ALBANIAN LANGUAGE. The Albanian forms one of the eight chief divisions of the lndo-Germanic languages (q.v.), and is a de scendant of the ancient Illyrian, of which only a few words are preserved. On account of the large number of Greek loan-words in its vocabu lary, the Albanian was formerly thought to be long to the Hellenic branch of dialects; but it is now known to be quite independent, and to form a branch by itself, akin rather to the Slavic fam ily than to the Greek group. Geographically, the language is not confined to Albania alone, but may be traced also in southern Italy and Sicily. Two main dialect-groups of the language may be distinguished. The northern class, called Gegislr, is the more primitive, while the southern, or Toskish, is permeated with loan-words. Of all the languages of the Indo-Germanic group, Al banian has been the most changed in vocabulary by borrowed words, although it has preserved in the main its structure. The vocabulary of loan wo•ds is chiefly Latin, augmented by Slavic and Greek accretions, and, in Gegish especially, by numerous Turkish words. In point of literary
culture Albanian is the most backward of all the Indo-Germanic languages, and it can scarcely be said to possess a literature. While rich in folk-songs, tales, and proverbs, it is only within a comparatively short time that any systematic endeavor has been made to cultivate the literary potentialities of the people. In the Gegish dia lects the alphabet usually employed is the Ro man, with certain modifications, while the Toskish adopts the Greek letters with some slight changes. Consult: Pisko, Kurzycfasstcs Hand buch der vo•dalbancsischcn Sprachen (Vienna, 1896) ; Dozon, Sian Irel de la league el? uu Albanaise (Paris, 1878) ; G. Meyer, Kurzgrfasste albonesische Grammatik (Leipzig, 1888) ; !Hy inologisches Wort crbueh der albanesischen Sprache (Strassburg, 1891) ; Pedersen, A Um nesisehe Texte (Leipzig, 1895).