Tosk Albanian

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tosk
Spoken in:	Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Turkey, Belgium, Egypt, Germany, Sweden, Ukraine, USA
Total speakers:	—
Language family:	Indo-European Albanian Tosk
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	`sq`
ISO 639-2:	`alb (B)`	`sqi (T)`
ISO 639-3:	`als`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Tosk is the southern dialect of the Albanian language. The line of demarcation between Tosk and Gheg (the northern dialect) is the Shkumbin River. Tosk is the basis of the standard Albanian language.

[edit] Tosks

Tosk may also refer to the Tosk-speaking Albanian population of southern Albania, subgroups of which include the Myzeqars of Myzeqe, Labs of Labëria and Chams of Çamëria. The Arvanites of Greece and Arbëreshë of Italy are descendants of Tosk-speaking settlers.

Tosk, in its narrowest sense, may be applied to the people of Toskëria, the region to the north of Vjosë river and south of Shkumbin river, in the territory of Fier County. However, the name Toskëria itself is often used to name entire Tosk-speaking parts of Albania, in contrast to northern Gegëria.