Language of the Month March 2025 – Arbëreshë

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Recently we got another request from a friend who is a translator and speaks a minority language. She reached out because she wants to spread the knowledge of her language: Arbëreshë.

Sounds like: ar-be-RESH-eh

Arbëreshë, also known as Arbëresht, Arbërishtja, or T’arbrisht, is an indo-european, indigenous language to southern Italy that is used mostly by adults. The language is spoken by around 100,000 people in the regions of Abruzzi, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Apulia, and Sicily. While it is considered indigenous to Italy, it was developed from the Tosk dialect of southern Albanian as well as the Arvanitika dialect of Albania, which is also spoken in the southern parts of Greece.

These dialects were brought to Italy in the 15th century by Albanians fleeing the Ottoman Empire. Since then, the language has retained the vocabulary and pronunciation from Tosk, while the Tosk dialect itself has changed through the years since.

Arbëreshë was considered an oral language all the way up until the 1980s even though it was written in the Italo-Albanian script by the Byzantine Church, and today it is still rarely written. There are preservation efforts in place for the language and culture, including encouraging its use in schools in Sicily. Most speakers are bilingual, using Arbëreshë and Italian. The UNESCO classifies the Arbëreshë language as definitely endangered. Italian law protects the language, culture, and communities, but it does not collect data of the number of speakers through a census as it focuses on the protection of general Albanian culture as opposed to specifically the Arbëreshë language or culture.

Here we have the link to a podcast on Spotify by Silvia Scarpone to learn the language:

Listen to the language here:

For more information:

“Arbëresh (Arbërisht).” Arbëresh Alphabets, Pronunciation and Language, 14 Dec. 2023, www.omniglot.com/writing/arberesh.htm. 

“Albanian, Arbëreshë Language (AAE) – L1 & L2 Speakers, Status, Map, Endangered Level & Official Use: Ethnologue Free.” Ethnologue (Free All), www.ethnologue.com/language/aae/. Accessed 27 Mar. 2025. 

“Arbëresh Language.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Mar. 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arb%C3%ABresh_language.

Hamp, Eric P. “Arbëresh.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 1 Mar. 2025, www.britannica.com/topic/Arberesh. 

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