'''Arbëresh''' ({{Lang|aae|gluha/gjuha/gjufa Arbëreshe}}; also known as '''''Arbërisht''''') is the [[Albanian dialects|variety]] of [[Albanian language|Albanian]] spoken by the [[Arbëreshë people]] of [[Italy]]. It is derived from the [[Tosk Albanian|Albanian Tosk]] spoken in [[Albania]] in the southwestern [[Balkans]], and has developed in Italy in contact with the neighboring [[Italo-Romance]] speaking communities. Another similar Tosk Albanian variety is spoken in [[Greece]] by the [[Arvanites]]: [[Arvanitika]].
The Arbëreshë people are bilingual, also speaking Italian.<ref name="mgr"/> Arbëresh is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO [[Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger]]. While Italian law protects the language and culture of the Albanian people in Italy,<ref name="Legge482">{{cite web |title=Legge 15 Dicembre 1999, n. 482, Art. 2, comma 1 |url=http://www.camera.it/parlam/leggi/99482l.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512051856/http://www.camera.it/parlam/leggi/99482l.htm |archive-date=12 May 2015 |access-date=30 December 2015 |publisher=Camera.it}}</ref> the language taught at school and university is Standard Albanian, constituting an issue for the Arbëresh communities' preservation of their native idiom, wich has remained separated from the main Albanian-speaking compact area for around 500 years. Alongside the fact that Arbëresh is not written, another issue for the [[language attrition]] with Italian is the differentiation between the Albanian dialects used in Italy: the Arbëresh local idioms in some casesareas are so different from each other that Arbëresh people of some differentthose areas use Italian or Standard Albanian as [[lingua franca]] to communicate with each other.<ref name="mgr">{{cite web|title=Albanians in Italy|website=[[Minority Rights Group International]]|url=https://minorityrights.org/communities/albanians-2/#:~:text=Article%206%20of%20the%201947,some%20official%20recognition%20to%20Albanian.}}</ref></blockquote><ref name="frost">Jenny Frost, ''[https://www.thecambridgelanguagecollective.com/europe/the-arbereshe-italys-albanian-diaspora The Arbëreshë: Italy’s Albanian Diaspora]'', [https://www.thecambridgelanguagecollective.com/about The Cambridge Language Collective]: "Arbëresh (or Arbërisht) is the language spoken by the Arbëreshë community in Italy, descending from a medieval Tosk variety and containing influences from Italian. However, the language is now considered endangered; there are estimated to be fewer than 80,000 remaining native speakers worldwide. This can be put down to multiple factors: while some schools and universities in Rome and Southern Italy do teach the Albanian language, the version taught is standard Albanian rather than Arbëresh. Additionally, young people are often reluctant to use Arbëresh, preferring to use Standard Italian or Italo-Romance dialects, and because forms of Arbëresh can differ between communities, standard Albanian can sometimes be used as a lingua franca."</ref></blockquote><ref name="derhemi">Derhemi, Eda (2003). '[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/1369183032000171348 New Albanian immigrants in the old Albanian diaspora: Piana degli Albanesi]'. ''Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies'', 29(6), 1015–1032. doi:10.1080/1369183032000171348. quote: Arbëresh is a variety of Albanian, but it is more distant from the main Albanian homeland dialects which have been in constant contact and have undergone the unifying process of standardisation. As expected, the recent influences of Italian are much weaker in Albanian than in Arbëresh.</ref>
