Albanian

About Albanian

Albanian (Shqip) is an Indo-European language spoken in Albania (north of Greece). It forms its own branch in Indo-European, but is distantly related to English, Greek, Russian, and Latin.

Standard Albanian is based on the Tosk dialect, but the Gheg dialect is also spoken in Albania. Albanian communities can also be found in Kosovo, Italy (Arbëresh), Greece (Arvanitika), Macedonia and elsewhere. Not all Albanian forms may be mutually intelligible.

• Albanian Language Net
• National SEERLC Albanian Webliography
• Wikipedia Albanian Language

Windows ALT Codes

In Windows, combinations of the ALT key plus a numeric code from the number keypad can be used to type a non-English character in any Windows application.

See the detailed instructions on the ALT Code How To for complete information on implementing the code. Additional options for entering accents in Windows are also listed in the Accents section of this Web site.

Quick Examples

1. To input capital Ë (ALT+0203), hold down the ALT key then type 0203 (all four digits) on the numeric keypad. The ALT codes do not work with the row of number keys on the top.
2. To input lowercase ë (ALT+0235), change the code from 0203 to 0235.

Additional Accents

Note that some forms beyond Standard Albanian may use additional accented letters. These can be found on the ALT codes or the Character Map page.

International Keyboard

You can also activate and use the U.S. International Keyboard for these codes.

Windows Albanian Keyboard

If you wish to simulate a non U.S. keyboard, follow the instructions for
Activating Keyboard Locales to activate and switch Microsoft keyboards.

Macintosh Accent Codes

On the Macintosh platform, you can use the following Option key combinations.

Example 1: To input the lower case ë, hold down the Option key, then the U key. Release both keys then type lowercase E.
Example 2: To input the capital Ë, hold down the Option key, then the U key. Release both keys then type capital E.

Additional Accents

Note that some forms beyond Standard Albanian may use additional accented letters. These can be found on the Mac Option codes or the Extended Codes page.

Web Development and Language Codes

Historical Encodings

Unicode (utf-8) is the preferred encoding for Web sites. However, the following historic encodings may still be encountered.

• iso-8859-1 (Latin 1),
• iso-8859-15 (adds support for the euro (€)
• win-1252

If possible, you should transition to Unicode.

Language Tags

Language Tags allow browsers and other software to process text more efficiently. They are also important for optimal screen reader accessibility.

Below are some common codes that might be used in the Hispanophone world.

Standard Albanian

The code sq for Standard Albanisnis sufficient for most uses, but other dialectal codes could be useful in some situations.

• sq (Albanian)
• sq-AL (Albanian from Albania)
• es-XK (Kosovo)
  Note: The XK code is not official, but is used in the European Union and other organizations.

ISO-639-3 Codes

In the SIL ISO-639-3 standard some Albanian "dialects" are treated as separate languages.

• sqi (Albanian macrolanguage)
• aae (Arbëreshë, Italy)
• aat (Arvanitika Greece),
• aln (Gheg Albanian)
• aks (Tosk Albanian)

HTML Accent Codes

Use these codes to input accented letters in HTML. For instance, if you want to type fashën you would type fashën

European Quote Marks

Many modern texts use American style quotes, but if you wish to include European style quote marks, here are the codes. Note that these codes may not work in older browsers.

Links

Language

• Albanian Language Net
• National SEERLC Albanian Webliography
• Wikipedia Albanian Language

Unix/Linux

Linux is used in the region so a search for specific issues may be useful.

• Linux Accent Codes (English)
• Alblinux.net (In Albanian)

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