Albanian (shqip [ʃcip] or gjuha shqipe [ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ], meaning Albanian language) is an Indo-European language spoken by five million people, primarily in Albania, Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, and Greece, but also in other areas of Southeastern Europe in which there is an Albanian population, including Montenegro and the Preševo Valley of Serbia. Centuries-old communities speaking Albanian-based dialects can be found scattered in Greece, southern Italy,Sicily, and Ukraine. As a result of a modern diaspora, there are also Albanian speakers elsewhere in those countries as well as in other parts of the world, including Austria, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Turkey.

History

The first written mention of the Albanian language was on 14 July 1285 in Dubrovnik (modern-day Croatia), when a certain Matthew, witness of a crime, stated "I heard a voice shouting on the mountainside in the Albanian tongue" (Latin: Audivi unam vocem, clamantem in monte in lingua albanesca). The first audio recording of Albanian was made by Norbert Jokl on 4 April 1914 in Vienna. During the five-century period of the Ottoman presence in Albania, the language was not officially recognized until 1909, when the Congress of Dibra decided that Albanian schools would finally be allowed.