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Vlerat e Kombit Shqiptar (EN) ! ! !

THE CODICES OF ALBANIA
By Dr.Prof.Shaban Sinani
The collection of codices makes up one of the most important cultural assets of the Albanian people at all times and a wealth of world values. This collection that is housed in the State Central Archives (SCA) is made up of 100 volumes, constituting both complete works (manuscripts) and 17 fragments which all together are known as "the stock 888". Outside of this fund there are tens of other codices belonging to the Church of St. John Vladimir (Durrës). Besides in SCA, codices have also existed at the Museum of Medieval Art in Korçë.
For the first time, the existence of Albania's codices was made known through a publication of Berat's bishop (Aleksudes, A. - 1868) which he had made in Greek. In 1886, a French scholar (P. Batiffol) described in brief, in a catalogue, 16 codices he was allowed to see in the archives and libraries of the Orthodox Church in Berat. Batiffol, who was complaining in his article that local monks "did not allow him" many other manuscripts, named three of the most ancient codices of Albania: the "Codex Purpureus Beratinus" - The Purple Codex of Berat (also styled as "Beratinus-1"); the "Codex Aureus Anthimi" - Anthimi's Golden Codex (styled as "Beratinus-2"); and the Liturgical Codex of John Golden-Mouthed. Until that time, in the world list of Christian literature of Byzantine type no more than a dozen of manuscripts of the "codex" type were known. With the passage of time, from this list certain names of important liturgical works have disappeared, including the Codex of John Golden-Mouthed that formerly had existed in Albania.
Albania's codices constitute a stock of world importance as to the development of the history of old biblical, liturgical and hagiographic (from Greek ¨¨¨¨¨¨ - "sacred") literature. Chronologically, these codices follow one another during 13 centuries in succession (from the 6th century to the 18th century).
Written but one and a half-century after "La Vulgata", a Latin translation of the Bible according to St. Jerome Eusebius, the Purple Codex of Berat constitutes a manuscript of historical importance about the origins of the biblical literature. According to bibliologists and paleographic scholars who make reference to the technique of writing, it is a manuscript of no later than the 6th century AD. It is one of the four oldest codices in the whole world. Being a contemporary with such famous manuscripts as "Petropolitaus", "Vindeoboneusis" and "Sinopencis", the Purple Codex of Berat is classified as pertaining to the foundations of the ecclesiastical literature of Eastern rite.
The Purple Codex of Berat contains 190 leaves and includes two Gospels: the one according to Mark and the other according to Matthew. Experts maintain that it is being written with letters cast in silver, "in leaves similar to common paper, which is like having been manufactured from the compression of many thin slices of a vegetative nature, such as the strips of papyrus stem". Byzantinists, however, maintain that the substance of the manuscript is parchment. The background on which the letters are cast is deep red (purple), from which it has taken its name. With the passage of centuries, the colour has faded. Some important parts of the codex text were cast in gold. The applied fonts are small capital letters. The cover of the manuscript is made of metal, with biblical ornaments, but it must be several centuries later than the work itself.
The text of the Purple Codex of Berat has been written after the antique style scripta-continuae, that is, without dividing words from one another, without any accents or other signs for the separation of words. It is placed on a background containing stylized hearts. In the inside of hearts that ornate the page there are floral motifs -- three-petaled roses (azaleas). The decorations are located along the borders of two parallel vertical lines, which turn to square angles horizontally. The vertical line can be interpreted as a divine inclination, while the horizontal one as symbolizing the mortal/transitory fate of man. Bibliologists hold that such a motif, which is to be retaken in the later biblical, liturgical or hagiographic manuscripts that are housed in Albania, represents the spiritual equilibrium of the individual.
For the first time the Purple Codex of Berat is referred to in the Diptych of the Church of St. George situated in the castle of Berat. In one note quoted from this manuscript, reference is made to the danger hanging over this Codex in 1356, when Serb armies besieged the city of Berat, now being empty of the population because of their impossibility to defend themselves, and were having their eyes only for the library both of Theologu's monastery and the Church of St. George, the biggest treasury of the city. According to this note, one person from Berat's nobility, "together with Madam Countess", worthy devotees of Christianity, being as careful as a monk, undertook to save this treasury and hid it in one of the castle towers, defying the threats from the commanders of the foreign army.
In the writings published about the "Codex Purpureus Beratinus", the first one to be ranked was that of the Greek Anthim Aleksudes, which says, "Syntomos istorike perigraphe tesleras metropoleos Belegradon...", 1868. In 1886, nearly 20 years later, in his article "Les manuscrits grecs de Berat d'Albanie et le Codex Purpuerus", Paris -- the French writer Pierre Batiffol, a guest of Berat's metropolis, described the content of this manuscript and put forward detailed informative and scholarly data. In fact, Batiffol is the first transcriber and even the first baptist of the earliest Codex of Albania. Since the publication of its catalogue it came to be known by the name of "Codex Purpureus Beratinus" or, for short, "Beratinus-1". In their comparative studies based on the laws of changes in the historical phonetics of Greek language from antiquity and early-Christian periods onwards, Albanian Byzantinists have come to interpret the vocal values of some of the graphemes of this manuscript and consequently its content through another semantics. Among domestic authors, such scholars as Theofan Papa, Ilo Mitkë Qafëzezi, Aleks Buda and Kosta Naço have been distinguished by their specific researches on these codices.
The Purple Codex of Berat and the Golden Codex of Anthim (Beratinus-2, 9th century AD), were two among the works put on the lists of objects announced as "wanted" in the period of the World War II. The Clergy, the church council (the Synod), the patriarchs and the godly population of Berat, who were asked immediate handover of the two codices, decided to make every sacrifice and never tell their location under whatever circumstances. They put them into a metallic chest, which hid beneath the neck of a well. For some time in the following years, "Beratinus-1" and "Beratinus-2" were reported missing. They were rediscovered at the church of the city's castle in 1968 in a very much-damaged condition.
In 1971, under an intergovernmental agreement, both the Purple Codex of Berat and the Golden Codex of Anthim were sent for restoration to the Archaeological Institute of China, where an identical duplication of them was carried out, which was quite comfortable for studies. The originals proper were restored, their critical condition being overcome and a promise of longevity being secured by hermetically sealing each single page between two sheets of glass in vacuum. After the restoration, "Beratinus-1" was divided in nine volumes, and "Beratinus-2" in 21 volumes, which are now housed in the State Central Archives in Tiranë.
Having subjected both codices to a close scrutiny by Tirana University specialists, it resulted that "Beratinus-2" was written on an albuminoid substance of animal nature, that is, on a parchment; and "Beratinus-1" on "a cellulosic substance of vegetable nature" homogenized by the compression of the papyrus strips one by one until the formation of the writing paper was obtained.
According to some later studies, it is maintained that the two codices had been written in parchment (goatskin tanned and dyed).
The Purple Codex of Berat was invited to be exhibited abroad at the exhibition "I Vangeli dei Popoli", organized by Biblioteca Apostolica of the Vatican on the occasion of the great jubilee of the 2000th anniversary of Christianity. Within the country it has been exhibited only twice with the permission of the highest official authorities.
The Purple Codex of Berat is considered to be one of the fundamental works of evangelical literature as a manuscript of particular importance for the culture of Christianity. It is also valued for the history of writing, for the obvious calligraphic values it bears and as a monument to the worldwide heritage of knowledge, as a scholarly object of paleography, bibliology, philology, and history of beliefs.
According to Aleksudes, the Purple Codex of Berat must have been written "by the hand of St. John Golden-Mouthed". But Batiffol thinks, "it doesn't seem to be exactly the hand of St. John Golden-Mouthed". In 1968, the Library of Vienna offered the Albanian Government a price of $ 1 million as an offer for talks for buying this Codex before being restored. Albanian authorities refused this offer, as they did with that from the Academy of Sciences of China. The Purple Codex of Berat assumes a greater value because of the fact that it had been written at a time when Biblical matter had not yet been canonized. The two Gospels it contains include certain deviations from standard texts. This is why one part of it could be read only once a year at a public service.
From the fact that more than 100 manuscripts of the "codex"-type are being housed in Albanian archives in which sacred writings have been copied out over 12 centuries in succession, such as the "Old Testament", the Gospels and others texts of church service, it is believed that they must have been written by local monks. These manuscripts create a tradition of ecclesiastic literature, which is corroborated by other supportive evidence. Illyrian-biblical space can be found within what is customarily called a "biblical space". In the Scriptures, St. Paul is cited to state, "I preached Jesus of Jerusalem in Illyricum." The first Christian temples of worship in this space were set up as early as the mid-1st century AD (the church of Lin and the one of Tushemisht). In the Illyrian-Albanian space certain personalities were formed who established Christian literature of the Roman ritual. The chief millenarian prayer of the Western Christianity "We praise Thee, Lord" - "Te Deum Laudamus", which was composed by St. Niketa of Dardania (otherwise St. Niketa of Remesiana) was spread in several variants in the Western Europe after 525 and is today one of the main values of Christianity. According to reliable sources of archaemusicology, including those British, French and Italian, Niketa has written, "he was Dardanian" ("dardanus sum"). And the first translation of Bible from Hebrew into Latin, known by the name "La Vulgata", was carried out in 405 by another canonized Illyrian, St. Jerome Eusebius (Hieronymus, also styled as "St. Gjeri"). St. Niketa and St. Jerome, who enriched the culture of Western Christianity, worked on the same lines along other contemporaries and followers who made the same historical contribution to the enrichment of the Eastern Christianity through translations of the Gospels in Old Greek and in manuscripts of the "codex" type.
The Purple Codex of Berat has been registered in the list of the most important works of mankind, known by the name of "Memoire du Monde" (The Memory of the World) and for some years enjoys UNESCO's straightforward care.
The Purple Codex of Berat contains 190 leaves, and "Beratinus-2" 420.
The second codex (chronologically), also called "Beratinus-2" or "Anthim's Codex" and sometimes also "Codex Aureus Anthimi" -- because of the golden letters used in it -- belongs to the 9th century. It contains the four Gospels (according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). There have also been the four images of these evangelists, that of Matthew being disappeared. The evangelists' images have decorative frames, built up of floral and geometric motifs (circles and flowers). Stylistically it has been compared to one codex being housed in the Library of Petersburg, which the German scholar Kurt Witzman identified as a manuscript of the 9th century. The Codex of Petersburg is known as the "Greek Codex 53".
"Beratinus-1" and "Beratinus-2" are considered to be important works for the culture of writing, but also for the letters in general.
Apart from "Beratinus-1" and "Beratinus-2", in the rich stock of Albania's codices tens of other manuscripts are included that have been baptized after the towns where they have been discovered (The Codex of Vlora, roughly of the 10th century; the Codex of Përmet, of the 14th century; the Codex of Shkodër, of the same century, the Codex of Gjirokastër, of the 16th century; the Codex of Fier, or of St. Kozmai, of the early 19th century). The codices belonging to the 12th century onwards also contain ethnographic data, rules about building a common life, giving a title, inheriting a fortune by means of a betrothal or a separation, or about the change of status in case of changing the religion. In the manuscripts of the last two centuries, secular issues assume a greater importance. In one of the late codices of Korçë (18th century), some of the basic problems taking a central place include: the distinction between the wise and the learned, what the wise and the learned do think of God, the opinion of the learned about religion, eternity and freedom; the opinion of the learned about the kind man and virtue.
Albanian Codices are monuments to the Christian culture and civilization and bear the stamp of the biblical-ecumenical space where the Albanians and their ancestors have been living. They are a source of pride for bibliologists, for the connoisseurs of sacred writings and the church, and also an object of research for ethnopsychology, language and the technique of writing, calligraphy, applied figurative arts and iconography. The codices are genuine encyclopedias of the Christian thought.
By Dr.Prof.Shaban Sinani

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. "Le Codex - Trésors de la Culture Albanaise", edit. Direction Général des Archives, 1999.
2. Prof. Kolë Popa, "A close examination of samples of two old church codices", a manuscript, DPA, 1972, file 18, pp. 1-3.
3. Theofan Popa, "The catalogue of Codice's manuscripts", housed in SCA.
4.Liljana Bërxholi, "The value of medieval codices and the work about highlighting them", published in "Arkivi shqiptar", 1999/1, pp. 63-71.
5. Pierre Battifol, "Les manuscrits grecs de Berat d'Albanie et le Codex Purpureus", Paris 1886.
6. Prof. Ramadan Sokoli, "16 centuries", Tiranë, 1994.
7. Eduard Zaloshnja, "Certain data on the restoration of both the oldest codices", a manuscript, Tiranë 2000.
8. Shaban Sinani, "The Codices of Albania and the 2000th anniversary of Christianity", in "Media", 2000/6.

 

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CANON AND CONVENTION
By Dr.Prof.Shaban Sinani and Genc Myftiu

The canon is a cultural historical monument of the traditional law of Albanians. Until the 20th century, Albanians have inherited two canons: "the Canon of Lekids" -- the Canon of Lekë Dukagjini that exercised its power in the regions above the Drini River, and the "the Canon of Ghegs" -- the Canon of Skanderbeg that exercised its power in the rest of North Albania territories. In southern regions the traditional customary law has survived only in fragments. So, the most complete model of traditional organization of Albanians' life is the Canon of Lekë Dukagjini.
To be sure, the canon was of no value without the convention, without old and very old people, without folk that used to meet together to administer justice. "Canon et convente", canon and convention (understanding) -- this is the core of Albanian customary law. The word "canon" itself had been borrowed from the Greek "Canon", which stands to mean order, restriction. Likewise, the word convention, which means "parliament", had been borrowed from the neo-Latin root "convente" which means agreement.
The local tradition of settling problems of justice is evidence of ancientness and civilization. Only a people that has settled from time immemorial can be able to elaborate the elements of self-discipline and self-responsibility to the highest degree. A people who are able to create a certain standardized code of co-existence must first have possessed an established ethnical culture. A way of co-existence agreed upon by everybody without conditions takes several centuries to be regulated by uniform norms. The canon expresses the existence of a civic urban life and of an early community self-conscience.
The canon of highlands, which has been linked with the name of Lekë Dukagjini, but which in many an element must still be older than this well-known historical figure, is an ancient legal universe whose various substrata, by their source, date from antiquity. The formulas of swearing on oath do not mention the deities by name. Making oaths like "by heaven and earth", "by this weight", "by this rock", "by this bread" etc. is an expression of mythological faith. Only one thing really valuable could be able to resist entire centuries to come to our days. These oaths are similar to those of Old Greeks, such as: By Uranus (by heaven), By Demeter (by earth) etc. The New Testament categorically bars the son of man from swearing on them. As regards the oath by bread, it reminds us of the Hebrew cult on "manna", the sacred holy food.
This canon was not only a law governing the co-existence (convention), but also family law, civil law, work and procedure law -- a whole ensemble of justice, whereby the human person's relationships with family, clan, friendship, banner and fatherland were established in the most compact fashion.
Obviously, moral values, the rules of building a common way of life in different peoples have often been identified with the definitions given in sacred books according to the religion a certain people belongs. With Albanians, such an occurrence is not the case. Among Albanians, such fundamental categories of popular ethics as honour, dignity, respect, good behavior, hospitality, etc. have been established on the basis of the "precepts of their forefathers".

1. EQUALITY AND INEQUALITY IN THE CANON
In spite of its severity, the canon has been able to hold Albanians in an environment of a strict equality towards order, which finds its expression in the idiom "be it even of Gjomark", meaning that even a person belonging to the house whose duty was to supervise the canon was bound to respect the canon. According to the canon, "the life of a kind person" is equal with "the life of an evil one", and the other idiom which says, "every man's finger bleeds the same way", bearing the same meaning as the former idiom.
Kadare, an Albanian writer, has spoken about the traditional legal space of our people, preserved in the Canon of Lekë Dukagjini, noting a crippling of space, namely, the exclusion of woman from all activities dealing with defining, administering, giving or earning a certain right, including her exclusion from the convention held in the guests' chamber. The canon also strays from equality in another definition: in giving the Clergy a privileged position at the convention. The canon provides that "a priest cannot enter into a blood-feud, also, one cannot put him under oath" (Art. 4, Sect. 10). Even if it happens that a priest be put under oath either to exonerate himself from a blame, or as a witness, he will be deemed as if 24 people were put under oath (ibid). In like manner the canon stipulates the favours of the church as an institution. "The church cannot be fined and no one can sit in judgment on it. (Art. 1, Sect. 2) So, it remains above the canon. Like all other canons, the Canon of Lekë Dukagjini is a product and reflection of feudal law. The two exclusions from equality: the exclusion of church from obligation to community (region, banner) and the extra-canon position of woman are a legacy of medieval times. Other people, "even if they belonged to the family of the chieftain (standard-bearer)", are subject to obey the same rule. (Whether one be a nobleman or a chieftain, if there is any grievance against him, judgment on him shall be left in the discretion of old people and common people. (Art. 141, Sect. 1014). Such sections as "the price of life of one person is equal to that of all others" (Art. 124, Sect. 1887); each one weighs the same worth: four hundred derhems (a weighing unit) (Sect. 889) contain a rough equality between human persons.
It can readily be asserted that the rough equality provided and defended by the canon makes up a very early value of it, indeed a pre-medieval one.
On the other hand, the privileges and inequalities provided by the canon are relative. In Albanian tradition the canon cannot be divided from the convention -- there is a close link between them. What one would ban, the other would allow. What one would allow, the other would cancel. Although the canon would disdain woman and did not allow her to stay in the men's room, the convention has often let her in by appreciating both her wisdom and her ability to administer justice.

2. HOSPITALITY IN THE CANON
The canon has stipulated for the cult of the guest and hospitality with the Albanians. The cult of the guest is best expressed in defining the house as "of God and guest" ("An Albanian's house belongs both to God and to guest"). According to the canon, God and guest in connection to the house are made equal. There cannot be a greater deification for the guest than this. The cult of the guest is also expressed in such other formulations as: "the Albanian's house belongs to guest and to traveler"; "the door of a house is opened to anyone who appears at its doorstep, be it even a beggar" contains an ancient, pre-Christian, Judaic, biblical mentality coming down from times when prophets, clad in clothes of a poor tramp, would appear before the doors of believers. According to the mind-set of an Albanian, the guest knocking at the gates should be welcomed with all the honours due to him, because "one is never sure whether he is a beggar or a saint".
In Albanian tradition the guest need not ask permission to enter a house, he but "appears at the doorstep" and enjoys a taken-for-granted right to enter it.
The greatest privilege by the canon is custody. This is to be understood that a guest cannot enter into a blood-feud and is protected against his enemy as long as "he is lives with the bread of the host". If the guest fell into his enemy's ambush, he should only cry loud: either "I'm in the bread of so-and-so", or "I'm in so-and-so's custody" -- i.e., of the host that had welcomed him which means that this action has given him safety, saved his life, opened his road.

3. HONOUR IN THE CANON
The cult of honour comes into the canon from very ancient times. Honour with Albanians differs from the codes of pre-Renaissance European Chivalry. The matter is about a rough honour, but dignified and great in its roughness. Honour in the canon is not a moral category in the narrow sense. Honour in its narrow sense has to do with other prohibitions in the canon. Before accepting a new marriage alliance, an Albanian family had to explore if the distance between generations by blood and generations by breast milk (i.e., descent in father's and mother's lines respectively) was more than seven generations. In some other regions, 12 generations need to have elapsed.
As regards the place the highlands population has given to honour in which two cults were merged -- the one of generosity (towards the guest) and the one of wisdom (of old people), it will suffice to refer to two consecutive sections of the code:
"Tarnished honour has a bloody price" (Art. Sect. 598)
"A man is dishonoured if someone says to him before the whole congregation of men that he is lying."
The very congregation of men has its own overpowering ethics which makes up the code of the show, of a show that is performed only once and is never repeated, a show that does not know general rehearsal. It's just this ethics that has created such a density of thought forever present in a highlander's talk, such noble etiquette, such a cultivated dialogue which weighs the wisdom and keeps the mechanics of pursuit of truth fully efficient.
"The Albanian person lives to enjoy two inches of honour", "Two inches of honour and a clean face" are two fundamental qualifications of honour in the canon.
In Albanian customary law the honour is the opposite of disgrace. If "areas" of honour and disgrace are compared in the canon, it results that honour's space has been too narrow and within that space the Albanian man had to create his own identity. This is so because the canon contains a long series of prohibitions and taboos that protect the individual against the "disgrace area".
Honor makes a house, the canon says, but a house is not made within one generation. To set up a house it takes one face, i.e., three generations of honour in succession.
The power of honor over the Albanian man has been above the power of shrine and state.

4. "BESA" ACCORDING TO THE CANON
The cult of honour bears links with the cult of a given word or, as it is known with Albanians, "the cult of "besa" (faith, pledge, vow)". This is a word that does not exist in most languages of the world. In Balkan languages it exists as a word borrowed from the Albanian language. Often, in translations from the Albanian language the word "besa" (pledge, vow or faith), having not an equality of meaning with a word or idiom of another language, is being given accompanied with explanatory notes, as an occurrence of the Albanian world, as an Albanianism.
Faith, or the cult of a given word, bears links with the biblical myth of the word: "In the beginning was the Word!" Prior to the existence of writing, contract, agreement, notary public, law court, state, nations, human beings, the world itself, there was the word. This majestic cult, which in West European nations gradually assumed the character of a religious ecclesiastic idiom, with Albanians preserved the trace of the source.
Engagement by words (with words) was for the canon the highest authority. All human relations -- within family, clan, parish, banner and at the level of ethnic community, even at interethnic relations, were held on words.
"Besa" has been the moral testament of Albanians since mythological periods. Two most important ballads of Albanian folklore with the themes of immurement and resuscitation (the sacrifice needed for building a new bridge and the rise of brother from grave to take his sister back home) are connected with keeping the given word.
It is said in the canon that "speech is something given away": that is, what has been promised should be fulfilled.
Albanian "besa" (faith, pledge or vow), known with Bulgarians and Rumanians just by the very word "besa", and with southern Slavs as "arbanaska vjera" (literally "what Albanians put their faith in") is a fundamental virtue of Albanians inherited from their ancestors.

