Albanian

I'd be glad to help with translations to and from Albanian.

Albanian is loved by linguists, being, similar to the Greek, an ancient Indo-European, pre-Slavic language of the Balkans. It is spoken by some 10 mil people in a range of countries, numbering Albania, Kosova, FYROM, Montenegro, Serbia, Greece, Turkey, as well as in Albanian enclaves in Italy, Croatia, and Russia. Spoken Albanian has two major dialects, i.e. Northern (Gegë) and Southern (Toskë); difference being kind off as American and Brittish: you get it, but it sounds funny. Northern dialect is spoken North of river Shkumbin, i.e. in Central and Northern Albania, Kosova, FYROM, Presheva valley in Southern Serbia, Montenegro, as well as in a number of ethnic Albanian enclaves in Croatia. Southern Albanian (Toskë) dialect is spoken South of river Shkumbin, in Southern Albania, in Çamëria region of Northern Greece, ethnic Albanian enclaves in Sicilia and Calabria of Italy, as well as in isolated ethnic enclaves outside Odessa, Russia. You can find scattered enclaves of Albanian speakers in Turkey, Bulgaria, Egypt, Syria, and Romania, too.

An Indo-European speaker should instantly recognize a large pool of words in Albanian, mainly agricultural and wether-orientated: Natë for Night, Mjelë for Milking, Qilar för Cellar and so on. A huge part of the vocabulary is of old, pre-Vulgata Latin descendence, since the region was an integrated part of the Roman Empire for almost a millenia. Albanian has also borrowed from and to Southern Slavic tongues, and, similar to its neighbours, it has received a strong influx from the Persial influated Turkish language of the Osman Empire, which was Lingua Franca in the region for 5 centuries. The core of the language seems to bee, though, a mixture of Pellasgian, i.e. Illyrian and ancient Trachian dialects, as old as, or older, than the ancient Greek. Standardized 1921 and 1970, Albanian has 36 letters which are written in Latin alphabet; although one might argue that it actualy lacks e few more, since the pronounciation of the letters sometimes differs.

Shortly on myself. Although I have academic schooling, I have no titles in linguistics. But I do have some basic training in translation skills, from the days when I worked as an interpreter. My passion are the litterary translations, I have translated an anthology of Albanian poetry to Swedish, and vice-versa. It goes almost without saying that I've been raized in a multi-lingual family, where studying languages and researching in Albanian studies was common ;-)

So, why am I doing this, i.e. working for free here at the Shalqini (Alanian for the Cucumis)? Well, the plain answer should be, that I need help too, sometimes, from professionals and others who work with languages. In other words, it is the old I scratch your back... thing.

Welcome aboard! You noticed that cucumis.org community is very young but I hope that more people like you will join us soon and will be able to help you.
I'm currently developing a wiki engine for cucumis.org that will open the gate to everything we'll like to tell. For example, what you said in this message about albanian is very interesting, but it would fit better in a wiki article than in a forum message. In a wiki article you can modify it, improve it etc...
I hope to release the wiki engine soon. Thanks again for your help.

Welcome, I knew few Albanian, maybe you can be my teacher in this language!!

I'm from China, you can call me pluiepoco.

Best Regards,

Hi, I am albanian too and my name is Lejda and just discovered this site. I am fond of foreign languages especially English and French.
So tell me how to be helpful.
Bye

Hi lejda, welcome here . bamberbi will be happy to have some help.

If you wish to help us translating into albanian, this is the url for the list of albanian translations to do
There are also the wiki articles to translate into albanian.
If your fernch or your english are fluent you can also make translations into these langauges : list of french translations to do
list of english translations to do

Take your time to understand how it works. Post again in the forums if it's not clear to you.

hi i'm an albanian too..i just discovered this site myself and i'm enjoying this very much...i'm fond of languages..mainly i speak albanian fluently,hebrew, english and some italian..actually i have no experience in translations beside some work i did to fulfill my accademic degree...anyhow i would like very much this experience in this site so please use me to help u and so i can help myself to gain some experience in transtlations thank you..

hi i'm albanian too haha just kidding but really though i am, so what up my peopleee? Shqiptari , i only got one thing to say to you Damnnnnnnn what was that?? . .. the Albanian language history??? that was long, but aaanyways, im happy you all are here , i'm kind of new to the web but getting used to it, and liking it more and more.ok take care ciao Shpresoj te flasim me von ose te njihemi heret a von me te gjith shqiptaret ketu ciao

Hi nga une, I've noticed you are helping a lot with albanian translations. Thanks a lot!

my pleasure JP