| Gheg | |
|---|---|
| Geg | |
| gegnisht | |
| Region | Albania,Kosovo,North Macedonia,Montenegro,Serbia |
Native speakers | 4.1 million (2012–2021)[1] |
Early form | |
| Dialects | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | aln |
| Glottolog | gheg1238 |
| Linguasphere | 55-AAA-aa |
 A map showing Gheg speakers in green. | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Gheg (Gheg Albanian:gegnisht,Standard Albanian:gegërisht) is one of the two majorvarieties ofAlbanian, the other beingTosk. The geographic dividing line between the two varieties is theShkumbin River, which winds its way through centralAlbania.[2][3] Gheg is spoken in northern and central Albania,Kosovo, northwesternNorth Macedonia, southeasternMontenegro and southernSerbia by the Albanian dialectal subgroup known asGhegs.[3]
Gheg does not have any official status as a written language in any country. Publications in Kosovo and North Macedonia are inStandard Albanian, which is based on Tosk. However, some authors continue to write in Gheg.
Before World War II, there had been no official attempt to enforce a unified Albanian literary language; both literary Gheg and literary Tosk were used.[3] Thecommunist regime in Albania imposed nationwide a standard that was based on the variant of Tosk spoken in and around the city ofKorçë.[3]
After WWII,Yugoslavia planned to create a Kosovan language based on the Gheg dialect, in line with Tito's efforts to define nations through language.[4] This was part of a push for union with Albania, but after the 1948split between Stalin and Tito, the idea was abandoned.
With the warming of relations between Albania andYugoslavia starting in the late 1960s, theKosovo Albanians—the largest ethnic group in Kosovo—adopted the same standard[5] in a process that began in 1968 and culminated with the appearance of the first unified Albanian orthographic handbook and dictionary in 1972.[3] Although they had until then used Gheg and almost all Albanian writers in Yugoslavia were Ghegs, they chose to write in Tosk for political reasons.[6]
The change of literary language has had significant political and cultural consequences because the Albanian language is the main criterion for Albanian self identity.[7] The standardization has been criticized, notably by the writerArshi Pipa, who claimed that the move had deprived Albanian of its richness at the expense of the Ghegs.[8] He referred to literary Albanian as a "monstrosity" produced by the Tosk communist leadership, who had conquered anti-communist northern Albania and imposed their own dialect on the Ghegs.[9]
In 1974, Tosk-based standard Albanian became Kosovo’s official language, though Gheg remains the everyday dialect used by most Kosovo Albanians, while standard Albanian is taught in schools and used in media.
The Gheg dialect is divided by four sub-dialects: Central Gheg, Southern Gheg, Northwestern Gheg (or Western Gheg), and Northeastern Gheg (or Eastern Gheg).
Southern Gheg is spoken in the ethno-geographic regions of central and, areas of, north-central Albania; among these being:
Southern Gheg can be further broken down into two major groupings: Southwestern Gheg and Southeastern Gheg. The first group includes the dialects spoken in the regions of Durrës, Tirana, Kavajë and sections of Elbasan such as Peqin and the western villages of Krrabë. The latter group, on the other hand, is spoken in the regions of Elbasan, Librazhd, and Martanesh. The spoken dialects of Shëngjergj, in Tirana, and Krrabë, in Elbasan, act as transitional dialects between the two groups, although the former is closer to the Southwestern group and the eastern villages of the latter with the Southeastern group.
The dialects of Ishëm, Vorë, Zall-Herr, and Zall-Dajt represent the northernmost extensions of Southern Gheg (specifically Southwestern Gheg), and as such, they show direct influences from Central Gheg (spoken in neighbouringKrujë,Mat, andBulqizë); thus they can be labelled as transitional dialects.[10]
Certain settlements to the extreme south of the Southern Gheg dialect zone, which are included in the largely Southern Gheg-speaking units, speak transitional dialects depicting both characteristics of Gheg and Tosk Albanian. These include villages such as Dars in Peqin, the coastal villages of southernmost Kavajë, and a number of settlements in Qukës and Hotolisht.[11]
Central Gheg is a sub-dialect of Gheg spoken in the interior basin of the Mat river, extending eastwards to and beyond the Black Drin river, includingKruja andFushë Kruja,Mati, part ofMirdita,Lurë,Luma andDibër Valley.[12] Central Gheg is also spoken outside of Albania, with the majority of Albanians from North Macedonia speaking dialects of Central Gheg[13] - including the divergent idiom spoken inUpper Reka.[14] These regions includePolog Valley (Tetovo andGostivar) and theSouthwestern Statistical Region (Kičevo,Debar and parts ofStruga).