5. THE CANON OR "JUS ALBANICAE"
Albania has been occupied by the Ottoman Empire for five centuries, but the latter could not succeed in subduing the canon. In the 19th century in Shkodër a special office called "Xhibali" was functioning with the duty to investigate where the Empire laws and Sharia laws did not match with the canon dealing with withdrawal before a conflict. Albanian customary law is perhaps the only among those of Balkan nations remaining as a parallel law. In one of his essays I. Kadare has figuratively described this as "jus albanicae".
The canon is currently an "opus finita" once and for good, it is a "closed world". As early as 1935, in his work "Elements of Albanian Literature and Language" E. Çabej included the canon in the anthology of selected literary values for the needs of schools. In his proposition, the canon was also to be seen as a legally closed and artistically rich world. The canon was handed down from generation to generation by the same mechanism as the language and folklore, as a tradition fixed in a multiple oral circulation.
It was not until the first decades of the 20th century that the canon was to be published. This has its own explanation. First of all it should not be forgotten that the customary tradition of highlands has almost always been an illicit law, not recognized by official powers, no matter how transitory these powers might have been. Apart from this, the canon was learned by heart as a big cultural heritage in the same way the rhapsodies, legends and tales were learned. It was the legal education and the legal conscience of highlanders, the common choice of a way of living. On its basis the morality was build up and altered. Therefore, the reflection of expressive values of a conversation in the guests' chamber, of the established spirit in its inner procedures and rules makes up the evidence of the civilization of our nation and defends its attacked history, so defends the right to its existence and its free development.
A people that since ancient times has regulated its co-existence with uniform rules, a people with distinguished lawmaking capacities, as Kadare would have put it, shows that it knows how to govern itself without having to take lessons and its chance cannot be judged on the basis of a momentary crisis. Its chances lie in wait in its future.
Being a joint work of an entire nation, of its immemorial historical experience, the canon is closely linked with the name of a renowned duke of Albanians of the 15th century, with the name of Lekë Dukagjini. The chronicles have shown him to be one of the most remarkable figures of the anti-Ottoman resistance, a leader and captain of highlanders and a co-fighter of Scanderbeg. But even without these qualities, without the bravery and the titles of nobility history attributes to him, without his participation in the battles for the defense of both the Albanian lands and the awareness of being Albanians, Lekë Dukagjini would remain glorious all the same at all times only with the honour the nation has credited him by preferring his name as the author of the highlands' canon instead of leaving the latter anonymous.
Clearly, neither Lekë Dukagjini nor any other individual could have possessed such a lawmaking capacity as to develop an entire legal universe -- no other word could be meaningfully sufficient for it -- a concise and accomplished universe such as the highlands' canon. At best, he would have been a Gjeçovi of five centuries ago, but a Gjeçovi who managed to systemize orally, not in writing, the Albanian law. This law was handed down from one century to the next like a legal testament. The first standardization of this law was made perhaps in the Middle Ages, in the epoch of the great resistance to the Ottoman Empire, by raising it above the canons of a regional narrow-scoped usage. Political integration of Albanians against their common threat might have lessened this process.
In one of his earliest studies, namely in "Elements of Albanian Literature and Language" published in 1935, the distinguished linguist E. Çabej has given a concise description of the canon. In this book he expressly states:
"The late baron Nopsca, as well, has left a manuscript work on the canon. According to this scholar, the source of the canon should be traced to the German Laws of Langbards, which entered Albania through Venice. We, however, hold the view that from the existence of strong traces of the canon in Labëri, another focus of this law emerges in southern Albania. So, the existence of a very old Albanian source of this canon becomes most credible. In addition, we believe that this canon should be compared not only with German laws of Italy, but also the laws of Balkan peoples."
For the first time the canon was put together, systemized and published in the Albanian language by Father Shtjefën Gjeçovi in 1933. Gjeçovi was a renowned prelate of the Roman Church, a priest of the Franciscan Order who lived in the midst of northern highlands and was in touch with the action of the canon law dealing with relations in society. The canon had power not only over secular authorities, but also the church, however partial. Gjeçovi possessed a sound philological, theological, archaeological and juridical culture. He translated a number of works of world literature into Albanian language and wrote original literature himself. He was one of the first collectors of Albanian archaeological findings. The fate of his collection is unknown. The canon of Lekë Dukagjini was first translated into Italian, and then Serbian, French, Russian, English and any other language.

 

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Epos of Albanians
By Prof.Dr. SHABAN SINANI
North Albanian epos, or the cycle of heroes, was brought to the attention of scholars a century ago. It was made manifest precisely at the end of the epoch of National Renaissance, which has been justly called a century of the “the cult of epopee”.
Albanian literature was born and developed for a long time as the literature of heroes. Those who were not aware of the existence of the oral tradition of the epos of heroes tried to create “fictional epopees” and introduce them as oral heritage. Later on, there were attempts at recreating an integral epopee according to the pattern of poems of antiquity.
Like in any other epos, in Albanian epos, too, time runs in accordance with a calendar different from the humans’ calendar, which reminds one of the mentality of “The Feats of Gilgamesh” where one day in the time of deities is as much as a thousand years in the time of humans. Mythological heroes of Albanian epos remain dead for a hundred years and upon waking they say, “I have been taking a nap”. As Muj meditates, he “is able to observe the grass growing”. In epos there is only a distant and undefined past. Time in the mythological imagination does not respect human time.
Two important features of the mythological northern cycle figures testify the remote ancientness of Albanian epos: their matriarchal character, on the one hand, and chthonic character, on the other hand. This is another aspect of the question of autochthony – or allochthony – of the population that has created them. In the Hellenic epos deities are matriarchal and patriarchal. They coexist and conflict, win and suffer defeat, fight for power and protect it. The cycle of Artrides ends up in the tragic dilemma of Orestes, who has to break through a tradition and establish a new one: protect the right of fatherhood against that of motherhood. The heroes of Albanian epos are the sons of Ajkuna. Quite unlike the cycle of ballads, where “a wise old man”, advising a sacrifice of the bride over the bridge, reminds one of the patriarch, in epos there is no patriarch. For the first time, the father in the epos appears in the figure of Muj, as contrasted to Omer (or “seven Omers”). In one of the songs, Omer has to release “father and uncle” from the king’s prison. The rhapsodist entitled the song "Omer from Muj" and this is the only case where a shade of a patriarch appears. Ajkuna plays the central figure and authoritative role. Muj and Halil do not have a father in formal terms; they are sons of the same mother running the house and they take their power from the deities. After Omer, there are no more heroes. Their power and glory is not inherited.
The matriarchal feature of mythological characters of legendary epic is made more emphatic by the general feeling of the well-known rhapsody of Gjergj Elez Alia. It is commonly stated that, in this song, the earth powers are matched against the powers of the sea (“a black giant has emerged out of the sea”). Traces of Byzantine culture have been tracked and found, such as is the exacting of tribute by the giant, as the laws of the empire government demanded. In fact, the main source of Gjergj Elez Alia rhapsody is the end of the era of human (woman) sacrifice for an act, campaign or tribute. Gjergj Elez Alia rises from his deathbed to rescue an era from the morality inherited from the distant past when people could be sacrificed alive – as in the case of the walled bride in the Balkan ballads. He beats the giant, who demands “a roast ram” and “a young maiden” every night. The defeat of the giant marks the end of that convention which legitimised woman sacrifice. Gjergj Elez Alia ensures a permanent deliverance of women from sacrifice.
The chthonic (earthy) character of the deities of Albanian epos defines the autochthonous character of the people. Unlike homeric poems, where the deities have a multilevel hierarchy (underground, semi-earthy -- Persephone spends half of the year underground and the second half on heavenly – chthonic and uranic – earth), in Albanian epos this hierarchy does not exist. The mythological figures of Albanian world are earthy ones. In narrative folklore, including the epic and tales, "the seraph of heaven" does not exist. Along with the "earth nymph" (of this earth), in the ethno-folkloric tradition of the country, fairy characters emerge and merge.
The chthonic feature of Albanian mythological actors of Albanian epos corresponds to that level of thought when, in Hellenic literature of antiquity "Gods descended from the Olympus", and yet they remained important figures of the conscience of belief. This goes back to a later date than the Uranic (heavenly) layer of mythological figures, but, however, earlier than the time when Greek Gods made a laughing stock of themselves in Aristophane's comedies.
"The two calendars" of time in the epos and history of human life are connected with the distinctions between the mythological perception of time in the ancient and modern mentalities. One of the interesting folkloric facts in this regard is the use of time for space and vice-versa, which is viewed as a universal feature of the epos. In Albanian epos, distance is usually shown by expressions such as “nine houses away” or "nine years' travel". This resembles the literary idiom of Sumerians, where distance is not measured by units of space, but units of time: "The eagle clutched me with iron claws, / And hovered me into space for four hours”. Or, "We went whither, twice twenty hours, / Until we discerned from afar a corner of the earth”. The use of time for space and vice-versa is linked with that level of mental development of human world, where the process of movement from the past to the present was perceived as unidimensional. Time and space were unified almost indistinctively into this dimension.
These mentalities of an ancient and antique stage constitute the primary artistic arguments for the debate on the origin in point of time of Albanian epos. The cycle of Albanian heroes contains an intertwining of features of antique and Medieval European eposes. But we know of a greater number of antique eposes than European Medieval European ones. There are a number of arguments in favour of a relative chronological determination of the source of epos in the period of transition from Illyrians to Albanians, from Illyrian to Albanian language, from the end of Romanticism to the confrontation with Slav invasions.
In Slav science, the northern cycle is considered as a recreation of the motifs of Serbo-Bosnian epos following a massive Islamisation of Albanians, sometime in the 18th century and on. Some of the local scholars share the opinion that Albanian epos is "of the Byzantine period" and its origin should be connected with the time of creation of "Digenis Akritas" among the Greeks. By tying its origin with the birth of the Slav or Byzantine eposes, these views, at times openly and at times implicitly, at times for certain purposes and at times owing to a lack of trust in facts, put the formation of Albanian epos at a chronologically much later date.
The data concerning the overall cultural development of Albanians indicate that the northern epos was created in a period of divergent development. This is the period of the largest territorial division of Albanian ethnos (into Gheg and Tosk) – in fact there can be found no traces of the epos south of Shkumbin River. This is the period of the separation of South polyphony from the North homophony. This is the period of rhotacism in the South and nasality in the North. This is the period of the preservation of “a” in Gheg and its transformation into “ë” in Tosk. From the cultural viewpoint, epos was born when the most important two-branched changes in Albanian culture – Gheg and Tosk – occurred. This does not mean that epos is a folk tradition isolated in the North. There are abundant data proving that the northern cycle is not that northern as to be called self-segregated. Its fundamental motifs are found to have developed in the folklore of southern territories in the form of narratives, tales or legends.
From the historical perspective, epos may not arise at any time and following any event. Albanian epos itself is totally prevailed by the conflict between its carriers and the population, which had moved to the Balkans; it bears the stamp of Slav invasions. Albanian epos rules out the idea of its creation from the first contacts with the newly-settling population, drawing the attention of the audience to the fact that other things had occurred before the time "when there was an allegiance to the king”. A more tendentious research could also explore data which bear witness of a danger from the sea and which could be connected in the underground with an echo from the time of Roman conquest. Both these facts and reasoning enable one to develop the view that in epos, irrespective of its multilayered character, there exists, however, a “first time”. It coincides with the 7th and 8th centuries AD, when the most important divergent internal changes occurred in the ethnic culture, when qualitative cultural transformations occurred, such as the transition from Illyrian to Albanian, the consolidation of Gheg and Tosk koines (instead of the narrow speech of tribes). This process of divergence was progressive because, by separating the northern cultural koine from the southern one, it developed convergence within them, in the same way as the four dialects of Greek language had developed in antiquity. It was just in this period that the local population was faced with Slav invasions in the Balkans and recognised step by step their expansive character.
In addition, the data concerning the notion of a mythological space in the epos favour a connection of its origin with the period of these great transformations. If a researcher were to explore a prehistoric “habitat” of the world of epos characters and events, of a "spiritual fatherland", of a "patria poesis", this would be found in the cult of the land of forefathers, myth of native land, sanctification of highlands, deification of land, in the sense the Germans use this word when they say “land”. Though limited, certain data on the ethnically separatory character of the people have been inherited in the Albanian spiritual world. These start with the distinction “we-others”, which is one of the earliest signs of community conscience. Most likely, the “champion-enemy” position is the same as the “Hellenes-barbarians” position among old Greeks. Although one might speak of the notion of land, the native land, Albanian Ithaca, as the notion of Moré is among the Arbëresh (in their historical songs), rather than of a well-defined space, yet the conscience of a fatherland which makes carriers of the epos feel “at home” among them, is at times evident. It is worth recalling that in ancient Hellenic epos, fatherland was used in two senses: Odysseus was son of Hellas, but he finds no peace unless he reaches “the fatherland”, Ithaca.
Evidence of the presence of ancient cultures in the Albanian subject, especially of Greek-Roman culture, constitutes a testimony of its ancientness and its neighbourhood with these ancient civilisations. Lambertz argues that the northern epos comprises “over 40 topics similar” to Akritas' songs. Selection of Muj (“having both strength and power”) is like the selection of Heraclitus. In a well-known Albanian song, little Omer must release “father and uncle” from prison, in the same way as Armouropulos (little Armour) in Akritas' songs. These traces drive one to come to the conclusion that Albanian epos, called “northern cycle”, in view of its artistic connection with the entire local folklore, is not that northern and limited as denoted by the term. Even historical geography does not matter much here.
Layering epos on the basis of types of characters is especially important. Belonging to the infancy of mankind, mythological characters need more attention and depth. The main heroes of the epos (Muj) represent the cult of power, just like Achiles in Homeric poems; whereas transition to the stage of the cult of knowledge-craft (the cult of Odysseus) is not confirmed entirely. The focus of Albanian epos is the war hero, whereas the peace hero, "second hero" -- Halil -- is more inclined to the cult of beauty. In Hellenic epos, Odysseus had to subdue temptations of adventure and escape, far away from his country as he was; as such he had to resolve situations with wisdom; whereas in Albanian epos, Halil is living in his native country and has to win the hearts of "chicks" of human grace.


Bibliography:

1. Albert Lord, "The Singer of Tales", 1962.
2. Maximillian Lambertz, "Die Volksepik der Albaner", Leipzig,
East Germany, 1958.
3. "Epi i Gilgameshit", 1999.
4. "Shah Name", translation of Vexhi Buhara, hand-written manuscript.
5. Çështje të Folklorit, "Albanian", 1-6.
6. Fatos Arapi, "Këngë të moçme Albanian", 1986.
7. Berndardin Palaj - Donart Kurti, "Visaret e Kombit"-2, 1937.
8. Gjergj Zheji, "Vargu i këngëve të kreshnikëve”, 1987.
9. Eqrem Çabej, “Problemi i autoktonisë së shqiptarëve në dritën e emrave të vendeve”, 1958/2.
10. Faik Konica: "Shqipëria -kopsht shkëmbor në Evropën Juglindore", 1993.
11. Stavro Skëndi, “Albanian and South Slavic Oral Poetry”, Philadelphia 1954.
12. Vladimir Propp, "Morfologija skaskih",1958.
13. Shaban Sinani, "Mitologjia në eposin e kreshnikëve", 1998.
14. “Bernardin Palaj - opere”, Roma 1969.
15. Celentano. L. “Letteratura greca”, Napoli 1995.
16. Clarotti-Crussi, “Viaggio nell’epos”, Torino 1996.
17. Robert Elsie, “Albanian Folktales and Legends”, Tiranë 1994.
18. Vladimir Propp, “Ruskij geroiçeskij epos”, M. 1958.
19. Sigmund Freud, “Psicoanalisi dell’arte e della letteratura”, Roma

 

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TRADITIONAL CULTURE IN ALBANIA
By Prof. ANDROMAQI GJERGJI
There are two known large ethnographic groupings in Albania, consolidated as early as the mid-18th century, namely: Gegëria that is located north of Shkumbin River and Toskëria south of it. Gegëria is comprised of Gegëria proper, Dukagjini, or Leknia, the Highlands and Northern Coastal Fields, while Toskëria includes Toskëria proper, Myzeqeja, Labëria and Çamëria. Naturally, within these geographic regions there are other smaller subdivisions.

The way of living in the country - customs and mores
As of the Middles Ages, the settlements in Albania had achieved some stability and had well-defined boundaries separating one village from another. The boundaries were marked off by large stones driven into the ground, heaps of sods, streams of brooks and rivers, signs carved in barks of trees in woody places and so on. Displacing such signs were considered a great wrong. Every villager used to know very well the boundaries of his own village and was able to tell them readily by mentioning the relevant toponyms.
The territory within the boundaries of the village used to include the grounds around the dwellings, courtyards and orchards; then were the crofts or the tilled lands and farthest were the pastures and parts of the mountain or forest belonging to the village. In many parts of Albania, such a division of village territories remained strictly unchanged until the years of the World War I, especially in districts where free peasantry lived. Only yards and gardens of the dwelling houses were under complete private ownership of the peasant, for the sown lands were at his disposal only for the period they were under cultivation. After agricultural crops were collected, lands were cleared out and anyone could release his flocks to graze in them; other lands that used to be exploited collectively, that is, in common, were left fallow and as winter pastures, but water sources, in particular, that were used to irrigate the sown lands, were exploited according to strictly scheduled turns for each family.
Rural settlements, in general, have been accommodated to the climate and terrain in which they were located. The lowest villages are those of Coastal Lowlands, and higher villages reach to 1400 m. above the sea level and are situated in Korçë and Kukës districts. In a certain village the dwellings might be either assembled or strewn, and in some regions they happened to be very much scattered. The village, however, had a social centre around which people's activity would gravitate during leisure time and such a centre could either have been a small square near a century-old plane-tree, or the shop of some grocer, or the courtyard of any cult building (church or mosque). In the second half of the 20th century, the stock of dwellings in most villages was almost renewed, with former traditional types of buildings undergoing changes. Many social and cultural buildings such as schools, kindergartens, cultural halls and centres and shopping units were added to the existing stock of buildings.
From historians' estimates it has resulted that in the 14th century in Albania the average number of houses per village was 21; the highest average was in Elbasan district with 38 houses, followed by Korçë district with 28 houses per village. Until the first quarter of the 20th century, about 80% of the population worked and lived in villages, with most of them having roughly 20 houses each, and 30% of villages had around 1000 inhabitants. During the last 50 to 60 years, the percentage of population in countryside to the whole population fell to 64%, though the government of the time aimed at not having the countryside abandoned. So, we maintain that the weight of rural culture vis-a-vis the urban one is considerable.
During the 20th century, especially after the World War I, the way of living in Albanian rural areas underwent some important changes. In family life, however, like in social life, certain popular feasts dealing with various forms of entertainment were kept, and in the same way many psychological resources in people's consciousness, manifested in the oral and musical folklore of various regions, particularly in the legendary and historical epic, even though new ideas and tastes were constantly invading it through the novel means of massive communications, were preserved.
In the Albanian rural background, the family has still a good stability and cohesion based on its economic life. As regards its structure, one may say that now it appears to be quite simplified. In most of the country, the family is made up of the married couple with their unmarried children. Married daughters live with husband's family. Married young men, soon after marriage, are separated from the parents' family and live on their own, but in many cases the youngest son remains in the parents' household to live with them. So, the average number of members per family is 5 to 6 persons, but in some villages this average is lower. Old people bring testimony, however, of much bigger families, where married brothers and their children lived together. In such families there were strict rules about the division of labour and duties for all the members. In such families, also, former customs and mores of family life, pagan practices and rites, etc., were preserved for a longer time.
In rites and beliefs dealing with life cycles, that is births, marriages and deaths, scholars that have studied them have been able to uncover ancient rites as well, which, though atypical, continue to exist here and there. These are generally rites used to augur prosperity for both the already married couples and the newly married ones so that they could increase in number and have offspring chiefly males. As to death customs, it is worthy to note that until the World War II the lamentation with "dirges" (funeral songs) was still preserved in certain regions.
Numerous rites and beliefs are connected with certain dates in an old folk calendar and, according to researchers, they have to do both with ancient pastoral and farm cults. For example, the Day of Summer, or March the First, was characterized by a general clean-up of houses and courtyards and not only was collected rubbish put on fire, but on the same fire old brooms were thrown to begin the new season with new brooms, so a ritual purification is involved. Formerly, the coming of Day of Summer was being looked forward joyfully across villages, particularly by children. St. George's Day (April 23d) was also a feast accompanied by amusing rites and practices. Bonfires built across courtyards and crossroads on June 22d, St. John's Day, created an atmosphere of joy and gaiety. Formerly very interesting rites accompanied the Christian holiday season ("buzmi") across highlands on the eve of winter solstice.
Many season celebrations were connected with certain set weeks in farming and stock-raising, such as the completion of harvests, shearing of sheep, the return of shepherds from summer pastures, and so on.

Myths and popular beliefs
Obviously, myths, superstitions and religious beliefs have constituted an interesting aspect of the Albanian folk culture. It is historically known that Christian religion began to spread illegally in Illyria as early as the 1st century AD. Evangelization was first begun by St. Paul and accomplished by Latin missionaries. This explains why the religious Christian terminology being used in Albanian language, both in North and South, is from Latin source. With the spreading of Islam, particularly beginning with 17th century, certain special occurrences emerged, such as the crypto-Christianism in some villages of Elbasani district (in the Shpati region), which continued until the Proclamation of Independence in 1912. In the 19th century, however, even in some areas of Northern Albania (such as Lura) there were families with mixed religious views: some of them were partly Catholic and partly Moslem. Since the World War I, the number of families that do not regularly observe religious practices has been increasing. In this historical context it is not difficult to understand how it became possible that a mixture of ancient pagan rites with elements of both Christianism and Moslemism came to be preserved.
Among ancient myths that were preserved here and there until the 20th century was also, of course, the cult of the sun, which bears links with the cult of fire and hearth, on the one hand (because the sun itself was a source of light and warmth) and the farm and livestock cults, on the other (because the life of any creatures on earth depends on the sun). Likewise, the holding of certain mountain peaks in veneration was also preserved, which were worshipped as "sun peaks". So, in fixed dates, pilgrimages were made to certain mountain peaks, such as to Maja e Rumies, Gjalica e Lumës, Çuka e Tomorrit, Këndravica, etc. During these feasts bonfires were built in waiting for the sun to rise and it was believed that fires added to the sun's strength. Let's mention here that the most severe curse we come across in legendary epic to the hero's adversary was "May your sun's share be lost to you".
In many Albanian regions traces were found of a "cult of snake", particularly of the grass snake of the house that was believed to be a protective deity. The snake cult was much known to ancient Illyrians also, especially to Dalmatians. In former times, people in our highlands used to think that every house had its protective snake.
In legendary epics mention is made also of other protective mythological figures of man, such as oreads, fairies and dryads. An oread could take under her protection a person or a family or even a whole tribe. Faries were beautiful women, but they were valiant and combatant as well. It was believed that they lived in caves deep into forests, rested under shades by the brooks or in mountain peaks. Mythology scholars hold that a fairy bears links with an Illyrian deity of forests and fountains that in the Roman variant was called Diana.
The Dragon was imagined as a supernatural creature, with extraordinary strengths. His principal exploit was to free the water being occupied by Hydra. It was believed that dragons fought mostly in times of great hurricanes and used to employ maces, spears and arrows, perforated stones and, in particular, ploughs and yokes. They were able to pull out big trees and boulders of mountains.
The mythological creature of Hydra was imagined as the embodiment of blind destructive elements of nature. She was said to be a big snake with 3, 7, 9 or 12 heads breathing out fire. She liked to accommodate herself by the fountains where she would stop the flow of water causing people to suffer.
Clearly, there have been other interesting figures in Albanian mythology, which for lack of space cannot be mentioned here, as there have been superstions on evil eye, magic, fortunetelling, etc.

Rural art and folkcrafts
The development of rural art and artistic handicrafts during the three to four last centuries in Albania has been closely linked with historical and social conditions of the country, such as its long Ottoman occupation that generated heavy consequences at religious and cultural levels, and the national and social oppression exerted during this foreign invasion, etc. These difficult circumstances hindered the flourishing of arts in many fields, as in monumental architecture, sculpture, etc., and for a long time they suppressed the domestic art by restricting it to limited spheres, such as to minor arts. As we have it impossible to treat all fields of applied folkcrafts, we shall speak briefly of a part of them only.
In Albanian countryside, the tradition of working out and adorning small objects of wood by villagers themselves for the needs of everyday life was kept untouched here and there until the first half of the 20th century. So, shepherds used to ornament crooks, wooden bowls, spindles, distaffs, etc. Other villagers, more experienced, used to work out stools and chairs in traditional patterns, such as those of Dukagjin, Pukë, Mirditë, etc., or cradles for babies, musical instruments and particularly trousseau chests.
In some regions of the country, woodcraft reached the level of an artistic craftsmanship. In the period between the 13th to the 19th centuries we have samples of woodworks that draw our admiration even today, such as the interiors of cult buildings, interiors of rural and urban dwelling houses, etc. Obviously, one of the most superb exemplars is the iconostasis of the Orthodox Church of the village Leusë in Përmet, which had been worked by the end of the 18th century. One can notice there how the foliage background is dominating, but together with abundant leaves and branches animal figures, birds and various Christian symbols, realistic or imaginary, are also intertwined.
Distinguished workings on wood can also be found in interiors of houses, mainly ceilings, built-in cupboards, window covers, lattice-windows in such cities as Gjirokastër, Berat, Elbasan, Shkodër, Prizren, etc.
The tradition of working silver can be found in full bloom in the 17th and 18th centuries. Museum collections, silver objects with dated inscriptions and origin from various urban centres of the country such as Shkodër, Elbasan, Berat, Voskopojë, etc. have been preserved till today. In many cases they are distinguished by a high artistic quality, whether they are cult objects such as crucifixes, wine cups, gospel covers, or secular objects such as body ornaments, house equipment, etc.
In cities, during the 18th and 19th centuries talented master silversmiths have practiced the coating with silver of rifles, pistols, yataghans, cartridge-boxes, etc., which were regarded as necessary outfits of any man, of which a good number is still housed in museums across the country. A number of them are coated even with gold.
Among all silver objects wrought in various techniques (by beating, casting, etc.), a special fineness represents the working on filigrees, a specialty rather of master silversmiths of northern towns than those of southern ones.
Peasant women in Albania for centuries have occupied themselves weaving various types of cloth to use them either for wearing, or as household equipment (mattresses, towels, beddings, covers, napkins, table-cloths, etc.).
In Albania, various kinds of silk fabric have been worked and used more than in other Balkan countries, perhaps because the climate favoured the cultivation of silkworm, since in many regions the white mulberry was widely spread.
Woolen textiles, executed with a series of different techniques, were widely used and carried a lot of local features which made the works of a region to be distinguishable from those of other ones.
Other interesting handwork include various kinds of knitting with pins, laceworks and needlework, especially the multifarious embroideries starting from the simple rural embroideries to the wonderful virtuosic embroideries worked out with silk or gold threads by master embroiderers from certain towns and, earlier, even at monasteries of the time. Among various pieces of such works only rare exemplars exist, as is the case with the prodigious Stole of Glavenica (near Berat) dating from 1373, and some other secular and religious pieces also, which have embroidery of particular interest.

