Albanian Language
Thesis Kosova, nr. 1, 2008
93
Albanian Language
Rrahman Paçarizi
*
Abstract
The Albanian Language is an Indo-European Language which
is considered by the majority of linguists to be the direct
successor of the ancient Illyrian. The origin place of the
Albanian Language is supposed to be the place where currently
the Albanians live and perhaps farther North. There is no doubt
at all as Dardania or the present Kosova is the place where the
Albanian or Proto Albanian Language has been spoken
continuously until these days. The Albanian Language has two
main dialects – the Northern dialect or the so called Gheg and
the Southern dialect or the so called Tosk which are also
subdivided into transitional dialects. The dialects differ mainly
by phonetic but there are also some slight dialectal differences.
Nevertheless, these dialects are mutually intelligible. The first
known document in Albanian is the “Baptism Formula”
recorded in 1462 by Pal Engjëlli (Paulus Angelus). The Albanian
Language has undergone two official standardizations. First in
1920 at the Education Congress of Lushnje it was decided that
the language of Elbasan meaning Northern Gheg to become
official Albanian Language whereas in 1972 at the Congress of
Albanian Orthography was definitely decided that the Tosk is
to become standardized.
Today, the Albanian Language is spoken by more than 7
million Albanians in Albania, Kosova, Western Macedonia and
parts of Southern Montenegro. The Arvanit dialects in Northern
Greece do not exist anymore but there are some other types of
Albanian which are spoken in Southern Italy more exactly in
Sicilia and Calabria in Zara- Dalmatia in Croatia in some
villages of Ukraine and in Mandrice of Bulgaria.
There are millions of Albanians from Kosovo and Macedonia
living in Turkey who emigrated there, during the Second
World War.
*
Prof. Ass.Dr. Rrahman Paçarizi, AAB University Prishtina, University of Pristina,
Republic of Kosova,
rrahman.pacarizi@universitetiaab.com
Rrahman Paçarizi
Thesis Kosova, nr. 1, 2008
94
Key words: Arbresh; Arbër; Arbëresh; Arvanite; Elbasanishte;
Peninsula of Balkan; Gegërishte; Gheg; Standard Language;
Albanian Language; Comparative Language; Indo-European
Language; Literary Commission of Shkoder; Education
Congress of Lushnje; Orthography Congress; Kosovo;
Montenegro; Macedonia, Proto Albanian; Sociolinguistic;
Albania; Tosk; Toskërishte.
The Indo-European of the Albanian Language
When Franz Bopp in the middle of the XIX century proved that
the Albanian Language is an Indo-European Language, there
were controversial opinions concerning the origin and place of
the Albanian. But Bob and later on Pedersen, Meyer, Jokl and
Hamp proved by using different methods of linguistic,
etymology of words of the present Albanian Language and
studies of old Albanian documents confirmed definitely that
the Albanian was one among the Indo-European Languages.
This is proved by the grammatical system of the Albanian and
by a series of changes of phonetic rules which underwent the
today’s Albanian and which prove a mutual genesis of these
words with those proved to be of Indo-European origin. The
contradictions concerning the Albanian could result from the
lack of written documents in Albanian.
Nevertheless, the Indo-European origin of the Albanian is no
longer a matter of discussion as it was proven just by its origin.
“Shortly after the establishment of the Historical and
Comparative Linguistics, mainly owing to Franz Bopp in the
last century, it was confirmed that the Albanian belongs to the
Indo-European language family”,
1
wrote Eqrem Çabej, an
Albanian linguist who established the Historic Linguistics later
followed by Selman Riza, Idriz Ajeti, Besim Bokshi, Shaban
Demiraj, Rexhep Ismajli etc.
In the meantime, Eric Hamp an American Balkan expert
wrote in an article “Encyclopedia Britannica” in 1974, “the
Albanian is an Indo-European Language which is spoken by 2
1
Eqrem Çabej, Studime gjuhësore V, Rilindja, Prishtinë, 1975.
