The Albanians are an ethnic group and nation native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are the main ethnic group of Albania and Kosovo, and they also live in the neighboring countries of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece, and Serbia, as well as in Italy, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Albanians also constitute a large diaspora with several communities established across Europe and other continents.
The language of the Albanians is an Indo-European language and the only surviving representative of the Albanoid branch, which belongs to the Paleo-Balkan group. Albanians have a western Paleo-Balkanic origin, and, for geographic and historical reasons, most scholars maintain that they descend at least partially from the Illyrians, but the question of which other Paleo-Balkan group(s) contributed to the ethnogenesis of the Albanians is still a subject of academic debate.
