Albanian: Certified translation & court interpreting

The Albanian language is part of a separate group within the Indo-European language family, and the number of its speakers is over 7.5 million. Albanian is the official language in Albania and Kosovo. In some small communities and in other European countries, Albanian is spoken as well.

Albanian is the only "heir" of the dead Illyrian language. There are two Albanian dialects: the Gheg dialect, spoken mainly in Northern Albania (former Yugoslavia) and Tosk, which is common in the South of Albania and in Greece, where it is called "Arvantika", and in Italy (Sicily and the peninsula of Calabria). The specialist translator or interpreter has to be familiar with the resulting subtle linguistic differences to guarantee optimal translation and interpretation. If you entrust AP Fachübersetzungen, the Nuremberg language service that is renowned far beyond the borders of Bavaria, with your Albanian translation or interpreting job, you can be sure that we will find the suitable language mediator for you, even at short notice. In the case of certified translations, we only employ publicly appointed and sworn Albanian translators for official documents with many years of experience. Our best and friendly court, consecutive, liaison, conference and simultaneous interpreters will be happy to support you. You can always rely on AP Fachübersetzungen.

The exact development and origin of Albanian can no longer be clearly traced today. According to research, the ancient languages Illyrian, Dacian or Thracian are considered to be possible relatives of the Albanian language. Written evidence of the Albanian language dates back to the 15^th century, though the language is probably much older.

The Albanian language has been influenced by various other languages over the course of time. Thus, for example, loan words were adopted from Ancient Greek, Latin, South Slavic, Greek, Turkish, Italian, French and English.

Interestingly, despite its history going back several centuries, the written Albanian language of today was not developed until the middle of the last century. Until 1908, Albanian was either written using Latin, Greek or Arabic letters, depending on the writer’s religious affiliation. At the Congress of Manastir, it was decided that the Albanian language should only be written with Latin characters. The regulations agreed upon at the Congress are still valid today. At the Congress in Tirana in 1972, a further step was taken towards a general written language standard.

The Albanian alphabet in use today comprises 36 letters, of which seven are vowels and 29 are consonants. Albanian spelling is comparatively phonetic. In the Albanian language, there are two genders: masculine and feminine. Unlike in German, neuter nouns can only be found in obsolete form. The formation of plurals in Albanian differs significantly from the German plural formation. There are around 100 classes, according to which the plural is formed. The different classes occur with varying frequency.

There are parallels between the German and the Albanian language, however, in the declension. In Albanian, this comprises five, strictly speaking six cases and depends on the gender, determination and number of the noun. As in German, inflection in Albanian is made via word endings and articles. However, when it comes to the position of adjectives in a sentence, rethinking is required: they come before the noun in German; in Albanian, an article is usually put before them.

Due to all these special features of the Albanian language, it is advisable to entrust the translation of your texts or interpretation to a native speaker or very experienced language expert. Therefore, the Nuremberg interpreting agency AP Fachübersetzungen works exclusively with certified and experienced Albanian translators and interpreters and can thus guarantee the high quality of the interpreting service and accuracy of your certified translation.