti — the coast.
Names you will see in two languages
Some places have long-established Greek names in the south (Himarë/Himara, Dhërmi/Drimades) and Italian forms inherited from the interwar period (Durrës/Durazzo, Vlorë/Valona). Older maps and books often use these.
Sujets connexes
Ce sont de vraies relations dans l'Atlas — des lieux proches de celui-ci et des sujets auxquels il appartient réellement. Rien ici n'est une recommandation générique.
Sujets associés
Objet
The Albanian Alphabet
Thirty-six letters agreed at the Congress of Monastir in 1908, replacing competing Arabic, Greek and Latin scripts.
Objet
Gheg and Tosk
The two dialect groups, divided by the Shkumbin river: Gheg to the north, Tosk to the south.
Sources
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