Traditional costumes
Folk dresses are obviously one of the most expressive manifestations of traditional culture. They inherit and convey many elements that come down from ancient times and Middles Ages, but at the same time they are an expression of cultural relations with other peoples over centuries.
The principal types of Albanian popular costumes for men include the kilt costume, the costume with a long shirt and a dolman (cape), the costume with pantaloons and the costume with breeches or something like knickers (short trousers to the knee). So, in Albanian villages men have been wearing garments both in the shape of a wide skirt and the shape of trousers, the first type being outmoded earlier than the rest. The most adorned parts were the waistcoats and vests as part of the festive costumes. Albanian men have also been wearing various silver ornaments, such as breast pads, decorated buttons on vests, rings, pipes and cigarette boxes, but above all their side arms and shoulder arms were invariably richly ornamented.
For women, principal types of dresses included the costume made up of a sleeveless smock (with a bell-shaped lower part), the costume made up of long gown, above which a kersey jerkin was worn, the costume made up of two aprons placed on a long shirt, one worn on the front part of the body and the other behind it, and the costume made up of a loose garment (an open skirt, tucked up at the waist forming crumples or pleats).
In connection with the appearance of garments, colours and ornaments varied by the ages of wearers. For young people and children the regional costume might be simpler. Unlike with other peoples of the Balkans, the girl in Albania that had reached the marriage age was to be dressed simply and without special ornaments, she must have her hair carefully covered with a headkerchief and ought not to wear red dresses. The marriage suit was the richest variant among garments of a particular region both for brides and bridegrooms. For brides, metallic ornaments were ever present, indeed, they were used to some excess, because as regards this matter, as it were, what counted was not their aesthetic function only, but also the magic function attributed to it. As to brides, of special importance was the adorning of the head. Some years after the marriage, their garments would become lightened of ornaments
According to the customs, they dressed the dead with the best clothes. In folk clothes, the signs of mourning had been scarce; women could just don in reverse one of the most ornate pieces of their costumes, e.g. jerkin or apron.
The studies carried out so far have shown that component parts of traditional garments are not all of the same age. There are parts reminiscent of medieval clothes, with Byzantine and Oriental influences, and others coming down as an echo of ancient times; however, there are elements that can be connected with Illyrian culture. In this respect we can mention the analogies observed between the folk line and the Illyrian "Dalmatics", or between the hoods, scarves (shawls), moccasins, etc. and the respective elements used by Illyrians. Owing to such elements inherited from the Illyrian culture and that of the Arbërs of Middle Ages during their historic development, folk clothes have come to gain a series of original traits that assume values of an ethnic indicator, which distinguishes Albanian clothing from that of other peoples.
Prof. Dr. Andromaqi Gjergji,
Ethnologist

 

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ALBANIAN LANGUAGE
By Prof. SEIT MANSAKU
Albanian Language belongs to the family of Indo-European Languages, along with Indo-Iranian languages, Greek language, Romance languages, Slavonic languages, Germanic languages, etc. It constitutes a separate branch in this family of languages and is not originally associated to any of the modern Indo-European languages. The Indo-European origin of the Albanian language and the place it occupies in the family of Indo-European languages was determined and proved in the middle of the 19th century, following studies in the comparative historical linguistics.
It was primarily the merit of one of the leading founders of this linguistic direction, the eminent German scholar Franz Bopp, who proved scientifically that the Albanian language belonged to the family of the Indo-European languages. Franz Bopp dedicated to this issue a special work entitled “Ueber das Albanesische in sinen verwandtschaft lichen Bezichungen”, published in 1854.
The Indo-European languages are divided into two groups: Eastern languages, or satem and Western languages, or kontum. The Albanian language belongs to the eastern group (satem), along with the Indo-Iranian languages, Balto-Slavonic languages and the Armenian language.

Origins
The origins of the Albanian language are one of the most debatable issues in the linguistic science. Its roots are found in one of the ancient languages of the Balkan Peninsula, Illyrian or Thracian. Two main theories have circulated in the linguistic literature with regard to the Albanian language: its origin in the Illyrian language and the one in the Thracian language. The Illyrian theory has had a broader historical and linguistic support. It took shape in the 18th century among the historians of the time.
The first attempt at explaining the origins of the Albanians and the Albanian language was made by the Swedish historian Hans Erich Thunmann in his work “Undersuchunger liber di Geschichte der Östlichen europäischen Völker” Leipzig, 1774. Based on Latin and Byzantine historical sources as well as on linguistic and onomatopoeic documents, he came to the conclusion that the Albanians are autochthonous descendants of the ancient Illyrian population, who were not romanised, as was the case with the Thraco-Dacian population, the predecessors of the Romanians. Since that time on, a number of eminent scholars, such as historians, archaeologists and linguists have brought a number of historical and linguistic complementary arguments in support of the theory concerning the origin of Albanians and their language. Some of these arguments are as follows:
1. Albanians are currently living in some of the territories, which were inhabited by Illyrians in ancient times; on the other hand, historical sources do not speak of any Albanian migration from other territories to the present ones.
2. A number of linguistic elements such as names of things, tribes, people, etc., of Illyrian origin, are explained in the Albanian language.
3. The ancient toponymic forms of the Illyrian Albanian territories, as compared to the corresponding present-day forms, prove that they have evolved in conformity with the rules of the historical phonetics of the Albanian language.
4. Relationships between the Albanian language and the ancient Greek and Latin suggest that the Albanian language took shape and developed side by side with these two neighbouring languages on the shores of the Adriatic and Ionian seas.
5. Both archaeological documents and documents belonging to the material and psychological heritage testify to the cultural continuity from the ancient Illyrians to the present-day Albanians.
In view of these arguments, presented in a concise way, it results that the theory of the Illyrian origin of the Albanian language is the most plausible theory, judging by historical and linguistic evidence.

The beginnings of the written Albanian language
Albanian is one of the ancient languages of the Balkans, but its written records, just like the Romanian language, date back only to the 15th century.
The first written record in the Albanian language is what is known as the “Formula of Baptism” of 1462 AD. It is a short sentence in Albanian “Unte paghesont premenit Atit et birit et spertit senit” (I bless you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit), which is found in a circular (pamphlet) written in Latin by the Archbishop of Durrës, Pal Ëngjëlli, a close associate of Skanderbeg.
During a visit to Mat, Pal Ëngjelli noticed irregularities in the religious practice and following this he left some directions and recommendations with the Catholic priest, namely the aforementioned blessing, which could be used by parents in baptising their children in case they could not do it in church or there was no priest available. The formula is written in the Latin alphabet in the northern dialect of the ghegs (gegërisht).
The “Formula of Baptism” was found in the Laurentiana Library of Milan by the well-known Romanian historian Nikolla Jorga and was published by him in 1915 in “Notes et extraits pour servir l’histoire des croisades au XV siecle IV, 1915”. (Notes and extracts to the service the history of the crusades in the 15th century).
The French philologist, Mario Rognes, made a philological publication of this document and also its photographic reproduction in “Recherches sur les anciens textes albanais”, Paris 1932. (Research on ancient Albanian texts).
The second document written in the Albanian language is a Glossary by Arnold von Harf of 1496 AD. In autumn of 1496 the German traveller Arnold von Harf from the village of Cologne set out on a pilgrimage tour of the “holy countries”. The tour brought him along the coast, to our country as well, where he stopped at Ulqin, Durrës and Sazan. In the course of the journey, for practical needs, he wrote down 26 words, 8 phrases and the numerals from 1 to 10 and from 100 to 1000, along with their equivalents in German. E. von Grote published this Glossary for the first time in Cologne in 1860.
Another text written in the Albanian language that dates back to the late 15th and early 16th centuries was found in a Greek manuscript of the 16th century in the Ambrosiana Library of Milan. It contains extracts translated from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, etc., and is written in the dialect of the South, in the Greek alphabet. This text written in Albanian is known in the Albanian literature by the name “The Easter Testament”.
These documents do not have any literary values, but arouse interest with regard to the history of the written Albanian language. From the early stages of its written form, Albanian language is proved to be written in two dialects, in the North dialect (gegërisht) and in the South one (toskërisht), and in two alphabets, the Latin and the Greek, which testifies that Albanian culture was under the influence of both Latin and Greek culture.
The first book known to date to be written in the Albanian language is the “Missal” (Meshari) (the Prayer Book) by Gjon Buzuku in AD 1555, which marks the beginning of the early Albanian literature. Only one copy of this book has survived and currently is in the Library of the Vatican. The book contains 220 pages and is written in two columns. “Missal” by Gjon Buzuku is the translation of the main parts of the catholic liturgy into Albanian; it contains the services of the main religious holidays of the year, comments from the book of prayers, parts from the Testament as well as parts from the ritual and catechism. Therefore, it includes the parts a preacher needs in his daily religious services. Obviously, it is an attempt by the author to introduce the Albanian language in the catholic religious services. Hence, the literary period of the Albanian language, as is the case with many other languages, has its beginnings in the translation of religious texts.
Gjon Buzuku's “Missal”, the first book in the Albanian language, was discovered in Rome by one of the writers from the north of Albania, Gjon Nikollë Kazazi; but the book was lost and recovered again in 1909 by the bishop Pal Skeroi, researcher and explorer of antique texts. In 1930, the researcher Jystin Rrota from Shkodër went to Rome, photocopied the book and brought three copies of it to Albania. In 1968 the book was published as transliterated and transcribed and provided both with critical notes and an introductory study by the pre-eminent linguist, Prof. E.Çabej. The linguist N.Resuli also transcribed Buzuku's book.
The “Missal” by Gjon Buzuku is written in the northern dialect (gegërisht), in the Latin alphabet, and is provided with some special letters. The book has a relatively rich vocabulary and its orthography and grammatical forms seem to be established, which is indicative of an earlier tradition in the writing of the Albanian language.
Prof. Eqerem Çabej, who had made a thorough study of Gjon Buzuku's book, has reached the conclusion that its language “is not an uncultivated land”. “Looking at this text objectively – he states – and judging by the fluent language that permeates it from top to bottom and by the consistent style of writing, one is convinced that a literary tradition in liturgical writings had existed earlier in Albania, at least since the late Middle Ages”. According to this author, the cultural level of Albania in the Middle Ages also supports this theory. “The cultural level of the Albanian people at that time had not been much different from the neighbouring countries and from those along the Adriatic coast in particular.”


Eqerem Çabej (1908-1980). The most distinguished scholar of the history of Albanian Language and one of the most renowned personalities of Albanian culture.
After finishing the elementary and secondary studies in his hometown (Gjirokastër), he went to Austria where he received higher education in the field of comparative Indo-European linguistics. After graduation, he turned home and in 1930s of the 20th century, he began his scholarly and academic activity by working in these fields for about fifty years, leaving behind himself a rich scholarly heritage.
Eqerem Çabej brought to and carried out in Albanian linguistics the approaches and achievements of European linguistics by making a great contribution to the raising of the scientific level in Albanian linguistic studies. Eqerem Çabej worked hard in several branches of learning, but he distinguished himself in the field of the history of language, the exploration of the origins of Albanian Language, the autochthony of Albanian people as well as the etymology and philology of old manuscripts.
His fundamental works are as follows: "Etymological Studies in the Albanian Field" in seven volumes, I "Introduction to the History of the Albanian Language", II "The Historical Phonetics" (1958), "The Missal by Gjon Buzuku" (1968), "The Albanians between the West and the East" (1944).
He also is a co-author of a series of works in the area of current Albanian, such as "The Dictionary of Current Albanian" (1954), "The Spelling Rules of the Albanian Language (1972), "The Spelling Dictionary".
Apart from the above works, he has published numerous papers in scholarly magazines at home and abroad and has held dozens of papers and reports at national and international congresses and conferences, which have made known the achievements of the Albanian philology abroad, and so raising its prestige.
The works by Prof. Eqerem Çabej have been published in eight volumes in Prishtina under the title "Linguistic Studies".
With his high-level and versatile scholarly activity, Eqerem Çabej highlighted many problems of both the Albanian Language and Albanian culture by demonstrating its ancientness and its Illyrian origin, its vitality through the centuries and its relationships with languages and cultures of other peoples.
There is also additional indirect evidence that speaks of a tradition in the writing of the Albanian language before the 15th century.
The French priest Gurllaume Adae (1270-1341), who for a long time served as Archbishop of Tivar (1324-1341) and came to know the Albanians well, in a report entitled “Directorium ad passagium faciendum ad terrom sanctam” sent to the king of France Philip VI, Valua, wrote among others: “Although Albanians speak a different language from Latin, they use and write their books in the Latin alphabet”. This author speaks of books in the Albanian language, thus testifying that Albanian had been written well before the 15th century.
In his work “De obsi dione scodrensi” (On the siege of Shkodër), published in Venice in 1504, the renowned humanist Marin Barleti also speaks of excerpts written in vernacula lingua, i.e. in the language of the country, which deal with the reconstruction of the town of Shkodër.
This evidence of G. Adae and M. Barleti, two connoisseurs of the Albanians and of their country, is in harmony with the historical data on this period, which suggest an advanced economic and cultural level of the Albanian territories in the 14th and early 15th centuries. In that period, many towns such as Durrës, Kruja, Berat, Vlora, flourished economically and became important trade and cultural centres.
This evidence makes more credible the existence of an earlier tradition in the writing of the Albanian language; nevertheless, as long as researches have not brought to light any other book, “Meshari” by Gjon Buzuku will remain the first book written in the Albanian language and the first work of the Albanian literature.
The literature in the Albanian language among the Arbëresh of Italy also has its beginnings in the 16th century. The first work of the Arbëresh literature in the Albanian language and the second earliest work, after that of Buzuku, is the one by the Arbëresh priest Lekë Matrenga “E mbesuame e krishterë” ("The Christian Faith") published in 1592. It is a booklet of 28 pages, the translation of a catechism. The book is written in the southern dialect, in Latin alphabet, and is provided with some special letters representing the sounds of the Albanian language that are missing in Latin.
Pjetër Budi, Frang Bardhi and Pjetër Bogdani who not only translated but also wrote original works further explored the Albanian language in the 17th century.
In 1635, Frang Bardhi produced the first dictionary, the “Latin-Albanian Dictionary”, which marks the beginning of the Albanian linguistic science. The exploration and progress of the Albanian language entered a new stage in the 19th century, during the National Renaissance, under new historical circumstances. In this period serious attempts were made to build up a national literary language which would become standard in the 20th century.

Dialects of the Albanian language
The Albanian language has two dialects, the northern dialect or "gegërisht" and the southern dialect or "toskërisht". The natural boundary that separates these dialects is the river Shkumbin that runs through Elbasan, in central Albania. To the right of Shkumbin lies the northern dialect (gegërisht) and to the left lies the southern dialect (toskërisht).
There are no great differences between Albanian dialects and people can understand each other without difficulty. Nevertheless, there are some differences in the phonetic system and in the grammatical structure and lexicon, of which the most important are: the northern dialect has mouth and nasal vowels, whereas the southern dialect has only mouth vowels; the diphthong ua in toskërisht has the equivalent ue in gegërisht (grua ~ grue); the initial cluster va in toskërisht has the equivalent vo in gegërisht (vatër ~ votër); the distinct nasal â in gegërisht has the distinct equivalent ë in toskërisht (nânë ~ nënë).
The southern dialect is characterized by rhotacism (the changing of n to r (ranë ~ rërë), which in gegërisht is missing; in toskërisht the consonant clusters mb, nd, etc. are retained whereas in gegërisht are assimilated in m, n, (mbush ~ mush, vend ~ ven). In the morphological system, the northern dialect has the infinitive form of the type me pun, whereas toskërisht has instead the infinitive form of the type të punoj. The past participle in toskërisht ends in a consonant, whereas in gegërisht ends in a vowel (kapur ~ kapë), etc.

Standard Albanian
The formation of the unified national literary language (standard language), as the most elaborated variant of the Albanian language, has gone through a long process, which began in 16th and 17th centuries, but this process entered a new stage in the 19th century, during the National Renaissance. Priority was given to the learning and exploration of the mother tongue, its enrichment and clearance of unnecessary foreign words. A wide literary, cultural and linguistic activity took place during this period.
“The Society of Printing Albanian Letters“, which was created in1879, gave a new impetus to this activity. The first grammar books were produced and steps were taken for the production of a national dictionary of the Albanian language. “The Dictionary of Albanian language“ by Kostandin Kristoforidhi was published posthumously in 1904.
During the period of National Renaissance, two literary variants of the Albanian language developed, which are the southern literary variant and the northern literary variant. Attempts were made to bring the two variants together and unify the literary language. An issue that required immediate solution was the unification of the alphabet. Up to that time Albanian was written in several alphabets: Latin, Greek, Turkish-Arabic and other special alphabets. This issue was resolved at the Congress of Manastir, held in November 14-22, 1908, in the town of Manastir, which is currently situated in Macedonia. The Congress decided on the introduction of a new alphabet based entirely on the Latin alphabet and provided with nine digraphs (dh, gj, ll, nj, rr, sh, th, xh, zh), and two letters with diacritic signs (ç, ë). This alphabet is still in use in the Albanian language. With the passage of time, the Istanbul alphabet was replaced by the new alphabet endorsed by the Congress of Manastir, i.e. the current alphabet.
Another step towards the unification of the Albanian literary language was taken by the Albanian Literary Committee, which met in Shkodër in 1916. The committee emphasised as a priority the exploration of the Albanian literary language and the development of the Albanian literature. This committee of linguists and writers, set up to help create a common literary (standard) language by bringing together the two literary variants already in use, decided on the median literary variant, which would serve as a bridge between "toskërisht" and "gegërisht" and set rules for its orthography, which contributed to the unification of the written language.
The decisions of the Albanian Literary Committee on the standard language and its orthography were later endorsed at the Education Congress of Lushnje (1920) and continued to be applied until the Second World War.

After the Second World War, work on the unification of the national literary language (standard language) and its orthography was organised by the Institute of Sciences. Ad hoc committees were set up to design orthography drafts. Thus, some drafts were designed in 1948, 1951, 1953 and 1956. Two conferences were held in 1952 on the issue of the standard language.

Aleksandër Xhuvani (1880-1961)
He received higher education at the University of Athens. During the period of National Renaissance he started his activity in the study of Albanian language and national education. He performed a great work for providing our schools with textbooks of Albanian language, literature, teaching and psychology. He directed and took part in the work for drafting spelling guides during the years 1949, 1951, 1954 and 1956.
He carried out a lot of activity in the field of the purity and enrichment of Albanian language and also published his work "On the Purity of the Albanian Language" (1956). He collaborated with Professor Eqerem Çabej for writing such works as "Prefixes" (1956) and "Suffixes of the Albanian Language" (1962), which are fundamental treatises in the field of word-formation in the Albanian Language. He also published a series of monographic works on the participle, infinitive and prepositions of the Albanian Language.
He was a good connoisseur and a passionate collector of lexical thesaurus of the folk speech. The words and expressions collected by him were partly published posthumously in the form of a vocabulary. He prepared a second edition of Kristoforidhi's "The Dictionary of the Albanian Language" (1961).
His complete works, extending to several volumes, have not yet been published. The first volume was published in 1980.
In 1967, the Institute of History and Linguistics published the new draft on “Orthography Rules of the Albanian Language“. This draft was applied in all the Albanian territories, the Republic of Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro. Meanwhile, efforts were also made in Kosovo for the unification of the literary language and its orthography.
In 1968, a linguistic conference was held in Prishtina, guided by the principle “one nation-one literary language“. It decided that once the orthography draft was approved and took official form, it would be applied in Kosovo as well. The decisions taken in this conference were of great significance for the unification of the national literary language.
Following a public debate, the draft on “Orthography Rules of the Albanian Language“ of 1967 was submitted for discussion to the Congress on orthography of the Albanian language held in Tirana in 1972. It has gone down in the history of the Albanian language and culture as the Congress of the unification of the national literary language.
Delegates attended the Congress on orthography of the Albanian language from all of the regions of Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Arberësh from Italy. The Congress adopted a resolution which, among others, stated that "the Albanian people now have a unified literary (standard) language“.
The unified national literary language (standard language) was mostly based on the literary variant of the south, especially with regard to the phonetic system, but it also encompasses elements from the literary variant of the north.
After the Congress of Orthography, a number of important works were published which codified the norms of a standard language, such as “The Orthography of the Albanian Language“ (1973), “The Dictionary of Current Albanian“ (1980), “The Dictionary of Present-day Albanian“ (1984), “An Orthographic Dictionary of the Albanian Language“ (1976), “A Grammar of Current Albanian“, I Morphology (…………..), II Syntax (………………..).

