Albanian Dictionaries

Dialects
There are two principal dialects of Albanian that are mutually unintelligible due to significant linguistic differences between the two. The Shkumbin River in Albania divides the two dialect areas.

• Tosk (toskėrishtja) is spoken by 3 million people south of the Shkumbin River. It is also spoken in Italy, Greece and in small communities of Albanian immigrants in Ukraine, Turkey, Egypt, and the United States (Ethnologue).

• Gheg (gegėrishtja) is spoken by 2.8 million people north of the Shkumbin River. It is also spoken in Serbia and Montenegro (including the province of Kosova) and in the Republic of Macedonia.

Dictionary of Albanian words and related Albanian Language resources

	Albanian World - History, orthography and grammar of the Albanian language, online lessons and Albanian-English conversations with pronunciation guide.
	The Albanian.com Language Page - Historical and grammatical information on the Albanian language.
	Euromosaic - Albanian - Sociolinguistic survey of the use of Albanian as a minority language within the European Union (in Greece and Italy). Collection of links. Bilingual site (English and French).

Related Popular Terms for searching to get more resources

albanian english dictionary english to albanian dictionary albanian online dictionary albanian dictonary albania dictionary dictionary albanian albanian dictionery albania english dictionary albanian english dictionary online		Albanian-English/English-Albanian Dictionary and Phras... Author: Ramazan Hysa; Buy New: $10.16
		English-Albanian Dictionary of Idioms Author: Ilo Stefanllari; Buy New: $15.56
		English Albanian Dictionary Author: Ilo Stefanllari;
		English - Albanian Dictionary Author: Pavli Qesku;
		English-Albanian Dictionary Author: Gasper Kici;
		Albanian-English and English Albanian Dictionary Author: Nelo Drizari; Buy New: $29.95
		English-Albanian Dictionary Author: Gasper, Etal. Kici;
		An English Albanian Dictionary Author: Stuart E. Mann;
		Albanian-English/English-Albanian Dictionary Author: Nelo Drizari;
		Fjalor Anglisht Shqip English Albanian Dictionary Author: Ilo Stefanllari;

Vocabulary
Albanian has borrowed a great number of words from its neighbors. Close contact with the Romans resulted in many Latin loanwords, e.g., mik "friend," from Latin amicus. After the arrival of Slavs in the Balkans, another source of borrowing were Slavic languages, especially Bulgarian. The rise of the Ottoman Empire also brought an influx of Turkish words into the language.

Below is a list of common phrases and words in Albanian Tosk.

Writing
The oldest surviving document in Albanian was written in 1462 in the Gheg dialect. The oldest known Albanian printed book was a missal written by a Catholic cleric in 1555. The first Albanian school is believed to have been opened by Franciscans in 1638. The first Latin-Albanian dictionary was written in 1635.

The modern Albanian alphabet is based on an extended Latin alphabet which was introduced in 1908. It consists of 36 letters some of which were adapted to represent Albanian sounds. Before that, Albanian was written using the Greek alphabet, the Cyrillic alphabet, and the Turkish version of the Arabic alphabet. The table below lists the letters of the Albanian alphabet and their approximate pronunciation in English.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------