This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Theathenae (talk | contribs) at 06:24, 22 July 2005 (Eurolang is a dead link; Arvanitic is recognised by linguists as a separate language and not as a mere variety of a dialect of Albanian.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 06:24, 22 July 2005 by Theathenae (talk | contribs) (Eurolang is a dead link; Arvanitic is recognised by linguists as a separate language and not as a mere variety of a dialect of Albanian.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)error: ISO 639 code is required (help) Arvanitic (or Arvanitika, Arvanitic: Αρbε̰ρίσ̈τε / Arbëríshte, Greek: Αρβανίτικα / Arvanítika) is an Indo-European language sharing a common origin with the Albanian Tosk dialect. It is not mutually intelligible with Gheg Albanian. Arvanitic has been spoken by the Arvanite people of Greece for more than five centuries.
The approximately 150,000 speakers inhabit more than 300 villages in Greece. There are no monolingual Arvanitic-speakers; all are bilingual in Greek, and the language has been influenced by Greek over the centuries. Arvanitic is considered an endangered language as the descendants of Arvanite speakers have not been learning it. Consequently it is only used by some septuagenarians and octogenarians, when trying to communicate with Albanian immigrants who have not learned Greek yet. Although it is traditionally a spoken rather than a written language, an Arvanitic alphabet adapted from the Greek alphabet has been developed for Arvanitic.