The modern Albanian alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, and consists of 36 letters: MS No. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ...

Note: The vowels are shown in bold. Listen (help· info) to the pronunciation of the letters. For other uses of A, see A (disambiguation). ... For other uses of B, see B (disambiguation). ... Look up C, c in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A cedilla is a hook (¸) added under certain consonant letters as a diacritic mark to modify their pronunciation. ... For other uses, see D (disambiguation). ... Dh (lowercase: dh) is a digraph consisting of the letters D and H. Dh is the sixth letter in the Albanian alphabet, between D and E, representing the voiced dental fricative (/ð/). In Irish orthography it represents the voiced velar fricative or the voiced palatal approximant ; at the beginning of a... For other uses, see E (disambiguation). ... (e-umlaut or diaeresis) is a letter of Albanian and Kashubian language. ... Look up F, f in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see G (disambiguation). ... The voiced palatal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ... Look up H, h in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Look up I, i in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see J (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see K (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see L (disambiguation). ... LL may stand for: LL is the IATA code for Lineas Aeras Allegro airline LL is the production code for the Doctor Who serial The Evil of the Daleks. ... For other uses, see M (disambiguation). ... Look up N, n in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Look up O, o in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the Latin alphabet letter. ... This article is about the Latin alphabet letter. ... Look up R, r in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... rr is a digraph which occurs in several natural languages. ... Look up S, s in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Sh is a digraph in the Roman alphabet. ... For other uses, see T (disambiguation). ... Th is a digraph in the Roman alphabet. ... For other uses of U, see U (disambiguation). ... Look up V, v in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see X (disambiguation). ... Orthography and pronunciation In Albanian, the digraph xh represents the sound of the voiced postalveolar affricate consonant , i. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Look up Z, z in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... zh is a digraph found in many languages. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Image File history File links Albanian_alphabet. ...

History

The modern Latin-based Albanian alphabet was a result of long evolution. Before the creation of the unified alphabet, Albanian had been written in six different alphabets:

• The Latin alphabet, using various conventions:
  • The oldest surviving Albanian document of the 15th century was written in Latin alphabet. Old Albanian writers such as Gjon Buzuku, Pjetër Bogdani, Pjetër Budi, Frang Bardhi, etc. used a Latin-based script also, meanwhile including some Greek characters to represent extra sounds.
  • Evetor. In 1824 Naum Veqilharxhi generated a 33-letter Latin-based alphabet which was mainly used in southern Albania, dropping previous Greek and Arabic characters.
  • A Catholic alphabet used by Arbëreshë (Italo-Albanians).
  • The Istanbul alphabet, created by Sami Frashëri, combining Latin and Greek. This became widely used as it was also adopted by the Istanbul Society for the Printing of Albanian Writings, which in 1879 printed Alfabetare, the first Albanian abecedarium.
  • Bashkimi, developed by the Albanian literary society Bashkimi (Unity) in Shkodër with the help of Catholic clergy and Franciscans aiming at more simplicity than its forerunners.
  • Agimi, developed by another literary society called Agimi (Dawn) and spearheaded by Ndre Mjeda in 1901.
• The Greek alphabet; used to write Tosk starting in about 1500 (Elsie, 1991). The printing press at Voskopojë published several Albanian texts in Greek script during the 18th century. (Macrakis, 1996) The Greek-based modern Arvanitic alphabet is now only used in Greece.
• The Ottoman Turkish alphabet, favored by Muslims.
• The Elbasan script (18th century); locally used in central Albania. (Omniglot)
• The Beitha Kukju script (1840); another local script, named after its inventor. (Omniglot)
• The Cyrillic alphabet (Christophoridēs, 1872).
  • Albanians in Yugoslavia who were educated in Serbian schools only used Cyrillic letters to communicate in Albanian during the 20th century. However, this was restricted to vulgar usage only.

