The Albanian alphabet, their pronunciation, and the letters.

The Albanian language uses the Latin alphabet. There are 36 letters that correspond to the 36 to 8 sounds (7 vowels and 29 consonants). Seven ones (dh, gj, nj, sh, th, xh, zh) are generally letter mixtures. Each digraph is regarded as one letter (digraphs). Albanian words do not have any silent letters and also all letters are pronounced in just one way, unlike numerous European languages. Therefore, if the letters are pronounced correctly, the words are pronounced correctly.

For spelling capabilities, the consonants are pronounced with a * following, (a sound similar to the e in English word “winter”), bë, cë, dë, etc.

Generally, the Albanian alphabet is made up of the following letters:

Of these, a, e, ë, i, o, u, y are vowels along with the remaining are consonants.
Currently, we will analyze both the vowels and consonants of modern literary Albanian. There are two main dialects in Albanian: Gheg dialect or northern language and Tosk dialect or southern language. Today’s literary Albanian is based on the first dialect. Additionally, the Gheg dialect is spoken in Republic of Albania and among Albanians located outside Albania’s territory (such as in Kosovo, Macedonia, and Montenegro). The Albanian language is called Shqip by its native speakers.

The pronunciation in Albanian

Vowels

Albanian has seven vowels: /i ɛ a ə ɔ y u/.

Consonants

Below is a table of the Albanian phonemic consonants.

Listen to how the letters of the Albanian Alphabet are pronounced in this Albanian lesson.