Day of the Albanian Alphabet

This language is spoken by approximately 6 million people within the Balkans, primarily in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece.

Albanian is considered an isolate within the Indo-European language family; no other language has been conclusively linked to its branch. The only other language that is a sole surviving member of a branch of Indo-European is Armenian.

Today, standardised Albanian uses its own alphabet. It is essentially a Latin alphabet with some Albanian additions. For example, the letters ë, ç, and nine pairs of letters which form separate characters of the alphabet – dh, gj, ll, nj, rr, sh, th, xh, zh.

Albanian Alphabet Day celebrating the closing of the Congress of Manastir, an academic conference held in the city of Manastir (now Bitola) in Macedonia from November 14th to November 22nd, 1908, with the goal of standardizing the Albanian alphabet. November 22 is now a commemorative day in Albania, Kosovo, and the Republic of Macedonia, as well as among the Albanian diaspora. Prior to the Congress, the Albanian language was written using a combination of 6 or more distinct alphabets, plus a number of sub-variants.