# Arvanitika

Arvanitika (/ˌɑːrvəˈnɪtɪkə/; Arvanitika: αρbε̰ρίσ̈τ, romanized: arbërisht; Greek: αρβανίτικα, romanized: arvanítika), also known as Arvanitic, is the variety of Albanian traditionally spoken by the Arvanites, a population group in Greece. Arvanitika was brought to southern Greece during the late Middle Ages by Albanian settlers who moved south from their homeland in present-day Albania in several waves. The dialect preserves elements of medieval Albanian, while also being significantly influenced by the Greek language. Arvanitika is today endangered, as its speakers have been shifting to the use of Greek and most younger members of the community no longer speak it.

## Name

The name Arvanítika and its native equivalent Arbërisht are derived from the ethnonym Arvanites, which in turn comes from the toponym Arbën or Arbër (Greek: Άρβανον), which in the Middle Ages referred to a region in modern Albania. Its native equivalents (Arbërorë, Arbëreshë and others) used to be the self-designation of Albanians in general. In the past Arvanitika had sometimes been described as "Graeco-Albanian" and the like (e.g., Furikis, 1934); although today many Arvanites consider such names offensive, they generally identify nationally and ethnically as Greeks and not Albanians.

## Classification

Arvanitika is part of the Tosk dialect group of Albanian, and as such closely related to the varieties spoken across southern Albania. It is also closely related to Arbëresh, the dialect of Albanian in Italy, which largely goes back to Arvanite settlers from Greece. Italian Arbëresh has retained some words borrowed from Greek (for instance haristis 'thank you', from ευχαριστώ; dhrom 'road', from δρόμος; Ne 'yes', from ναι, in certain villages). Italo-Arbëresh and Graeco-Arvanitika have a mutually intelligible vocabulary base, the unintelligible elements of the two dialects stem from the usage of Italian or Greek modernisms in the absence of native ones. While linguistic scholarship unanimously describes Arvanitika as a dialect of Albanian many Arvanites are reported to dislike the use of the name "Albanian" to designate it.
Sociolinguistic work has described Arvanitika within the conceptual framework of "ausbausprachen" and "abstandssprachen". In terms of "abstand" (objective difference of the linguistic systems), linguists' assessment of the degree of mutual intelligibility between Arvanitika and Standard Tosk range from fairly high to only partial (Ethnologue). The Ethnologue also mentions that mutual intelligibility may even be problematic between different subdialects within Arvanitika. Mutual intelligibility between Standard Tosk and Arvanitika is higher than that between the two main dialect groups within Albanian, Tosk and Gheg. See below for a sample text in the three language forms. Trudgill (2004: 5) sums up that "[l]inguistically, there is no doubt that [Arvanitika] is a variety of Albanian".
In terms of "ausbau" (sociolinguistic "upgrading" towards an autonomous standard language), the strongest indicator of autonomy is the existence of a separate writing system, the Greek-based Arvanitic alphabet. A very similar system was formerly in use also by other Tosk Albanian speakers between the 16th and 18th century. However, this script is very rarely used in practice today, as Arvanitika is almost exclusively a spoken language confined to the private sphere. There is also some disagreement amongst Arvanites (as with the Aromanians) as to whether the Latin alphabet should be used to write their language. Spoken Arvanitika is internally richly diversified into sub-dialects, and no further standardization towards a common (spoken or written) Standard Arvanitika has taken place. At the same time, Arvanites do not use Standard Albanian as their standard language either, as they are generally not literate in the Latin-based standard Albanian orthography, and are not reported to use spoken-language media in Standard Albanian. In this sense, then, Arvanitika is not functionally subordinated to Standard Albanian as a dachsprache ("roof language"), in the way dialects of a national language within the same country usually are.

