Arbëresh language
| Arbëresh | |
|---|---|
| Arbërisht, Arbërishtë, Arbëreshë | |
| Pronunciation | [ˌæɾ.bəˈɾiʃ.t] |
| Native to | Italy |
| Region | Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Molise, Sicily |
Native speakers | 80,000 |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | sq |
| ISO 639-2 | alb (B) sqi (T) |
| ISO 639-3 | aae |
| ELP | Arbëreshë |
Arbëresh (or Arbërishte or Arbërisht) is the dialect of the Albanian language spoken by the Arbëreshë, the Albanian-speaking minority in Italy. It derives from the Tosk dialect spoken in southern Albania, and is spoken in Southern Italy in the regions of Calabria, Molise, Puglia, Basilicata, Campania, Abruzzi and Sicily. The same name is also used as a native name for Arvanitika, the Albanian varieties in Greece. Both groups of dialects are closely related with each other.
Arbërisht retains many archaisms of medieval Albanian from the pre-Ottoman invasion of the country period of the 14th century and has continued up to 18th cenury. It also retains some Greek language elements probably from the migration of the Arvanitika population which lived in Greece which also hapened during those centuries.
Arbërisht has been under a slow decline in recent decades, but is currently experiencing a revival in many villages in Italy. Figures such as Zef Skiroi have done much work on school books and other language learning tools in the language.
External links
- Ethnologue: Languages of the World (unknown ed.). SIL International.[This citation is dated, and should be substituted with a specific edition of Ethnologue]