Upper Reka Albanian dialect

The Upper Reka Albanian dialect is a member of the wider northern Albanian Gheg dialect subgroup of the Albanian language spoken by northern Albanians. Speakers of the dialect are mainly located within the territory of the sub-region of Upper Reka in north-western Macedonia. Due to the geographical isolation of the Upper Reka region, the Upper Reka dialect also developed linguistic peculiarities that differentiate it from other varieties of Albanian. Within the Gheg dialects, the Upper Reka dialect is classified as a Central Gheg dialect, along with the dialects of the Kruja, Mati and Dibra regions.

The Upper Reka Albanian dialect contains phonological and morphological characteristics that are unique of speakers in Albanian within Upper Reka. For example the Albanian letter q (in Standard Albanian, /c/) often voiced as a hard ç (/t͡ʃ/) sound in some Northern dialects is articulated as a soft ç sound in Upper Reka. Unlike Northern Albanian dialects, which mainly pronounce the Albanian characters gj(/ɟ/) as a hard xh(/d͡ʒ/) sound, in Upper Reka it is at times rendered as a soft gj(/ɟ/) sound, reminiscent of some Southern Albanian dialects. The cluster dj(/dj/) as in the word djathë (cheese) are also substituted for a gj sound (i.e. *gjathë) in certain instances. The consonant cluster pl as in plak (old), pleh (manure) and plis (pileus) of the Reka dialect has been replaced in certain instances with pt causing words to be pronounced as ptak, pteh and ptis. The sound cluster ps word internally like tepsi (large baking pan/tray) is in the Upper Reka dialect partially nasalized into mts making words to be pronounced for example as temtsi.

Unlike in some Albanian dialects (typically Northern), where the sound cluster nd has contracted into n, in Upper Reka it is maintained in words like katund (spread out village), nder (honour) and vend (place). Like most Gheg dialects, the Upper Reka dialect has also retained the nasal vocalisation of vowels ā (often a schwa: ë /ə/ in Standard Albanian) and ō, so that words like dhëmb (tooth), dhëndër (groom) and këmb (foot) are pronounced as dhāmb, dhōndr and kōmb. The sound a (often a schwa: ë in Standard Albanian) in words like baballak is also substituted at times for o (i.e. baballoku) when in definite form. The sound cluster mj in words like mjeker (beard) and mjalt (honey) has evolved into a mnj sound in Upper Reka, causing articulations of mnjekrr and mnjalt. Also the h sound which in most Albanian dialects is pronounced as a glottal fricative, is realized as a guttural "hard" h in Upper Reka.

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