Albanian alphabet

From MedBib.com - Medicine & Nature

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

Note: The vowels are shown in bold. Listen (help·info) to the pronunciation of the letters.

History

The modern Latin-based Albanian alphabet is the result of long evolution. Before the creation of the unified alphabet, Albanian was written in six different alphabets, with several sub-variants:

• The Latin alphabet, using various conventions:
  • The oldest surviving Albanian document of the 15th century was written in the Latin alphabet. Early Albanian writers such as Gjon Buzuku, Pjetër Bogdani, Pjetër Budi, and Frang Bardhi also used a Latin-based script, adding 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. It used digraphs for unique sounds of the Albanian language. It resembles the current alphabet with the differences being the use of ch for ç, c for q, ts for c, é for e, e for ë, gh for gj, gn for nj, z/zh for x/xh, and x/xh for z/zh.
  • Agimi, developed by the Agimi ("Dawn") Literary Society in 1901, and spearheaded by Ndre Mjeda. It made use of diacritcs instead of digraphs used by Bashkimi.
• 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.

On November 22, 1908, a Congress was held in Bitola (Albanian name: Manastiri) regarding the unification of written Albanian into a single alphabet. Prominent delegates included Gjergj Fishta, Ndre Mjeda, Midhat Frashëri, Sotir Peci, Shahin Kolonja, and Gjergj D. Qiriazi. 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, with minor changes, and an modified version of the Bashkimi alphabet. During 1909 and 1910 there were movements by Young Turks supporters to adopt an Arabic alphabet, as they considered the Latin-based alphabet to be un-Islamic. In Korçë and Gjirokastër, demonstrations took place favoring the Latin-based alphabet, and in Elbasan, Muslim clerics led a demonstration for the Arabic alphabet, telling their congregations that using the Latin alphabet would make them infidels. In 1911, the Young Turks dropped their opposition to the Latin-based alphabet; finally, the modified Bashkimi alphabet was adopted, and is still used today.

The modifications to the Bashkimi alphabet were made to include characters used in the Istanbul and Agimi alphabets. Ç was chosen over ch since c with cedilla could be found on every typewriter, given its extensive use in Romance languages. Other changes were more esthetic and as a way to combine the three scripts.

Keyboard Layouts

Windows XP default

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

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)

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

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

• Instalimi i tastierës shqipe me Windows XP
• Albanian alphabet on YouTube