Elbasan Alphabet Table
| Letter | Latin | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|
| ๐ | a | [a ɑ ɒ] |
| ๐ | b | [b] |
| ๐ | c | [ts] |
| ๐ | ç, xh | [tʃ], [dʒ] |
| ๐ | d | [d] |
| ๐ | nd | [nd] |
| ๐ | dh | [ð] |
| ๐ | e | [e ɛ] |
| ๐ | ë | [ə] |
| ๐ | f | [f] |
| ๐ | g | [ษก] |
| ๐ | gj | [[ɟ]] |
| ๐ | h | [h] |
| ๐ | i | [i] |
| ๐ | j | [j] |
| ๐ | k | [k] |
| ๐ | l | [l] |
| ๐ | ll | [ɫ] |
| ๐ | m | [m] |
| ๐ | n | [n] |
| ๐ | n (before g and gj) | [n] |
| ๐ | nj | [[ɴ]] |
| ๐ | o | [o ɔ] |
| ๐ | p | [p] |
| ๐ | q | [c] |
| ๐ | r | [ɾ] |
| ๐ | rr | [r] |
| ๐ | s | [s] |
| ๐ | sh | [ʃ] |
| ๐ | t | [t] |
| ๐ | th | [θ] |
| ๐ | u | [u] |
| ๐ | v | [v] |
| ๐ก | x | [dz] |
| ๐ข | y | [y] |
| ๐ฃ | z | [z] |
| ๐ค | zh | [ʒ] |
| ๐ฅ | gh | [[ɣ]] (Greek loanwords) |
| ๐ฆ | gh | [ɣ] (Greek loanwords) |
| ๐ง | kh | [x] (Greek loanwords) |
The Elbasan alphabet is a mid 18th-century alphabetic script created for the Albanian language, and its entire surviving corpus is one book: the Elbasan Gospel Manuscript, known in Albanian as Anonimi i Elbasanit - “the Anonymous of Elbasan”. The manuscript was produced at St. Jovan Vladimir’s Church in Shijon, near the city of Elbasan that named both script and book, and it now lives at the National Archives of Albania in Tirana. Setting aside a short 15th-century Easter Gospel transcript, it stands as the oldest work of Albanian Orthodox literature and the oldest Orthodox Bible translation into Albanian. The alphabet itself is a careful piece of engineering: forty letters covering Albanian’s complete sound system - the dental fricatives, the two l’s, the nasal nj - with three letters reserved for Greek loanwords, because the manuscript’s congregation had learned its Christianity in Greek.
Everything about the script is wrapped in anonymity, starting with its author: the leading hypothesis (Mahir Domi, 1965) attributes it to Gregory of Durrës, a typographer from Moschopole, on the strength of an 18th-century note stating that Gregory translated the Old and New Testament in a script he invented himself; Papa Totasi, whose name is written on the cover’s verso, and Cosmas of Durrës (1643-1702) have their champions too. The book itself traveled a rocky road - acquired around World War II by the collector-politician Lef Nosi, confiscated by the communist regime in 1945, transcribed by Injac Zamputi, and finally published in standard Albanian. Unicode encoded all 40 letters in version 14.0 (2021) at block U+10500, this chart’s verified source.
How to use
- Read the table in block order. Each row gives the letter, its Latin transliteration and its pronunciation. The vowel rows are straightforward (a, e, i, o, u, plus ë for the schwa that gives Albanian its distinctive sound), and the consonant inventory will look familiar to anyone who knows modern Albanian spelling: dh and th for the dental fricatives, the separate letters for l and the velarized ll, nj for the nasal, x and zh for the voiced sibilants. Rows to notice: the duplicated gh letters and kh - three letters that exist purely for Greek loanwords, a window into the manuscript’s church context - and the n row marked for use before g and gj, a positional variant most alphabets never bother encoding.
- Use the chart as a reading key for the manuscript’s famous opening, which is widely reproduced: the gospel genealogy of Jesus (“Iisu Kristi, bir i Dovidit, bir i Abrahmit...”). Take the transliterated text, match each letter against this table, and the 40 signs become navigable within an afternoon - the alphabet is a clean one-letter-one-sound design, without the multi-value quirks that plague contemporaries like Carian. The pair ç/xh shows its one concession to economy: a single letter covering two sounds.
- Then follow the book, not just the script. The Elbasan Gospel is a translation of the liturgical Gospel lectionary, and its language is an early form of Albanian that predates the standard language by more than a century - spellings here will not always match the modern transliterations you know. For the wider story, compare this chart with the Vithkuqi alphabet a century later: the two represent the two great motives for creating a script - faith (a church wanting scripture in the people’s tongue) and nationhood (a people wanting letters of their own) - and reading them side by side is a short course in why writing systems get invented at all.
Frequently asked questions
Who invented the Elbasan alphabet?
Nobody knows - hence the manuscript’s nickname, “the Anonymous of Elbasan”. The most accepted proposal, by Mahir Domi in 1965, credits Gregory of Durrës, a typographer from Moschopole, citing a note by Georgios Zaviras (1744-1804) that Gregory translated the Old and New Testament in a script he invented himself; Robert Elsie supported the attribution. Other candidates: Papa Totasi, whose name appears on the cover’s verso, and - per recent studies - Cosmas of Durrës (1643-1702), possibly for the alphabet if not the text.
What is the Elbasan Gospel Manuscript?
The only document written in the Elbasan alphabet: an Orthodox Gospel manuscript created in the mid 18th century at St. Jovan Vladimir’s Church in Shijon, near Elbasan. Apart from a short 15th-century Easter Gospel transcript, it is the oldest work of Albanian Orthodox literature and the oldest Orthodox Bible translation into Albanian. It was bought around World War II by Lef Nosi, confiscated by the communist regime in 1945, and is now preserved at the National Archives of Albania in Tirana; Injac Zamputi’s transcription enabled its first publication in standard Albanian.
Why does the alphabet have 40 letters?
Because it spells Albanian sound by sound: the language has more distinctive consonants than its neighbors (seven per row of this chart: dh, th, the two l’s, nj, rr vs r, and the x/zh pairs), and the alphabet gives nearly each one a dedicated letter. Three letters serve Greek loanwords alone (the gh and kh rows) - evidence that the translator expected readers steeped in Greek church language. One letter, ç, even covers two sounds (both the tʃ of xh and the dʒ), the alphabet’s only real economy measure.
How is Elbasan different from Vithkuqi?
They are Albania’s two great indigenous alphabets, a century apart, built for different purposes. Elbasan (mid 1700s) is the anonymous church script of a single Gospel manuscript - faith-driven, liturgical, with Greek-loanword letters; Vithkuqi (1840s) is Naum Veqilharxhi’s nation-building alphabet - secular, educational, and designed with full capital and small letter pairs. Elbasan has one known document; Vithkuqi had printed primers and even a Vienna-cut typeface. Comparing the two charts shows how the same language produced two completely different letter shapes.
Can I read the manuscript with this chart?
Yes - that is the practical use of the table. The alphabet is a clean one-letter-one-sound system, so with the 40 rows here you can transliterate the famous opening lines of the gospel text and work through the manuscript’s published transcription. Keep two caveats in mind: the manuscript’s language is 18th-century Albanian, so some spellings predate the modern standard, and the letter shapes in any given font vary - the Unicode block at U+10500 is the canonical reference this chart verifies against, letter by letter.