Albanian, Arbëreshë
A language of Italy
| Population | 80,000 (1963 L. Newmark). Ethnic population: 260,000 (Stephens 1976). |
| Region | South; Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Molise, Sicily. |
| Alternate names | Arbëreshë |
| Dialects | Sicilian Albanian, Calabrian Albanian, Central Mountain Albanian, Campo Marino Albanian, Molise Albanian. Speakers say the 4 Italian dialects are not mutually inherently intelligible. Lexical similarity: 45% with Tosk Albanian [als]. |
| Classification | Indo-European, Albanian, Tosk A member of macrolanguage Albanian [sqi] (Albania). |
| Language use | Strong position in some districts. Taught in some schools. No official status. Home. Also use Italian and regional Italian varieties. |
| Language development | Bible portions: 1868–1869. |
| Writing system | Latin script. |
| Comments | Descendants of 15th century mercenaries and refugees from the Ottoman invasion. Some literature. Agriculturalists; animal husbandry: sheep. Christian. |
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Ethnologue: Print |
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