Typological features of present-day standard Albanian
Albanian language is structurally an analytical-synthetic language, with a dominance of synthetic elements tending towards being analytical. Part of its phonetic and grammatical features date back from the ancient Indo-European period, others have developed later.
Albanian language has its own phonological system, which comprises 7 vowel phonemes and 29 consonant phonemes. It is written in the Latin alphabet decided upon in 1908 at the Congress of Manastir.
The Albanian language has 36 letters, 25 of which are simple (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, x, y, z), 9 are digraphs (dh, gj, ll, nj, rr, sh, th, xh, zh) and 2 diacritic letters (ë, ç).
The Albanian language has an elaborated system of grammatical forms, a binary declension system: definite and indefinite, it retains the case forms (it has five cases), three genders (masculine, feminine and neutral); the latter is going out of use and is used only with a certain category of verbal nouns like të shkruarit, të menduarit, etc.
The noun system has definite and indefinite forms, hence, definite and indefinite declensions; the definite article takes end position like the Romanian and Bulgarian languages; but the article can be pre-positioned with nouns in the possessive case, (i, e malit), articled adjectives (i mirë, i vogël, etc), neutral nouns of the type të folurit, etc. and this article (“i”,”e”) (is nominated “prepositive article”. Apart from inflection with specific endings, Albanian has also an inner inflection (dash ~ desh, marr ~ merr); it has two types of adjectives, articled adjectives (i madh, i ndershëm) and unarticled adjectives (trim, besnik). Numerals are mainly used according to the decimal system (dhjetë, tridhjetë, pesëdhjetë), but vigesimal system is also retained (njëzet, dyzet); compound numerals from 11 through 19 are formed by placing digits first, then the preposition mbë and finally the decimals (njëmbëdhjetë, dymbëdhjetë, etc) like the Romanian and Slavonic languages.
The verb system is varied. Albanian language has a rich system of mood and time forms, part of which dates from an early period, with the rest being evolved during the long historical evolution. Verbs have six moods: indicative, subjunctive, conditional, imperative, "admirative" (expressing a surprise) and "desiderative" (expressing a wish) and three non-finite forms (past participle, infinitive and gerund). The future tense is formed analytically in two ways: with do (form of the verb dua-want) + conjunctive (here, infinitive) - të punoj = do të punoj (I shall work), and with auxiliary verb kam (have) + infinitive për të punuar = kam për të punuar (I have to work).
Word order is generally free but the most common form is subject + verb + object.
The vocabulary of the Albanian language consists of certain layers. Native words date back from an ancient Indo-European period (ditto, Nat, dimmer, motor, Janna, etc.), or are formed in a later period out of Albanian words (ditor, dimëror, i përnatshëm).
Another layer consists of words borrowed from other languages as a result of the contacts the Albanian people have had with other nations over the centuries. Words have been borrowed from Greek, both ancient and modern, from Latin and Romance languages, from Slavonic and Turkish.
Despite the numerous borrowings, Albanian language has retained its originality as a separate Indo-European language.
Albanian language has a generally fixed stress during inflection. In most cases, especially in the noun system, the stress falls on the penultimate syllable.
The spread of the Albanian language
Albanian is currently spoken by over six million people in the Republic of Albania, in Kosovo, by the Albanians of Macedonia, Montenegro and south Serbia as well as in the territory of Çamëri in Greece. Albanian is also spoken in the Albanian settlements in Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, the Ukraine and by Albanians who have migrated to various parts of the world before the Second World War and over the last decade.
The Albanian language is being taught and studied in several universities and Albanological centres abroad, as in Paris, Rome, Naples, Cosenza, Palermo, Petersburg, Peking, Mϋnchen, Bucharest, Salonika, Sophia, etc.
Studies on the Albanian Language
The Albanian language and culture, their ancientness and original character have attracted the attention of foreign and Albanian scholars as early as the 18th century and even before. The language, history and culture of Albanians drew, in particular, the attention of Germanic world. A great philosopher such as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, who worked one century before the emergence of comparative linguistics, was also concerned with it. He held that the comparative study of languages was essential for building a universal history of the world, for understanding and explaining it. In some letters that he wrote to a librarian of the Berlin's Royal Library at the beginning of the 18th century, he pronounced on the nature and origin of Albanian as well, and after some hesitations, he came to the conclusion that Albanian was the language of ancient Illyrians.
The studies on the Albanian language, however, like on many other languages, began by the mid-19th century, after the emergence of the historical-comparative linguistics. One of the founders of this linguistics, the German scholar Franz Bopp, came to prove, as early as 1854, that Albanian language shared the family of Indo-European languages and occupied a special place in this family. After him, other scholars such as G. Meyer, H. Pederson, N. Jokli, explored various aspects of the lexicon and grammatical structure of Albanian. As early as 1891, G. Meyer embarked on the work of compiling an etymological dictionary of the Albanian language (Etymologisches Wörterbuch der albanesischen Sprache, Strasbourg, 1891), the first dictionary of this type for Albanian. In addition, numerous foreign linguists such as F. Miclosich, G. Weigand, C.Tagliavini, St. Man, E. Hamp, A. Desnickaja, H. Ölberg, H. Mihaescu, W. Fredler, O. Bucholtz, M. Huld, G.B. Pellegrini, etc., have made invaluable contributions to the studying of history of the Albanian language, the problems related to its origin, etymology, phonetics and historical grammar, and, in addition, to the studying of the current state of Albanian
In the meantime, along with the studies on Albanian by foreign linguists, the Albanian linguistics was born and developed. Its beginnings date from the 17th century AD, when Frang Bardhi published the first dictionary of Albanian language "Dictionarium Latino-Epiroticum" (1653). During the National Renaissance, several Albanian grammars were published. So, Dhimitër Kamarda, one of Italy's Arbëresh, published in 1864 his work "Saggio della grammatica comparata sulla lingua albanese", Livorno, 1864, and two years later its 2d vol., "L'Appendice al saggio della grammatica comparata sulla lingua albanese", Prato, 1866. In 1882, Kostandin Kristoforidhi published "The Grammar of the Albanian Language" and in 18*6 Sami Frashëri published "The Grammar of the Albanian Language", two important 19th-century linguistic works on the grammatology of Albanian language. At the end of the 19th century, Kostandin Kristoforidhi prepared another "Dictionary of the Albanian Language", which was published in 1904 and is considered to be the most important work in Albanian lexicography published before the Second World War. In 1909, the association "Bashkimi" published its own dictionary.
After the proclamation of Independence, a series of grammar books and dictionaries were published to meet the needs of schools and national culture. In the field of grammar studies, the most distinguished figure became Prof. Dr. Aleksandër Xhuvani.
A greater development Albanian linguistics saw during the second half of the 20th century, when specialised institutions were established, such as the University of Tirana, the University of Prishtina, the Academy of Sciences, the University of Shkodër and later on other universities in Elbasan, Gjirokastër, Vlorë, Tetovë, etc. During this period, a series of generalising works were created in various fields of linguistics. In the areas of lexicology and lexicography, in addition to lexicological studies, a series of both Albanian and bilingual dictionaries were written, most important being: "The Dictionary of Albanian" (1954), "The Dictionary of Current Albanian Language" (1980), "The Dictionary of Present-day Albanian" (1984), "The Spelling Dictionary of the Albanian Language" (1976), etc. Recently "An Idiomatic Dictionary of Albanian Language" and a "Balkan Idiomatic Dictionary" (1999) have appeared.
In the field of dialectology, the description and study of all Albanian speeches has been carried out and "The Dialectological Atlas of Albanian Language" has been written, which is a monumental work that is soon to come out.
Also, a survey of phonetics and grammatical structures of Albanian through individual studies and various grammar treatises and levels has been carried out, of which "The Albanian Language Grammar" comprised of Morphology I (1995), and Syntax II (1997), drawn up in co-operation with the Academy of Sciences and the Tirana University, with Mahir Domi as editor-in-chief, is the most complete.
In the linguistic studies during the past half-century much space was given to the problems of the history of Albanian language, the ethno-
genesis of Albanian people and their language, the historical phonetics and grammar, etc. Some of the basic works in these areas are the following: "Etymological Studies in the Albanian Field" in 7 volumes by E. Çabej; "The Missal" by Gjon Buzuku (E. Çabej); "A Historical Grammar of the Albanian Language" (Sh. Demiraj); "The Historical Phonology of the Albanian Language" (Sh. Demiraj); "Balkan Linguistics" (Sh. Demiraj), etc.
During this period, Albanian linguistics also resolved the problem of the uniform national literary Albanian language, with theoretical problems of which Prof. Androkli Kostallari has dealt.
In the framework of labour carried out in the field of normative linguistics and the culture of language, a great number of terminological dictionaries on various areas of science and technology have also been compiled.
In addition to numerous works published in the field of linguistics, the activity of linguistic researches by Albanian scholars is reflected in the publication of several research magazines, of which the following are the main ones today: "Philological Studies" (Tiranë); "Albanian Language" (Prishtinë), "Studia Albanica" (Tiranë), "Jehona" (Skopje); etc.
Some of the most eminent figures in Albanian Linguistics during the past two centuries are: Dhimitër Kamarda (an Arbëresh of Italy), Kostandin Kristoforidhi, Sami Frashëri, Aleksandër Xhuvani, Eqerem Çabej, Selman Riza, Kostaq Cipo, Mahir Domi, Shaban Demiraj, Androkli Kostallari, Idriz Ajeti, etc.

By Prof. SEIT MANSAKU

 

[gentilushi]

Re: Vlerat e Kombit Shqiptar (EN) ! ! !

ALBANIAN LITERATURE
By Prof. JORGO BULO
The internal and external history of Albanians has left its deep imprint on their culture.
Albania, part of the ancient Illyrian territories, a cross-road of civilisations and geopolitical interests during the barbaric onslaughts and later on a province of the Eastern and Western Empires, Rome and Byzantium, after, over centuries, having constituted and dissolved independent despotisms and principates, and after having eventually constituted the state of Scanderbeg which resisted for a quarter of a century to the Ottoman hordes thus becoming a shield for Christianity and European civilisation, torn by wars after the death of its resistance hero, George Castriot Scanderbeg (1468), at the end of 15th century AD eventually fell under the yoke of the Empire of Sultans.
The country jumped backwards to a historically remote stage of economic and social development. The normal process of Albanian culture, which kept pace with European humanism, was interrupted. The first consequence of invasion was the outflow of intellectual elite to the West. Among such elite, many personalities became renowned in the humanist world, as, for e.g., historian Marin Barleti (1460-1513) who in 1510 published in Rome a history of Scanderbeg, which was translated almost into all European languages, or Marin Beçikemi (1408-1526), Gj. Gazulli (1400-1455), L. Tomeu (1456-1531), M. Maruli (15th century), M. Artioti (1480-1556) and many others who were distinguished in various fields of science, art and philosophy.
In the meantime, cultural life in the country underwent a decline, monuments of material and spiritual culture disappeared under the ruins of war; the crescent lowered the cross and by the end of 17th century, almost two thirds of the population had converted to Islam. But this drastic change of religious structure did not impede Albania to be permanently one of the most unquiet provinces of the Empire, nor Albanian culture to survive even in the conditions of a several centuries long occupation under the pressures of Islam and the Oriental cultural world, which exerted a deep and comprehensive influence on it, though failing to oppress the Albanian nature of the local culture.
The resistance in the cultural field was first of all expressed through the elaboration of the Albanian language in the area of church texts and publications, mainly of the Catholic confessional region in the North, but also of the Orthodox in the South.
The Protestant reform invigorated hopes for the development of the local language and literary tradition when priest Gj. Buzuku brought into the Albanian language the Catholic liturgy, trying to do for the Albanian what Luther did for the German language.
The “Missal” by Gj. Buzuku, published by him in 1555, is considered to date as the first work of written Albanian. The refined level of the language and the stabilised orthography must be a result of an earlier tradition of writing Albanian, a tradition that is not known. But there are some fragmented evidence, dating earlier than Buzuku, which indicate that Albanian was written at least since 14th century AD:
The first known evidence dates from 1332 AD and deals with the French Dominican Guglielm Adale, Archbishop of Tivar, who in a report in Latin writes that Albanians use Latin letters in their books although their language is quite different from Latin. Of special importance in supporting this are: a baptising formula (Unte paghesont premenit Atit et Birit et spertit senit) of 1462, written in Albanian within a text in Latin by the bishop of Durrës Pal Engjëlli; a glossary with Albanian words of 1497 by Arnold von Harf, a German who had travelled through Albania, and a 14th century fragment from the Bible according to Saint Mathew, also in Albanian, but in Greek letters.
Albanian writings of these centuries must not have been religious texts only, but historical chronicles too. They are mentioned by the humanist M. Barleti who, in his book “Rrethimi i Shkodrës” (The Siege of Shkodër) (1504), confirms that he has leafed through such chronicles written in the language of the vulgus (in vernacula lingua).
Despite the obstacles generated by the Counter-reform which was opposed to the development of national languages in Christian religious literature, this process went on uninterrupted. During the 16th to 17th centuries, the catechism “E mbësuame krishterë” (Christian Teachings) (1592) by L. Matrënga, “Doktrina e krishterë” (The Christian Doctrine) (1618) and “Rituale romanum” (1621) by P. Budi, the first writer of original Albanian prose and poetry, an apology for George Castriot (1636) by F. Bardhi, who also published a dictionary and folk-lore creations, the theological-philosophical treaty “Çeta e Profetëve” (The Band of Prophets) (1685) by P. Bogdani, the most universal personality of Albanian Middle Ages, were published in Albanian.
The Bogdani's work is a theological-philosophical treaty that considers with originality, by merging data from various sources, principal issues of theology, a full biblical history and the complicated problems of scholasticism, cosmogony, astronomy, pedagogy etc. Bogdani brought into Albanian culture the humanist spirit and praised the role of knowledge and culture in the life of man; with his written work in a language of polished style, he marked a turning point in the history of Albanian literature.
During 18th century, the literature of Orthodox and Muslim confessional cultural circles witnessed a greater development. An anonymous from Elbasan brings into Albanian language a number of sections from the Bible; T. H. Filipi, also from Elbasan, brings the “Dhiata e Vjetër dhe e Re” (The Old and the New Testament). These efforts multiplied in the following century with the publication in 1827 of the integral text of the “Dhiata e Re” (The New Testament) by G. Gjirokastriti and with the big corpus of (Christian) religious translations by K. Kristoforidhi (1830-1895), in both dialects of the Albanian, publications which helped in the process of integrating the two dialects into a unified literary language and in setting up the basis for the establishment of the national church of the Albanians with the liturgy in their own language.
Although in opposite direction with this tendency, the culture of Voskopoja is also to be mentioned, a culture that during the 17th century became a great hearth of civilisation and a metropolis of the Balkan peninsula, with an Academy and a printing press and with personalities like T. Kavaljoti, Dh. Haxhiu, G. Voskopojari, whose works of knowledge, philology, theology and philosophy assisted objectively in the writing and recognition of the Albanian.
Although the literature that evolved in Voskopoja was mainly in the Greek language, the need to erect obstacles to Islamisation made necessary the use of national languages, encouraging the development of national cultures. Walachian and Albanian were also used for the teaching of Greek in the schools of Voskopoja, and books in Walachian were also printed in its printing presses.
The works of Voskopoja writers and savants have brought in some elements of the ideas of European Enlightenment. The most distinguished of them, Teodor Kavaljoti, is an erudite of the time. According to the notes of the German albanolog H.E. Thunman, the work of Kavaljoti, which remained unpublished, in most part deals with issues from almost all branches of philosophy. It shows the influence of Plato, Des Cartes, Malebranche and Leibnitz.
A result of the influence of Islam and the culture of the invader was the emergence, during 18th century, of a school of poetry, or of a literature written in Albanian but in the Arab alphabet. Its authors such as N. Frakulla, M. Kyçyku, S. Naibi, H.Z. Kamberi, Sh. and D. Frashëri, Sheh Mala, and others dealt in their works with motifs borrowed from Oriental literature, wrote religious texts and poetry in a language suffocated by orientalisms and developed religious lyric and epic. This school did not have a long life or any specific influence on the later literary developments.
In order to complete the framework of cultural developments of Albania during 17th and 18th centuries, it should be mentioned that local authors produced distinguished works in the field of architecture and iconic painting. Distinguished names were Onufri and his son Nikolla (16th century) and K. Shpataraku and D. Selenica (18th century) who carried on the tradition of the post-Byzantine religious art, but not without influence from the European Renaissance. Most religious buildings may be mentioned regarding the Islamic art.
The 19th century, the century of national movements in the Balkans, found Albanians without a sufficient tradition of a unitary development of the state, language and culture but, instead, with an individualistic and regionalist mentality inherited from the psychology of clan and kinship and consequently with an underdeveloped national conscience, though with a spirit of spontaneous rebellion. In this historical cultural situation, an organised mental and literary movement, which was called the Albanian National Renaissance, started to emerge. It was inspired by the ideas of national Romanticism and Enlightenment, which were cultivated among the circles of Albanian intelligentsia, mainly émigrés in the old Albanian settlements in Italy and the more recent ones in Istanbul, Bucharest, USA, Sophia and Cairo.
National Renaissance, nurturing the Albanian as a language of culture, the organisation of national education and the establishment of a national literature on the cultural level as well as the creation of the independent state – these were the goals of this movement which gave birth to the school of Albanian Romanticism. It was a typical Balkan Romanticism, imbued with the spirit of national liberation, with the nostalgia of the émigré and the rhetorical pathos of evoking the Albanian Middle Ages, that is, the wars of George Castriot. This literary school developed the poetry most. Regarding the motifs and poetical forms, its hero was the ethical man, the fighting Albanian, and to a lesser degree the tragic man. It is closely linked with the folklore tradition. The pursuit of this tradition and the publications of “Rapsodi të një poeme arbëreshe” (Rhapsody of an Arbëresh Poem) in 1866 by De Rada, of “Përmbledhje të këngëve popullore dhe rapsodi të poemave shqiptare” (Collection of Albanian Folk Songs and Rhapsodies of Albanian Poems) in 1871 by Z. Jubani, “Bleta shqiptare” (Albanian Bee) in 1878 by Th. Mitko, etc., were part of the cultural programme of the National Renaissance for establishing the ethnic and cultural identity of Albanians.
Two are the greatest representatives of Albanian Romanticism of 19th century: J. De Rada (1814-1903), born and dead in the Albanian Diaspora in Italy and educated there, and N. Frashëri (1846-1900), born in Albania, educated at Zosimea of Ioannina, but emigrated and deceased in Istanbul. The first is the Albanian romantic poet brought up in the climate of European Romanticism, the second is the Albanian romanticist who merges in his poetry the influence of Eastern poetry, especially Persian, with the spirit of the poetry of Western Romanticism.
De Rada wrote a cycle of epical-lyrical poems in the style of Albanian rhapsodies: “Këngët e Milosaos”(The Songs of Milosao), 1836, “Serafina Topia” 1839, “Skënderbeu i pafat” (Unlucky Scanderbeg) 1872-1874 etc. with the ambition of creating the national epos for the century of Scanderbeg.
Following the traces of Herder, De Rada raised the love for folk songs in his poetry and painted it in ethnographic colours. His works reflect both the Albanian life with its characteristic customs and mentalities, and the Albanian drama of the 15th century, when this land's indomitable folk fell to the Ottoman yoke. The conflict between the happiness of the individual and the tragedy of the nation, the scenes by the riversides, women gathering wheat in the fields, the man going to war and the wife embroidering his belt, all represented with a delicate lyrical feeling – this is the poetry of this romantic poet who grew up in the political climate of the national movement of Albanians and in the literary climate of Calabrian Romanticism. Naim Frashëri wrote a pastoral poem “Bagëti e bujqësia” (Shepherds and Farmers) (1886), a collection of philosophical, patriotic and love lyrics “Lulet e verës” (Summer Flowers), (1890), an epical poem on Scanderbeg “Histori e Skënderbeut” (The History of Scanderbeg) (1898), a religious epical poem “Qerbelaja” (1898), two poems in Greek “O Eros” (i.e.O Love) and “O alithis pothos ton skipetaron” (i.e. The True Desire of Albanians), a bunch of lyrics in Persian “Tehajylat” (The Dream) and many erudite works in Albanian. He is recognised as the greatest national poet of Albanians.
Naim Frashëri established modern lyrics in Albanian poetry. In the spirit of “Bucolics” and “Georgics” of Vergil, in his “Bagëti e bujqësia” (Shepherds and Farmers) he sang to the works of the land tiller and shepherd by writing a hymn to the beauties of his fatherland and expressing the nostalgia of the émigré poet and the pride of being Albanian. It is not surprising that though living in the heart of the Ottoman Empire, in Istanbul, he felt so deeply about the fate of his fatherland. The longing for his birthplace, the mountains and fields of Albania, the graves of his ancestors, the memories of his childhood, feed his inspiration with lyrical strength and impulse.
The inner experiences of the individual freed from the chains of medieval, Oriental mentality on one hand and the philosophical pantheism of the Sufi doctrine, imbued with the poetical pantheism of the European Romanticism on the other hand, give to the lyrical meditations of Frashëri a universal human and philosophical dimension. The most beautiful poems of “Lulet e verës” (Summer Flowers) collection are the philosophical lyrics on life and death, on time that goes by and never comes back leaving behind tormenting memories in the heart of man, on the Creator melt with the Universe.
Spiritual by nature and a member of the Bektashi sect, Frashëri is a metaphysical poet, one who fused his lyrical meditations, Hellenistic mystique with ancient, Oriental and Islamic mystique. Being in the crossroads of Eastern and Western philosophical and poetical traditions, N. Frashëri blends them with each other, but without suppressing his Albanian nature. The Western culture and civilisation determined the illuminist underlay of the work of Frashëri, Eastern civilisation its philosophical-mystical underlay, while the Albanian world the backbone of his work. But one should single out the French spirit in his work as well. The French spirit in Greece and Turkey was a representative of the European culture. It found a hotbed in the Balkan countries like Albania, because it brought to the people of the peninsula the ideas of the French uprising and generally the idea of freedom and modern nationalism. Knowing the French language and being an admirer of Voltaire and Rousseau as a thinker and of Lamartine as a poet, Frashëri envisaged the future of his nation “to rise from the side of the sunset”. The romanticism of Naim in this point does not differ from the Greek or Turkish Romanticism, they are all offspring of France.
Naim Frashëri is the founder of the national literature of the Albanians and of the national literary language. He raised Albanian to a modern language of culture, evolving it in the model of the popular Albanian speech.
The inner world of the romantic hero with its vehement feelings is brought to Albanian Romanticism by the poetry of Z. Serembe. The poetry of N. Mjeda and A. Z. Çajupi, who lived at the end of Renaissance, bears the signs of disintegration of the artistic system of Romanticism in Albanian literature.
A.Z Çajupi (1866-1930), is a rustic poet, the type of a folk bard, called the Mistral of Albania; he brought to Albanian literature the comedy of customs and the tragedy of historical themes. Graduated from a French college in Alexandria and the Geneva University, a good connoisseur of French literature, A.Z. Çajupi was among the first to bring into Albanian language La Fountaine’s fables, thus opening the way to the translation and adoption of works of world literature into Albanian, which has been and remains one of the major ways of communication of Albanians with the world culture.
With the establishment of the Albanian state (1912), the romantic school, born from the ground of the national movement, lost its historical base; the national idea gives way to the human one and new tendencies and styles appear in the development of Albanian literature.
The main direction taken by the Albanian literature between the two World Wars was realism, but it also bore either any aspects of a belated sentimentalism (F. Postoli), or remnants of romanticism.
Gjergj Fishta (1871-1940), wrote a poem of national epos breadth “Lahuta e malësisë” (The Lute of the Highlands) in which, in a romanticising spirit and a high patriotic pathos, he depicts the struggles of Northern mountaineers against Slav onslaughts.
With this work he remains the greatest epical poet of Albanians. A Franciscan priest, erudite and a member of the Italian Academy, Gjergj Fishta is a multifaceted personality of Albanian culture: epical and lyrical poet, publicist and satirist, dramatist and translator, active participant in the Albanian cultural and political life between the two Wars.
His major work, "Lahuta e malësisë” (The Lute of the Highlands) with 17.000 verses, written in the spirit of Albanian historical and legendary epos, is a reflection of the Albanian life and mentality, a poetical mosaic of historic and legendary exploits, traditions and customs of the highlands, a live fresco of the history of an old people, which places on its centre the type of Albanian carved in the Calvary of his life along the stream of centuries which had been savage to him. Fishta’s poem is distinguished by its vast linguistic wealth, is a receptacle for the richness of the popular speech of the highlands, the live and infinite phraseology and the diversity of clear syntax constructions, which give vitality and strength to the poetic expression.
The poetical collections “Mrizi i Zanave” (The Fairies’ Mead) with patriotic verse and “Vallja e Parrizit” (Paris’s Dance) with verses of a religious spirit, represent Fishta as a refined lyrical poet, while his other works “Anzat e Parnasit” (Parnassus' Anises) and “Gomari i Babatasit” (Babatas' Donkey) represent him as an unrepeatable satirical poet. In the field of drama, “Juda Makabe” and “Ifigjenia n’ Aulli” may be mentioned along his tragedies with a biblical and ancient mythology themes.
Albanian literature between the two Wars did not lack manifestations of sentimentalism (F. Postoli, M. Grameno) and of belated classicism, especially in drama (E. Haxhiademi). Manifestations of the modern trends, impressionism, symbolism etc. were isolated phenomena in the works of some writers (Migjeni, Poradeci, and Asdreni), that did not succeed in forming a school. Deep changes were seen in the system of genres; prose (Migjeni, F. S. Noli, F. Konica, E. Koliqi, M. Kuteli, etc.) drama and satire (Gj. Fishta, K. Floqi) developed parallel to poetry.
The typical representative of realism was Millosh Gjergj Nikolla, Migjeni (1913-1938). His poetry “Vargjet e lira” (Free Verse), 1936, and prose are permeated by a severe social realism on the misery and tragic position of the individual in the society of the time. The characters of his works are people from the lowest strata of Albanian society.
Some of Migjeni’s stories are novels in miniature; their themes represent the conflict of the individual with institutions and the patriarchal and conservative morality. The rebellious nature of Migjeni’s talent broke the traditionalism of Albanian poetry and prose by bringing a new style and forms in poetry and narrative. He is one of the greatest reformers of Albanian literature, the first great modern Albanian writer.
L. Poradeci (1899-1987), a poetical talent of a different nature, a brilliant lyrical poet, wrote a soft and warm poetry, but with a deep thinking and a charming musicality “Vallja e yjeve” (The Dance of Stars), 1933, “Ylli i zemrës” (The Star of Heart) 1937.
F. S. Noli (1882-1965) has an astounding poetical utterance in his book “Album” (1947) and his historical prose is elegant “Histori e Skënderbeut” (The History of Scanderbeg), 1921. Poet, historian, dramatist, aesthete and musicologist, publicist, translator and master of the Albanian language, on top of being a statesman and diplomat, he is the genius of Albanian culture of the 20th century.
F. S. Noli was born in an Albanian settlement in Eastern Thracia (Ibrik Tepe), where he was given elementary education; he attended secondary education in the Greek school of Adrianopolis and then graduated from Harvard University, Boston, USA.
From a very young age he participated in the patriotic movement for the liberation of Albania from the Ottoman invasion and became one of the most distinguished political and cultural activists of Albanian Renaissance. In 1908 he was ordained a priest, initiating the idea of an autocephalous Albanian Orthodox Church, which he established in 1922.
After the proclamation of national independence (1912) Noli became an inspirer and leader of the democratic movement in Albania. In 1924, following the victory of the anti-feudal revolution, he was elected Prime Minister of the short-lived government that came out of this revolution. The restoration of the feudal reaction in December 1924 obliged him to emigrate and never come back, an emigration that he experienced like a biblical exile. After moving around in Europe as a political émigré, in 1932 he settled for good in the USA, where he died.
The experience of the defeated 1924 revolution inspired him for a cycle of lyrics with biblical motifs, included in the book “Album”. In 1907 he had published the drama, again with a biblical theme, “Izraelitë dhe filistinë” (Israelites and Philistines), trying to bring to his time the biblical legend in an analogy with his own experience as a spiritual leader of the movement for national and social liberation of Albanians. In 1947 he published in English the study “Beethoven and the French Revolution”. He translated into Albanian many liturgical books and works of world class writers such as O. Khayyam, W. Shakespeare, H. Ibsen, M. de Cervantes and others.
With his poetry, non-fiction, scientific and religious prose, as well as with his translations, F.S. Noli has played a fundamental role in the development of the modern Albanian.
Distinguished writers of short prose were E. Koliqi (1903-1975), M. Kuteli (1907-1967) and F. Konica (1875-1942). The first one wrote subtle prose, full of colouring from his town of Shkodër, (“Tregtar flamujsh”, (Trader of Flags), 1935, the second is a magician of the Albanian language, the writer that cultivated the folk style of narration into a charming prose, “Net shqiptare” (Albanian Nights) 1938; “Ago Jakupi” 1943; “Kapllan aga i Shaban Shpatës” (Kapllan Aga of Shaban Shpata), 1944.
F. Konica is the master who gave Albanian prose a modern image, the intellectual that brought the proper Western mentality to Albanian culture.
He was born in Konica, a small Albanian town, which following the decisions of the London Conference of 1913 that shrank the Albanian state to the present borders, remained with Greece. He came from a renowned family, inheriting the title of Bey and the conscience of belonging to an elite, which he manifested strongly in his life and work, but he did not inherit the Oriental backward mentality which he discarded with a joking smile that he translated into a cutting sarcasm in his work. He attended for one year the Jesuit college of Shkodër, then the Imperial Lyceum in Istanbul, studied literature and philosophy at Dijon University, France, and completed his higher studies at Harvard University, where, in 1912, got a Master's degree (Master of Arts) from that University. Erudite, knowledgeable in all major European languages and some Eastern ones, a friend of G. Apollinaire, called by foreigners “a walking encyclopaedia”, F. Konica became the model of Western intellectual for the Albanian culture. Since his youth he was dedicated to the national movement, but contrary to the mythical, idealising and romanticising feeling of the Renaissance, he brought in it the spirit of criticism and experienced the perennial pain of the idealist who suffers for his own thoughts.
He established the “Albania” magazine (Brussels 1897-1900, London 1902-1909), that became the most important Albanian press organ of the Renaissance. Publicist, essayist, poet, prose writer, translator and literary critic, he, among others, is the author of the studies “L’Albanie et les turcs” (Paris 1895), “Memoire sur le mouvement national albanais (Brussels, 1899), of novels “Një ambasadë e Zulluve në Paris” (An Embassy of the Zulu in Paris) (1922) and “Doktor Gjilpëra” (Doctor the Needle) (1924), as well as of the historical-cultural work “Albania -- the Rock Garden of South-Eastern Europe” published posthumously in Massachusetts in 1597. The two novels of Konica share the satirical spirit and the allegoric expression of the conflict between knowledge and ignorance, between the backward Oriental mentality and modern Western mentality. Both his non-fiction writings and fiction prose are a model of the elaborated literary Albanian and of an elegant style.
He spent the last years of his life (1926-1939) as the ambassador of the Albanian Kingdom to Washington, where he died in 1942. His remains were brought to Albania recently.
The literature of the Albanians of Italy in the period between the two Wars continued the tradition of the romanticist school of the 19th century. Z. Skiro (1865-1927) through his work “Kthimi” (Return), 1913, “Te dheu i huaj” (In Foreign Soil), 1940, wanted to recover the historical memory of Albanians emigrated since the 15th century after the death of Scanderbeg.
During the Antifascist Struggle of the Albanian people (1939-1944), a literature of resistance developed. It was born underground through the press of the Communist Party of Albania. The products of this literature were mainly non-fiction writings, literary sketches and texts of partisan songs. Its authors were antifascist fighters of the youngest generation (Sh. Musaraj, A. Çaçi, F. Gjata, K. Jakova, Q. Buxheli).
After World War II, Albanian literature witnessed a massive development. The main feature of literature and arts of this period was their ideologically oriented development and the elaboration of all genres, especially of novel, which despite of the lack of any tradition came to the lead of the literary process.
The most elaborate type of novel was the novel of socialist realism of ethical and historical character, with a linear subject matter (J. Xoxa, S. Spasse), but novels with a rugged composition, open poetics and a philosophical substratum issuing from association of ideas and historical analogies (I. Kadare, P. Marko) as well as the satirical novel are not lacking (D. Agolli, Q. Buxheli).
The short story and novel were developed by Dh. Shuteriqi, N. Prifti, Z. Çela, T. Laço, Dh. Xhuvani, N. Lera and others, and poetry by I. Kadare, D. Agolli, F. Arapi, Xh. Spahiu, M. Ahmeti and others.
Drama (K. Jakova, “Toka jonë”) (Our land), 1955, and comedy (S. Çomora, “Karnavalet e Korçës”) (The Carnival of Korça), 1961, developed to a lesser degree.
The literature of this period developed within the framework of socialist realism, the only direction allowed by official policy. But beyond this framework, powerful talents created works with an implicit feeling of opposition and with universal significance.
I. Kadare (1936), with the poem (“Përse mendohen këto male” (What Are These Mountains Musing On?) 1964, “Motive me diell” (Sunny Motifs) 1968, “Koha” (Time) 1976, and especially with his prose (“Gjenerali i ushtrisë së vdekur” (The General of The Dead Army) 1963, “Kështjella” (The Castle) 1970, “Kronikë në gur” (Chronicle in Stone) 1971, “Dimri i madh“ (The Great Winter) 1977, “Ura me tri harqe” (The Three-Arched Bridge) 1978, “Piramida” (The Pyramid) 1992; “Spiritus” 1996 etc., defied the limitations of the time and revived Albanian literature with forms and motifs which integrate it into the modern streams of world literature.
The work of Kadare represents an artistic encyclopaedia of Albanian life, a broad fresco of historical and contemporary events, experienced with a philosophical attitude, sometimes expressed openly and at other times in Aesop’s speech.
The philosophy, beliefs, dramas and historical and cultural traditions of Albanians, filtered through the artistic thinking of the writer are represented in Kadare’s work as an expression of the national identity and the vitality of the spiritual culture of his own people and as a factor in the people’s historical resistance and survival.
Kadare creates a modern prose making wide use of historical analogies, parables and associations, national legends and mythology. His work has an open poetics, which emanates from the intertwining of times, levels of artistic speech and the real with the unreal, and from the uneven mosaic nature of composition. Kadare's work brings to European literature a characteristic Mediterranean, Balkan, flavour, and enriches it with the coloration of an area typical for its ethno-cultural distinctness.
Starting from the epical world of medieval legends and ballads, the prose of Kadare overcomes time distance and brings to resonance the medieval artistic conscience and mentality with those of our time. The message of Kadare’s prose and poetry simultaneously gains historical depth and a universal humane note through a deep creative elaboration of the richness of ancient folk traditions.
Kadare, a writer with a strong critical conscience, has not only raised to poetry the spiritual values of his nation, but has also castigated outdated traditions, oldish mentalities, provincial psychology and backward life conventions of Albanian society.
Through its spirit of dissidence in the conditions of dictatorship when it was made, Kadare's work has helped to erode the foundations of the totalitarian regime in Albania. His political exile to France in 1990, at a time when democratic processes had just started in Albania, gave an impulse to these processes.
It is for these values that Kadare’s work enjoys wide popularity and has been translated in all of the major languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Arabic, etc.). Kadare has been praised by foreign critique as one of the most distinguished contemporary writers of the world literature and has won several international awards. Kadare is currently the most eminent representative of Albanian culture in the world.
A fine lyrical poet and satirical writer, D. Agolli (1931) has brought in Albanian poetry the freshness of a spontaneous meditative inspiration, and in Albanian novel the subtle popular humour which stretches to the grotesque “Shkëlqimi dhe rënia e shokut Zylo” (The Shine and Fall of Comrade Zylo) 1973, “Arka e djallit” (Devil’s Arc) 1997). He is a master of the psychological, philosophical short story (“Zhurma e erërave të dikurshme” (The Noise of Remote Winds) 1964, “Njerëz të krisur” (Crazy People) 1995.
Agolli's most important collections of poems include “Shtigje malesh dhe trotuare” (Mountain Paths and Sidewalks) 1965, “Fjala gdhend gurin” (Word Carves the Stone) 1977, “Udhëtoj i menduar” (Walking Deep in Thoughts) 1985, and “Lypësi i kohës” (Beggar of the Time) 1995.
Agolli was born in a village of southeastern Albania and at a very young age participated in the Antifascist Resistance. The close connection with the life of the people and the antifascist ideals determined the content of his work. A feature of Agolli’s novels on the resistance is the updating of its moral values through an artistic synchronisation of war events with present-day ones. The work of Agollli has become very popular; it is translated in several languages and has been appraised by foreign critique.
Albanian literature in Albanian lands in Kosova and Western Macedonia as represented by many names (E. Mekuli, A. Pashku, A. Podrimja, R. Kelmendi, R. Qosja, D. Mehmeti, M. Isaku etc.), although developed in a different political and cultural context, even after World War II maintained links with the mother culture and brought into art the national and human dramas and ravages of the individuals in those lands. There has not been any proper literary movement in the Albanian Diaspora in Europe after World War II. The only important author of that Diaspora is M. Camaj (1925-1992). In his poetry and prose he tries to uncover the identity roots of the Albanian émigré.
The most important result in the post-war Albanian culture in terms of the language development is the unification of the standard Albanian, elaborated to the level of a modern language.
In the current stage of transition of post-Communist society, Albanian literature is experiencing the advantages of its opening to the world, but also the problems that are faced in such conditions by the culture of any nation to preserve its own identity.
By Prof. JORGO BULO
References:
1. Historia e letërsisë shqipe I, II (History of Albanian Literature) (Published by the Institute of History and Linguistics of Tirana University, Tirana, 1960.
2. Historia e letërsisë shqiptare (History of Albanian literature) (Published by the Academy of Sciences), Tirana, 1983.
3. E. Çabej. Shqiptarët midis Perëndimit dhe Lindjes (Albanians between the West and the East), Tirana, 1994