## Geographic distribution

There are three main groups of Arvanitic settlements in Greece. Most Arvanites live in the south of Greece, across Attica, Boeotia, the Peloponnese and some neighbouring areas and islands. A second, smaller group live in the northwest of Greece, in a zone contiguous with the Albanian-speaking lands proper. A third, outlying group is found in the northeast of Greece, in a few villages in Thrace.
According to some authors, the term "Arvanitika" in its proper sense applies only to the southern group or to the southern and the Thracian groups together i.e. to those dialects that have been separated from the core of Albanian for several centuries. The dialects in the northwest are reported to be more similar to neighbouring Tosk dialects within Albania and to the speech of the former Cham Albanians (Çamërishte), who used to live in the same region. These dialects are classified by Ethnologue as part of core Tosk Albanian, as opposed to "Arvanitika Albanian" in the narrow sense, although Ethnologue notes that the term "Arvanitika" is also often applied indiscriminately to both forms in Greece. In their own language, some groups in the north-west are reported to use the term Shqip (Albanian language) to refer to their own language as well as to that of Albanian nationals, and this has sometimes been interpreted as implying that they are ethnically Albanians. The Arvanitika of southern Greece is richly sub-divided into local dialects. Sasse (1991) distinguishes as many as eleven dialect groups within that area: West Attic, Southeast Attic, Northeast-Attic-Boeotian, West Boeotian, Central Boeotian, Northeast Peloponnesian, Northwest Peloponnesian, South Peloponnesian, West Peloponnesian, Euboean, and Andriote.
Estimated numbers of speakers of Arvanitika vary widely, between 30,000 and 150,000. These figures include "terminal speakers" (Tsitsipis 1998) of the younger generation, who have only acquired an imperfect command of the language and are unlikely to pass it on to future generations. The number of villages with traditional Arvanite populations is estimated to more than 500. There are no monolingual Arvanitika-speakers, as all are today bilingual in Greek. Arvanitika is considered an endangered language due to the large-scale language shift towards Greek in recent decades.

## Characteristics

Arvanitika shares many features with the Tosk dialect spoken in Southern Albania. However, it has received a great deal of influence from Greek, mostly related to the vocabulary and the phonological system. At the same time, it is reported to have preserved some conservative features that were lost in mainstream Albanian Tosk. For example, it has preserved certain syllable-initial consonant clusters which have been simplified in Standard Albanian (cf. Arvanitika gljuhë /ˈɡʎuxə/ ('language/tongue'), vs. Standard Albanian gjuhë /ˈɟuhə/).
In recent times, linguists have observed signs of accelerated structural convergence towards Greek and structural simplification of the language, which have been interpreted as signs of "language attrition", i.e. effects of impoverishment leading towards language death.

## Writing system

Arvanitika has rarely been written. Reportedly (GHM 1995), it has been written in both the Greek alphabet (often with the addition of the letters b, d, e and j, or diacritics, e.g.) and the Latin alphabet. Orthodox Tosk Albanians also used to write with a similar form of the Greek alphabet (e.g. ).
Texts in Arvanitika have survived in the private correspondence between Arvanites who used the dialect. Such is the correspondence of Ioannis Orlandos with Georgios Kountouriotis and other letters by members of the Kountouriotis family written in the Arvanitika of Hydra with Greek script.
In public use, Arvanitika has been used in election pamphlets of Attica and Boeotia in the 19th century. These pamphlets were published in Greek and Arvanitika for the better propagation of party lines among Arvanites and to ease communication between non-Arvanite candidates who could not speak Arvanitika and Arvanite voters.
Arvanitic script :
| Arvanitic | Albanian | IPA |
| Α α | A a | /a/ |
| Β β | V v | /v/ |
| Ƃ b | B b | /b/ |
| Γ γ | G g | /g/ |
| Γϳ γϳ | Gj gj | /ɟ/ |
| Δ δ | Dh dh | /ð/ |
| D d | D d | /d/ |
| E ε | E e | /ɛ/ |
| E̱ ε̱ | Ë ë | /ə/ |
| Ζ ζ | Z z | /z/ |
| Ζ̇ ζ̇ | Zh zh | /ʒ/ |
| Θ θ | Th th | /θ/ |
| Ι ι | I i | /i/ |
| Ϳ ϳ | J j | /j/ |
| K κ | K k | /k/ |
| K̇ κ̇ | Q q | /c/ |
| Λ λ | L l | /l/ |
| Λλ λλ | Ll ll | /ɫ/ |
| Λ̇ λ̇ | Lj lj | /ʎ/ |
| Μ μ | M m | /m/ |
| Ν ν | N n | /n/ |
| Ν̇ ν̇ | Nj nj | /ɲ/ |
| O o | O o | /ɔ/ |
| Π π | P p | /p/ |
| Ρ ρ | R r | /ɾ/ |
| Ṗ ρ̇ | Rr rr | /r/ |
| Σ σ | S s | /s/ |
| Σ̈ σ̈ | Sh sh | /ʃ/ |
| Τ τ | T t | /t/ |
| ȣ ȣ | U u | /u/ |
| Υ υ | Y y | /y/ |
| Φ φ | F f | /f/ |
| Χ χ | H h | /x/ |
| Χ̇ χ̇ | Hj hj | /xʲ/ |
| Τσ τσ | C c | /t͡s/ |
| Τσ̈ τσ̈ | Ç ç | /t͡ʃ/ |
| Dσ dσ | X x | /d͡z/ |
| Dσ̈ dσ̈ | Xh xh | /d͡ʒ/ |

