Once you agree that the decision was political, which it was, you also have to accept that the "reasoning" behind it was simply a way to justify it. Otherwise you risk believing the wolf who justifies eating the lamb because it spilled his water even though the lamb drank further downstream. The two dialects are so similar that if one of them can't fully transmit a particular form of literary expression, neither can the other. If one can, so can the other. By the way, the administration of Albania mainly used Gheg before WWII, and mainly Tosk after it. So both are fully functional, and the decision was political, let's leave it there.
I don't agree with this story of lamb and the wolf. Maybe this can be used in other languages and situations, but not with Albanian language. Here we are talking about a single language with different dialects and not two languages and not even two dialects Geg and Tosk. What you and others must understand is that there is not a Geg or Tosk dialect. There are several dialects grouped as Tosk and Geg. We followed a process of standardization, but we didn't imposed a language of a part of population to the other part. You know that in France at the beginning of XX century barely half of population spoke French? Do you know on what processes passed the languages of other Balkan countries including the Turkish? We didn't invented a new language, we didn't cleaned 80% of the language as others did, etc. I have all the reasons to be proud of my language and my ancestors who preserved this language who is not part of any language families, it was not the language of an Empire, civilization or religious institution, but was a language the use of which was forbidden with a Imperial decree, a Ferman of a Sultan and was accursed by the lackey of the Turks, the Patriarchane of Istanbul. We have martyrs of Albanian language, over there, down in South, in the non prestigious south as this Nick, probably a Greek from Australia quoted by Sile says. You know what Petro Nini said?
Kundèr mallkimit të gjuhës shqipe
(Fragment)
E dègjo, or qir dhaskali,
Tè tè them shkurtèr njè fjalë,
Kjo mendje duhej së pari
Po tani të mori malë!
Jo grekèria tè jetè,
Kryeprift e Patrik vetè,
Po dhe Krishti ndè na thèntè
Se- “Jam grek, jakni pas meje”
Do ti themi:”Pa mblidh mèntè,
Se shqiptari s’vjen pas teje!”
Grekrit e zgjebur mejtojnè
Me tè rreme tè fitojnè,
Kanè zèn’ e na mallkojnè
Dhe na shajnè Shqipèrinè,
Vetè-vehten turpèrojnè
Dhe çnderojnë Perèndinë!”
Certainly the decision to standardize the Albanian language was a political decision. It was a necessary decision to face the challenges of the modern era. Here we are not talking about things like, how much is a kilo of tomatoes. There were the scholars of the University of Prishtina who since 1968 had asked and pushed for the beginning of this process because they were in a state of occupation and felt the pressure of the Serbs. We could not continue in this amateur way, everyone in his dialect. In the end, we had to decide.
And it's not what this Nikos says:
The postwar standard was not Southern Geg. It was Southern Tosk. So it was not a middle point of Tosk and Geg; it was at the extreme of dialects spoken within Albania. And it wasn’t spoken anywhere massively prestigious: it was spoken in places near the southern border of the country, like Vlorë and Korçë and Gjirokastër.
Mallory and Adams are correct:
The standard before World War II was a variety of southern Gheg while the post-war standard has been a northern variety of Tosk (all examples given here are in the contemporary standard).
So, basically all the attempts during the XX century were concentrated in this region of Central Albania. And in Central Albania are the biggest city and probably after 30 years with all these movements of populations the most important dialect will be the dialect of Tirana. The fear that some people have that different dialects would disappear, have nothing to do with the Standard Language. It's because people have decide to leave the mountains and live in New York or in Tirana. Of course you will lose your dialect. If you want to preserve it, go back in the village. And exactly talking about this situation of huge movement of peoples, Standard Language turn to be very important in preserving our language. Because we see some emigrants who can not speak Albanian, let alone the dialects, meanwhile the Arbëresh in Italy after 600 years continue to preserve with jealousy the language of their ancestors.
The scholars who partecipated in the Congress of 1972, were our best scholars. We know that North Albania, being much more isolated has preserved a much more pure language than South, Faik Konica said this. But exactly for the same reason, because the south was much more in contact with the modern world had more expressive potential. These are the two columns where it is based the Standard Language. The reason of the attacks against the Standard, apart the naivity of the people which i explained, you can find by reading carefully this Nikos from Melbourne:
And Aziz Dida’s answer to my question Is there interest in keeping Geg as the standard language of Kosovo? shows, that has proven somewhat challenging for Kosovars.
This guy is following the trend.
There is this new geopolitical reality, a new state. And of course there are foreign interests in inventing a new ethnic identity of course with a new language.