According to linguists such as Jorgji Gjinari and Xhevat Lloshi, the Central Gheg dialect group represents a sub-group of the larger Southern Gheg zone.[12][15]
The Italian linguist Carlo Tagliavini puts the Gheg of Kosovo and North Macedonia in Eastern Gheg.[19]
Northeastern Gheg, sometimes known asEastern Gheg, is a variant or sub-dialect of Gheg Albanian spoken in NortheasternAlbania,Kosovo, andSerbia.
The Northeastern Gheg dialectal area begins roughly down from the eastern Montenegrin-Albanian border, including the Albanian districts (Second-level administrative country subdivisions) ofTropojë,Pukë,Has,Mirditë andKukës; the whole of Kosovo[a], and themunicipalities ofBujanovac andPreševo in Serbia. The tribes in Albania speaking the dialect include Nikaj-Merturi, Puka, Gashi, and Tropoja.
The Albanian speech in roughly aroundSkopje,Karadak, andKumanovo inNorth Macedonia, is sometimes regarded part of Northeastern Gheg.
Calques ofSerbian origin are evident in the areas ofsyntax andmorphology.[20] The Northeastern Gheg slightly differs from Northwestern Gheg (spoken inShkodër),[3] as the pronunciation is deeper and more prolonged[clarification needed]. Northeastern Gheg is considered to be the autonomous branch of Gheg Albanian[21] in turn, the Northeastern Gheg dialects themselves differ greatly among themselves.[22]
The dialect is also split in a few other minority dialects, where the phoneme [y] of standard Albanian is pronounced as [i], i.e. "ylberi" to "ilberi" (both meaning rainbow); "dy" to "di" (both meaning two).[citation needed] In Northeastern Gheg, the palatal stops of standard Albanian, such as [c] (as inqen, "dog") and [ɟ] (as ingjumë, "sleep"), are realised as palato-alveolar affricates, [t͡ʃ] and [d͡ʒ] respectively.[23]
Northwestern Gheg, sometimes known asWestern Gheg, is a sub-dialect of Gheg Albanian spoken in NorthwesternAlbania and SouthernMontenegro. The tribes that speak this dialect are theMalësor,Dukagjin and other highlander tribes which include (Malësia):Hoti,Gruda,Triepshi,Kelmendi,Kastrati,Shkreli,Lohja, etc., (Dukagjin) :Shala,Shoshi,Shllaku,Dushmani, etc., etc..(Lezhë),...(seeTribes of Albania).
The main contrast between Northwestern Gheg and Northeastern Gheg is the slight difference in the tone and or pronunciation of the respective dialects. Northwestern Gheg does not have the more deeper sounding a's, e's, etc. and is considered by some to sound slightly more soft and clear in tone compared to Northeastern Gheg, yet still spoken with a rough Gheg undertone compared to the Southern Albanian dialects. Other differences include different vocabulary, and the use of words like"kon" (been), and "qysh" (how?) which are used in Northeastern Gheg, and not often used in Northwestern Gheg. Instead Northwestern Gheg speakers say"kjen or ken" (been), and use the adverb"si" to say (how?). For example in Northeastern Gheg to say "when I was young", you would say,"kur jam kon i ri", while in Northwestern Gheg you would say "kur kam ken i ri,kur jam ken i ri.".[citation needed] Although there is a degree of variance, Northwestern Gheg and Northeastern Gheg are still very much similar, and speakers of both sub-dialects have no problem understanding and having a conversation with one another.