## Language samples
### Grammar

Source: Arvanitikos Syndesmos Ellados

#### Pronouns

| | | | Personal pronouns | Personal pronouns | Possessive pronouns | Possessive pronouns |
| 1st person | singular | singular | û | I | ími | mine |
| 1st person | plural | plural | ne | we | íni | ours |
| 2nd person | singular | singular | ti | you | íti | yours |
| 2nd person | plural | plural | ju | you | júai | yours |
| 3rd person | singular | masc. | ái | he | atía | his |
| 3rd person | singular | fem. | ajó | she | asája | hers |
| 3rd person | plural | masc. | atá | they (M) | atíre | theirs |
| 3rd person | plural | fem. | ató | they (F) | atíre | theirs |

#### Verb paradigms

| | The verb HAVE | The verb HAVE | The verb HAVE | The verb HAVE | The verb BE | The verb BE | The verb BE | The verb BE |
| | PRES | IMPERF | SUBJ.IMPERF | SUBJ.PERF | PRES | IMPERF | SUBJ.IMPERF | SUBJ.PERF |
| 1SG | kam | keshë | të kem | të keshë | jam | jeshë | të jem | të jeshë |
| 2SG | ke | keshe | të kesh | të keshe | je | jeshe | të jesh | të jëshe |
| 3SG | ka | kish | të ket | të kish | ishtë, është | ish | të jet | të ish |
| 1PL | kemi | keshëm | të kemi | te keshëm | jemi | jeshëm | të jeshëm | të jeshëm |
| 2PL | kine | keshëtë | të kini | te keshëtë | jini | jeshëtë | të jeshëtë | të jeshëtë |
| 3PL | kanë | kishnë | të kenë | të kishnë | janë | ishnë | të jenë | të ishnë |