Albanian Language
Thesis Kosova, nr. 1, 2008
95
million and 500 thousand inhabitants in the Adrian East Coast
of Albania as well as in Yugoslavia but above all in Kosovo and
Macedonia, in Northern Leskovac until the Lake of Ohrid”.
2
The details concerning the similarities of the Albanian with
other Indo-European Languages were studied by Bopp and
Meyer and further specifications were made later by Pedersen
and Jokl. But there were also many polemics at the end of XIX
century concerning the Albanian and the most known are those
between Meyer and Weigandt who denied the Indo-European
origin of the Albanian Language. The famous assertions “the
twelve theses of Weigandt”
3
concerning the origin of the
Albanian and the place of birth of this language were defeated
by Meyer, an Austrian linguist who studied the etymology of
the Albanian words but also by Pedersen and above all by
Hahn. But Meyer was also opposed by Pedersen in an article of
1917 for the journal “Morning Star” as Meyer said that the
majority of words of the Albanian dictionary were borrowed
and just 400 from 5140 words were originally Indo-European.
Pedersen was of the opinion that each language borrows words
from any other language but has also its own dictionary fund.
By opposing Meyer and any other linguist, the Dane Pedersen
says that first of all, let me say that the Albanian Language is a
specific one, the similarities it has with the Slavish or Greek one are
comparable to the similarities with the Dane or Persian Language.
4
By all means, it is true that the today’s Albanian has
influences from other languages especially from the
neighboring ones. However, it is quite naturally when taking
into consideration the Balkan history and its ethnic
configuration. On the other hand, it is quite clear that the
Albanian has adopted just little or some grammatical features
from other languages. The Albanian Language has used its own
grammatical and syntactic elements to form the language and
meet the needs of the society.
2
Eric P. Hamp, Studime krahasuese për shqipen, ASHAK, Prishtinë, 2007.
3
Balkan-Archiv III (1927) 27-251 (according to Çabej, op. cit.).
4
Prof Holger Pedersen, on “The Albanian language”, Ylli i Mëngjezit, (cited from: Holger
Pedersen, Studime për shqipen, ASHAK, Prishtinë, 2003).
Rrahman Paçarizi
Thesis Kosova, nr. 1, 2008
96
This or a part of this development of the language which
explains at the same time the Indo-European origin of the
Albanian but also some similarities with the Balkan languages
are explained more detailed by Besim Bokshi by means of his
long studies: The structure of verb order in Albanian (1971),
Position of articles in Balkan languages (1980) and The way of
building the nominative flexion in the Albanian Language (1984).
5
Nevertheless, the wrong assumptions concerning the
Albanian Language and loanwords from other languages were
rectified by Eric Hamp, Because of the superficial changes of the
language phonetics for 2000 years and because of loanwords from
neighboring cultures, the continuity of the Indo-European heritage of
the Albanian Language has been disregarded.
6
However, now as the Indo-European origin of the Albanian
is not considered of being in the serious linguistic circles, one
speaks and has also spoken in the past about possible relations
of the Albanian with other languages. Linguists like Bartoli and
Jokl hold the thesis of the affinity between the Albanian and
Baltic whereas Pedersen has stressed in his former articles the
affinity between the Albanian and the Armenian. Nevertheless
such assertions seemed not to consider the fact that certain
words or forms of the ancient Indo-European might be
stagnated during a certain period of time when because of the
sociolinguistic environment for example, there were no reason
to meet the needs of the language and have not been coped
with certain historic linguistic processes. Later, according to
Eric Hamp, Jokl has found similarities between the Albanian
and the Celtic whereas Weigandt said that there is a keen
relation between the Albanian and the Thracian. Other linguists
just assumed that the Albanian was the successor of the ancient
Illyrian and Hamp
7
considers these assertions to be serious.
Nowadays, the Albanian is proved to be the successor of the
ancient Illyrian which cannot be argued by documents but by
5
These Works were published many times.