 

[gentilushi]

Re: Vlerat e Kombit Shqiptar (EN) ! ! !

Religious Creeds
By GENC MYFTIU
Religion has played a primary role in Albanian people's survival equal to that of some other ancient peoples such as Armenians and Hebrews. It was Christianity that gave Albanian people a stronger identity during the times of barbarian and Ottoman onslaughts, and it was in the 14th century, during Scanderbeg's times, that their country turned into a sacred land, when he defended Christianity as Pope and Patriarch were struggling against each other. It was Islam and Bektashi religion that would differentiate Albanians when their neighbours' enslaving and Hellenizing policies aimed at assimilating and taking over Albanian territories. The moral flame common to all Albanian clerics of all creeds was similar to the ancient apostolic zeal combined with a fiery patriotic feeling.
Christianity in Albania is an apostolic one, i.e., it has been instilled to "Arbërs" (old Albanians) directly from the mouth of Jesus Christ's Apostles themselves and became widespread in Illyria as early as the 1st century AD as an illicit religion. About 57 AD, Apostle Paul writes, "So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ... where Christ was not known". (Rom. 15:19-20). Besides Paul, many other saints have preached across Illyrian lands, and they would pass into the Balkan space along a highway, Via Egnatia, which started from Durrës (Dyrrachium) to proceed eastward. Records say that there were 60 Christian families in Dyrrachium in 598 AD.
The earliest Christian bishops launched their activities just in Illyria, beginning with bishop Qesar of Durrës in 70 AD and later with St. Asti in 98 AD. Emperor Trajan and the local ruler Agrikoli sentenced St. Asti to death in 116 as by this time Rome prohibited and condemned Christian practices.
The first Christian centres established through the preaching activities of both Apostles and their Illyrian supporters during the 1st century AD to the 4th century AD (when Christianity became a legal religion) can be ascertained across such cities as Dyrrachium, Butrint, Onhezm (Saranda), Jeriko, Vlora, Apollonia, Amantia, Bylis (Ballsh), Antipatrea (Berati), Skampis (Elbasan), Scodra (Shkodër), Lyhnid (Ohrid), etc.
Among mosaics and old church structures such as those in St. Nicholas’s Church in Kurjan of Fier, Ballshi's basilica, etc., early Christian symbols are preserved, such as heart-shaped vegetation leaves (see Butrinti's mosaics and elsewhere), crucifix shapes in Saranda's mosaics, fish shapes both in Ballshi's wood carvings and other mosaics such as that of Lin of Pogradec and elsewhere.
Such evidence testifies to Illyria's having become, from the very start, one of the main regions of propagating Christian religion for several reasons -- its very ancientness and the great expansion of its people, its big urban development with cities such as Dyrrachium, Apollonia, Shkodër, etc., and its very favourable geopolitic position as a natural corridor between East and West for transmitting Christianity's moral values and transporting an endless host of armies and battles...
In the 4th century AD, Emperor Constantine proclaimed Christianity an official religion, hence it was codified in the Bible, and its institutions -- churches and monasteries -- were created; its bishops, archbishops, abbots and their dioceses with their headquarters in Rome came into being. The full conversion to Christianity of territories where the Albanians of today live was carried out during the 5th and 6th centuries.
St. Jerome (Hieronymus) of Illyria made the first translation of the Bible in Latin (La Vulgata) giving the world for the first time the Holy Bible in the mid-4th century. The first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325 was the first to articulate the basic principle of Christianity, "I believe in one God, the Almighty Father, the creator of heaven and earth and of all what is seen and unseen."
St. Niketa of Dardania (Remesianes) authored the principal prayer of Christianity (its chief hymn) TE DEUM LAUDAMUS (We Praise Thee, God) which continues to be the principal prayer to date after more than 15 centuries.
Being in war against barbarian tribes, Constantine the Great gave orders to build several magnificent basilicas. The types of such basilicas consist of a rectangular floor, whose laying with mosaics was something preferable. In their outer sides there were colonnades whereby the church's portico was concocted. Such kinds of basilicas have been found in Albania as well, in Butrint, Bylis, Antigone, Tepe in Elbasan and probably elsewhere.
During the period of late antiquity, church structures were organized on province basis (Dardania, Prevalit, New Epirus and Old Epirus); each having a metropolis at their head to which bishoprics were subordinate. Until the 8th century, Illyrian church was directly subordinate to Rome. This is why Albanian church terminology, i.e., words such as mass, Eucharist, priest, saint, baptism, bishop, cross, malediction, etc. are of Latin origin. This also shows that in the 4th to 6th centuries, when such phenomena as church language, etc., were sanctioned, the Arbërs were present in these places. After the split of the Empire, they were included in the East Illyricum zone, whose church subordination would shift between Rome and Constantinople. Beginning from the first half of the 8th century (the year 731 following Leo the Isaurian's decision on the re-division of Eastern dioceses from the Western ones) the Illyrian space (already known as the land of Arbërs) was divided into zones subordinate to Constantinople's Patriarchate, and zones subordinate to Rome. It is commonly held that River Mati might have been the dividing line between Byzantium and Rome. The separation of Eastern church from the Western one was aggravated by historical processes such as the emergence of Gauls (prior to the French), Charles the Great (in the 9th century) and Normans or Angevins who ultimately brought about the official and complete split in 1054. During the period from 731 to 1054 onward, the examination of abundant archive records demonstrates the rivalry between Rome and Constantinople, each contending to put under its own influence Illyria/Arbëria's dioceses which often ended up even in bloody battles.
Bulgarian foray into Albanian lands caused this space to be isolated from the Patriarchate, but the native population maintained their Christian practices. Furthermore, the King of Bulgarians Boris was christened together with his people at the Ballshi church in the Arbërs' lands in 866. From heathen people, Bulgarians were converted to Christians. Understanding the importance of the new faith in the lands he had occupied, Boris sought to associate himself with the Pope of Rome to ask advice on how to secure a correct ecumenical administration. Various authors hold that Boris ought to have appealed to Constantinople. But when one is baptized in an old place such as Illyria/Arbëria where Christianity had been brought by Paul himself, it is too natural for one to direct to Rome as the first official metropolis. Constantinople's hostility towards Bulgarian King continued and reached its climax in 1018 when the Byzantine Emperor Vasili II defeated Tsar Samuel. In 1100, Vasili II reorganized Ohrid's diocese by placing Greek bishops in its leadership such Theogilikati with the intention of including the whole Arbëria and even Southern Italy into his domination.
Meanwhile, until 1303, the Rome Patriarchate, being self-styled Papacy (a French influence), continued to intensify its struggle to win as more dioceses as possible in Dalmatia and Arbëria through Ragusa's bishops, but also by punishing several priests (of Tivari and Ulqin in 1167 and 1303) for their preaching according to Eastern rites. Such practices were also used in the framework of efforts to unify the Christian Church.
Normans' landings, the first occurring in 1081 and the second in 1105, as well as the first Crusade in 1095 started to quake Byzantium in its efforts for the unification of Christian Church. Constantinople's occupation by the 4th Crusade in 1204 and its holding for 60 years under the French rule brought the French Benedictine monks in Arbëria in 1230s, who were initially settled in Shirgj and Bunë and later, after 1250, in Durrës and Shkodër under the protection of Charles of Anjou. It is said that just at the same time the Franciscan Order was established, intensifying thus the return of Christian Arbërs to the old centre, Rome. The principality of Arbërs supported these developments and there is evidence of the correspondence held in 1208 between Dhimitër and Pope Innocent III whereby the Pope was asked to help the army of Christian religion.
As Pope and Patriarch struggled in the Balkans for hegemony, Ottoman Turks appear on the scene by occupying Ohrid in 1408, Constantinople in 1453, where they made havoc of and subjugated the Patriarchate, and central Tivar (subordinate to Rome) in 1571. Nevertheless, a treaty was reached between Sultan Mohammed II and the new Patriarch of the Patriarchate Gjergj Skalari wherein the Ottomans agreed not to destroy churches to make mosques out of them; marriages and funerals could be made in church and the festival of Easter could continue being observed.
At this time, the single Christian place not yet subdued and paying nothing to the sultan was Arbëria. George Kastriot - Scanderbeg, a son of Kruja's prince, nicknamed "Champion" and "Athlete" of Christendom, defeated Ottoman armies for 25 years in succession thus enthusing the Christian world for his feats and assuming the gratitude of the whole Christian community wherever it was. Scanderbeg and the Pope established close relationships with each other with a clear view to defending and promoting the holy church. This close link with the Pope and the West matched the ideas Scanderbeg and his nobles had of the kingdom of Arbërs' fate in the Balkans and Europe. After Scanderbeg's fall, the sultan launched a conversion campaign into Muslims against Christian Arbërs by employing the package of privileges and obligations as well as taxes such as "defshirme" (blood tax) by which the youngest son of every family was taken away never to return home again to be used for training him to become a janissar. Very often such a tax forced entire villages to emigrate. Part of them were converted by only changing their names while maintaining and observing their Christian rites in secrecy. Instances are known, also documented in 1637 by Frang Bardhi, of having members of the same family (brother or husband and wife) practicing different religions with the sole aim of getting rid of taxes or obtaining privileges.
There are strong traces of religious resistance to conversion into Muslim in Shpati of Elbasan testified by the frescoes painted by Onufri of Neokastra (Elbasan) in 1558 in St. Nicholas’ church and St. Premte's church. In such a climate of Islamization, the use of Albanian language in church became an urgent need and it was strongly felt by Albanian patriotic priests such as the Archbishop of Durrës Pal Engjëlli, a close associate of Scanderbeg, who used the "Formula of Baptism" in baptizing in 1462. It is a short sentence in Albanian which reads, "Unte paghesont premenit Atit et birit et spertit senit" (I'm baptizing you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit", which is found in a circular (pamphlet) written in Latin.
During a visit to Mat, Pal Engjëlli noticed irregularities in religious practices and before his departure he left some directions and recommendations with the Catholic priest, namely the aforementioned blessing, which could be used by parents in baptizing their children in case they could not do it in church or there was no priest available. The formula is written in the Latin alphabet in the northern dialect of the ghegs (gegërisht).
Taking advantage of the Papacy's Counter Reformation and with the permission of the Holy See to consolidate Christianity, in 1555 Gjon Buzuku published the "Missal" which was a translation of the main parts of Catholic liturgy into Albanian; it contains services for the main religious holy days of the year, comments from the book of prayers, parts from the Testament and parts from the ritual and catechism.
The "Missal" by Gjon Buzuku is written in the northern dialect (gegërisht), in the Latin alphabet, and is provided with some special letters. The book has a relatively rich vocabulary and its orthography and grammatical forms seem to be established, which is indicative of an earlier tradition in the writing of the Albanian language.
Lekë Matrënga, an Albanian priest in Italy, published in 1592 "E mbesueme e krishterë" ("The Christian Faith"). It is a booklet of 28 pages containing the translation of a catechism. The book is written in the southern dialect, in Latin alphabet and is provided with some special letters that are missing in Latin.
Later, Pjetër Budi translates "The Christian Doctrine" (1618), "The Mirror of Confession" (1621) and "the Roman Ritual" (1621).
Having endorsed the usage of the Albanian language in church, the Holy See in Rome decided in 1634 for the Franciscans to be settled once and for all in the regions of Shkodër, Zadrimë and Lezhë so as to check the spreading of Islamism.
In the meantime, the Orthodox Church administered by Ohrid's autocephalous Patriarchate, which had under its charge Berati's diocese, was engaged in collecting taxes for the sultan and research demonstrates that the Patriarchate had been a loyal servant in this respect.
The Ottomans established the religious principle as the only one to distinguish nationality, hence they considered all the Muslims as Turks and all the Christians as Greeks. There's a lot of evidence that even certain extremist Hellenic circles of the Patriarchate had long been applying this irreligious principle by seeking to Hellenize all the Christians. It's understandable that as a response to this, but also for seeking zones of influence, the Holy See would send many delegations to Arbëria in order to renew the Rome-centered Christianity. Rome, however, did not intend the assimilation of Arbëria, which is testified in the endorsement of Albanian language usage in preaching. This might have been the reason for both prince Dhimitër in 1208 and Scanderbeg in mid-14th century to be West-oriented towards Rome.
The "Arbërs' Convention" or "Arbërs' Council" held in Mërqi të Zadrimës on July 20, 1703, under Tivari's management and with the blessing of Pope Clement XI (who was Albanian), took important decisions on consolidating the Catholic church in Albania, such as the ban to conceal religious belonging; the barring of priests from preaching in secrecy for such crypto-Christian people, etc. In this convention, the Catholics spoke their mind against the Orthodoxes.
Though the Jesuits came to Albania in later times, they were able to grasp quickly the Albanian psyche and culture. Their patriotic magazine "Leka" is an obvious example. Among the Franciscans, Father Gjergj Fishta was distinguished as a patriot; he was considered a national poet and founder of the Albanian alphabet at the Congress of Manastiri. The controversy or competition between Jesuits and Franciscans never reached to a crisis for the Catholic Church in Albania, rather, they have always united their efforts to ensure powerful supporters among big powers such as Austria, which had exercised its influence with the Porte to defend Catholic interests and had subsidized Albanian Catholic Church.
In a precarious post-war situation for Albania's destiny in face of its neighbours' greed, a delegation headed by Catholic bishop Bumçi went to Versailles and the Holy See in an effort to use their influence to make sure that Catholic Albanians did not want to live separated from Muslim Albanians having in view a possible division after the war.
To accommodate to all of its own believers, the Catholic Church had to consider the Canon of Lekë Dukagjini and its variants and tried not to come up against this Code of honour, hospitality, parole, etc., accounting for these elements with the Bible as well.
Unlike its homologues in Europe, the Albanian Catholic Church was marked by a degree of independence of its components because of the special role the Franciscans and Jesuits had played. This fact contributed to the reluctance of Rome delegations, as they were unable to understand the real situation in the country.
It must be stressed that in 1861, just as in the 15th and 16th centuries, contrary to the practice of Eastern Church, the Catholic Church fostered the use of Albanian language in a Franciscan Order seminar and excelled at exhibiting an unprecedented patriotism. That's why the Catholic bishops had to jointly write King Zogu in 1933, "We've been staying here in Albania for two thousand years, then being Catholics and today being Catholics, then being Albanians and today and forever being Albanians." The two Catholic magazines of the 1930s, "Drita" and "Leka", harmonize the religious doctrine with Albanian context and advocate both religious tolerance and possibilities of co-existence between religions. For example, the social Christian solidarity would find its support in Albania by relying on faith and parole of honour of the customary Albanian tradition.
Italian occupation aroused anew the Vatican's old idea for the unification of Church and there were missionaries and meetings were held about this issue in the framework of the Italo-Greek War. Religious clergy of all religious creeds (Muslim, Catholic, Bektashi and Orthodox) tried to get as much financing as possible from the policy of Italian and German fascists. But this did not prevent believers from seeing an occupier before their eyes who should leave as soon as possible. The Bektashi engaged themselves in a total war against Italian Fascism and German Nazism.
With the merge of Ohrid's Patriarchate and the passage of subordination of Orthodox Church directly to Constantinople, following January 1767 (also under the influence of Russian-Turkish Wars' outcome) the Orthodox Church intensified its efforts towards Hellenizing the Balkan peoples by increasing the number of Greek schools and important religious and learning centres such as Voskopoja, where a number of schools were opened such as "The New Academy" in 1744 (an Enlightenment institution to which Greeks, Rumanian-Walachians and Albanians such as Kavalioti gave their contribution), printing presses, etc. But religious Albanian patriots and learned people took advantage of this religious and cultural infrastructure to produce works to the benefit of Albanian nation's future such as the trilingual dictionary by Kavalioti published in Venice in 1744. So, Voskopoja became an Enlightenment, art and patriotic centre. A patriotic devotion to Albanian Church was added by Ali Pashë Tepelena, who charged his physician Vangjel Meksi to translate the New Testament for Albanian believers from 1819 to 1827 to continue later with Kristoforidhi's translations of 1872.
Ottoman occupation and the spread of Islamism caused heavy damages to the Christian Catholic and Orthodox Church. With the raising of national awareness in the struggle against foreign rule, several known figures from domestic clergy emerged such as Pjetër Budi, Frang Bardhi, Pjetër Bogdani etc., who played an important role in Albanian culture. During the National Renaissance, there were clerics from among the two branches of Christianity who laboured in the interest of the country and national culture such as Papa Kristo Negovani, Ndoc Nikaj, Nikollë Kaçorri, etc
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the Albanians of the Diaspora, mainly Orthodox, understood soon enough that to oppose Greece's Hellenizing policy and practice an Albanian Autocephalous Church was needed. The first endeavors to achieve this aim were made by Nikollë Naço of Bucharest descent, but without success.
The legitimate right for being autocephalous arouse in Albanian Orthodox Church as early as November 28, 1912. With the proclamation of Albania's independence from Turkey, the Orthodox Church of Albania could not be lawfully protected by the Patriarchate, which was under the jurisdiction of the Turkish government. This was the case with other Balkan populations as well, which had been occupied by Turkey. So, the Greek, Bulgarian, Rumanian and Serbian Orthodox Church had already proclaimed their autocephalousness, a right they had won since the 13th century.
In the United Stated, such efforts had begun in May 1907. The cause that gave momentum to this issue was a specific event. In August 1907, a young man died in Hudson. When his body was carried to the Orthodox Church where Orthodox Albanians usually performed their rites, the Greek priest refused to perform the funeral service as the young man was known to be an Albanian nationalist and was automatically "excommunicated".
This event gave rise to Albanians' incentive to create a religious association in September 1907 named "Albanian Honor" and elect a commission in charge of associating Wooster's association with immigrants in Natick, Marlborough, Boston, etc. It was the first step towards an independent Orthodox Church with America's emigrants.
Since Albanians hadn't got a legal priest ordained by a bishop, they decided to call a priest from Albania. Among the candidates it was F. Noli to win, who after a series of tribulations hatched up by the Patriarchate, was ordained a legal priest in March 1908. Three bishops, a Russian, a Ukrainian and a Rumanian ordained him.
This event was cheered by all Albanians wherever they were and was followed by repercussions across the press of the time. The newspaper "Drita" of Sofia, published by Shahin Kolonja, the "Shpresa e Shqypnisë" and other Albanian newspapers of Egypt and America wrote of this event. F.

