Albanian language/football question

With memories of the golden years (80's) of the albanian football still fresh on her mind, Albania is now attempting to recreate its strong football legacy. As young players start making their names abroad, the future is looking bright for Albanian football!

Moderators: ZenMaster, Shpati

languageoffootball

Hi,

I write for a blog - languageoffootball.com. We'd like to write a profile of the Albanian language and football team, ahead of the European Championship. Would anyone be willing to answer a few questions? We'd be really grateful.

If so, could you email thelanguageoffootball@gmail.com?

Thanks!

Rich
Language of Football
User avatar
Plako
Posts: 3858
Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2015 5:21 am
Location: NYC
Team: Partizani
Has thanked: 79 times
Been thanked: 164 times
Contact:

Welcome to the forum Rich!

You can ask any questions here and Some of us might answer.

Cheers!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
languageoffootball

Amazing, thanks very much! We're still working out exactly what questions we want to ask, but we'll be in touch.

Thanks again guys!
languageoffootball

Hi guys,

Thanks again for doing this. So basically I’m trying to learn as much as I can about the language used when talking about football in Albania. I’m looking for the phrases, details and stories (both amusing and serious) that are not known outside of your country.

What are the different languages / accents in the Albania squad?

Are there any interesting football phrases / clichés in Albanian?

What chants / songs do the fans sing?

Who are your rivals in international football? What words / phrases / nicknames do you use to describe them?

Any other fun facts about your language (doesn’t have to be in relation to football) ?



Any detail you can provide would be a huge help, thanks again!

Rich :flag:
User avatar
Albo_eagle
Posts: 946
Joined: Tue Jun 09, 2015 10:00 pm
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0
Contact:

1) Tosk/Gheg...South speak Tosk, North speak Gheg...Not really an issue in understanding each others dialect but now with many players being born outside Albania, their Albanian is slightly less developed and adding the dialect to that makes matters a bit more complicated. Kaçe and Rama communicated in English during the Armenia friendly match.

2) Një komb Një gjuhe Një flamur...It means one country, one language, one flag. The desire to unify all Albanian land, and not to let people seperate us, like Kosova has been given another flag ect ect. It is a phrase to symbolise and call for our unification. Our main fan group Tifozat Kuq e Zi (TKZ) use it as their slogan.

3) Shqipëri Etnike..Means Greater Albania, the desire of the Albanians to unify the Republic of Albania, Malesia, Kosova, Lugina, Ilirida and Çameria in one Albanian state. This is used at every single game, and by all diaspora, even in England when Albanians gather together to watch the games it is chanted non stop. It os linked to the phrase above which i mentioned.

4) shkijet...look at what happened when we played them in beograd. The flag of the shkije, Greece and Macedonia is usually burned by our fans and righrfully so. Read about the Ballistet if you want to know what they do in Macedonia.

5) Our language is one of the oldest in the world. It is derived from Ilyrian, search up the Ilyrians if you want to know more.
languageoffootball

Thank you, that's fascinating insight.

If anyone has anything to add, please do. I'd love to get as much information about your language and your football team as possible, it really is very interesting to me.
languageoffootball

I'd be particularly interested, for example, if there are any phrases or cliches relating to football that you guys have. Like in English you can say 'it's a game of two halves' or you can describe football as 'the beautiful game', or you can talk about a player getting 'nutmegged', that kind of thing.
User avatar
Genti
Posts: 656
Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2015 9:14 pm
Team: Albania & Tirona
Has thanked: 78 times
Been thanked: 25 times
Contact:

We take serious pride in our leader Ervin Bulku. You can find a golden statue of him outside many of our stadiums, and posters of him during games. He is our leader on and off the field. Many of our players playing in the youth ranks look up to him and hope they can achieve what Bulku has achieved one day.

:hi-bulku:
languageoffootball

Thanks for that. Is he known by any particular nickname? Does anyone else in the squad have a nickname?
User avatar
Albanian Damien
Posts: 399
Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2015 10:40 pm
Team: Kuq E Zi
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0
Contact:

languageoffootball wrote:Thanks for that. Is he known by any particular nickname? Does anyone else in the squad have a nickname?
Yes. Erivn "Karuci" Bulku.

We gave him that name because of all the charitable work he's done for the less fortunate in Karuci, Namibia. They've even built a statue for him outside the soccer academy he opened up over there.
Post Reply
  • Information
  • Who is online

    Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot], Google [Bot] and 43 guests