Tosk Albanian

Tosk
toskë, toskërisht
Region Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Italy, Turkey
Native speakers
 1.8 million (2011 census)[1]
Albanian alphabet, formerly Elbasan, Greek[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 als
Glottolog tosk1239[3]
Linguasphere 55-AAA-aca to 55-AAA-ace
A map showing Tosk speakers in red and orange

Tosk (Albanian: toskë/toskërisht) is the southern dialect group of the Albanian language, spoken by the ethnographic group known as Tosks. The line of demarcation between Tosk and Gheg (the northern dialect) is the Shkumbin River. Tosk is the basis of the standard Albanian language.

Major Tosk-speaking groups include the Myzeqars of Myzeqe, Labs of Labëria and Chams of Çamëria. The Arvanites of Greece and Arbëreshë of Italy are descendants of Tosk-speaking settlers, as are the original inhabitants of Mandritsa in Bulgaria. In the Republic of Macedonia, there were approximately 3000 speakers in the early 1980s.[4]

Tosk features

  • Rhotacism: Proto-Albanian *-n- becomes -r- (e.g. rëra "sand")
  • Proto-Albanian *ō becomes va.
  • Nasal vowels: There is a lack of nasal vowels in Tosk (e.g. sy "eye") and Late Proto-Albanian *â plus a nasal becomes ë (e.g. nëntë "nine").
  • e-vowel: The e becomes ë in some dialects in some words qën for qen in Vjosë.
  • ë-vowel: The ë may have several pronunciations depending on dialect: the ë is more backed in Labërisht dialects like that of Vuno, where mëz "foal" is [mʌz]). Final -ë drops in many Tosk dialects and lengthens the preceding vowel.
  • y-vowel: The y vowel often derounds to i in Labërisht, Çam, Arvanitika and Arbëresh (e.g. dy "two" becomes di).
  • Dh and Ll: These sounds may interchange in some words in some dialects.
  • H: This may drop in any position in some dialects.
  • Gl/Kl: Some dialects such as Çam, Arberësh, and Arvanitika retain kl and gl in place of q and gj (e.g. gjuhë "tongue" is gluhë in Çam, gluhë in Arberësh, and gljuhë in Arvanitika; "klumësh" for "qumësht" "milk" in Arbëresh).
  • Rr: Rr becomes r in some dialects.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Tosk at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Tosk Albanian at Ethnologue (21st ed., 2018)
  3. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Tosk Albanian". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. ↑ Language Contact - Language Conflict. p. 36. Thus, for example, even the small numbers of Tosk Albanians of southern Macedonia (only approximately 3,000 in the early 1980s)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.