shkalle

Shkalle is a term used in Albanian-language contexts that most commonly refers to a structure for ascending or descending between levels: a ladder or a flight of stairs. In standard Albanian, the word is shkallë; when unaccented transliterations appear in texts without diacritics, it may be rendered as shkalle. The meaning depends on context: shkalla (the staircase) for built stairways; shkallë (a ladder) for a portable runged device used to climb.

The word is active in everyday speech, architecture, construction, and urban design, and appears in technical descriptions of buildings and infrastructure.

The etymology is not definitively established; scholars debate its origins, with some suggestions linking it to Latin scala or to related regional terms for steps, but there is no consensus.

Beyond its ordinary meaning, shkalle may appear in toponyms and as a surname in Albanian-speaking areas; in such uses it often preserves the sense of a stepped or elevated feature in the landscape.