Albanian Varieties | Can they understand each other?

Albanian is a unique languages that occupies an independent branch within the Indo-European family. It is an official language in Albania, Kosovo, and North Macedonia, and has minority status in Italy, Romania, Montenegro, and Serbia. The Albanian language has a wide range of varieties, with two major groups of Gheg and Tosk. Within the Tosk group, Arbëresh is one of the five sub-dialects, with the other ones being Northern Tosk, Labërisht, Çam, and Arvanitika. Arbëresh (arbërisht) derives from a medieval variety of Tosk and retains many features of medieval Albanian. It is spoken by the Arbëreshë people in Italy. In this video, we will take a look at the similarities and differences between three verities, with Martin representing Arbëresh from Sicily, Leutrim representing Ghegh from Kosovo, and Aurel representing Tosk from Albania. Tosk (toskë or toskërisht) is the basis of the standard Albanian language, with the major Tosk-speaking groups being the Myzeqars of Myzeqe, Labs of Labëria, Chams of Çamëria, Arvanites of Greece and the Arbëreshë of Italy. The Gheg variety (gegnisht) is spoken in northern and central Albania, Kosovo, northwestern North Macedonia, southeastern Montenegro and southern Serbia.

***************
Martin's channel: @ARBERESH

***************

[BahadorAlast]

If you enjoyed this video, check out this video comparing Arvanitika, Arberesh and standard Albanian on Martin's channel:

As well as this brief interview about Sicilian words in Arbëresh:

[TheLegendOfKroi]

We’re so lucky to have the Arbëresh. They are our truth. We need to protect them and help preserve the Arberesh language. Love this video. Super informative and big thanks to Martin for all the great work he does.

[sinanberisha]

The harder I study Albanian and the varieties, the better I understand that the root words are exactly the same in all of the varieties. Some words have changed the meaning from its basic form historically, but still it is very relatable for me. I love Albanian!

[Rider-edmr]

Let's not forget about Arvanitika in Greece which like Arbëresh preserved archaic elements of Albanian.

[angeloleone]

Proud of Albanian people in Sicily . Amazing people with big heart! Their food is heaven and cannoli from Piana degli Albanesi are paradise! Huge respect to this community and all Albanian nation ( Albania, Kosovo and Italian Albanian). You are brothers with the same blood. Forza Albania 🇦🇱❤️

[alexeiabrikosov]

The Arbëreshë Albanians came to Italy starting in the 14th century as a consequence of the Ottoman invasion of the Balkans. It is remarkable that they have retained so much of their language and culture. This is an anthropological miracle!

[mendjelire]

I agree with Martin. There is no need for purification when you can beautifully enrich the official language by adding instead of taking away.

[erdibulku]

Gheg isnt only spoken in Kosovo. It is spoken by Albanians of Macedonia and by the northern half of Albania itself. Anyway great video as always.

[mahirhaxhiu]

Amazing! Honestly, this was the best video so far. It was insightful, very educational, and fun to follow along. Thanks to all four of you. Albanian is a linguistic treasure in the middle of Europe which must be studied and understood better and more extensively. So I really admire Martin for his work. It's really commendable!! Albanian varieties are traced back to the different Albanian tribes, variants of a single linguistic system that to date isn't really closely connected to any other language.

[erjonal]

I’m from central Albania and I understand perfectly well all of the dialects. Great video! Thanks 🙏🏻

[maayanhaza]

All 3 were very knowledgeable, and Martin had a lot of interesting facts to share. That was great.

[chris_the_heartbeat_lover.]

What I love in all these videos is that you try to bring people together through languages and this totally shows us we have nothing to separate.

[leukaj]

Just a little note for everyone watching this: the word kerr derives from the word "karrocë", which means cart in English, that´s the english word that I didn´t come up with immediately, but I recall that I still correctly mentioned it, but it got apparently cut out in the video making process. Anyways, I am really amazed of the great work and how informative this video became !!! Thank you for your great work @Bahador Alast.

[michiferrucci]

Albanian people were, are and will always be welcome in Italy!

[elizaa.]

Great video! Albanian is such an interesting and intriguing language. Happy to see Martin back 😊

[kuashiku.]

YESSSS SHQIPPPP!!! GJUHA MË TË VEÇANT NË TË GJITH BOTËS! THANK YOU BAHADOR! Much love to all Albanian speakers who have persisted and kept their language alive..from the Arbëresh of Italy and Argentina to the Arvanites of Greece, to the Arbanasi of Croatia to the Arnaut of Turkey and Ukraine and to the thriving diaspora stretching from Australia to America -- we are all Shqiptar!

[gorbe]

Albanian sounds really cool. This video changed my view about albania!
Greetings from iran👋

[vllakqo]

As an albanian from from kosovo i can understand the tosk dialect completely even though i was born and raised in london. the arberesh dialect fascinates me and to be honest from videos i’ve seen of people speaking arberesh i could understand a lot of it with no problem whatsoever. seeing this is amazing and brings me joy

[emj]

A curiosity:
in Albanian "to go" is "Ik",
in Japanese "to go" Is "Ikimas" (where "-mas" is the ending of all Japanese verb)

[NeryHs]

I'm amazed that my YouTube algorithm suggested me this insightful video! This is literally so cool, i underestimate my albanian language sometimes caude i live abroad and don't get the chance to use it very often, but ugh, this made me nostalgic almost and proud of the varieties, cause we still understand each other pretty well and the community is actually pretty big, no matter how the geo-politics changing over the years. Amazing, thank you for this!