Albanian is an Indo-European language and is thus related to a certain degree to almost all other languages of Europe.

The Indo-European character of the language was first recognized in 1854 by the German linguist Franz Bopp (1791-1867). At the same time, Albanian has no close relatives, so it forms its own branch in the IndoEuropean. Although sometimes Albanian has been referred to as the "weird sister" for several words that do not correspond to IE cognates, it has retained many protoIndoEuropean features: for example, the demonstrative pronoun *ko is cognate to Albanian ky/kjo but not to English this or to Russian etot.

The origins of the general name Albanian, which traditionally referred to a restricted area in central Albania, and of the current official name Shqip or Shqip'ri, which may well be derived from a term meaning "pronounce clearly, intelligibly," are still disputed. The name Albanian has been found in records since the time of Ptolemy. In Calabrian Albanian the name is Arbresh, in Modern Greek Arvan'tis, and in Turkish Arnaut; the name must have been transmitted early through Greek speech.

The Albanian language (shqip) is spoken by about 6,400,000 people in the southwestern Balkans, primarily in the Republic of Albania and in the neighbouring countries which once formed part of the Yugoslav federation (Kosova, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia), west of a line from near Leskovac to Lake Ohri.

In Albania itself, the language is spoken by the entire population of 3,087,159 inhabitants (census of April 2001), including some bilingual ethnic minorities. In Kosova, where there are as yet no reliable population statistics, Albanian is spoken by almost the entire population of about two million individuals, including some bilingual minorities: Bosniaks, Turks, Croats and Roma. Ethnic Serbs in Kosova (now about five percent of the population) have traditionally refused to learn or speak Albanian, but attitudes may change once traditional hostilities and ethnic tensions subside.

The Republic of Macedonia is estimated to have at least half a million Albanian speakers, equaling about twenty-five percent of the total population of the republic, although there are no reliable statistics. The Albanian population is to be found in and around Skopje (Alb. Shkup), where it constitutes a substantial minority, Kumanova (Maced. Kumanovo) and, in particular, in western Macedonia from Tetova (Maced. Tetovo), Gostivar and Dibra (Maced. Debar) down to Struga, where it forms the majority.

A minority of about 50,000 Albanian speakers is also to be found in Montenegro, mostly along the Albanian border (Ulqin-Ulcinj, Tuz and Gucia/Gusinje). There are also at least 70,000 to 100,000 Albanian speakers scattered throughout southern Serbia, primarily in the Presheva Valley near the borders of Macedonia and Kosova.

To the south of Albania, in Greece, there are traditional settlements of amrian dialect speakers, in particular in Epirus. Despite border changes and deportations to Albania, the Albanian population here may be as high as 100,000, although they are highly assimilated. In central Greece, the Albanian language (Arbrisht or Arvanitika) languishes in about 320 villages, primarily those of Boeotia southern Euboea, Attica, Corinth and northern Andros. These speakers are the descendants of large-scale Albanian emigration to Greece during the late Middle Ages. No official statistics exist as to their numbers. This exceptionally archaic form of Albanian is dying out rapidly.

In southern Italy (Abruzzi, Molise, Basilicata, Puglia, and Calabria and Sicily), there is a small but well-established Albanian-speaking minority, the so-called Arbresh, or Italo-Albanians. These are the descendants of refugees who fled Albania after the death of Scanderbeg in 1468. As a linguistic group, the Arbresh now consist of about 90,000 speakers, most of whom live in the mountain villages of Cosenza in Calabria and in the vicinity of Palermo in Sicily. The Arbresh speak an archaic dialect of Albanian, which differs substantially from the Albanian now spoken in the Balkans, to the extent that communication is difficult if Arbresh speakers are not familiar with standard literary Albanian.

All of the Albanian dialects spoken in Italian and Greek enclaves are of the Tosk variety, and seem to be related most closely to the dialect of am ria in the extreme south of Albania. These dialects resulted from incompletely understood population movements of the 13th and 15th centuries. The Italian enclaves -nearly 50 scattered villages- probably were founded by emigrants from Turkish rule in Greece. A few isolated outlying dialects of south Tosk origin are spoken in Bulgaria and Turkish Thrace but are of unclear date. The language is still in use in Mandritsa, Bulgaria, at the border near Edirne, and in an offshoot of this village surviving in M ndres, near Kilk s in Greece, that dates from the Balkan Wars. A Tosk enclave near Melitopol in the Ukraine appears to be of moderately recent settlement from Bulgaria. The Albanian dialects of Istria, for which a text exists, and of Syrmia (Srem), for which there is none, have become extinct.

Albanian has been written with various alphabet since the 15th century. Originally the Tosk dialect was written with the Greek alphabet, while the Gheg dialect was written with the Latin alphabet. They have both also been written with the Turkish version of the Arabic alphabet. The Latin alphabet for Albanian was standardised in 1909, and a unified literary version of Albanian, based on the Tosk dialect, was established in 1972. Albanian has also been written with Elbasan and Beitha Kukju scripts, local inventions which appeared during the 18th and 19th centuries but were not widely used.

Elbasan script

Beitha Kukju script

Sample text (Lord s Prayer in Tosk) Ati yn q je n qiell, u shnjtroft emri yt. artht mbretria jote; u bft dshira jote, si n qiell, edhe mbi dhe. bukn ton t prditshme jepna neve sot; edhe falna fajet tona, sikundr edhe ne ua falim fajtorvet tan; edhe mos na shtjer n ngasje, po shptona nga i ligu; sepse jotja sht mbretria e fuqia e lavdia n jett t jetvet.

Sample text (Lord s Prayr in Gheg) Ati yn q je n qiell, shejtnue kjoft emni yt. ardht mbretnia jote; u baft vullnesa jote, si n qiell ashtu n dhe. Bukn ton t prditshme epna ne sot; e ndiejna ne fajet e mkatet tona, si i ndiejm na fajtort tan; e mos na len me ra n keq, por largona prej gjith s keq; sepse joteja sht rregjinija e fuqia e lafti n jett t jetvet

Albanian and other Indo-European languages

Albanian

muaj

ri

nn

motr

nat

hund

tre

zi

kuq

gjelbr

verdh

ujk

English

month

new

mother sister

night

nose

three

black

red

green

yellow

wolf

Lithuanian

m nesis naujas

motina

sesuo

naktis

nosis

trys

juodas

raudonas

alias

geltonas vilkas

() Serbo-Croatian m(j)esec nov mati sestra no nos tri crn crven zelen ut vuk

Ancient Greek m n nos m t r adelph nks rhs tres mlas eruthrs khl rs ksanths lkos

Armenian amis nor mayr k'uyr gi er k'it yerek' sev karmir kana de in gayl

Latin

m nsis

novus

m ter

soror

nox

nasus

tr s

ter, niger ruber

viridis

fl vus

lupus

Romanian

lun

nou

mam

sor

noapte

nas

trei

negru

ro u

verde

galben

lup

Irish

midhe

nuadh

mthair sir

oidhche srn

tr

dubh

dearg

glas

buidhe

faolch

Welsh

mis

newydd mam

chwaer

nos

trwyn

tri

du

coch

gwyrdd

melyn

blaidd

Persian

m h

nou

m dar

kh har

shab

bin

se

si h

sorkh

sabz

zard

gorg

Sanskrit

m sa

nava

m t

svas

nakti

nasa

tri

k la

rudhira

hari

p ta

v ka