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Albanian occupies a unique branch on the Indo-European language tree. While far from the most popular language to learn, it opens up the beautiful country of Albania and other regions in the Balkans.
Language Facts:
Speakers: 6 million
Family: Indo-European
Status: Official in Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, and North Macedonia. Recognized minority in Italy, Serbia, Croatia, and Romania.
Family: Indo-European
Status: Official in Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, and North Macedonia. Recognized minority in Italy, Serbia, Croatia, and Romania.
Script: Latin
Albanian is a complicated language, and resources are not as numerous as more popular European languages. Having a Pimsleur course and a few beginner books, however, should be enough for a beginner to get a good start in the language.
- Albanian uses the Latin alphabet and also includes the letters Ë and Ç
- Albanian includes both the voiced “th” (as in though) and unvoiced “th” (as in thin). Even though these sounds are in English, they are very rare sounds in the world’s languages.
- The most common order is Subject-Object-Verb, but word order is flexible in Albanian.
- Nouns in Albanian have 3 genders, and six cases.
- Definite articles are placed after the noun, which is similar to other languages in the Balkan region.
- Verbs in Albanian can have 6 different moods, and a verb form called admirative.
Learn Albanian:
Youtube:
Podcasts:
Courses:
Pimsleur – classic audio course now available in subscription format. Great for pronunciation and dialogue.
Media:
Gazeta Express – source for news in Albanian.