Noli gave the first mass in Albanian language on March 22, 1908.
Thereafter, a wave of rapid constructions of Albanian Orthodox churches began in America such as St. Nicholas’s Church in South Bridge, which ended in 1912, and both St. Paul's Church and St. Peter's Church in Philadelphia. This initiative was undertaken by Stavri Seminaku from Berati and Father Naum Cerja, a priest from Rehova e Kolonjës. In 1919 the Church of St. Mary was built in Natick.
For the needs of the new and independent Albanian Church, F. Noli translated in succession all the necessary ecclesiastic books beginning from 1908: "The Services of Holy Week", "The Book of Holy Services", "The Book of Great Holy Days", "Triodhi i Vogël", "The Prayer Book" and "Pesëdhjetëvjetorja e Vogël".
F. Noli made all these efforts for an Albanian Autocephalous Orthodox Church with the intention of creating an Albanian Orthodox bishopric in America, whose throne was to be carried to Albania in the future.
One of the most remarkable events dealing with Albanian Orthodox Church was the Convention of March 16, 1919, wherein the Albanian Diaspora of America and Canada was convened. The Convention requested the Russian bishop to create opportunities for them to establish the Albanian Bishopric of America and to ordain for them their first bishop. To this end, many such petitions were sent to other archbishoprics. The Russian bishop promised three times to ordain F. Noli as a bishop and the three times he recanted. Under these circumstances, on July 26, 1919, F. Noli addressed those who were present at St. George's church in Boston: "Who made the very first bishop? And people replied, 'It was people who made the very first bishop.' The same is with me, the people will ordain me because I am just the very first for the Albanians", F. Noli said.
In the course of such events, the 30 July 1919 Convention proclaimed the Albanian Orthodox Church of America autocephalous and F. Noli its first bishop
By the time these things were occurring in America, in Albania, which was turned into a battlefield, Greek metropolitans were prevailing, such as Jakovi of Durrës and the one of Korçë. There were reports that terrorist gangs of "holy companies" were running riot in Albania; they killed Papa Kristo Negovani in 1904, terrorized the population of southern Albania in 1914, and killed Father Stath Melani in 1917.
After all these obstacles, on April 28, 1921, Father Vasil Marku gave eventually the first mass in Albanian language at St. George's Church in Korçë.
The greatest event by far for the Orthodox Church of Albania was the holding of a pan-Albanian Congress in Berat on September 10, 1922, which approved the city Korçë as the headquarters of the Orthodox Church of Albania.
The Congress decided that the liturgical language at the Albanian Orthodox Church should be the Albanian language. The Congress of Berat closed on September 19, 1922.
On November 21, 1923, the 1st Synod, founded in Berat, proclaimed F. Noli an archbishop. The ceremony was performed at St. George's Church in Korçë.
So, as F. Noli has written, the 1st Synod of the Albanian Orthodox Church was created after 500 years since 1478, when the whole Albania (Arbëria) fell under the Ottoman yoke. This Holy Synod was composed of Hireotheu, Korçë's and Gjirokastër's metropolitan, Kristofor Kisi, Berat's and Vlorë's metropolitan, and F. Noli, Durrës' and Tirana's metropolitan. According to what Noli has written, this Synod continued until December 24, 1924, when Fan Noli was forced to leave Albania.
With the support of government, Father Visarion Xhuvani came at the head of the Albanian Orthodox Church, who was thus proclaimed an archbishop. In 1929, the Synod and its metropolitan sent him to Anastas of Koshavac.
From there he was summoned to Tirana and together with the Serbian bishop of Shkodër and two other bishops, Evthim Ikonomi and V. Çamçe (Agathangjeli), created the 2d Synod of the Albanian Orthodox Church with Visarion Xhuvani as its archbishop. The Ecumenical Patriarchate opposed this synod. It must be stressed, however, that V. Xhuvani demonstrated great vigour. During the time he was in charge of the Church, he called the Second pan-Orthodox Congress in Korçë on June 16, 1929.
Under the formula: "A free church in a free country, a church divided from the state", the Article 16 of the Statute was formulated to read: "Archbishop, bishops, local deputies, the Great Deacon Mitrofor, Synod's Secretary General, as well as ecclesiastic assistants and deputies of the archbishop and bishops must be of Albanian blood and language and have Albanian citizenship."
The 2d Holy Synod of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania, as yet unrecognized by Ecumenical Patriarchate, was made up of: Archbishop and bishop of Tiranë and Durrës V. Xhuvani, his Eminence Çamçe, his Eminence Ambrozi, his Eminence Eugjeni. Afterwards, this synod was complemented with the Great Deacon Mitrofor and Father Vasil Marku.
During his efforts to create political stability in Albania, King Zogu pursued a neutral policy in connection with different religious creeds in Albania by separating political power from religion, supporting the independence of the Orthodox Church and preferring Albanian religious leaders to foreign ones. For three years in succession (1933-1936) he was involved in a conflict with Catholic schools, which he closed and opened again. This was made within the framework of educational reform. There are interpretations, however, that this movement of Zogu was also intended to keep a religious balance and put a limit to the overall Italian expansion in Albania.
The autocephalousness issue was made one of the chief themes for the King Zogu as well, who sent his Orthodox minister Kotta twice to Istanbul to hold negotiations and also to put forth threats. In 1933, King Zogu's government put pressure on Xhuvani as well to lead him to resign, which he did, and then Kristofor Kisi was charged to create the 3d Synod of the Albanian Orthodox Church. On February 20, 1937, it became possible for the Albanian government to send K. Kisi and the layman Josif Kodhi as delegates to Athens.
So, on April 12, 1937, the Albanian Orthodox Church was proclaimed autocephalous. The high ecclesiastic decree, Tomi, was conferred on K. Kisi. On this occasion, the Patriarchate sent a message to the Minister of Justice Thoma Orollogaj, the King Zogu and the Prime Minister Koço Kotta.
Thereafter, this Church would make its own decisions both legally and canonically, would decide on its own for its organization, the appointment of bishops and bishoprics, the translation of liturgy and service books in the Albanian language, etc.
On its part, the Patriarchate maintained the powers to explain and interpret the Orthodox dogma and requested that among eligible bishops enthroned by the Holy Synod of the Autocephalous Church of Albania, two of them ought to have an Orthodox theological background received in Greek schools and, in addition, to have lived abroad, i.e. in Greece and the Holy Mountain, for a long time. This was the only condition the Patriarchate laid down.
The 3d Synod of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania was made up of Kristofor Kisi, archbishop and metropolitan of Durrës and Tiranë, Agathangjel Çamçe, metropolitan of Berat, Evllogji Kumila, metropolitan of Korçë, and Pandeli Kotoko, metropolitan of Gjirakastër.

Islamism in Albania
Albanian people's contacts with Islamic world are relatively later than those of the greater part of European peoples. Islamism appeared first in the old continent by the end of the first millennium (9th and 10th centuries).
From the contacts of the Spanish with the Arabs and their culture the epos of Cid emerged in which the main conflict is that of Hispanic knights with Moors (Arabs).
The national epopee of French people "The Roland's Song", in which the conflict develops between the Moors (Arabs) and the natives, originated from the contact of Franks with Arabs. Some centuries later the Arabs would be present in Shakespeare's tragedies (Othello, "the black Moor", in the homonymous tragedy).
By this time (the end of Byzantine period and threshold of Ottoman invasion) the Arabs first appear in traditional Albanian culture fixed in the ballad of a brother who rises from his deathbed to defend his sister's honour from "a black alien" (or a "black Moor") coming out of the sea. Historically, cross-border conflicts between Christian Albanians and pilgrims as propagators of Islamism date from the 13th and the 14th centuries. The first missionaries of the new religion arrived in Albanian space under the name of Orthodoxy. One of these missionaries who brought Bektashiism in Albania is known by name of "St. Spiridoni" and corresponds to the figure of Hajji Bektash Veli. Before Ottoman imperial armies occupied the country, the concealment behind Orthodoxy made the acceptance of Islamism easier (initially in the form of Bektashiism). This first period represents the stage of a peaceful selective Islamism.
Islamism in Albania was presented as an unoriginal, "European" Islamism. With the Ottoman occupation, the phase of Islamization with coercive measures through implementing a privileged system of taxes and duties on Moslems begins as opposed to a disadvantageous system to non-Moslems (those who changed their religion were excluded from economic impositions, recruitment in the army, etc.).
From the 15th and the 16th centuries onwards, important cult institutions of Islam (mosques, shrines, and tekkiehs) were set up in the main cities of Albania. Islamism spread mostly in Central Albania. At the initial phase, most Albanians were holding Islam faith formally, and actually exercised Christian rites. This phase bears evidence of underground (some literally under the ground) churches. The holding of two religions and two names (crypto-Christianity, i.e., Christianity concealed or covered under an outer Islamism) continued until the 20th century.
In the 18th and the 19th centuries Islamism had a religious and cultural bloom in Albania. This period is marked by the Albanian literature using Arab alphabet, known as the "literature of doggerelists", which the scholars compare to the "alhamiado" literature that had previously evolved in Spain. Islamism left its traces in the customary life of Albanians through introducing certain laws of Sharia. But Sharia never became a prevailing customary code of Albanians.
The acceptance of Islam by Albanians can be explained with the role this religion seems to have played for the differentiation of Albanians from Slavs (Kosova region) and Greeks (Çamëria region), who, after the 18th century in particular, had begun an assimilating policy towards Albanian people. A majority of Sunnah Moslems and a minority of Bektashi order have marked Islam faith in Albania
In the circumstances of an independent Albanian state after the World War I, the Sunnah Moslems were reorganized in 1921 into a national Moslem alliance. In 1923, the Sunnah community would separate itself from the Caliphate of Istanbul by electing Tirana's mufti as its chairman. In these years, a reformatory zeal appears in Albanian Islam resulting in polygamy being formally forbidden, Albanian translations of Koran beginning to appear and the Moslem MPs requesting for women to lead a social life just as that of men, which was not to materialize until 1937, when the law banning women from wearing veils was passed. In 1923, there appears the magazine "Zani i Naltë" which was marked by noticeable patriotic and reformatory feelings.
A congress of Sunnah Moslems was held in 1929 taking decisions on exclusively using Albanian language in services, reducing the number of mosques to keep only the chief ones, unifying the medressehs, etc. There is room to believe that Zogu might have had an implication in this reform with his goals to unite and Occidentalize Albania so as to eliminate once and for good the image of an Islamic country. It is said that Attatürk, the greatest reformer of those times, might have become jealous of the reformist spirit of Zogu, as he didn't like the latter to outshine him in this respect.
Bektashiism derives from a mystical doctrine of Turkoman fathers of the 11th and the 12th centuries in the Caspian Sea and was founded by Hajji Bektashi under the influence of the Persian mystic Ahmet Jasevi to be strengthened as a Moslem sect in Turkey after its being linked with janissary corps (who were of Christian descent). Bektashiism worships Ali as much as Mohammed. Because of the conflict with Moslemism itself, Bekatshiism developed some religious tolerance towards Christian faith having in common with it even some interface in religious practices. They preached equality between man and woman; they would drink liquors and other drinks that were quite loathsome to Islam. As to this tolerant attitude of Bekashiism and the patriotic role many Bektashi have played, many domestic and foreign researchers and politicians of all times have maintained that Bektashiism could have well been an appropriate religion for Albanians. One among them is the great national poet Naim Frashëri.
In Albania, Bektashiism appeared at the end of the 12th century and the beginning of the 13th century. In 1925, when Attatürk undertook severe government laicizing reforms for the creation of a modern Turkey, Albania became the country of the World Headship of Bektashiism remaining such to our present days. Very few might know that Albania is the world headquarters of a religion. It is interesting to note that even during the period of atheism there were no claims from any other country where there are Bektashi believers to assume the role of headship.
The Bektashi community of Albania was declared independent in 1921.
Many Bektashi tekkiehs became centres of resistance against Italians and Germans such as Father Fejzo and Father Faja, and it should be taken into account that it was 6 000 Bektashi being organized during the war.
The History of Evangelical Protestant Church in Albania originates on October 18, 1873, when Messrs. Byrd, Jenny and Marsh settled as missionaries in the city of Manastir. These noble missionaries created the first Evangelical Community. Among the first members of Manastiri's Evangelical Community was Gjerasim Qiriazi, who after receiving his education in Bulgaria with the help of these missionaries, came back to Albania in May 1883 encountering many hardships and sufferings. He cast his eyes on the city of Korçë and in the Albanian School of that city he made his first preaching on May 3, 1890, and being a patriotic missionary, he set himself the goal of awakening his people. He considered it a patriotic duty to proclaim the Word of Christ.
Gjerasim and his sister Sevasti opened the girls' school on October 23, 1891. There were three girls in all. Afterwards, resisting the fight the Patriarchate waged against the school, the number of girls was increasing. Many girls graduated from Qiriazi's school.
On November 14, 1892, the "Evangelical Brotherhood" community was founded, part of which were Gjerasim, Gergj and Sevasti Qiriazi, Grigor Cilka, Herakli Bogdani, V. Pasha from Pogradec, Fanka Evthimi and probably P. N. Luarasi.
This Evangelical association ran its own press organ called "Brotherhood Paper", whose first issue was published in Korçë in November 1892.

Religious Creeds during the period 1944-1990
The political power of 1945 targeted to attack especially the Catholic Church of Albania describing it as a lair of foreign agents in Albania. That's why since the very beginning the Albanian Catholic Church was requested, and so it was forced, to make a canonical sacrilege -- to proclaim its autocephalousness. The two Catholic bishops, his Eminence Gaspër Thaçi and his Eminence Vinçenc Prennushi rejected such request. The Communist government sent both of them to jail, sentencing his Eminence Prennushi, a cleric and poet, to 20 years of imprisonment, and his Eminence Gaspër Thaçi to be shot. After much suffering in prison, his Eminence V. Prennushi, bishop of Durrës and Tirana, died in prison in 1949. 30 Franciscans, 15 Jesuits and a lot of seminarians were arrested. Some of them were shot and some died in misery in concentration or forced labour camps. In 1945, Dom Ndre Zadeja, a poet and patriot, Frano Gjini, Gj. Volaj and Father Ciprian Nika were shot. In Shkrel, Nikollë Gazuli was sentenced to death and was shot in 1946, followed by many others.
Their last words were "Long live Christ, King of heaven! Long live Albania even without us!"
In 1950, Bernardin Shllaku was proclaimed archbishop of the Albanian Catholic Church, but he was put under strict surveillance. Meanwhile, Catholic schools and monasteries were closed everywhere. Foreign Catholic clergy serving in Albanian dioceses had already been banished since 1948.
In 1967, Zef Bici was also shot because allegedly had hindered the atheist enterprise of young people. Archbishop Ernest Çoba had been imprisoned since 1964 sentenced to 25 years in jail. He died in a Tirana hospital 1980. At that time, Mikel Koliqi was also imprisoned who for all his sufferings was released from prison alive and died a cardinal in 1997.
Such people and many others like them were the martyrs of the Albanian Catholic Church in the 20th century.
The 3d Synod of Autocephalous Orthodox Church lasted until 1949, when Archbishop Kristofor Kisi resigned. Kisi died on 16 June 1959.
The 4th Synod of Autocephalous Orthodox Church was founded on August 25, 1949, headed by Paisi Vodica, who was proclaimed both ARCHBISHOP of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church and bishop of Durrës and Tirana. Qiril Naslazi was appointed metropolitan of Berat; Filothe Duni metropolitan of Korçë; and Damjan Kokoneshi metropolitan of Gjirokastër. Sofron Borova was proclaimed a suffragan bishop.
Paisi Vodica advised immediately the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople of the new Synod, but the Patriarchate considered it uncanonical and did not recognize his office. For political reasons, Vodica linked the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania with the Russian Communist Patriarchate. So the 4th Synod assumed a conspicuous political character. That's why the Patriarchate sent to America the bishop Marko Lipa of Lefkë with the mission to prevent the Albanian Orthodox Church in America from falling to political positions of the Church in Albania.
In 1967, religious creeds and their institutions were aggressively forced to interrupt their activities only to begin them anew following the democratic movement of 1990.
The movement against religious institutions fostered by the dictatorial Communist government was carried out under the cover of a youth atheist movement. Many churches were turned into public halls, some were changed to livestock sheds, and some were completely destroyed. In total, 2,169 cult buildings including churches and mosques were shattered. During that period, 217 clerics were imprisoned on the charge of exercising terror, many of whom died in prisons or were shot.
The Penal Code of 1977 convicted religious propaganda and the propagation of liturgy. Not only a lot of former clerics, but lay people as well were sentenced by this Code.
The Catholic Church, which has given the country tens of intellectuals, renowned scholars, poets and writers, such as Father Shtjefën Gjeçovi, Preng Doçi, Father Gjergj Fishta, Dom Ndre Mjeda, Father Donat Kurti, etc., suffered one of the heaviest blows in its whole history in Albania.
The proclamation of Albania (the soil wherefrom Christ's disciples first preached, the soil of Scanderbeg who entered the history of Church as its most loyal defender) the only atheist country in the whole earth flabbergasted the world. The Vatican would never cease its struggle to support its own believers, who lived their religious life underground, this time persecuted by the dictator Enver Hoxha who was much more cruel than Emperor Trajan was.
Despite the severe Communist regime, the Albanians never failed to observe all religious festivals according to their methods which were as old, as they were modern, under the circumstances of an extreme poverty, with people having to be supplied with food on ration cards until 1990. In such a general situation of illegality and fear, the feeling of religious tolerance came to be stronger.
The religious-humanitarian activity of Mother Teresa, the most distinguished Saint of the 20th century, who everything she performed she would do in the name of Jesus Christ, would exert a great influence on godly and ungodly Albanians.
After the overthrow of the atheist regime in Albania, on November 4, 1990, Father Simon Jubani who had been closed in prison for 26 years, and Karlo A. Sevilla who had been banished from Albania since 1946, gave a mass for the living and the dead at the small chapel of the graveyard in Shkodër, which was used in lieu of an altar. Participation in the mass was extraordinary. On the same day, at the Leaden Mosque in Shkodër the Moslems held a prayer.

