The Balkan Republic of Albania is gradually becoming popular among fans of inexpensive beach holidays on the Adriatic. Its guests can only dream of a developed tourist infrastructure, but on the other hand, there are enough secluded beaches and opportunities for ecotourism for everyone who decides to buy a ticket. You will not have to learn the state language of Albania: for the development of the tourism sector of the economy, the Albanians make a lot of efforts, including learning English.
Some statistics and facts
- Albanian is considered their native language by about 6 million people living in the republic itself, as well as in Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and on several Greek islands.
- The two dialects of the state language of Albania differ somewhat phonetically. Northern or Tokian served as the basis for literary Albanian until the beginning of the twentieth century. Southern or Gegsky came to replace in the last century.
- The speakers of the Tokyo dialect today are about three million Albanians. Gegsky is considered native by almost 300 thousand people.
- In addition to Albanian, other languages are spoken in the country. Greek is spoken by about 3% of the population, Romanian, Roma and Serbian in total - about 2%.
Albanian language: history and modernity
Linguists are sure that Albanian originated in the 6th-4th centuries BC and that the ancient Illyrians spoke a related language. Only in the 19th century were large-scale studies of the current state language of Albania carried out, as a result of which it was attributed to the Indo-European family.
The ancient Romans had an undeniable influence on Albanian and its development. The Latin trace in the language is noticeable not only at the vocabulary level, but also in grammar. Borrowings from numerous Slavic languages and Greek also penetrated into Albanian.
The language of Albania is part of the Balkan language union along with Serbian, Macedonian and others. Some sound features unite Albanian with Latvian and Hungarian, although they are not related at all. They write in Albanian using the Latin alphabet used since 1908.
Linguists note the influence of Russian on the formation of the modern lexical minimum of the Albanian language. This is due to the penetration of scientific and technical knowledge from the USSR during its existence. So the words "tractor", "complex", "docent", "ballast", "fist" and many others entered the life of the Albanians thanks to their friendship with the Soviet people.
