| Lab Albanian | |
|---|---|
| Labërisht | |
| Pronunciation | [labəˈɾiʃt] |
| Native to | Albania |
| Region | Labëria |
| Latin,Greek,Ottoman Turkish | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | labt1234 |
 Distribution of Albanian language dialects. | |
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TheLab Albanian dialect (Albanian:Labërishtja or Dialekti lab) is aToskAlbanian dialect associated with the wider definition of the ethnographic region ofLabëria, spoken by LabAlbanians. Under this wider definition of Labëria, Lab Albanian stretches fromVlorë andMallakastër south and east up toGjirokastër,Lunxhëria andSarandë. Notable aspects of Lab in Albanian and widerBalkan areal linguistics include its peculiar mix of conservative and innovative features, the lack (in some varieties) of typical Albanian Balkanisms like the admirative,[1] and the presence of features typical of Northern Gheg dialects despite it being a Southern dialect.
Labërishtja is a subdivision of the Southern Tosk group, which is itself a subdivision of Tosk Albanian, the collection of Albanian dialects south of theShkumbin River. As such, it is most closely related to theCham dialect ofChamëria, theArbereshe of the old Albanian diaspora in Italy, and theArvanitika ofArvanites inGreece.
Features typical of Lab include the unrounding of Albanian /y/ ([y]) to /i/ ([i]), thus merging it with the /i/ phoneme, and a velar articulation for Albaniangj ([ɟ]) andq ([c]). As such, in areas where Lab is less influenced byStandard Albanian, Albanians from elsewhere may be shocked to hear words likegjyshi ([ɟyʃi], grandfather) pronounced asgishi ([ɡiʃi]). Likewise, Lab Albanians may say they speak "shkip" ([ʃkip]), notshqip ([ʃcip]).
Lab also has some features that are more typical ofGheg dialects than Tosk ones: it preserves theOld Albanianvowel length distinction (lost elsewhere in Tosk). Although the loss of nasal vowels in Tosk is said to be a diagnostic feature separating Southern (Tosk) Albanian from Northern (Gheg) Albanian, Albanian linguists Dilo Sheper and Gjinari have reported that there are nasal vowels present in the Lab dialects ofKurvelesh andHimare, which would mean there are in fact Tosk dialects with nasal vowels, contrary to prior assumptions, although some Albanian writers like Paçarizi expressed uncertainty about the reports.[2] Menela Totoni, meanwhile, has detected the presence of nasal vowels in the extreme southern town ofBorsh.[3] Paçarizi notes that the presence of nasal vowels in Lab might imply that the loss of nasals in Tosk can no longer be viewed as the taxonomical difference between Gheg and Tosk, and that it may have occurred in the majority of Tosk dialects after Tosk had already split from Gheg.[4]
Standard Albaniandh ([ð]) may also be represented as all ([ɫ] dark L) in many Lab dialects, leadingmadhe (/maðɛ/, "large") to be pronounced asmalle ([maɫɛ]).
Certain Lab dialects shift theAlbanian schwa to aback vowel,[ʌ] (as in Englishnut), while others merge it withe /ɛ/ . Many Lab dialects also pronounce the schwa at the end of words, saying [pɛsʌ] instead of [pɛs] forpesë ("five"). Albaniane/ɛ/ may also become a schwa in Lab before nasal consonants.
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Lab Albanian uses differentpast participles than Standard Albanian, which is based on a dialect of Tosk proper, specifically the one from the ethnographic region ofDangellia due to its usage by Albanian nationalist writers. The past participle ofmarr (to take) ismarrur (notmarrë as in standard) and the past participle ofthem isthemur, rather thanthënë.
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Lab and its sister dialect, Cham, have been found to lack many of the particularities that wider Albanian has in morphological rules and syntactical patterns.[citation needed] Some[5] but not all[6] Lab dialects lack theadmirative mood, typically considered a curious and unique particularism of Albanian although there are also related phenomena in some Bulgarian dialects.
Lab has exerted some influence on Standard Albanian, for example causing the emergence of the short particle due to its use (in Lab) for compound past tenses.[7]
Laberishtja also is peculiar in that certain Lab dialects may have (limited) use of a "have"(kam) + subjunctive formation of the future tense, which is more typically characteristic of remote Gheg dialects such as theUpper Reka dialect.[8][9]
Although the idea that the Gheg/Tosk split is the oldest and most significant dialectal division in Albanian is widely viewed as canon,[10] Lab has been found to exhibit certain "Gheg" grammatical characteristics (in addition to limited phonological characteristics such as retention of nasalization in selected Lab subdialects). Features that are typical of Gheg but not Tosk dialects but which are nevertheless found in Lab include the presence of thecompound perfect and thepluperfect.[11]
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It is believed that Lab Albanian split from its sibling dialects of Cham, Arvanitika and Arbereshe some time in the Middle Ages.[citation needed] Since then, its features have evolved through a variety of influences: language contact withGreek and specifically theHimariote dialect[citation needed], isolation in mountainous regions[citation needed] and influence from Gheg dialects as Gheg speakers migrated to Lab areas in the Late Middle Ages and during the Ottoman era[citation needed].
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