Albanian alphabet

This article is about the alphabet of the Albanian language. See Albanian alphabet (Caucasian) for the other one.

The modern Albanian alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, and consists of 36 letters:

History

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

• The Greek alphabet was used to write Tosk starting in about 1500 (Elsie, 1991). The printing press at Moschopolis 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 Arabic alphabet in its Ottoman Turkish form, favored by Muslims.
• The Elbasan script (18th century) was a local script used in central Albania. (Omniglot)
• The Beitha Kukju script (1840) was another local script, named for its inventor. (Omniglot)
• The Cyrillic alphabet (Christophoridēs, 1872).
• The Latin alphabet, using various conventions:
  • Naum Veqilharxhi's Evetor: in 1824, he wanted Albanians to have Latin based alphabet instead of being influenced by Greek and Arabic ones. He formed a 33-letter Latin-based alphabet. This alphabet was mainly used in southern Albania.
  • 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, similar to Istanbul, was developed by the Albanian literary society Bashkimi (The Union) in Shkodër with the help of Catholic clergy and Franciscans that aimed to be simpler.
  • Agimi, developed by another literary society called Agimi (The Dawn) and spearheaded by Ndre Mjeda in 1901.

In November 1908, an alphabet Congress was held in Monastir. It aimed to unify Albanians behind one 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 one and a new Latin one.

During 1909 and 1910 there were movements by Young Turks supporters to adopt an Arabic script alphabet as they considered the Latin script to be against religious law and Islam. In Korçë and Gjirokastër, demonstrations took place favoring the Latin alphabet, whereas in Elbasan a demonstration for the Arabic alphabet took place led by Muslim clerics (hoxhas) that told Muslims they would be infidels if they used the Latin script.

In 1911, the Young Turks dropped their opposition to the Latin script and finally the modified Bashkimi alphabet that is still used today was adopted. Both Ghegs in the northern Albania and Tosks in the south adopted the alphabet though their respective dialects of Albanian differ somewhat.

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]

See also

• Albanian language
• Alphabets derived from the Latin
• Learn Albanian Language-Online classes with LIVE Albanian Teachers

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