#### Comparison with other forms of Albanian

* Áti ýnë që jé ndë qiéjet
* Ãτι ύνε̱ κ̇ε̱ ϳέ νdε̱ κ̇ιέϳετ
* Ati ynë që je në qiell
* Ati ynë që je në qiell
* Tata ghine cë jee në chiex
* Our father who art in heaven
* ushënjtëróft' émëri ýt
* ȣσ̈ε̱ν̇τε̱ρόφτ' έμε̱ρι ύτ
* u shenjtëroftë emri yt
* shënjtnue kjoftë emni yt
* schetruarë clost embri ghit
* hallowed be thy name
* árthtë mbëretëría jóte
* άρθτε̱ μƅε̱ρετε̱ρία ϳότε
* arthtë mbretëria jote
* ardhtë m(b)retënia jote
* jar reghria jòte (jar mbretëria jòte)
* thy kingdom come
* ubëftë dashurími ýt
* ȣƅε̱φτε̱ dασ̈ȣρίμι ύτ
* u bëftë dashurimi yt (u bëftë vullnesa jote)
* u baftë dashnimi yt (u baftë vullneti yt)
* bûrë clost vulema jùte
* thy will be done
* si ndë qiél, edhé mbë dhét
* σι νdε̱ κ̇ιέl, εδέ μƅε̱ δέτ
* si në qiell, edhe mbi dhe (si në qiell, ashtu në tokë)
* si në qiell, edhe m(b)y dheu (si në qiell, ashtu në tokë)
* si në chiext, astu në dee
* on earth, as it is in heaven
* búkënë tónë të përdítëshimen'
* ƅȣ́κε̱νε̱ τόνε̱ τε̱ πε̱ρdίτε̱σ̈ιμεν'
* bukën tonë të përditëshme
* bukën tonë të përditshmen
* bucnë tënë tëdiscmen
* our daily bread
* ép-na néve sót
* έπ-να νέβε σότ
* na e jep sot
* epna neve sod
* emna sòt
* give us this day
* edhé fálj-na fájetë tóna
* εδέ φάλ̇-να φάϳετε̱ τόνα
* edhe na i fal fajet tona
* edhë falna fajët tona
* e ndiena meatëtë tona
* and forgive us our trespasses
* sikúndrë edhé néve ua fáljmë
* σικȣ́νdρε̱ εδέ νέβε ȣα φάλ̇με̱
* sikundër edhe ne i falim
* sikur edhe na ua falim
* si (e) na ndicgnëmi
* as we forgive those who
* fajtórëvet tánë
* φαϳτόρε̱βετ τάνε̱
* fajtorët tanë
* fajtorëvet tanë
* armikete tënë
* trespass against us
* edhé mos na shtiér ndë ngásie
* εδέ μοσ να σ̈τιέρ νdε̱ νγάσιε
* edhe mos na shtjerë në ngasje
* (edhe mos na ler të biem në tundim)
* e mos na shtinë në t'keq
* etë mòj bieme ën pirasmô
* and lead us not into temptation
* pó shpëtó-na nga i ljígu
* πό σ̈πε̱τό-να νγα ι λ̇ίγȣ
* por shpëtona nga i ligu (por na liro nga i keqi)
* po largona prej të keqit
* ma lirona caa ghiet eliga
* but deliver us from evil
* sepsé jótia është mbëretëría
* σεπσέ ϳότια ε̱σ̈τε̱ μƅε̱ρετε̱ρία
* sepse jotja është mbretëria
* sepse e jotja âsht mretnia
* for thine is the kingdom
* e fuqía e ljavdía
* ε φȣκ̇ία ε λ̇αβdία
* e fuqia e lavdia
* e fuqia e lavdia
* and the power and the glory
* ndë jétët të jétëvet.
* νdε̱ ϳέτε̱τ τε̱ ϳέτε̱βετ.
* në jetët të jetëvet.
* në jetët të jetëvet.
* for ever and ever.
* Amín.
* Αμίν.
* Ashtu qoftë.
* Ashtu kjoftë.
* Astu-clost.
* Amen.

### Some common phrases

Source: Arvanitikos Syndesmos Ellados
| Flet fare arbërisht? | Do you speak Arvanitika at all? |
| Flas shumë pak. | I speak very little. |
| Je mirë? | Are you well? |
| Jam shumë mirë. | I am very well. |
| Çë bën, je mir? | How do you do?. |
| Si jam? Shum mir. | How am I doing? Very well, thanks. |
| Ti si je? | What about you? |
| Edhé un jam shum mir. | I'm fine, too. |
| Si ishtë it at? | How is your father? |
| Edhé aj isht shum mir. | He's doing fine. |
| Thuai të faljtura. | Give him my best regards. |
| Gruaja jote si ishtë? | How about your wife? |
| Nani edhe ajo, ishtë mir, i shkoi sëmunda çë kej. | Now she too is ok, the sickness is over. |
| T'i thuash tët atë, po do, të vemi nestrë të presmë dru, të më thret. | Tell your father, if he wants to go tomorrow to cut wood let him call me. |