In November 1908, a Congress was held in Manastir regarding the unification of written Albanian into a single alphabet. Prominent delegates included Midhat Frashëri, Sotir Peçi, Shahin Kolonja, and Gjergj D. Kyrias. There was much debate and the contending alphabets were Istanbul, Bashkimi and Agimi. However, the Congress was unable to make a clear decision and opted for a compromise solution of using both the widely used Istanbul and a new Latin one. During 1909 and 1910 there were movements by Young Turks supporters to adopt an Arabic alphabet as they considered the Latin-based to be against religious law and Islam. In Korçë and Gjirokastër, demonstrations took place favoring the Latin-based alphabet, whereas in Elbasan a demonstration for the Arabic alphabet took place led by Muslim clerics (hodjas) that told Muslims they would be infidels if they used the Latin script. In 1911, the Young Turks dropped their opposition to the Latin-based and finally the modified Bashkimi alphabet, that is still used today, was adopted. The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... This is a page from Meshari. ... Pjetër Bogdani (ca. ... Pjetër Budi (1566-1622), known in Italian as Pietro Budi, was the author of four religious works in Albanian. ... It has been proposed below that Frang Bardhi be renamed and moved to Transwiki. ... 1824 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... This article is about a community living in Italy. ... “Italian Republic” redirects here. ... Sami Frashëri (June 1, 1850, Frashër, Albania – June 18, 1904) was an Albanian poet, philosopher and a prominent figure of the Rilindja Kombëtare, the national renaissance of Albania, together with his two brothers Naim and Abdyl. ... Year 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... An abecedarium is an inscription consisting of the letters of the alphabet in order. ... Ãœsküdar, a district of Istanbul, was also known as Scutari. ... The Order of Friars Minor and other Franciscan movements are disciples of Saint Francis of Assisi. ... Ndre Mjeda (Shkodër, Albania November 20, 1866 - Shkodër, Albania August 1, 1937) was an Albanian Gheg poet. ... Year 1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The Greek alphabet (Greek: ) is an alphabet consisting of 24 letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 8th or early 9th century BC. It was the first alphabet in the narrow sense, that is, a writing system using a separate symbol for each vowel... Tosk may refer to several things: Tosk, a dialect of Albanian. ... Voskopojë, Albanian:Voskopoja; Aromanian: Moscopole, Moscopolea; Greek: Μοσχόπολις, Moscopolis or Moschopolis; Macedonian: Moskopole; Serbian: Moskopolje) is a small village in southeastern Albania. ... The Arvanitic alphabet is an adapted version of the Greek alphabet and is used to write Arvanitic. ... The Ottoman Turkish alphabet (الفبا elifbâ) was the version of the Arabic alphabet that was used for the Ottoman Turkish language during the time of the Ottoman Empire. ... A Muslim is a believer in or follower of Islam. ... Elbasan script is an eighteenth-century script used for the Albanian language. ... Beitha Kukju was an Albanian who invented a script used for the Albanian language in about 1840, called the Beitha Kukju script after its inventor. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (pronounced also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is actually a family of alphabets, subsets of which are used by certain Slavic languages — Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian—as well as many other languages of the former Soviet Union... 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Nickname: Motto: Bitola, babam Bitola Location of the city of Bitola (red) within the Republic of Macedonia Coordinates: , Government  - Mayor Vlademir Taleski Area  - City 422. ... Midhat Bey Frashëri (also known as Lumo Skendo) (1880-1949) was an Albanian writer and politician. ... Year 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday [1] of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... This article is about the Turkish nationalist constitutionalist movement. ... For people named Islam, see Islam (name). ... Korçë (Albanian: Korçë or Korça, Greek: Κορυτσά Koritsá , Italian: Corizza, South Slavic: Корча, Korcha or Корче, Korče, Aromanian: Curceaua, Turkish: Görice) is a major city in south-eastern Albania, located at near the border with Greece. ... Gjirokastër, as seen from the Citadel. ... Elbasan (Albanian: Elbasan or Elbasani) is a city in central Albania. ... There is also a collection of Hadith called Sahih Muslim A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Persian: Mosalman or Mosalmon Urdu: مسلمان, Turkish: Müslüman, Albanian: Mysliman, Bosnian: Musliman) is an adherent of the religion of Islam. ... Year 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... This article is about the Turkish nationalist constitutionalist movement. ...

Keyboard Layouts

Windows XP default

The Albanian keyboard layout is German based (QWERTZ). The specific Albanian characters are directly accessible (ë, Ë, ç, Ç). The QWERTZ keyboard layout used in Germany and Austria. ...

Prektora

A preferable alternative to the default one is Prektora, a (QWERTY) keyboard layout for Windows XP and Vista. (ë, Ë, ç, Ç, é, É, ô, Ô, â, Â) For the song by Linkin Park, see QWERTY (song). ...

JLG Extended Keyboard Layout

The JLG Extended Keyboard Layout is a layout working on a US keyboard layout. This layout allows to make all specific Albanian characters.

• ë = CTRL + " then e
• Ë = CTRL + " then E
• ç = CTRL + , then c
• Ç = CTRL + , then C

See also

• Albanian language
• Alphabets derived from the Latin

Albanian ( IPA ) is a language spoken by 8 million people, primarily in Albania and Serbia (province of Kosovo-Metohija), but also in other parts of the Balkans with an Albanian population (parts of the Republic of Macedonia, and some parts in Montenegro and Serbia), along the eastern coast of Italy... Variants of the Latin alphabet are used by the writing systems of many languages throughout the world. ...

References

• Van Christo, "The Long Struggle for the Albanian Alphabet", formerly available at [1]; archived at [2]. Christo in turn says "Much of the above material was excerpted or otherwise derived from Stavro Skendi's excellent book The Albanian National Awakening: 1878-1912, Princeton University Press, 1967".
• Robert Elsie, "Albanian Literature in Greek Script: the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth-Century Orthodox Tradition in Albanian Writing", Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 15:20 (1991) [3].
• Omniglot on Albanian
• Christophoridēs, Kōnstantinos, Psalteri, kequem mbas ebra istese vietere skip nde gegeniste prei Konstantinit Kristoforidit, Constantinople, 1872.
• Macrakis, Stavros M., "Character codes for Greek: Problems and modern solutions" in Macrakis, 1996. Includes discussion of the Greek alphabet used for languages other than Greek. [4]

External links

• Learn Albanian Language-Online classes with LIVE Albanian Teachers
• Albanian alphabet on YouTube