A map showing Tosk speakers in the two palest shades of brown.
Tosk (Albaniandefinite form:toskërishtja) is the southern group of dialects of theAlbanian language, spoken by the ethnographic group known asTosks. The line of demarcation between Tosk andGheg (the northern variety) is theShkumbin River. Tosk is the basis of the standard Albanian language.
Tosk dialects preserve the consonant sequencesmb,ngj andnd which are assimilated tom,nj andn inGheg.[3]
Proto-Albanian*ō becomesva.
Nasal vowels: There is a lack of nasal vowels in Tosk (e.g.sy "eye") and Late Proto-Albanian*â plus a nasal becomesë (e.g.nëntë "nine").
e-vowel: Thee becomesë in some varieties of some words.
ë-vowel: Theë may have several pronunciations depending on dialect: theë is more backed inLabërisht dialects like that ofVuno, wheremëz "foal" is[mʌz]). Final-ë drops in many Tosk dialects and lengthens the preceding vowel.
y-vowel: They vowel often derounds toi in Labërisht, Çam,Arvanitika, andArbëresh (e.g.dy "two" becomesdi).
dh and ll: These sounds may interchange in some words in some varieties.
h: This may drop in any position in some dialects.
gl/kl: Some varieties of Çam, Arberësh, and Arvanitika retainkl andgl in place ofq andgj (e.g.gjuhë "tongue" isgluhë in Çam and Siculo-Arberësh, andgljuhë in Arvanitika;klumësh forqumësht "milk" in Arbëresh).
^Fraenkel, Eran; Kramer, Christina Elizabeth (1993).Language Contact - Language Conflict. P. Lang. p. 36.ISBN9780820416526.Thus, for example, even the small numbers of Tosk Albanians of southern North Macedonia (only approximately 3,000 in the early 1980s)
^Orel, Vladimir E. (1998).Albanian etymological dictionary. Leiden: Brill.ISBN9789004110243.