6
Eric P. Hamp, Studime krahasuese për shqipen, ASHAK Prishtinë, 2007, f.103 (published
for the first times in Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., the Fifth Edition, Helen Hemingwej
Benton Publisher, 1974, p. 422-423.).
7
Ibid.
Albanian Language
Thesis Kosova, nr. 1, 2008
97
means of historic linguistics, archeology, the spreading of the
Illyrians which is similar to the today’s Albanian’s location just
by means of the Albanian Language as for example the case of
Dalmatia and the Illyrian tribe there, dalmatët or delmatët their
origin can be explained just by the Albanian.
The further argument of Hamp, supported by the Albanian
science, is that the Albanian does not show any special similarity
with another Indo-European Language; it is the only modern survived
one among its subgroup.
8
The name origin of the Albanians
The Albanians, Greeks and Germans may be the only nations
which call oneself with another name as are known by other
countries. Eqrem Çabej, an Albanian emblematic linguist starts
so his work about the national name of the Albanians.
9
According to him the Albanians belong to a small European
group of nations which have two national names, one for the
internal use and one which is known by the world.
The Albanians call themselves Shqiptar-ë, their country
Shqipëri and their language Gjuhë Shqipe, whereas by the others
– country Albania, Albanie, Albanien as a result the inhabitants
of this country are called Albanian, Albanais, Albaner etc., as well
as their language.
The Albanians called themselves Arbër / Arbën, or Arbëresh /
Arb(ë)nesh, their language Arbërishte, and their country Arbëri or
Arb(ë)ni, Çabej says that this national name must have been
used by the Albanians until a short time ago as many Albanians
out of the Balkans use the old nominations for the language,
country and their nationality. For example, the Albanians in
South Italia which emigrated there during the XV and XVI
century call themselves Arbëresh, their language Arbërishte and
their origin country Arbëri. Furthermore, the Albanians which
established a colony in Zara of Croatia, call their village
Arbnesh, even they emigrated there during the first part of the
8
Ibid.
9
Op. cit., Prishtinë, 1988.
Rrahman Paçarizi
Thesis Kosova, nr. 1, 2008
98
XVIII century from the Big Highlands in Northern Albanian
zones, nowadays under the government of Montenegro.
The Albanian documents written in the XVI and XVII
centuries, name the country also “Arbënë”, population Arbëresh,
Arbëruer, and the language Arbërisht.
10
All these facts prove that the national name which is used by
the Albanians for their country and language has a relative new
origin. But, despite the relative new origin it is not clear how
the nomination could change so far as well as the new
etymology of nomination, the Albanians adopted. The attempts
to describe the origin of the new national name of the Albanians
were non scientific ones. Çabej, denied in 1972
11
all
assumptions that there is a correlation between the word
Albanian and an eagle which was a symbol in the flag and logo
of Skanderbeg and which described almost the whole Albanian
history, but according to Çabej the word shqip(Albanian) and
the word shqipe an eagle are two different words and do not
have the same origin. He also denies that the new national
name derives from the word skippeto a Greek word which
means sniper, he denied also the assumptions that the
nomination of the Albanian Language derives from the Latin
excipio, as according to Çabej this word does not mean
comprehend but “exclusion”.
However, the moment of decision concerning the change of
the national name of the Albanians, the origin and meaning of
this name and also the fast spreading for the internal use of this
name, remain unclear matters for the historic linguistics,
sociology and sociolinguistics.
The place of the Albanian Language and Albanians
As true as many things considering the Albanian Language and
the Albanians were matter of many discussions and
contradictions, mostly because of political motives, the place of
10
Ibid. p. 69.
11
Eqrem Çabej,” Emrat nacionale të shqiptarëve”, në Shqipëria e re, 1/1972, viti XXVI,
Tiranë (cited from: Studime gjuhësore V, 1988).
Albanian Language
Thesis Kosova, nr. 1, 2008
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its origin and successor were also discussed many times. As
was noted by Çabej, the historians while not having enough
arguments to prove the locations of different communities and
movements of populations as well as the formation of the
respective languages, they left this matter to the linguists to
discover it by means of their mechanisms of historic linguistics.
