Languages of the Ottoman Empire
The language of the court and government of the Ottoman Empire was Ottoman Turkish, but many other languages were in contemporary use in parts of the empire. Although the minorities of the Ottoman Empire were free to use their language amongst themselves, if they needed to communicate with the government they had to use Ottoman Turkish.
Dibër County
In the 19th century, the Congress of Dibër declared the Albanian language as an official language within the Ottoman Empire. After the Balkan Wars and following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the great powers established the borders of the Balkan states at the Conference of London. The Dibër Valley was cut in half. The western part was assigned to Albania, while the eastern part went to the Kingdom of Serbia, today the Republic of Macedonia.