The Northwestern Gheg subdialect encompasses three main Albanian ethnographic regions:Malësia e Madhe, Shkodër and Lezhë. Within the Northwestern Gheg, the area of Malësia e Madhe shows different phonological, syntactic, and lexical patterns than the areas of Shkodër and Lezhë. For this reason,Malsia e Madhe Albanian (MMA) can be considered a distinct variety of Northwestern Gheg. The different features of this variety can be traced to the historical and geographic isolation of the mountainous region of Malësia e Madhe (Albanian for 'Great Highlands').[24]
The early isolated Malsia Albanian has preserved archaic features ofProto-Albanian andProto-Indo-European in comparison to other Gheg varieties and to Tosk, such as the word-initial voiceless and voiced stops.[25] Whereas Tosk Albanian has homorganic nasal-stop clusters, having produced a shift from the proto form that featured a word-initial stop to a nasal-stop cluster, which was achieved by placing a prefixen- (< PAlb preposition*en 'in'). Gheg Albanian is in a transitional position,[26] featuring nasals that resulted from reduced nasal-stop clusters.[27]
| PIE | Malsia | Tosk | Gheg |
|---|---|---|---|
| *peh₂- 'protect' | pɔ:j 'to hold, keep' | mbaj 'hold, carry' | mɔ:j |
| *bʰer- 'bear, carry' | bɔ:j 'carry' | mbaj 'hold, carry' | mɔ:j |
| *ten 'stretch, tighten' | tæ̃:n 'push, press' | ndej 'hold, carry' | |
| *deh₂- 'share, divide' | dɔ: 'split, cut, divide' | ndaj | dɔ: |
| *gʰodʰ-, (o-grade of*gʰedʰ-) | gæ: 'time, chance, opportunity' | ŋge |
Examples of the formation of nasal-stop clusters by placing the prefixen- with unstressed word-initial vowel are: Toskmbuʃa 'to fill', from PAlb*en-busa (vs. Malsiabuʃa); Toskŋga 'where, from where', from PAlb*en-ka (vs. Malsiaka); Toskŋgula 'to thrust, put on point', from PAlb*en-kula (vs. Malsiaku:ʎ); Toskndej 'to stretch', from PAlb*en-tenja (vs. Malsiatæ̃:n).[28]
The PAlb preposition*en 'in' has been preserved solely in the Malsia Albanian dialect, whereas in the other Gheg varieties and in Tosk it has been reanalyzed as a prefix attached to other lexical terms, no longer existing as a preposition.[28]
Assimilations are common in Gheg but are not part of the Albanian literary language, which is a standardized form ofTosk Albanian.[29]
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| IPA | Spelling |
|---|---|
| [a] | a (mas: 'after') |
| [ɑ] | â (prâp: 'back') |
| [ɒ] | ä (knäqët: 'having fun') |
| [e] | e (dere: 'door') |
| [ɛ] | ê (mênôj: 'I think') |
| [ə] | ë (nën: 'under') |
| [i] | i (drit: 'light') |
| [o] | o (kos: 'yoghurt') |
| [ɔ] | ô (dôr: 'hand') |
| [u] | u (kur: 'when') |
| [y] | y (ylli: 'star') |
| IPA | Spelling[30] |
|---|---|
| [ɑ̃] | ã (hãna: 'moon') |
| [ɛ̃] | ẽ (mrẽna: 'within') |
| [ĩ] | ĩ (hĩna: 'I entered') |
| [ɔ̃] | õ (fõ: 'satiated', some dialects) |
| [ũ] | ũ (hũna: 'nose') |
| [ỹ] | ỹ (gjỹs: 'half') |
| Standard | Tosk | Cham | Arbëresh | South Gheg | Central Gheg | Northeastern Gheg | Northwestern Gheg | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shqipëri | Shkjipërí | Shqipëni | Shqypëni/Shqipëni | "Albania" | ||||
| Një | Nji/ni/i/njo/nja | Nji/njo | Nja, nji | "One" | ||||
| Bëj | Bunj | Boj | Bâj, boj | Bâj | "I do" | |||
| Qenë | Qënë | Klënë | Qen | Ken | Kon/Kan | Kjen/Ken | "Been" | |
| Pleqëri | Pleqrĩ | Plekjërí | Pleqni | Pleçni | "Old age" | |||
| Është | Ështëor Ësht' | Është | Ishtor ë | Osht/Ô | Oshtë/Ashtë | Ashtë | "Is" | |
| Nëntë | Nônt/Nônd | Nont/Nond/Nand | Nând | "Nine" | ||||
| Shtëpi | Shpi | Shpí | Shp(e)j | Shp(a)j/Shpi, Shpí | Shp(e)i | "Home" | ||
The political-cultural relevance of the abolition of literary Gheg with literary Tosk.... Albanians identify themselves with language...
South Serbia is home to 50,000 or so Albanians.
Initially, the guerrillas' publicly-acknowledged objective was to protect the local ethnic Albanian population of some 70,000 people from the repressive actions of the Serb security forces.
The total population of the Valley is around 86,000 inhabitants, of whom around 57,000 are Albanians and the rest are Serbs and Roma
The Serbian peace proposal calls for integrating the Presevo valley's 70,000 ethnic Albanian residents into mainstream Serbian political and social life.
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