Travel with Angela Lansbury: Learning Albanian - the alphabet, and a few easy, useful words

The post below is repeated from last year.

Learning the Albanian language never crossed my mind. Until the last meeting of last year's European hiking group when somebody suggested visiting Albania. Why? Because it was a new destination for us keen travellers - and not too expensive.

Then I started writing a speech, and a blog post to remind myself what to say in my speech, about how you should learn the language of any country you hope to visit on holiday.

My trip might not be to Albania on my next trip, one after that, but why not plan ahead. I thought I would have a quick look at Albanian. Would it be easy?

Duolingo did not offer Albanian. That was a blow. I have signed up for a dozen languages on Duolingo.

I have included Korean, Greek, Chinese, Russian and other languages which are a bit of a challenge and to be left until later, on my second or third list of languages to learn.

Wikipedia

However, Wikipedia gives a useful, long, overview of the Albanian language. It is a bit tiring and tedious. But you can pick out the parts you prefer.

For a start, it tells you how many people speak the language and where. About 7 million, in Albania and a few other places.

Official language in	Albania Kosovo North Macedonia^[a] Montenegro^[3]
Recognised minority language in	Italy^[4] Serbia^[5] Croatia^[6] Romania^[7]

Map portraying countries where Albanian holds official status:

official language;

recognised minority language.

The definite article is placed after the noun as in many other Balkan languages, like in Romanian, Macedonian and Bulgarian.

The definite article can be in the form of noun suffixes, which vary with gender and case.

For example, in singular nominative, masculine nouns add -i, or those ending in -g/-k/-h take -u (to avoid palatalization):
- mal (mountain) / mali (the mountain);
- libër (book) / libri (the book);
- zog (bird) / zogu (the bird).

Feminine nouns take the suffix -(i/j)a:

veturë (car) / vetura (the car);
shtëpi (house) / shtëpia (the house);
lule (flower) / lulja (the flower).

The Albanian alphabet (Albanian: alfabeti shqip) is a variant of the Latin alphabet used to write the Albanian language. It consists of 36 letters:^[1]

Capital letters
A	B	C	Ç	D	Dh	E	Ë	F	G	Gj	H	I	J	K	L	Ll	M	N	Nj	O	P	Q	R	Rr	S	Sh	T	Th	U	V	X	Xh	Y	Z	Zh
Lower case letters
a	b	c	ç	d	dh	e	ë	f	g	gj	h	i	j	k	l	ll	m	n	nj	o	p	q	r	rr	s	sh	t	th	u	v	x	xh	y	z	zh
IPA value
a	b	t͡s	t͡ʃ	d	ð	ɛ	ə	f	ɡ	ɟ͡ʝ	h	i	j	k	l	ɫ	m	n	ɲ	ɔ	p	c͡ç	ɹ	r	s	ʃ	t	θ	u	v	d͡z	d͡ʒ	y	z	ʒ

Note: The vowels are shown in bold.

The letters are named simply by their sounds, followed by ë for consonants (e.g. fë). Listen (help·info) to the pronunciation of the 36 letters.

Translate Google

Next comes translate google. I wanted to find hello, goodbye, welcome and good evening to add to my speech.

Where to start?

On Ling, beginner lessons are free.

Let's organize the words I have found in Ling into an alphabetical list.

Pronunciation

C with a tail is not s as in French but Ch.

Good luck sounds like patch fat.

J is pronounced like y as in year.

So jo, no is yo.

YES AND NO

The Albanians, like the Bulgarians, nod for no and shake their heads for yes. I did not find this a problem in Bulgaria. You just have to listen to what they say, and rely less on body language.

THE

English - Albanian

bird/the bird - zog/zogu (not just a bird, zog - ooh! this one)

flower - lule

the flower - lulja (the suffix or addition adds the word the - think of it as a flower - that one! Ya, yes, that one)

mountain/the mountain - mal/mali (another suffix or addition for the, a mountain ee! this one, the one)

Albanian - English

lule - flower

lulja - the flower

mal/mali - mountain/the mountain

zog/zogu - bird/the bird

How do you remember these words. I say the "a /an" version by looking upwards. Zog,is bird, a bird, one of many. Then I point and say zogu, meaning the bird.

Negatives

Numbers

Numerals

një—one	tetëmbëdhjetë—eighteen
dy—two	nëntëmbëdhjetë—nineteen
tri/tre—three	njëzet—twenty
katër—four	njëzet e një—twenty-one
pesë—five	njëzet e dy—twenty-two
gjashtë—six	tridhjetë—thirty
shtatë—seven	dyzet/katërdhjetë—forty
tetë—eight	pesëdhjetë—fifty
nëntë—nine	gjashtëdhjetë/trezet—sixty
dhjetë—ten	shtatëdhjetë—seventy
njëmbëdhjetë—eleven	tetëdhjetë/katërzet—eighty
dymbëdhjetë—twelve	nëntëdhjetë—ninety
trembëdhjetë—thirteen	njëqind—one hundred
katërmbëdhjetë—fourteen	pesëqind—five hundred
pesëmbëdhjetë—fifteen	një mijë—one thousand
gjashtëmbëdhjetë—sixteen	një milion—one million
shtatëmbëdhjetë—seventeen	një miliard—one billion