With respect to the formation of the Albanian Language and
its origin, there have been many discussions concerning its
formation by some Albanian linguists and some scientific
groups which name various formation places. According to
Çabej, with regard to the linguistics history the Albanian is
placed somewhere between North and East as the phonetic and
grammatical developments lead to that direction. Because of the
affiliation of the satem and kentum group and the fact that the
mountains as Karpatet can be explained just by the Albanian, he
assigns the Albanian to the East whereas the words with e-i
rotations as vret-vrit are more likely to be Gothic and Latin.
A theory which led to many reactions and not just a scientific
debate but accelerated researches by some scientists to hold
their theses of Western and North - Western Balkans as the
forming place of the Albanian to disprove the twelve theses of
Weigandt in favor of their theses. The theses of Weigandt have
been refused by Jokl, Ribezzo, Cimochowski, Mihaescu and
Meillet. Çabej refused all theses of Weigandt who assumed that
the Albanian derives from the Thracian or Daco-Thracian and
was formed in the triangle between Nish- Sofia and Skopje.
Thus, Çabej hold the thesis, with regard to the ethnic and
territorial continuity of the Albanians, that they are the
successor of the ancient Illyrians. Furthermore, Çabej presented
many arguments to prove that the Albanians and their
successors lived since the antiquity in the coastal zone. He
refused the arguments of Weigandt of having a lack of
maritime lexicon in Albanian by presenting the words like det
and anije, which are words of ancient Albanian and are also
used nowadays. However, the most radical judgments were
done by Eric Hamp, an American linguist, known for the
revision of his judgments based on the latest scientific proofs.
Rrahman Paçarizi
Thesis Kosova, nr. 1, 2008
100
He presented his theories concerning the formation place of
the Albanian in terms of a summary.
12
“It is clear that during
the Middle Ages the Albanian lived more in the North (Jokl,
Albaner), as there are many credible arguments which have
been written against their spreading until the Adrian Coast: the
fact that Scodra (Shkoder) proves a non Albanian origin, there
is no proved maritime vocabulary and little Greek words (Jokl);
and because of the arguments in favor of the ancient Dardania
[...]”.
13
Despite the comments of many works by different authors,
Hamp definitely proved that the Albanian has an Indo-
European origin (by supporting the arguments of Bopp in 1845
and the details concerning the similarities of the Albanian with
other Indo-European languages by Meyer in 1880 and 1890 as
well as those by Pedersen and Jokl). But the most impressing
fact is that nobody, during all these discussions for and against
the formation place of the Albanian, has states Dardania
(Kosovo) as a place where the successors of the Albanians have
lived and this has been discussed many times by considering
the fact that the name of the place Dardani derives from the
word dardhë (pear). Also the arguments concerning the
language of the Albanians in the zones where they have been
living also these days are very unclear and politically motivated
or have not considered sociolinguistics parameters. So, now it is
the task of the sociolinguistics to describe the origin and
similarities of the Albanian words with other languages by
considering the regulations of the Indo-European languages. In
this case, the history itself, by showing the reasons of mass
movements of the population, as well as the archeological and
anthropological data can be very helpful to get serious and
stable conclusions.
12
Eric P. Hamp, op. cit. ASHAK, Prishtinë, 2007, pp. 115-145 (orig. Eric. P. Hamp, The
Position of Albanian, Henrik Birnbaum/Jaan Puhvel eds., Ancient Indo European
Dialects, Berkley/ Los Angeles, 1966, pp. 97-121.
13
Ibid. pp. 117-118.
Albanian Language
Thesis Kosova, nr. 1, 2008
101
Dialects of the Albanian
The Albanian Language has two principal dialects which are
geographically divided into two major regions; the Northern
dialect or the Gheg and the Southern dialect or the Tosk. About
two third of the Albanian speakers are Gheg and the other part
Tosk. A very interesting study part for the linguists is that there
is a transitional zone of these dialects which is known as the
Transitional Language which is spoken in the Northern part of
the Tosk and respectively in the Southern part of the Gheg, in a
certain zone near the Shkumbin River.
