Albanian alphabet
This article is about the alphabet of the Albanian language. See Albanian alphabet (Caucasian) for the other one.The modern
Albanian alphabet is based on the
Latin alphabet, and consists of 36 letters:
Note: The vowels are shown in bold.
Listen to the pronunciation of the letters (150
kB Ogg Vorbis file). See
Wikipedia:How to play Ogg files for help with Ogg Vorbis files.
The modern Latin-based Albanian alphabet was the result of long evolution. Before the creation of the unified Albanian alphabet, Albanian had been written in six different alphabets using various conventions:
* The
Greek alphabet was used to write
Tosk starting in about 1500 (Elsie, 1991). The printing press at
Moschopolis published several Albanian texts in Greek script during the 18th century. (Macrakis, 1996) The Greek-based modern
Arvanitic alphabet is now only used in Greece.
* The
Arabic alphabet in its
Ottoman Turkish form, favored by
Muslims.
* The Elbasan script (18th century) was a local script used in central Albania. (Omniglot)
* The Beitha Kukju script (1840) was another local script, named for its inventor. (Omniglot)
* The
Cyrillic alphabet (Christophorid"s, 1872).
* The
Latin alphabet, using various conventions:
**
Naum Veqilharxhi's
Evetor: in
1824, he wanted Albanians to have their own alphabet and not be influenced by Greek and Arabic ones. He formed a 33-letter Latin-based alphabet. This alphabet was mainly used in southern Albania.
** A
Catholic alphabet used by
Arbëreshë (
Italo-Albanians).
** The
Istanbul alphabet created by
Sami Frashëri, combining Latin and Greek. This became widely used as it was also adopted by the Istanbul Society for the Printing of Albanian Writings, which in
1879 printed
Alfabetare, the first Albanian
abecedarium.
**
Bashkimi, similar to
Istanbul, was developed by the Albanian literary society Bashkimi (The Union) in
Shkodër with the help of
Catholic clergy and
Franciscans that aimed to be simpler.
**
Agimi, developed by another literary society called
Agimi (The Dawn) and spearheaded by
Ndre Mjeda in
1901.
In November
1908, an alphabet Congress was held in
Monastir. It aimed to unify Albanians behind one alphabet; prominent delegates included
Midhat Frashëri,
Sotir Peçi,
Shahin Kolonja, and
Gjergj D. Kyrias. There was much debate and the contending alphabets were
Istanbul,
Bashkimi, and
Agimi. However, the Congress was unable to make a clear decision and opted for a compromise solution of using both the widely used
Istanbul one and a new Latin one.
During
1909 and
1910 there were movements by
Young Turks supporters to adopt an Arabic script alphabet as they considered the Latin script to be against religious law and
Islam. In
Korçë and
Gjirokastër, demonstrations took place favoring the Latin alphabet, whereas in
Elbasan a demonstration for the Arabic alphabet took place led by
Muslim clerics (hoxhas) that told Muslims they would be infidels if they used the Latin script.
In
1911, the
Young Turks dropped their opposition to the Latin script and finally the modified
Bashkimi alphabet that is still used today was adopted. Both
Ghegs in the northern Albania and
Tosks in the south adopted the alphabet though their respective dialects of Albanian differ somewhat.
* Van Christo, "The Long Struggle for the Albanian Alphabet", formerly available at [
1]; archived at [
2]. Christo in turn says "Much of the above material was excerpted or otherwise derived from Stavro Skendi's excellent book
The Albanian National Awakening: 1878-1912, Princeton University Press, 1967".
* Robert Elsie, "Albanian Literature in Greek Script: the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth-Century Orthodox Tradition in Albanian Writing",
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 15:20 (1991) [
3].
*
Omniglot on Albanian* Christophorid"s, Kōnstantinos,
Psalteri, kequem mbas ebra istese vietere skip nde gegeniste prei Konstantinit Kristoforidit, Constantinople, 1872.
* Macrakis, Stavros M., "Character codes for Greek: Problems and modern solutions" in Macrakis, 1996. Includes discussion of the Greek alphabet used for languages other than Greek. [
4]
*
Albanian language*
Alphabets derived from the Latin