Religious creeds after 1990
Emissaries of the Catholic Church of Albania, missionaries and apostolic envoys of the Holy See among whom there were also Albanian Catholic clerics who had come out alive from prisons, such as his Eminence Mikel Koliqi, his Eminence F. Mirdita, turned home.
Orthodox clerics, who were still alive, began to commit themselves to activities at churches that had remained undamaged and set to renewing them. The Ecumenical Patriarchate sent its missionary bishop A. Janullatos to Albania, who had made efforts for re-establishing the destroyed Orthodox churches and restituting them their stolen properties.
Their primaries such as Pope John Paul II on April 25, 1993, and Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholeme I visited the two main Christian churches in Albania on November 2-9, 1999. Likewise, the Evangelic Church of Albania has undergone a significant renewal through a countrywide contribution of missionaries and Christian Evangelical communities, especially in cities, but also in Kosova. The Evangelical Church of Albania performs according to its long-standing European traditions, extending its activities to proclaim the Good News, especially in schools where it has made a remarkable contribution.
Albanian believers can be found anywhere in a space populated by Albanian people, but the prevalence of representatives of a given religion differs from region to region in the Albanian space, Balkans and the world. So, the northeastern region of the country (the districts of Tropojë, Has, Kukës, Dibër and Mat), the highlands of Tiranë and Krujë and those of Mallakastër, the highlands of Kërrabë, Kurvelesh and Skrapar, those of Kosova, and the western part of Macedonia are mainly inhabited by Moslem religion population. Mainly Catholic Christians populate the regions of the Alps, Mirditë and Pukë, the highlands and lowlands of Lezhë in part, Kurbin, Shkodër area and the Arbëreshi of Italy.
The regions of Myzeqe Plain and Berati region, the valley of Drino River, Lunxhëri, Pogo-Zagori, Ionian shores, the lowlands of Përmet and partially the southeastern region and lowlands of Delvina are populated by Orthodox religion inhabitants.
Some cities such as Shkodër, Tiranë, Gjirokastër, Elbasan, Vlorë, Korçë, Durrës, etc., are particular and original as to their populations, as they are made up of different religions. In these cities one can encounter even religions entering Albania following 1990, such as Bahaism, Protestantism, etc.

Tolerance
Albanians have distinguished themselves for a unique interreligious tolerance, which bears links with the very history of the presence and co-existence of various religious creeds in regions populated by Albanians following the division of Christendom in two parts, the Roman (Western) ritual and the Byzantine (Eastern) one by means of "Theodosius' line" passing somewhere between the Rivers Shkumbin and Mat and following their embracing of Islam chiefly to resist assimilation from the Slavic and Greek chauvinists at the end of 18th and 19th centuries.
The Albanians have been tolerant and have never shed blood for religious disputes. The Prime Minister of Montenegro Mak Milan asserts, "Whenever we've tried to pit Catholics against Moslems or vice versa in Shkodër, we've had our battle lost because Albanians had their national sensitivy much stronger." The existence of religious tolerance was also noted by Italian fascists who developed a new strategy to maintain this balance, though making Catholics feel somewhat neglected. From the end of the Middles Ages onwards, Albanian space was a balancing zone between the two most powerful empires of the time, the Ottoman Empire and Austro-Hungarian Empire. Between these two empires several agreements have been signed called "Capitulations", which regulated the equality of influences recognizing the West the right of care for the Christian shrines by means of the doctrine "cultus protectorati" -- the protection of clergy.
In Albania, one can too frequently find two religions (Christianity and Moslemism) in one and the same family (Lurë, north) or two religions in one and the same person (Shpat, Elbasan) who holds two first names, one Christian and one Mohammedan, and observes the rites and feasts of both religions. The national hero of the Albanians George Kastriot was born into an Orthodox family, became a Moslem at the Sultan's Court, became a Bektashi (this was a condition to become a janissar), turned to Albania and assumed his father's faith (Orthodox) and when he died, his last will was to be buried in a cathedral of Catholic Christians (Lezhë). One of George Kastrioti's brothers, instead, asked to be buried in one of Athos' monasteries, one of holy places of Orthodoxy.
Religious conflicts in Albania, even in incidental forms, were never known. It is quite normal for an Albanian to abandon the church and to seek communion with God in a mosque if he does not like the priest or his conduct. One of the most important authors of Albanian classical literature Pjetër Bogdani in his work "The Band of Prophets" quotes Calvin and Avicenna side by side. The first translator of Moslems' Holy Scriptures Koran was a Christian (Ilo Mitkë Qafëzezi). Albanian Moslems celebrate St. George and St. Mary, part of them celebrate St. Nicholas and Christmas, while Christians pay friendly visits to Moslems on their characteristic festivals (Kurban Bairam)
There are many instances told by people who have experienced them when the priest has been obliged to sing suras from Koran to honour a dead Moslem if the khoja and the mosque were far off, or there was snow or bad weather. In such cities as Shkodër, where population is a mixture of Catholics and Orthodoxes, even non-Moslem shopkeepers would stop selling pork in their shops during the Ramadan days. In Shkodër again, it was the noble Moslem families who defended the construction of a Catholic Church when a few fanatics began to destroy its foundations at night. The construction of the church could go on only when Moslem nobles appeared before the public saying, "No one dare touch these foundations, as they are ours".
Religious festivals in Albania of both Christian and Moslem communities retain traces of the polytheist mythological times. Catholic Albanians of the northern regions celebrate the "Buzmi" day just on Christmas day, but the cult of fire, too, forms a substratum of this festival. Moslems' St. Mary concurs with Fairy's Day. The Bektashi observe the cult of Baba Tomorri, which is similar to the mythological cult of Greek Olympus. One Christian poet entitled his book "Baba Tomorri". This and other examples show that Albanians observe the cult of nature, celebrate the day of the mountain, keep the serpent and goat as totems (protecting gods) to our present days, and have a cult for the fire, water and bread, the road and guest, the earth and sky.

 

[gentilushi]

Re: Vlerat e Kombit Shqiptar (EN) ! ! !

ALBANIAN LANGUAGE
By Prof. SEIT MANSAKU
Albanian Language belongs to the family of Indo-European Languages, along with Indo-Iranian languages, Greek language, Romance languages, Slavonic languages, Germanic languages, etc. It constitutes a separate branch in this family of languages and is not originally associated to any of the modern Indo-European languages. The Indo-European origin of the Albanian language and the place it occupies in the family of Indo-European languages was determined and proved in the middle of the 19th century, following studies in the comparative historical linguistics.
It was primarily the merit of one of the leading founders of this linguistic direction, the eminent German scholar Franz Bopp, who proved scientifically that the Albanian language belonged to the family of the Indo-European languages. Franz Bopp dedicated to this issue a special work entitled “Ueber das Albanesische in sinen verwandtschaft lichen Bezichungen”, published in 1854.
The Indo-European languages are divided into two groups: Eastern languages, or satem and Western languages, or kontum. The Albanian language belongs to the eastern group (satem), along with the Indo-Iranian languages, Balto-Slavonic languages and the Armenian language.

Origins
The origins of the Albanian language are one of the most debatable issues in the linguistic science. Its roots are found in one of the ancient languages of the Balkan Peninsula, Illyrian or Thracian. Two main theories have circulated in the linguistic literature with regard to the Albanian language: its origin in the Illyrian language and the one in the Thracian language. The Illyrian theory has had a broader historical and linguistic support. It took shape in the 18th century among the historians of the time.
The first attempt at explaining the origins of the Albanians and the Albanian language was made by the Swedish historian Hans Erich Thunmann in his work “Undersuchunger liber di Geschichte der Östlichen europäischen Völker” Leipzig, 1774. Based on Latin and Byzantine historical sources as well as on linguistic and onomatopoeic documents, he came to the conclusion that the Albanians are autochthonous descendants of the ancient Illyrian population, who were not romanised, as was the case with the Thraco-Dacian population, the predecessors of the Romanians. Since that time on, a number of eminent scholars, such as historians, archaeologists and linguists have brought a number of historical and linguistic complementary arguments in support of the theory concerning the origin of Albanians and their language. Some of these arguments are as follows:
1. Albanians are currently living in some of the territories, which were inhabited by Illyrians in ancient times; on the other hand, historical sources do not speak of any Albanian migration from other territories to the present ones.
2. A number of linguistic elements such as names of things, tribes, people, etc., of Illyrian origin, are explained in the Albanian language.
3. The ancient toponymic forms of the Illyrian Albanian territories, as compared to the corresponding present-day forms, prove that they have evolved in conformity with the rules of the historical phonetics of the Albanian language.
4. Relationships between the Albanian language and the ancient Greek and Latin suggest that the Albanian language took shape and developed side by side with these two neighbouring languages on the shores of the Adriatic and Ionian seas.
5. Both archaeological documents and documents belonging to the material and psychological heritage testify to the cultural continuity from the ancient Illyrians to the present-day Albanians.
In view of these arguments, presented in a concise way, it results that the theory of the Illyrian origin of the Albanian language is the most plausible theory, judging by historical and linguistic evidence.

The beginnings of the written Albanian language
Albanian is one of the ancient languages of the Balkans, but its written records, just like the Romanian language, date back only to the 15th century.
The first written record in the Albanian language is what is known as the “Formula of Baptism” of 1462 AD. It is a short sentence in Albanian “Unte paghesont premenit Atit et birit et spertit senit” (I bless you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit), which is found in a circular (pamphlet) written in Latin by the Archbishop of Durrës, Pal Ëngjëlli, a close associate of Skanderbeg.
During a visit to Mat, Pal Ëngjelli noticed irregularities in the religious practice and following this he left some directions and recommendations with the Catholic priest, namely the aforementioned blessing, which could be used by parents in baptising their children in case they could not do it in church or there was no priest available. The formula is written in the Latin alphabet in the northern dialect of the ghegs (gegërisht).
The “Formula of Baptism” was found in the Laurentiana Library of Milan by the well-known Romanian historian Nikolla Jorga and was published by him in 1915 in “Notes et extraits pour servir l’histoire des croisades au XV siecle IV, 1915”. (Notes and extracts to the service the history of the crusades in the 15th century).
The French philologist, Mario Rognes, made a philological publication of this document and also its photographic reproduction in “Recherches sur les anciens textes albanais”, Paris 1932. (Research on ancient Albanian texts).
The second document written in the Albanian language is a Glossary by Arnold von Harf of 1496 AD. In autumn of 1496 the German traveller Arnold von Harf from the village of Cologne set out on a pilgrimage tour of the “holy countries”. The tour brought him along the coast, to our country as well, where he stopped at Ulqin, Durrës and Sazan. In the course of the journey, for practical needs, he wrote down 26 words, 8 phrases and the numerals from 1 to 10 and from 100 to 1000, along with their equivalents in German. E. von Grote published this Glossary for the first time in Cologne in 1860.
Another text written in the Albanian language that dates back to the late 15th and early 16th centuries was found in a Greek manuscript of the 16th century in the Ambrosiana Library of Milan. It contains extracts translated from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, etc., and is written in the dialect of the South, in the Greek alphabet. This text written in Albanian is known in the Albanian literature by the name “The Easter Testament”.
These documents do not have any literary values, but arouse interest with regard to the history of the written Albanian language. From the early stages of its written form, Albanian language is proved to be written in two dialects, in the North dialect (gegërisht) and in the South one (toskërisht), and in two alphabets, the Latin and the Greek, which testifies that Albanian culture was under the influence of both Latin and Greek culture.
The first book known to date to be written in the Albanian language is the “Missal” (Meshari) (the Prayer Book) by Gjon Buzuku in AD 1555, which marks the beginning of the early Albanian literature. Only one copy of this book has survived and currently is in the Library of the Vatican. The book contains 220 pages and is written in two columns. “Missal” by Gjon Buzuku is the translation of the main parts of the catholic liturgy into Albanian; it contains the services of the main religious holidays of the year, comments from the book of prayers, parts from the Testament as well as parts from the ritual and catechism. Therefore, it includes the parts a preacher needs in his daily religious services. Obviously, it is an attempt by the author to introduce the Albanian language in the catholic religious services. Hence, the literary period of the Albanian language, as is the case with many other languages, has its beginnings in the translation of religious texts.
Gjon Buzuku's “Missal”, the first book in the Albanian language, was discovered in Rome by one of the writers from the north of Albania, Gjon Nikollë Kazazi; but the book was lost and recovered again in 1909 by the bishop Pal Skeroi, researcher and explorer of antique texts. In 1930, the researcher Jystin Rrota from Shkodër went to Rome, photocopied the book and brought three copies of it to Albania. In 1968 the book was published as transliterated and transcribed and provided both with critical notes and an introductory study by the pre-eminent linguist, Prof. E.Çabej. The linguist N.Resuli also transcribed Buzuku's book.
The “Missal” by Gjon Buzuku is written in the northern dialect (gegërisht), in the Latin alphabet, and is provided with some special letters. The book has a relatively rich vocabulary and its orthography and grammatical forms seem to be established, which is indicative of an earlier tradition in the writing of the Albanian language.
Prof. Eqerem Çabej, who had made a thorough study of Gjon Buzuku's book, has reached the conclusion that its language “is not an uncultivated land”. “Looking at this text objectively – he states – and judging by the fluent language that permeates it from top to bottom and by the consistent style of writing, one is convinced that a literary tradition in liturgical writings had existed earlier in Albania, at least since the late Middle Ages”. According to this author, the cultural level of Albania in the Middle Ages also supports this theory. “The cultural level of the Albanian people at that time had not been much different from the neighbouring countries and from those along the Adriatic coast in particular.”


Eqerem Çabej (1908-1980). The most distinguished scholar of the history of Albanian Language and one of the most renowned personalities of Albanian culture.
After finishing the elementary and secondary studies in his hometown (Gjirokastër), he went to Austria where he received higher education in the field of comparative Indo-European linguistics. After graduation, he turned home and in 1930s of the 20th century, he began his scholarly and academic activity by working in these fields for about fifty years, leaving behind himself a rich scholarly heritage.
Eqerem Çabej brought to and carried out in Albanian linguistics the approaches and achievements of European linguistics by making a great contribution to the raising of the scientific level in Albanian linguistic studies. Eqerem Çabej worked hard in several branches of learning, but he distinguished himself in the field of the history of language, the exploration of the origins of Albanian Language, the autochthony of Albanian people as well as the etymology and philology of old manuscripts.
His fundamental works are as follows: "Etymological Studies in the Albanian Field" in seven volumes, I "Introduction to the History of the Albanian Language", II "The Historical Phonetics" (1958), "The Missal by Gjon Buzuku" (1968), "The Albanians between the West and the East" (1944).
He also is a co-author of a series of works in the area of current Albanian, such as "The Dictionary of Current Albanian" (1954), "The Spelling Rules of the Albanian Language (1972), "The Spelling Dictionary".
Apart from the above works, he has published numerous papers in scholarly magazines at home and abroad and has held dozens of papers and reports at national and international congresses and conferences, which have made known the achievements of the Albanian philology abroad, and so raising its prestige.
The works by Prof. Eqerem Çabej have been published in eight volumes in Prishtina under the title "Linguistic Studies".
With his high-level and versatile scholarly activity, Eqerem Çabej highlighted many problems of both the Albanian Language and Albanian culture by demonstrating its ancientness and its Illyrian origin, its vitality through the centuries and its relationships with languages and cultures of other peoples.
There is also additional indirect evidence that speaks of a tradition in the writing of the Albanian language before the 15th century.
The French priest Gurllaume Adae (1270-1341), who for a long time served as Archbishop of Tivar (1324-1341) and came to know the Albanians well, in a report entitled “Directorium ad passagium faciendum ad terrom sanctam” sent to the king of France Philip VI, Valua, wrote among others: “Although Albanians speak a different language from Latin, they use and write their books in the Latin alphabet”. This author speaks of books in the Albanian language, thus testifying that Albanian had been written well before the 15th century.
In his work “De obsi dione scodrensi” (On the siege of Shkodër), published in Venice in 1504, the renowned humanist Marin Barleti also speaks of excerpts written in vernacula lingua, i.e. in the language of the country, which deal with the reconstruction of the town of Shkodër.
This evidence of G. Adae and M. Barleti, two connoisseurs of the Albanians and of their country, is in harmony with the historical data on this period, which suggest an advanced economic and cultural level of the Albanian territories in the 14th and early 15th centuries. In that period, many towns such as Durrës, Kruja, Berat, Vlora, flourished economically and became important trade and cultural centres.
This evidence makes more credible the existence of an earlier tradition in the writing of the Albanian language; nevertheless, as long as researches have not brought to light any other book, “Meshari” by Gjon Buzuku will remain the first book written in the Albanian language and the first work of the Albanian literature.
The literature in the Albanian language among the Arbëresh of Italy also has its beginnings in the 16th century. The first work of the Arbëresh literature in the Albanian language and the second earliest work, after that of Buzuku, is the one by the Arbëresh priest Lekë Matrenga “E mbesuame e krishterë” ("The Christian Faith") published in 1592. It is a booklet of 28 pages, the translation of a catechism. The book is written in the southern dialect, in Latin alphabet, and is provided with some special letters representing the sounds of the Albanian language that are missing in Latin.
Pjetër Budi, Frang Bardhi and Pjetër Bogdani who not only translated but also wrote original works further explored the Albanian language in the 17th century.
In 1635, Frang Bardhi produced the first dictionary, the “Latin-Albanian Dictionary”, which marks the beginning of the Albanian linguistic science. The exploration and progress of the Albanian language entered a new stage in the 19th century, during the National Renaissance, under new historical circumstances. In this period serious attempts were made to build up a national literary language which would become standard in the 20th century.

Dialects of the Albanian language
The Albanian language has two dialects, the northern dialect or "gegërisht" and the southern dialect or "toskërisht". The natural boundary that separates these dialects is the river Shkumbin that runs through Elbasan, in central Albania. To the right of Shkumbin lies the northern dialect (gegërisht) and to the left lies the southern dialect (toskërisht).
There are no great differences between Albanian dialects and people can understand each other without difficulty. Nevertheless, there are some differences in the phonetic system and in the grammatical structure and lexicon, of which the most important are: the northern dialect has mouth and nasal vowels, whereas the southern dialect has only mouth vowels; the diphthong ua in toskërisht has the equivalent ue in gegërisht (grua ~ grue); the initial cluster va in toskërisht has the equivalent vo in gegërisht (vatër ~ votër); the distinct nasal â in gegërisht has the distinct equivalent ë in toskërisht (nânë ~ nënë).
The southern dialect is characterized by rhotacism (the changing of n to r (ranë ~ rërë), which in gegërisht is missing; in toskërisht the consonant clusters mb, nd, etc. are retained whereas in gegërisht are assimilated in m, n, (mbush ~ mush, vend ~ ven). In the morphological system, the northern dialect has the infinitive form of the type me pun, whereas toskërisht has instead the infinitive form of the type të punoj. The past participle in toskërisht ends in a consonant, whereas in gegërisht ends in a vowel (kapur ~ kapë), etc.

Standard Albanian
The formation of the unified national literary language (standard language), as the most elaborated variant of the Albanian language, has gone through a long process, which began in 16th and 17th centuries, but this process entered a new stage in the 19th century, during the National Renaissance. Priority was given to the learning and exploration of the mother tongue, its enrichment and clearance of unnecessary foreign words. A wide literary, cultural and linguistic activity took place during this period.
“The Society of Printing Albanian Letters“, which was created in1879, gave a new impetus to this activity. The first grammar books were produced and steps were taken for the production of a national dictionary of the Albanian language. “The Dictionary of Albanian language“ by Kostandin Kristoforidhi was published posthumously in 1904.
During the period of National Renaissance, two literary variants of the Albanian language developed, which are the southern literary variant and the northern literary variant. Attempts were made to bring the two variants together and unify the literary language. An issue that required immediate solution was the unification of the alphabet. Up to that time Albanian was written in several alphabets: Latin, Greek, Turkish-Arabic and other special alphabets. This issue was resolved at the Congress of Manastir, held in November 14-22, 1908, in the town of Manastir, which is currently situated in Macedonia. The Congress decided on the introduction of a new alphabet based entirely on the Latin alphabet and provided with nine digraphs (dh, gj, ll, nj, rr, sh, th, xh, zh), and two letters with diacritic signs (ç, ë). This alphabet is still in use in the Albanian language. With the passage of time, the Istanbul alphabet was replaced by the new alphabet endorsed by the Congress of Manastir, i.e. the current alphabet.
Another step towards the unification of the Albanian literary language was taken by the Albanian Literary Committee, which met in Shkodër in 1916. The committee emphasised as a priority the exploration of the Albanian literary language and the development of the Albanian literature. This committee of linguists and writers, set up to help create a common literary (standard) language by bringing together the two literary variants already in use, decided on the median literary variant, which would serve as a bridge between "toskërisht" and "gegërisht" and set rules for its orthography, which contributed to the unification of the written language.
The decisions of the Albanian Literary Committee on the standard language and its orthography were later endorsed at the Education Congress of Lushnje (1920) and continued to be applied until the Second World War.

After the Second World War, work on the unification of the national literary language (standard language) and its orthography was organised by the Institute of Sciences. Ad hoc committees were set up to design orthography drafts. Thus, some drafts were designed in 1948, 1951, 1953 and 1956. Two conferences were held in 1952 on the issue of the standard language.

Aleksandër Xhuvani (1880-1961)
He received higher education at the University of Athens. During the period of National Renaissance he started his activity in the study of Albanian language and national education. He performed a great work for providing our schools with textbooks of Albanian language, literature, teaching and psychology. He directed and took part in the work for drafting spelling guides during the years 1949, 1951, 1954 and 1956.
He carried out a lot of activity in the field of the purity and enrichment of Albanian language and also published his work "On the Purity of the Albanian Language" (1956). He collaborated with Professor Eqerem Çabej for writing such works as "Prefixes" (1956) and "Suffixes of the Albanian Language" (1962), which are fundamental treatises in the field of word-formation in the Albanian Language. He also published a series of monographic works on the participle, infinitive and prepositions of the Albanian Language.
He was a good connoisseur and a passionate collector of lexical thesaurus of the folk speech. The words and expressions collected by him were partly published posthumously in the form of a vocabulary. He prepared a second edition of Kristoforidhi's "The Dictionary of the Albanian Language" (1961).
His complete works, extending to several volumes, have not yet been published. The first volume was published in 1980.
In 1967, the Institute of History and Linguistics published the new draft on “Orthography Rules of the Albanian Language“. This draft was applied in all the Albanian territories, the Republic of Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro. Meanwhile, efforts were also made in Kosovo for the unification of the literary language and its orthography.
In 1968, a linguistic conference was held in Prishtina, guided by the principle “one nation-one literary language“. It decided that once the orthography draft was approved and took official form, it would be applied in Kosovo as well. The decisions taken in this conference were of great significance for the unification of the national literary language.
Following a public debate, the draft on “Orthography Rules of the Albanian Language“ of 1967 was submitted for discussion to the Congress on orthography of the Albanian language held in Tirana in 1972. It has gone down in the history of the Albanian language and culture as the Congress of the unification of the national literary language.
Delegates attended the Congress on orthography of the Albanian language from all of the regions of Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Arberësh from Italy. The Congress adopted a resolution which, among others, stated that "the Albanian people now have a unified literary (standard) language“.
The unified national literary language (standard language) was mostly based on the literary variant of the south, especially with regard to the phonetic system, but it also encompasses elements from the literary variant of the north.
After the Congress of Orthography, a number of important works were published which codified the norms of a standard language, such as “The Orthography of the Albanian Language“ (1973), “The Dictionary of Current Albanian“ (1980), “The Dictionary of Present-day Albanian“ (1984), “An Orthographic Dictionary of the Albanian Language“ (1976), “A Grammar of Current Albanian“, I Morphology (…………..), II Syntax (………………..).

