

Īlbanian was first attested in the 15th century and it is a descendant of one of the Paleo-Balkan languages of antiquity. With perhaps as many as 7.5 million speakers, it comprises an independent branch within the Indo-European languages and is not closely related to any other modern language. It is spoken by the Albanians in the Balkans and by the Albanian diaspora, which is generally concentrated in the Americas, Europe and Oceania. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.Īlbanian ( endonym: shqipja or gjuha shqipe ) is an Indo-European language and an independent branch of that language family.

Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. (The map does not indicate where the language is majority or minority.) Map of dialects of the Albanian language.