The main dialects are mutually intelligible and they differ in
phonetic, grammar but mainly in morphology. But the
differences in syntax are almost negligible. The differences of
lexicons are due to the conditions and environment where the
speakers of these both dialects have been living. There was a
slight change in the field of the lexicon between both
administrative political zones which have been separately
developed for more then 50 years without any direct
communication. The communication between Albania and the
Albanians living in Former Yugoslavia, today’s Kosovo,
Western Macedonia and Eastern Montenegro was a unilateral
communication which could not develop any exchange
relations. There was even no cultural exchange as the cultural
development of Albania’s regime, by forbidding mass media,
was excluded from the cultural developments outside its
borders, thus there was no possibility to get access to the
cultural events and language development from there.
First difference is the enhancement of vowels in Gheg in
comparison to the Tosk but this is not a really important matter
when considering the differences between both dialects of the
Albanian Language, wrote Desnickaja.
14
Second difference is the existence of nasal vocals in Gheg
which is not a characteristic of Tosk even sometimes the
nasality is not really stressed. This nasal-oral feature, according
to Desnickaja, forms one of the elements which differentiate the
14
Gjuha shqipe dhe dialektet e saj, Prishtinë, 1972, p. 36.
Rrahman Paçarizi
Thesis Kosova, nr. 1, 2008
102
Albanian dialects whereas Gjinar icites Dilo Sheper who said
that there are also some nasal vocals in some places of Eastern
Albania such as in Kurvelesh and Himarë but the information
at that time did not confirmed that.
In the meantime, Menela Totoni speaks about the
phenomenon of nasality heard in a village in the South called
Borsh.
15
That means that in the past the nasality existed in both
dialects but later on because of changes in the dialects this
feature disappeared, so this cannot be the specific difference
between both dialects but one of the differences.
As another difference element, Desniskaja mentions the
nasal vocal â in Gheg which is similar to the ë in the Tosk. But
Desniskaja says also that the importance of this specification
decreases as there is used more an o instead. But she does not
consider the fact that the importance of the nasal â in the Gheg
builds the nasality form. This is exactly the feature which
changes the meaning of words in Albanian. For example the
word asht (emër, ashti) – âsht (with a nasal a which corresponds
to the Tosk). Another feature is the nasal vocals in the present
form of verbs zë and ziej. By showing further differences of the
so called diphthongs, ua (Tosk) – ue, u (Gheg) and the
reduction of ë in the Gheg, Desnickaja considers the rotation as
a main feature in the Tosk and not the Gheg. The Rotation in
the Albanian is a phenomenon ended in the VII century which
affected just the Tosk. This phenomenon led to the
transformation of the intervocalic n into an r.
Jorgj Gjinari mentioned also these specifics in 1966 but he
did not put emphasis to any of the elements. But unlike
Desnickaja, Gjinari mentioned also another specific element in
the field of phonetics between both principal dialects – the
accent. According to him there is the general accent regulation
for the Turkish loanwords like: tenéqe – tenéqe, shìshe –
shishé, tenxhére – tenxheré, penxhére – penxheré etc., when in
a Turkish word the oxytonic accent is not used we take the
Albanian paroxytonic accent.
15
“E folmja e bregdetit të poshtëm”, Studime Filologjike I, Tiranë, 1964, p. 136.
Albanian Language
Thesis Kosova, nr. 1, 2008
103
But Gjinari has noticed that also in Tosk the words bòjë,
séfte and òdë have a paroxytonic accent and on the other hand
there are also some Turkish loanwords in Gheg which use an
oxytonic accent like: kalà, dynjà, sinì etc.
