[2][3] Tosk or Toskëri may refer to the Tosk-speaking Albanian population of southern Albania and internal subgroups include the Myzeqars of Myzeqe.

: Lap) and Chams of Çamëria are separate southern Albanian subgroups[4][5][6] which at times are also included in the category of Tosks due to ethno-cultural and dialectal similarities.

The Arvanites of Greece and Arbëreshë of Italy are, mainly, descendants of Tosk-speaking settlers, as are the original inhabitants of the village of Mandritsa in Bulgaria.

[10] In the 1880s, Albanians defined the wider region of Toskalık (Toskland) as encompassing the Ottoman administrative units of Ergiri (Gjirokastër), Preveza, Berat and Yanya (Ioannina) sanjaks part of Yanya vilayet (province) with Görice (Korçë), Monastir (Bitola) and Elbasan sanjaks of Monastir vilayet.

[11] The first was Toskalık, the second Laplık (Labëria) being composed of the areas of Delvine (Delvinë), Avlonya (Vlorë), Tepdelen (Tepelenë), Kurules (Kurvelesh) and Ergiri (Gjirokastër).

Christians and Muslims were historically (around the time of the fall of the Ottoman Empire) almost evenly distributed in the Korça District and the area in and around the cities of Berat and Lushnja.

[27][11] During the Ottoman period society in Toskëria was composed of a few rich wealthy Muslim Albanian landowning families that rose through the course of centuries within the imperial system owning large parts of the countryside and big estates.

[11] Ruling as feudal lords over the peasantry, the landowning class would at times settle legal issues without resorting to usual government channels and the beys viewed themselves as patriarchs that defended and counseled their peasants.

[29] During the Hamidian period, Tosk towns underwent slow growth of the Albanian middle class that was composed of government officials, lawyers, physicians, teachers, merchants and artisans.

[34] In the Ottoman Empire this division was additionally solidified because Tosks established strong cultural and intellectual connection with Istanbul and generally, the rest of the world.

[35] During the Ottoman period, of the thirty Grand Viziers of Albanian ethnicity to serve the empire, most of them were Tosks such as Mehmed Ferid Pasha (1851-1914) of the Vlora family.

[11] By the middle of the nineteenth century Toskëria was considerably better integrated within the Ottoman system and had better connections with the wider world than its northern regional counterpart of Gegënia.

[28] The Great Eastern Crisis resulted in Albanian resistance to partition by neighbouring powers with the formation of the Prizren League which issued a Kararname (memorandum) that declared both Tosks and Ghegs had made an oath to defend the state and homeland in the name of Islam.

[38] During the crisis Tosks and Ghegs made besas (pledges of honor) to arm themselves and shed blood to defend their rights.

[43] During the Young Turk Revolution (1908) Tosks, with some being Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) members were one group in Albanian society that gave its support for the restoration of the Ottoman constitution of 1876 with some fighting in guerilla bands to end the Hamidian regime.