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Albanian is an Indo-European language, constituting a separate and independent branch of this family. Its origin is uncertain and it was not until 1854 that it was conclusively proven to be Indo-European. Though its vocabulary contains many words not to be found in any other Indo-European language, there has been considerable borrowing from Latin, Greek, Turkish, and the Slavic languages. According to some linguists it is the only language derived from extinct Illyrian. Modern Standard Albanian, spoken by over 5 million people, is a combination of Toske and Gege, the two main varieties of Albanian (South and North Albanian respectively). Toske, reported to be inherently unintelligible with Gege Albanian, has been the basis for the official dialect for Standard Albanian since 1945. The Roman alphabet was adopted in 1908. The Albanians call their language "shqip" and their country "Shqipéria".
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