Arberesh dialect

The Arberesh dialect is part of the Tuscan dialect of the Albanian language (it resembles in general the dialect characteristic of the central part of the South of Albania) and has the same deviations from the literary norm as the Arnaut dialect . It is native to the Albanians of southern Italy, borrowed quite a lot from the medieval Albanian language of pre-Ottoman times and from the Greek language (vocabulary and pronunciation), and also preserved what was lost in the modern Tuscan dialect. So, it preserved certain syllable initial consonant clusters, which were simplified in the standard Albanian language (in Arberesh , the language is gluhë , in standard Albanian, gjuhë ).

Until 1990, the Arberesh dialect in Albania was called the Albanian language, and its speakers dimly understood the connection of their dialect with Albanian. Until the 1980s, he was extremely conversational, his writing was used only in the Italian-Albanian Greek Catholic Church, and almost did not own the standard Albanian arberes. In the 1990s, a large number of native speakers of the Albanian language moved to Italy, and the Arberes experienced ambivalence towards these “new Albanians” ^[1] . Currently, efforts are being made to save the Arberesh dialect, its cultural and linguistic heritage: it is taught in Italian schools, and poet Zef Skiro Di Maggio writes books and textbooks on it . Some scholars stand out another dialect - the dialect of Vaccaritstso, which is spoken in the village of Vaccaritstso-Albanese .

Phonology

Vowels

• The letter Ë gives either the sound [ə] or [ʊ̜]. The word Arbëresh is pronounced [ɑɾbəˈɾɛʃ] or [ɑɾbʊ̜ˈɾɛʃ] depending on the dialect
• There is no vowel [y] in the Arberesh dialect, but there is [i]. So, the word ty ('you') becomes ti , and hyni ('enter') becomes hini .

Consonants

• The letters GJ and Q give palatalized sounds [ɡʲ] and [kʲ] in Arberesh (in standard Albanian, respectively, these are [ɟ] and [c]). So, the word gjith ('everything') is pronounced as [ɡʲiθ] in Arberesh (in standard - [ɟiθ]), qiell ('sky') - like [kʲiɛx] (in standard - [ciɛɫ]), shqip ('Albanian' ) - like [ʃkʲɪp].
• The consonant combinations of gl and kl are preserved in some words of the Arberesh dialect (in standard Albanian they turned into gj and q ). So, in arberesh it is written glet instead of gjet ('it looks like ...'), klumësht instead of qumësht ('milk') and klisha instead of kisha ('church').
• The letter H gives the sound [x] as in Greek χαρά ([xaˈra], 'joy'). The word ha ('eat') is pronounced as [xɑ], and not as [h.]. Also there is palatalization [xʲ], which leads to the pronunciation of the word hjedh ('throw') as [xʲɛθ]. The letter HJ is rare.
• The letters LL and G give the sound [ɣ] as in Greek γάλα ([ˈɣala], 'milk'). Most of the words with this spelling have Italian, Sicilian roots, although there are originally Albanian words. The letter G is often replaced by GH in the letter.

Original Albanian words

Borrowed from the Sicilian dialect

Stun Consonants

Unlike the standard Albanian, the Arberesh dialect has an old stunning system. The consonants b, d, g, gj, x, xh, dh, ll, v, z, zh are stunned at the end of a word or before another consonant.

Examples:

• b > p : thelb ('clove') - thelp
• d > t : vend ('place') - vent
• dh > th : zgledh ('read') - zgleth
• g > k : lig ('bad') - lik
• gj > q : zogj ('girls') - zoq
• j > hj : vaj ('oil') - vahj
• ll > h : uthull ('vinegar') - uthuh
• x > c : ndanx ('about') - ndanc
• z > s : loz ('dance') - los
• zh > sh : gozhda ('pin') - goshda

Accent

The accent in the Arberesh dialect falls on the penultimate syllable, as in Italian.

Morphology

The 1st person singular for the verb is characterized by the ending nj (in standard Albanian j ). “I live” will be in Arberesh rró nj , in standard Albanian - rro j .

Borrowing

Greek

The vocabulary of the Arberesh dialect was replenished with Greek words, which were either lost in standard Albanian or consolidated due to Byzantine influence. Examples:

• haristís [xaɾiˈstis] ('give thanks'), from the Greek εὐχαριστῶ [e̞fˌxariˈsto̞] ('thanks'). In Arnaut - fharistisem .
• parkalés [paɾkaˈlɛs] ('please'), from the Greek παρακαλώ [paˌrakaˈlo̞] ('please').
• hórë [xɔˈɾə] ('village'), from the Greek χωρα ('land, village').
• amáhj [aˈmaxʲ] ('war'), from the Greek μάχη [maˈxi] ('battle').

Sicilian

In the Arberesh dialect, there are many borrowings from the southern dialects of Italian, which entered the everyday speech of the arberes and retained their significance. Examples:

• rritrenjët ('toilets'), the Sicilian dialect came from the French, but was not preserved there.
• rritëratë ('picture'), from the Italian ritratto ('picture').
• ghranët ('money'), from the Sicilian granni ; used sometimes by Sicilians. It replaced the Arberesh word haromë of unknown origin.
• qaca ('area'), from Sicilian chiazza ; not to be confused with the standard sheshi , which in arberesh means 'plateau'.

Verbs

Non-Albanian origin

Examples:

• pincar ('think'), in the original mendonj - mbanj mend or mëndinj ; from the Sicilian 'pinzari'. Some conjugation rules passed into the Arberesh dialect.

Present conjugation

• U pincar = I think
• Ti pincar = you think
• Ai / Ajo pincar = He / she thinks
• Na pincarjëm = We think
• Ata / Ato pincarjën = They think
• Ju pincarni = Do you think (plural)

Past tense

• U pincarta = I thought
• Ti pincarte = You thought
• Ai / Ajo pincarti = He thought / she thought
• Na pircartëm = We thought
• Ata / Ato pincartën = They thought
• Ju pincartët = You thought (plural)

Personal pronouns

Declensions

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