Language/Tosk-albanian/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation

Albanian Alphabet & Pronunciation

Si jeni, Albanian Learners? 😃 Welcome to our lesson on Tosk-albanian pronunciation, where we will explore the alphabet and pronunciation of this fascinating language. The modern orthography of Albanian, which we will be using in this lesson, was adopted in 1908 at the congress of Monastir. It's important to note 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 the modern orthography, Albanian used to be written in several alphabets, including the Ottoman form of Arabic script and the so-called Elbasan or Todhri alphabet, which had developed from the cursive Greek alphabet.

As you dive into the world of Tosk-albanian pronunciation, don't forget to also check out our lesson on Stress to further enhance your understanding of this unique language. Enjoy your journey into the rich and diverse world of Tosk-albanian!

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

Albanian Keyboard

Sources

• https://mudrac.ffzg.hr/~rmatasov/Albanian.pdf
• https://polyglotclub.com/keyboard.php?souscat_url=albanian
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6iQXDBvIW8
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-bzts3FUz4

Other Lessons

• Stress
• Syllables and word stress