Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Albanian language" in English language version.
Demiraj, B.; Esposito, A. (2009). "Albanian". In Brown, Keith; Ogilvie, Sarah (eds.). Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-08-087774-7."...these innovations, as those that are also evident in different varieties of Gheg, are not such as to impede communication between speakers of the two dialects. Furthermore, the major part of the Albanian lexicon is common to the two dialects."
Demiraj, B.; Esposito, A. (2009). "Albanian". In Brown, Keith; Ogilvie, Sarah (eds.). Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-08-087774-7."The river Shkumbin in central Albania historically forms the boundary between those two dialects, with the population on the north speaking varieties of Geg and the population on the south varieties of Tosk."
Demiraj, B.; Esposito, A. (2009). "Albanian". In Brown, Keith; Ogilvie, Sarah (eds.). Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World. Elsevier. ISBN 978-0-08-087774-7."In Tosk /a/ before a nasal has become a central vowel (shwa), and intervocalic /n/ has become /r/. These two sound changes have affected only the pre-Slav stratum of the Albanian lexicon, that is the native words and loanwords from Greek and Latin."
The modern Albanian language, it has been conjectured, is descendent directly from ancient Illyrian ...
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Hamp, Eric P. (1963). "The Position of Albanian, Ancient IE dialects". In Birnbaum, Henrik; Puhvel, Jaan (eds.). Proceedings of the Conference on IE linguistics held at the University of California, Los Angeles, April 25–27, 1963. Katicic, Radoslav (2012). Ancient Languages of the Balkans. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3111568874.Demiraj, Shaban (2006). The origin of the Albanians: linguistically investigated. Tirana: Academy of Sciences of Albania. ISBN 978-99943-817-1-5."It is the case of the evolution of stressed /a-/ and partly stressed /e-/ in front of a nasal consonant to /ë-/ in thee southern dialect. While the evolution /a-/ > /ë/ in front of a nasal consonant has involved the southern dialect, the evolution /e-/ > /-ë/ in the same phonetic conditions has not taken place in the northern part and partly in the eastern part of that dialect (...). This phonetic phenomenon has appeared earlier than rhotacism, as it is clearly evidenced in such examples as llanë > llërë, ranë > rërë etc., in which the evolution /a-/ > /ë-/ could not take place before /-r-/. Since this phonetic change has not appeared in the Slavic loanwords of Albanian, but has involved mainly the I.E. inherited words as well as the loans from Old Greek (compare mokënë > mokërë < mākhanāʼ etc.) and from Latin (compare ranë > rërë > arena etc.), it has generally been acknowledged that it has taken place in the pre-Slavic period of Albanian. Its sporadic appearance in a very reduced number of Slavic loanwords is due to the action of analogy with similar cases of inherited or more ancient loans of Albanian."
The Greek and Latin loans have undergone most of the far-reaching phonological changes which have so altered the shape of inherited IE words while Slavic and Turkish words do not show these changes. Thus Albanian must have acquired much of its present form by the time Slavs entered into the Balkans in the fifth and sixth centuries AD [middle of p. 11] [...] The loan words from Greek and Latin date back to before the Christian era [p. 9] [...] Even very common words such as mik ʻfriendʼ (< Lat amicus) or këndoj ʻI sing; readʼ (< Lat cantāre) come from Latin and attest to a widespread intermingling of pre-Albanian and Balkan Latin speakers during the Roman period, roughly from the second century BC to the fifth century AD. [before middle of p. 11]
Demiraj, Shaban (2006). The origin of the Albanians: linguistically investigated. Tirana: Academy of Sciences of Albania. ISBN 978-99943-817-1-5."...such sporadic analogical cases do not reverse the generally acknowledged conclusion that this dialectal peculiarity as a phonetic process has appeared in pre-Slavic period of Albanian and is relatively more ancient than the rhotacism. It has most probably appeared not later than the V-VI centuries A.D."
Demiraj, Shaban (2006). The origin of the Albanians: linguistically investigated. Tirana: Academy of Sciences of Albania. ISBN 978-99943-817-1-5."And, as it was pointed out in §3, since the dialectal differentiations have appeared in a certain geographical area, one is entitled to draw the conclusion that the speakers of the northern and southern dialects have been present in their actual areas in the Post-Roman and Pre-Slavic period of Albanian."
It [Albanian] is the official language of Albania, the co-official language of Kosovo, and the co-official language of many western municipalities of the Republic of Macedonia. Albanian is also spoken widely in some areas in Greece, southern Montenegro, southern Serbia, and in some towns in southern Italy and Sicily.
In addition to the recent emigrants, there are older diasporic communities around the world. There are upwards of 5 million ethnic Albanians in the Turkish Republic; however, the vast majority of this population is assimilated and no longer possesses fluency in the language, though a vibrant Albanian community maintains its distinct identity in Istanbul to this day. Egypt also lays claim to some 18,000 Albanians, supposedly lingering remnants of Mohammad Ali's army.
Though the origin of the language has been debated, the prevailing opinion in the literature is that it is a descendant of Illyrian (Hetzer 1995).
Though the origin of the language has been debated, the prevailing opinion in the literature is that it is a descendant of Illyrian (Hetzer 1995).
... for example, argues that from some indeterminate time a pre-Albanian (in Hamp's terms, Albanoid) population inhabited areas stretching from Poland to the current area
One other point that some scholars make is the fact that Albanian and Romanian share many lexical items; this has led some to believe that Albanian originated east of its present geographical spread (Georgiev 1957; Hamp 1994)...it does not necessarily determine the genealogical history of the language, nor does it rule out the possibility of Proto-Albanian being present in both Illyrian and Thracian territory.
Though the origin of the language has been debated, the prevailing opinion in the literature is that it is a descendant of Illyrian (Hetzer 1995).
Article 5 [Languages] 1. The official languages in the Republic of Kosovo are Albanian and Serbian. ...
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Hamp, Eric P. (1963). "The Position of Albanian, Ancient IE dialects". In Birnbaum, Henrik; Puhvel, Jaan (eds.). Proceedings of the Conference on IE linguistics held at the University of California, Los Angeles, April 25–27, 1963. Katicic, Radoslav (2012). Ancient Languages of the Balkans. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3111568874.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Hamp, Eric P. (1963). "The Position of Albanian, Ancient IE dialects". In Birnbaum, Henrik; Puhvel, Jaan (eds.). Proceedings of the Conference on IE linguistics held at the University of California, Los Angeles, April 25–27, 1963. Katicic, Radoslav (2012). Ancient Languages of the Balkans. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3111568874.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian and Croatian shall also be in the official use.