16
With respect to grammar, Desnickaja noticed especially two
basic matters. First of all, the infinitive tense in the Gheg is for
example, me hap, me luftu (luftue), and in Tosk it is build
differently dua të luftoj.
When taking into consideration all these facts, the infinitive
forms of the Gheg have been used also in the Tosk in former
times, says Desnickaja. She considers this as the main difference
between both Albanian dialects. Gjinari also agreed in 1966 and
later on
17
with the grammatical differences. He wrote that the
main reason for the grammatical differences is caused by the
existence of some grammatical forms in the Northern dialect
and by the lack of respective forms in the Southern dialect.
There is also a lack of possessive pronouns (e vet, e vet, të vet),
past tenses (kam pas vojt dhe kisha pas vojt) and the infinitive
me shkue followed by differences in the syntax. Other
differences may occur by building various forms or using the
syntactic of one of them: many masculine nouns which end
with an e, end in the plural form with an a (North) and an ë
(South) or other forms like: brina-brirë, dembela-dembelë,
gishta-gishtërinj etc. Another specification is when seeing the
adjectives with feminine endings like i lamë, e lame in Gheg
and i larë, e larë in Tosk, which are differentiable just by the
masculine or feminine articles.
18
Gjinari noticed that the past tense in Gheg is build by using
the pronominal u whereas in Tosk it is simpler e.g. u lajsha –
lahesha but there are also some forms in Kosovo which are
similar to the Tosk u lahsha.
19
16
“Sprovë për një ndarje dialektore të gjuhës shqipe”, Studime Filologjike, 4, Tiranë,1966,
p.103.
17
Jorgji Gjinari, Gjovalin Shkurtaj, Dialektologjia, SHBLU, Tiranë, pp. 173-174.
18
Jorgji Gjinari, art. cit. Studime Filologjike, 4, Tiranë, 1966.
19
Ibid.
Rrahman Paçarizi
Thesis Kosova, nr. 1, 2008
104
When considering the theoretic and practical part of the
Albanian dialects we see that there are no major differences
between them as stated many times in the past.
20
Desnickaja says that, “the differences of the dialect in the
past were used as an argument against the national self-
determination of the Albanian population which has been
dominated by the Ottoman Regime”.
21
Herewith she says that the opinion of Maximillian Lambertz
is quite interesting, when saying: “the differences between
these two dialects are not too big as was confirmed many times
(not at any time based on the linguistic point of view) by the
opponents of the Albanian speaking nation”.
22
When ignoring the fact that there is a transitional zone in the
middle of the North and East, both dialects are nowadays quite
similar with respect to phonetic syntax and lexicon just by
analyzing them we see slight differences…
Standardization of the Albanian Language
Unlike other European languages, because of historic and
sociopolitical circumstances experienced by the Albanians, the
Albanian Language underwent a late standardization. Thus
also the first documents written in Albanian result from the
second part of the XV century, more exactly the first known
document in Albanian is the “Baptism Formula” recorded in
1462 by Pal Engjëlli (Paulus Angelus) a catholic priest, written
in the Northern Gheg dialect. Further proofs about Albanian
documents were delivered by E. Durham in 1928, who found a
document by the French priest Gulielm Adae sent to his
superiors saying that: “Even if the Albanian Language differs
completely from the Latin one, the Albanians use many Latin words
in their books”. An Albanian historian, Musa Ahmeti affirmed
that he found years ago a voluminous book written in the XIII
century in the archives of Vatican but that was never proved
20
Agnia Desnickaja, op.cit. p. 40.
21
Ibid.
22
M. Lambertz, Die Mundarten der albanischen Schprahe und uhre Erforschung, p. 124.
Albanian Language
Thesis Kosova, nr. 1, 2008
105
completely even Ahmeti presented some parts of it in journals
of Kosovo in 2005.
The Attempts to standardize the Albanian were intensified
just in the XX century even there were many attempts earlier by
some authors to use a Standard Language in literature. So, in
the XX century there were finally exact attempts by some
intellectuals from the North to standardize the Albanian
Language. There are many well known theories concerning the
standardization of the language coming from the North
(authors from Shkodra) and from the South (A.Xhuvani) but
also from the Middle Albania based on the Elbasan language.
