If you're trying to learn the Albanian Alphabet you will find some useful resources including a course about pronunciation, and sound of all letters... to help you with your Albanian grammar. Try to concentrate on the lesson and memorize the sounds. Also don't forget to check the rest of our other lessons listed on Learn Albanian. Enjoy the rest of the lesson!
Learning the Albanian alphabet is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. Without it, you will not be able to say words properly even if you know how to write those words. The better you pronounce a letter in a word, the more understood you will be in speaking the Albanian language.
Below is a table showing the Albanian alphabet and how it is pronounced in English, and finally examples of how those letters would sound if you place them in a word.
| Albanian Alphabet | English Sound | Pronunciation Example |
|---|---|---|
| A | a | as in far |
| B | b | as in boot |
| C | t͡s | as in bats |
| Ç | t͡ʃ | as in chat |
| D | d | as in drop |
| Dh | ð | as in there |
| E | ɛ | as in enter |
| Ë | ə | as in abuck |
| F | f | as in flee |
| G | ɡ | as in gulf |
| Gj | ɟ | as in join (soft g)(there is no equivalent english sound) |
| H | h | as in hotel |
| I | i | as in see |
| J | j | as in yawn |
| K | q | as in keep |
| L | l | as in leave |
| Ll | ɫ | as in balloon |
| M | m | as in mingle |
| N | n | as in no |
| Nj | ɲ | as in onion |
| O | o | as in post |
| P | p | as in pencil |
| Q | c | as in mature (soft ch, no english equivalent,like german ich) |
| R | ɾ | as in read |
| Rr | r | as in borrow (rolled) |
| S | s | as in sun |
| Sh | ʃ | as in shoot |
| T | t | as in trespasser |
| Th | θ | as in thin |
| U | u | as in food |
| V | v | as in vivid |
| X | d͡z | as in adz |
| Xh | d͡ʒ | as in Jupiter |
| Y | y | as in new(no english equivalent, like turkish,hungarian,german ü) |
| Z | z | as in zoo |
| Zh | ʒ | as in pleasure |
Standard Albanian has 7 vowels and 29 consonants. Gheg uses long and nasal vowels which are absent in Tosk. Another peculiarity is the mid-central vowel "ë" reduced at the end of the word. The stress is fixed mainly on the penultimate syllable. Another notable difference between Gheg and Tosk pronunciations is that the Tosk equivalent of the Gheg sound "n" (as in femën, emën etc.) is the sound "r" (femër, emër etc.) It is noteworthy that in loanwords, the Gheg dialect retains the original "n" sound, like in "femën" (Italian "femminile", English "feminine", etc.), while this is not the case with the Tosk, which uses "r" instead ("femër").
You saw how a letter is written and might be pronounced, but there is nothing better than hearing the sound of the letters in a video or audio. Below you will be able to hear how the letters above are pronounced, just press the play button:
| Albanian Pronunciation |
|---|
The alphabet and its pronunciation have a very important role in Albanian. Once you're done with Albanian alphabet, you might want to check the rest of our Albanian lessons here: Learn Albanian. Don't forget to bookmark this page.
Menu: | |||
The links above are only a small sample of our lessons, please open the left side menu to see all links.