Native to Kosovo, Albania Glottolog None | Recognised minority
language in Kosovo | |
 | ||
Native speakers 7004600000000000000♠60,000 (2011 census) (date missing) Language family Indo-European
Balto-Slavic
Slavic
South Slavic
Torlakian
Gorani language | ||
The Gorani or Našinski (literally meaning "our language") language is the variety of South Slavic spoken by the Gorani people in the border area between Kosovo, Albania, and Macedonia. It is part of the Torlakian dialect group, which is transitional between Eastern and Western South Slavic languages.
Contents
Distribution and classification
Spoken across the Gora region in 19 villages in Kosovo, 11 in Albania, and 2 in the Republic of Macedonia. In Kosovo and Macedonia, it is sometimes written in either the Serbian or Macedonian Cyrillic Alphabets, whereas in Albania, the Latin Albanian alphabet is used. In the 1991 Yugoslav census, 54.8% of the inhabitants of the Gora municipality said that they spoke the Gorani language, roughly in proportion to the number who considered themselves ethnic Gorani. In the same census, a little less than half of the inhabitants of Gora considered their language Serbian.
Related to the neighbouring Torlak language varieties spoken in the Prizren–South Morava area to the northeast, also spoken in the southern half of Kosovo and in southeastern Serbia, as well as to the northernmost dialects of Macedonia. In relation to Macedonian dialectology, it is described as having particular close links to the Lower Polog dialect of the Polog and Tetovo regions, which are situated just opposite the Gora area on the other side of the Šar Mountains.
Gorani has also been classified as a part of the Bulgarian dialect area, by Bulgarian as well as some foreign anthropologists. In 2007, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences sponsored and printed the first Gorani–Albanian dictionary (with 43,000 words and phrases) by Goranian researcher Nazif Dokle, who considers the language a Bulgarian dialect.
On the other hand, former Yugoslav linguists Vidoeski, Brozović and Ivić identify the Slavic dialect of the Gora region as Macedonian. According to some sources, in 2003, the Kosovo government acquired Macedonian language and grammar books to be taught in Gorani schools.
Phonological characteristics
Gorani shares with standard Serbian, the northernmost dialects of Macedonian, and western dialects of Bulgarian, the vocalisation of earlier syllabic /l/ in words like vuk ('wolf') (cf. Macedonian volk, standard Bulgarian vǎlk). With Serbian it also shares the reflex of */tj, dj/ as /tɕ/, as opposed to standard Macedonian /c/ (⟨ќ⟩). With the westernmost Macedonian varieties, as well as most of the Bulgarian varieties, it shares the reflex of "big Yus" (*/ɔ̃/) as /ə/ (ǎ) in words like pǎt ('road') (cf. Macedonian pat, Serbian put). With standard Macedonian and some Bulgarian dialects it shares the reflexes of */ĭ, ŭ/ as /e, o/ in words like den ('day') and son ('dream'). With standard Macedonian, standard Serbian and some Bulgarian dialects it shares the retention of syllabic /r/ in words like krv ('blood').
Examples
Verbs which at the end have an "f" are used by the lower villages of Gora
Gorani Samples
The following songs are sung in Gorani and the orthography follows the same convention used to write the Serbian, Bosnian, and Croatian.
Da l'je snegče, il'je belo stado? Nit'je snegče, nit'je belo stado. Da je snegče, bi se rastopilo, Da je stado, bi se rasturilo. Več toj beše Milkino čadorče, Pod čadorče bolna Milka lega. Brata i gu Turci zarobili, Zarobili, paj ga obesili.Second song from Shishtejec in Albania
Ta što si gi granke širnala Mori verbice đurđevdenova Dali jeno gajle si nemala Ja mater som go imala Mati mi go gajle galuala So mleko presno me ranjila Za tija som tenka i visoka Za tija som bela i cervena Tvuje da ti srce izgore. Gledaj me gledaj libe, abe verno libe, nagledaj mi se dur ti som ovde. Utre ke odim abe vrno libe dalek-dalek na pusti Gurbet. Racaj, poracaj libe šo da ti kupim, ti da mi kupiš abe gledaniku cerna šamija, ja da ga nosim abe gledaniku i da ga želam. Racaj, poracaj abe verno libe šo da ti pratim Ti da mi pratiš abe gledaniku šarena knjiga Ja da ga pujem abe gledaniku i da ga želamComparison of Bosnian with Gorani
Bosnian
Mašallah, mašallah, hvala mu, živio. Evo, donco je dar na novu kuću. Sinove ženio, kćeri udavao Živio sto ljeta imao sto kmeta i na ćabu ostišaoGorani
Mašala mašala, fala mu, živuav. Evo donco je poklon na nova kuća Sinoi oženiv, dejčica izmuziv. Živiv sto leta imav sto kmeta i na hadžillak osov