The idea to standardize the Elbasanishte was proposed by Zef
Jubani in 1871 by means of his collection of songs published in
Trieste. This theory was also supported by Albanian and
foreign linguists such as Petersen, Nachtigal, Pekmezi,
Gurakuqi and others but also by Faik Konica who had a strange
theory, the Tosk should become language of prose and the
Gheg language of poetry. The Commission of Literature of
Shkoder supported in 1916-1917 the Elbasanishte to become the
basis of the Standard Language and this was confirmed in the
Education Congress of Lushnje in 1920 where the demand
occurred to write the school texts in Elbasanishte. The arguments
for the adoption of the Elbasanishte aimed the geographical
integration as this zone is situated near both principal dialects
and even though it was based on Southern Gheg. Thus, the
Elbasanishte has become an Official or Standard Language.
23
However, by the changes of the political situation in Albania
after the Second World War, by the influences of the
Communist Regime and dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, the usage
of Tosk was also imposed on official documents as the dictator
Enver Hoxha was also from the Tosk speaking region. This
politics was later on also followed by some scientists. Yet in
1947 a commission for the composition of orthographic
regulations of the Albanian Language was formed, it consisted
of Kostaq Cipo, Eqrem Çabej and Aleksandër Xhuvani.
24
But
23
“Mbi dialektin zyrtar”, Fletorja zyrtare, Tiranë, 21 kallënduer 1923, vjeti II, nr. 3.
24
Fadil Raka, Historia e shqipes letrare, Prishtinë, 2004, p. 203.
Rrahman Paçarizi
Thesis Kosova, nr. 1, 2008
106
their composed project which was related to the Elbasanishte
and some relations to the Tosk was attacked by some linguists
like Simon Shuteriqi. Because of that in 1949 a bigger
conference was organized and in 1951 a brochure “The
Orthography of the Albanian Language”, was published which
was focused on the Tosk to become the Standard Albanian
Language. The conferences on orthography were held in 1952
(two sessions in Tirana), whereas in Kosovo was founded an
authorized commission to deal with the orthography. Later in
1953 another conference took place in Tirana. A further
conference on the orthography was held in 1957 in Prishtina. In
1967 the project on the Albanian Orthography, concerning the
standardization of the Albanian based on the Tosk, was
published and one year later adopted also by the Linguistic
Conference in Prishtina.
At the Congress of Orthography in 1972 in Tirana, with
authoritative representatives from Albania, Kosova, and other
countries of former Yugoslavia a resolution concerning the
standardization of the Albanian Language was confirmed.
The reason why Kosovo adopted the resolution was the lack
of educated linguists at that time and because they did not have
any linguistic preparation in the field of sociolinguistics and
standardization. In Kosovo a mutual language is not considered
as a matter of linguistic or scientific fact but as a matter of
identity.
25
Nevertheless, the standardization of the Albanian approved
in 1972 at the Congress of Orthography came into force during
more then three decades and used in schools and as an official
language but the Albanian regime at that time differentiated the
Standard Language and the various dialects. In Kosovo the
standardized language was used just in schools, partly in
literature and media, it was never used completely in every
aspect of life. There was no reaction at all concerning the
standardization of the Tosk which has never undergone a
reform to be completely used in certain domains.
25
More detailed see: Rexhep Ismajli, Gjuhë standarde dhe histori idntitetesh, Akademia e
Shkencave e Shqipërisë, Tiranë, 2005 .
Albanian Language
Thesis Kosova, nr. 1, 2008
107
However, the emancipation of Kosovo and its independence
calmed the needs for identity of the Kosovo Albanians to save
the Standard Language which they have never adopted
completely perhaps also because of the lack of contact to the
Albanians in Albania and others from the regions in former
Yugoslavia.
Translated by Dafina Vezaj.
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