Language/Tosk-albanian/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation
Si jeni, Albanian Learners? 😃
➡ In today's lesson you will learn how to write and pronounce the albanian alphabet.
Happy learning!
The modern orthography of Albanian, which will be used here, was adopted in 1908, at the congress of Monastir. It should be noted, however, that older linguistic books, such as Pokorny’s etymological dictionary (IEW), still use the antiquated transcription adapted by Gustav Meyer in the nineteenth century. Before that, Albanian used to be written in several alphabets, including Ottoman form of Arabic script and the so-called Elbasan or Todhri alphabet, which had developed from the cursive Greek alphabet.
Vowels
a, e, i, o, u have more or less the Latin values (e is slightly more open than its Latin equivalent). denotes a high front rounded vowel (German ü), and ë is a schwalike reduced vowel similar to French “e muet”. Final ë is not pronounced in Gheg dialects, which also have long and nasal vowels not reflected in writing, e.g. është ‘is’ is pronounced as [a͂št] in Shkodër and [o͂št] in Kosovo.
Consonants
There is little to be said about p, t, k, b, d, g, s, m, n, v, z. Stops are pronounced without aspiration, like in Romance. q and gj are palatal stops, like Sanskrit c and j.th and dh are voiceless and voiced interdental fricatives, respectively. C stands for the affricate /ts/, and for /dz>, while ç is the voiceless affricate /tś/, and xh is its voiced counterpart /dź/.sh is /š/, and zh is /ž/, while h is a laryngeal fricative like English h. nj is palatalized n (/n͂/), and j is a glide like English y. There are two different r-sounds, a flap r, and a trill rr. Similarly, there are two l-sounds, an alveodental sound represented as ll and a regular l.
Alphabet and IPA pronunciation
| Letter | A
a |
B
b |
C
c |
Ç
ç |
D
d |
Dh
dh |
E
e |
Ë
ë |
F
f |
G
g |
Gj
gj |
H
h |
I
i |
J
j |
K
k |
L
l |
Ll
ll |
M
m |
N
n |
Nj
nj |
O
o |
P
p |
Q
q |
R
r |
Rr
rr |
S
s |
Sh
sh |
T
t |
Th
th |
U
u |
V
v |
X
x |
Xh
xh |
Y
y |
Z
z |
Zh
zh |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | a | bë | bë | çë | dë | dhë | e | ë | fë | gë | gjë | hë | i | jë | kë | lë | llë | më | në | një | o | pë | që | rë | rrë | së | shë | të | thë | u | vë | xë | xhë | y | zë | zhë |
| IPA | a | b | t͡s | t͡ʃ | d | ð | e | ə | f | ɡ | ɟ | h | i | j | k | l | ɫ | m | n | ɲ | o | p | c | ɾ | r | s | ʃ | t | θ | u | v | d͡z | d͡ʒ | y | z | ʒ |