Typological features of present-day standard Albanian
Albanian language is structurally an analytical-synthetic language, with a dominance of synthetic elements tending towards being analytical. Part of its phonetic and grammatical features date back from the ancient Indo-European period, others have developed later.
Albanian language has its own phonological system, which comprises 7 vowel phonemes and 29 consonant phonemes. It is written in the Latin alphabet decided upon in 1908 at the Congress of Manastir.
The Albanian language has 36 letters, 25 of which are simple (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, x, y, z), 9 are digraphs (dh, gj, ll, nj, rr, sh, th, xh, zh) and 2 diacritic letters (ë, ç).
The Albanian language has an elaborated system of grammatical forms, a binary declension system: definite and indefinite, it retains the case forms (it has five cases), three genders (masculine, feminine and neutral); the latter is going out of use and is used only with a certain category of verbal nouns like të shkruarit, të menduarit, etc.
The noun system has definite and indefinite forms, hence, definite and indefinite declensions; the definite article takes end position like the Romanian and Bulgarian languages; but the article can be pre-positioned with nouns in the possessive case, (i, e malit), articled adjectives (i mirë, i vogël, etc), neutral nouns of the type të folurit, etc. and this article (“i”,”e”) (is nominated “prepositive article”. Apart from inflection with specific endings, Albanian has also an inner inflection (dash ~ desh, marr ~ merr); it has two types of adjectives, articled adjectives (i madh, i ndershëm) and unarticled adjectives (trim, besnik). Numerals are mainly used according to the decimal system (dhjetë, tridhjetë, pesëdhjetë), but vigesimal system is also retained (njëzet, dyzet); compound numerals from 11 through 19 are formed by placing digits first, then the preposition mbë and finally the decimals (njëmbëdhjetë, dymbëdhjetë, etc) like the Romanian and Slavonic languages.
The verb system is varied. Albanian language has a rich system of mood and time forms, part of which dates from an early period, with the rest being evolved during the long historical evolution. Verbs have six moods: indicative, subjunctive, conditional, imperative, "admirative" (expressing a surprise) and "desiderative" (expressing a wish) and three non-finite forms (past participle, infinitive and gerund). The future tense is formed analytically in two ways: with do (form of the verb dua-want) + conjunctive (here, infinitive) - të punoj = do të punoj (I shall work), and with auxiliary verb kam (have) + infinitive për të punuar = kam për të punuar (I have to work).
Word order is generally free but the most common form is subject + verb + object.
The vocabulary of the Albanian language consists of certain layers. Native words date back from an ancient Indo-European period (ditto, Nat, dimmer, motor, Janna, etc.), or are formed in a later period out of Albanian words (ditor, dimëror, i përnatshëm).
Another layer consists of words borrowed from other languages as a result of the contacts the Albanian people have had with other nations over the centuries. Words have been borrowed from Greek, both ancient and modern, from Latin and Romance languages, from Slavonic and Turkish.
Despite the numerous borrowings, Albanian language has retained its originality as a separate Indo-European language.
Albanian language has a generally fixed stress during inflection. In most cases, especially in the noun system, the stress falls on the penultimate syllable.
The spread of the Albanian language
Albanian is currently spoken by over six million people in the Republic of Albania, in Kosovo, by the Albanians of Macedonia, Montenegro and south Serbia as well as in the territory of Çamëri in Greece. Albanian is also spoken in the Albanian settlements in Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, the Ukraine and by Albanians who have migrated to various parts of the world before the Second World War and over the last decade.
The Albanian language is being taught and studied in several universities and Albanological centres abroad, as in Paris, Rome, Naples, Cosenza, Palermo, Petersburg, Peking, Mϋnchen, Bucharest, Salonika, Sophia, etc.
Studies on the Albanian Language
The Albanian language and culture, their ancientness and original character have attracted the attention of foreign and Albanian scholars as early as the 18th century and even before. The language, history and culture of Albanians drew, in particular, the attention of Germanic world. A great philosopher such as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, who worked one century before the emergence of comparative linguistics, was also concerned with it. He held that the comparative study of languages was essential for building a universal history of the world, for understanding and explaining it. In some letters that he wrote to a librarian of the Berlin's Royal Library at the beginning of the 18th century, he pronounced on the nature and origin of Albanian as well, and after some hesitations, he came to the conclusion that Albanian was the language of ancient Illyrians.
The studies on the Albanian language, however, like on many other languages, began by the mid-19th century, after the emergence of the historical-comparative linguistics. One of the founders of this linguistics, the German scholar Franz Bopp, came to prove, as early as 1854, that Albanian language shared the family of Indo-European languages and occupied a special place in this family. After him, other scholars such as G. Meyer, H. Pederson, N. Jokli, explored various aspects of the lexicon and grammatical structure of Albanian. As early as 1891, G. Meyer embarked on the work of compiling an etymological dictionary of the Albanian language (Etymologisches Wörterbuch der albanesischen Sprache, Strasbourg, 1891), the first dictionary of this type for Albanian. In addition, numerous foreign linguists such as F. Miclosich, G. Weigand, C.Tagliavini, St. Man, E. Hamp, A. Desnickaja, H. Ölberg, H. Mihaescu, W. Fredler, O. Bucholtz, M. Huld, G.B. Pellegrini, etc., have made invaluable contributions to the studying of history of the Albanian language, the problems related to its origin, etymology, phonetics and historical grammar, and, in addition, to the studying of the current state of Albanian
In the meantime, along with the studies on Albanian by foreign linguists, the Albanian linguistics was born and developed. Its beginnings date from the 17th century AD, when Frang Bardhi published the first dictionary of Albanian language "Dictionarium Latino-Epiroticum" (1653). During the National Renaissance, several Albanian grammars were published. So, Dhimitër Kamarda, one of Italy's Arbëresh, published in 1864 his work "Saggio della grammatica comparata sulla lingua albanese", Livorno, 1864, and two years later its 2d vol., "L'Appendice al saggio della grammatica comparata sulla lingua albanese", Prato, 1866. In 1882, Kostandin Kristoforidhi published "The Grammar of the Albanian Language" and in 18*6 Sami Frashëri published "The Grammar of the Albanian Language", two important 19th-century linguistic works on the grammatology of Albanian language. At the end of the 19th century, Kostandin Kristoforidhi prepared another "Dictionary of the Albanian Language", which was published in 1904 and is considered to be the most important work in Albanian lexicography published before the Second World War. In 1909, the association "Bashkimi" published its own dictionary.
After the proclamation of Independence, a series of grammar books and dictionaries were published to meet the needs of schools and national culture. In the field of grammar studies, the most distinguished figure became Prof. Dr. Aleksandër Xhuvani.
A greater development Albanian linguistics saw during the second half of the 20th century, when specialised institutions were established, such as the University of Tirana, the University of Prishtina, the Academy of Sciences, the University of Shkodër and later on other universities in Elbasan, Gjirokastër, Vlorë, Tetovë, etc. During this period, a series of generalising works were created in various fields of linguistics. In the areas of lexicology and lexicography, in addition to lexicological studies, a series of both Albanian and bilingual dictionaries were written, most important being: "The Dictionary of Albanian" (1954), "The Dictionary of Current Albanian Language" (1980), "The Dictionary of Present-day Albanian" (1984), "The Spelling Dictionary of the Albanian Language" (1976), etc. Recently "An Idiomatic Dictionary of Albanian Language" and a "Balkan Idiomatic Dictionary" (1999) have appeared.
In the field of dialectology, the description and study of all Albanian speeches has been carried out and "The Dialectological Atlas of Albanian Language" has been written, which is a monumental work that is soon to come out.
Also, a survey of phonetics and grammatical structures of Albanian through individual studies and various grammar treatises and levels has been carried out, of which "The Albanian Language Grammar" comprised of Morphology I (1995), and Syntax II (1997), drawn up in co-operation with the Academy of Sciences and the Tirana University, with Mahir Domi as editor-in-chief, is the most complete.
In the linguistic studies during the past half-century much space was given to the problems of the history of Albanian language, the ethno-
genesis of Albanian people and their language, the historical phonetics and grammar, etc. Some of the basic works in these areas are the following: "Etymological Studies in the Albanian Field" in 7 volumes by E. Çabej; "The Missal" by Gjon Buzuku (E. Çabej); "A Historical Grammar of the Albanian Language" (Sh. Demiraj); "The Historical Phonology of the Albanian Language" (Sh. Demiraj); "Balkan Linguistics" (Sh. Demiraj), etc.
During this period, Albanian linguistics also resolved the problem of the uniform national literary Albanian language, with theoretical problems of which Prof. Androkli Kostallari has dealt.
In the framework of labour carried out in the field of normative linguistics and the culture of language, a great number of terminological dictionaries on various areas of science and technology have also been compiled.
In addition to numerous works published in the field of linguistics, the activity of linguistic researches by Albanian scholars is reflected in the publication of several research magazines, of which the following are the main ones today: "Philological Studies" (Tiranë); "Albanian Language" (Prishtinë), "Studia Albanica" (Tiranë), "Jehona" (Skopje); etc.
Some of the most eminent figures in Albanian Linguistics during the past two centuries are: Dhimitër Kamarda (an Arbëresh of Italy), Kostandin Kristoforidhi, Sami Frashëri, Aleksandër Xhuvani, Eqerem Çabej, Selman Riza, Kostaq Cipo, Mahir Domi, Shaban Demiraj, Androkli Kostallari, Idriz Ajeti, etc.

By Prof. SEIT MANSAKU

 

[gentilushi]

Re: Vlerat e Kombit Shqiptar (EN) ! ! !

ALBANIAN LANGUAGE
By Prof. SEIT MANSAKU
Albanian Language belongs to the family of Indo-European Languages, along with Indo-Iranian languages, Greek language, Romance languages, Slavonic languages, Germanic languages, etc. It constitutes a separate branch in this family of languages and is not originally associated to any of the modern Indo-European languages. The Indo-European origin of the Albanian language and the place it occupies in the family of Indo-European languages was determined and proved in the middle of the 19th century, following studies in the comparative historical linguistics.
It was primarily the merit of one of the leading founders of this linguistic direction, the eminent German scholar Franz Bopp, who proved scientifically that the Albanian language belonged to the family of the Indo-European languages. Franz Bopp dedicated to this issue a special work entitled “Ueber das Albanesische in sinen verwandtschaft lichen Bezichungen”, published in 1854.
The Indo-European languages are divided into two groups: Eastern languages, or satem and Western languages, or kontum. The Albanian language belongs to the eastern group (satem), along with the Indo-Iranian languages, Balto-Slavonic languages and the Armenian language.

Origins
The origins of the Albanian language are one of the most debatable issues in the linguistic science. Its roots are found in one of the ancient languages of the Balkan Peninsula, Illyrian or Thracian. Two main theories have circulated in the linguistic literature with regard to the Albanian language: its origin in the Illyrian language and the one in the Thracian language. The Illyrian theory has had a broader historical and linguistic support. It took shape in the 18th century among the historians of the time.
The first attempt at explaining the origins of the Albanians and the Albanian language was made by the Swedish historian Hans Erich Thunmann in his work “Undersuchunger liber di Geschichte der Östlichen europäischen Völker” Leipzig, 1774. Based on Latin and Byzantine historical sources as well as on linguistic and onomatopoeic documents, he came to the conclusion that the Albanians are autochthonous descendants of the ancient Illyrian population, who were not romanised, as was the case with the Thraco-Dacian population, the predecessors of the Romanians. Since that time on, a number of eminent scholars, such as historians, archaeologists and linguists have brought a number of historical and linguistic complementary arguments in support of the theory concerning the origin of Albanians and their language. Some of these arguments are as follows:
1. Albanians are currently living in some of the territories, which were inhabited by Illyrians in ancient times; on the other hand, historical sources do not speak of any Albanian migration from other territories to the present ones.
2. A number of linguistic elements such as names of things, tribes, people, etc., of Illyrian origin, are explained in the Albanian language.
3. The ancient toponymic forms of the Illyrian Albanian territories, as compared to the corresponding present-day forms, prove that they have evolved in conformity with the rules of the historical phonetics of the Albanian language.
4. Relationships between the Albanian language and the ancient Greek and Latin suggest that the Albanian language took shape and developed side by side with these two neighbouring languages on the shores of the Adriatic and Ionian seas.
5. Both archaeological documents and documents belonging to the material and psychological heritage testify to the cultural continuity from the ancient Illyrians to the present-day Albanians.
In view of these arguments, presented in a concise way, it results that the theory of the Illyrian origin of the Albanian language is the most plausible theory, judging by historical and linguistic evidence.

The beginnings of the written Albanian language
Albanian is one of the ancient languages of the Balkans, but its written records, just like the Romanian language, date back only to the 15th century.
The first written record in the Albanian language is what is known as the “Formula of Baptism” of 1462 AD. It is a short sentence in Albanian “Unte paghesont premenit Atit et birit et spertit senit” (I bless you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit), which is found in a circular (pamphlet) written in Latin by the Archbishop of Durrës, Pal Ëngjëlli, a close associate of Skanderbeg.
During a visit to Mat, Pal Ëngjelli noticed irregularities in the religious practice and following this he left some directions and recommendations with the Catholic priest, namely the aforementioned blessing, which could be used by parents in baptising their children in case they could not do it in church or there was no priest available. The formula is written in the Latin alphabet in the northern dialect of the ghegs (gegërisht).
The “Formula of Baptism” was found in the Laurentiana Library of Milan by the well-known Romanian historian Nikolla Jorga and was published by him in 1915 in “Notes et extraits pour servir l’histoire des croisades au XV siecle IV, 1915”. (Notes and extracts to the service the history of the crusades in the 15th century).
The French philologist, Mario Rognes, made a philological publication of this document and also its photographic reproduction in “Recherches sur les anciens textes albanais”, Paris 1932. (Research on ancient Albanian texts).
The second document written in the Albanian language is a Glossary by Arnold von Harf of 1496 AD. In autumn of 1496 the German traveller Arnold von Harf from the village of Cologne set out on a pilgrimage tour of the “holy countries”. The tour brought him along the coast, to our country as well, where he stopped at Ulqin, Durrës and Sazan. In the course of the journey, for practical needs, he wrote down 26 words, 8 phrases and the numerals from 1 to 10 and from 100 to 1000, along with their equivalents in German. E. von Grote published this Glossary for the first time in Cologne in 1860.
Another text written in the Albanian language that dates back to the late 15th and early 16th centuries was found in a Greek manuscript of the 16th century in the Ambrosiana Library of Milan. It contains extracts translated from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, etc., and is written in the dialect of the South, in the Greek alphabet. This text written in Albanian is known in the Albanian literature by the name “The Easter Testament”.
These documents do not have any literary values, but arouse interest with regard to the history of the written Albanian language. From the early stages of its written form, Albanian language is proved to be written in two dialects, in the North dialect (gegërisht) and in the South one (toskërisht), and in two alphabets, the Latin and the Greek, which testifies that Albanian culture was under the influence of both Latin and Greek culture.
The first book known to date to be written in the Albanian language is the “Missal” (Meshari) (the Prayer Book) by Gjon Buzuku in AD 1555, which marks the beginning of the early Albanian literature. Only one copy of this book has survived and currently is in the Library of the Vatican. The book contains 220 pages and is written in two columns. “Missal” by Gjon Buzuku is the translation of the main parts of the catholic liturgy into Albanian; it contains the services of the main religious holidays of the year, comments from the book of prayers, parts from the Testament as well as parts from the ritual and catechism. Therefore, it includes the parts a preacher needs in his daily religious services. Obviously, it is an attempt by the author to introduce the Albanian language in the catholic religious services. Hence, the literary period of the Albanian language, as is the case with many other languages, has its beginnings in the translation of religious texts.
Gjon Buzuku's “Missal”, the first book in the Albanian language, was discovered in Rome by one of the writers from the north of Albania, Gjon Nikollë Kazazi; but the book was lost and recovered again in 1909 by the bishop Pal Skeroi, researcher and explorer of antique texts. In 1930, the researcher Jystin Rrota from Shkodër went to Rome, photocopied the book and brought three copies of it to Albania. In 1968 the book was published as transliterated and transcribed and provided both with critical notes and an introductory study by the pre-eminent linguist, Prof. E.Çabej. The linguist N.Resuli also transcribed Buzuku's book.
The “Missal” by Gjon Buzuku is written in the northern dialect (gegërisht), in the Latin alphabet, and is provided with some special letters. The book has a relatively rich vocabulary and its orthography and grammatical forms seem to be established, which is indicative of an earlier tradition in the writing of the Albanian language.
Prof. Eqerem Çabej, who had made a thorough study of Gjon Buzuku's book, has reached the conclusion that its language “is not an uncultivated land”. “Looking at this text objectively – he states – and judging by the fluent language that permeates it from top to bottom and by the consistent style of writing, one is convinced that a literary tradition in liturgical writings had existed earlier in Albania, at least since the late Middle Ages”. According to this author, the cultural level of Albania in the Middle Ages also supports this theory. “The cultural level of the Albanian people at that time had not been much different from the neighbouring countries and from those along the Adriatic coast in particular.”


Eqerem Çabej (1908-1980). The most distinguished scholar of the history of Albanian Language and one of the most renowned personalities of Albanian culture.
After finishing the elementary and secondary studies in his hometown (Gjirokastër), he went to Austria where he received higher education in the field of comparative Indo-European linguistics. After graduation, he turned home and in 1930s of the 20th century, he began his scholarly and academic activity by working in these fields for about fifty years, leaving behind himself a rich scholarly heritage.
Eqerem Çabej brought to and carried out in Albanian linguistics the approaches and achievements of European linguistics by making a great contribution to the raising of the scientific level in Albanian linguistic studies. Eqerem Çabej worked hard in several branches of learning, but he distinguished himself in the field of the history of language, the exploration of the origins of Albanian Language, the autochthony of Albanian people as well as the etymology and philology of old manuscripts.
His fundamental works are as follows: "Etymological Studies in the Albanian Field" in seven volumes, I "Introduction to the History of the Albanian Language", II "The Historical Phonetics" (1958), "The Missal by Gjon Buzuku" (1968), "The Albanians between the West and the East" (1944).
He also is a co-author of a series of works in the area of current Albanian, such as "The Dictionary of Current Albanian" (1954), "The Spelling Rules of the Albanian Language (1972), "The Spelling Dictionary".
Apart from the above works, he has published numerous papers in scholarly magazines at home and abroad and has held dozens of papers and reports at national and international congresses and conferences, which have made known the achievements of the Albanian philology abroad, and so raising its prestige.
The works by Prof. Eqerem Çabej have been published in eight volumes in Prishtina under the title "Linguistic Studies".
With his high-level and versatile scholarly activity, Eqerem Çabej highlighted many problems of both the Albanian Language and Albanian culture by demonstrating its ancientness and its Illyrian origin, its vitality through the centuries and its relationships with languages and cultures of other peoples.
There is also additional indirect evidence that speaks of a tradition in the writing of the Albanian language before the 15th century.
The French priest Gurllaume Adae (1270-1341), who for a long time served as Archbishop of Tivar (1324-1341) and came to know the Albanians well, in a report entitled “Directorium ad passagium faciendum ad terrom sanctam” sent to the king of France Philip VI, Valua, wrote among others: “Although Albanians speak a different language from Latin, they use and write their books in the Latin alphabet”. This author speaks of books in the Albanian language, thus testifying that Albanian had been written well before the 15th century.
In his work “De obsi dione scodrensi” (On the siege of Shkodër), published in Venice in 1504, the renowned humanist Marin Barleti also speaks of excerpts written in vernacula lingua, i.e. in the language of the country, which deal with the reconstruction of the town of Shkodër.
This evidence of G. Adae and M. Barleti, two connoisseurs of the Albanians and of their country, is in harmony with the historical data on this period, which suggest an advanced economic and cultural level of the Albanian territories in the 14th and early 15th centuries. In that period, many towns such as Durrës, Kruja, Berat, Vlora, flourished economically and became important trade and cultural centres.
This evidence makes more credible the existence of an earlier tradition in the writing of the Albanian language; nevertheless, as long as researches have not brought to light any other book, “Meshari” by Gjon Buzuku will remain the first book written in the Albanian language and the first work of the Albanian literature.
The literature in the Albanian language among the Arbëresh of Italy also has its beginnings in the 16th century. The first work of the Arbëresh literature in the Albanian language and the second earliest work, after that of Buzuku, is the one by the Arbëresh priest Lekë Matrenga “E mbesuame e krishterë” ("The Christian Faith") published in 1592. It is a booklet of 28 pages, the translation of a catechism. The book is written in the southern dialect, in Latin alphabet, and is provided with some special letters representing the sounds of the Albanian language that are missing in Latin.
Pjetër Budi, Frang Bardhi and Pjetër Bogdani who not only translated but also wrote original works further explored the Albanian language in the 17th century.
In 1635, Frang Bardhi produced the first dictionary, the “Latin-Albanian Dictionary”, which marks the beginning of the Albanian linguistic science. The exploration and progress of the Albanian language entered a new stage in the 19th century, during the National Renaissance, under new historical circumstances. In this period serious attempts were made to build up a national literary language which would become standard in the 20th century.

Dialects of the Albanian language
The Albanian language has two dialects, the northern dialect or "gegërisht" and the southern dialect or "toskërisht". The natural boundary that separates these dialects is the river Shkumbin that runs through Elbasan, in central Albania. To the right of Shkumbin lies the northern dialect (gegërisht) and to the left lies the southern dialect (toskërisht).
There are no great differences between Albanian dialects and people can understand each other without difficulty. Nevertheless, there are some differences in the phonetic system and in the grammatical structure and lexicon, of which the most important are: the northern dialect has mouth and nasal vowels, whereas the southern dialect has only mouth vowels; the diphthong ua in toskërisht has the equivalent ue in gegërisht (grua ~ grue); the initial cluster va in toskërisht has the equivalent vo in gegërisht (vatër ~ votër); the distinct nasal â in gegërisht has the distinct equivalent ë in toskërisht (nânë ~ nënë).
The southern dialect is characterized by rhotacism (the changing of n to r (ranë ~ rërë), which in gegërisht is missing; in toskërisht the consonant clusters mb, nd, etc. are retained whereas in gegërisht are assimilated in m, n, (mbush ~ mush, vend ~ ven). In the morphological system, the northern dialect has the infinitive form of the type me pun, whereas toskërisht has instead the infinitive form of the type të punoj. The past participle in toskërisht ends in a consonant, whereas in gegërisht ends in a vowel (kapur ~ kapë), etc.

Standard Albanian
The formation of the unified national literary language (standard language), as the most elaborated variant of the Albanian language, has gone through a long process, which began in 16th and 17th centuries, but this process entered a new stage in the 19th century, during the National Renaissance. Priority was given to the learning and exploration of the mother tongue, its enrichment and clearance of unnecessary foreign words. A wide literary, cultural and linguistic activity took place during this period.
“The Society of Printing Albanian Letters“, which was created in1879, gave a new impetus to this activity. The first grammar books were produced and steps were taken for the production of a national dictionary of the Albanian language. “The Dictionary of Albanian language“ by Kostandin Kristoforidhi was published posthumously in 1904.
During the period of National Renaissance, two literary variants of the Albanian language developed, which are the southern literary variant and the northern literary variant. Attempts were made to bring the two variants together and unify the literary language. An issue that required immediate solution was the unification of the alphabet. Up to that time Albanian was written in several alphabets: Latin, Greek, Turkish-Arabic and other special alphabets. This issue was resolved at the Congress of Manastir, held in November 14-22, 1908, in the town of Manastir, which is currently situated in Macedonia. The Congress decided on the introduction of a new alphabet based entirely on the Latin alphabet and provided with nine digraphs (dh, gj, ll, nj, rr, sh, th, xh, zh), and two letters with diacritic signs (ç, ë). This alphabet is still in use in the Albanian language. With the passage of time, the Istanbul alphabet was replaced by the new alphabet endorsed by the Congress of Manastir, i.e. the current alphabet.
Another step towards the unification of the Albanian literary language was taken by the Albanian Literary Committee, which met in Shkodër in 1916. The committee emphasised as a priority the exploration of the Albanian literary language and the development of the Albanian literature. This committee of linguists and writers, set up to help create a common literary (standard) language by bringing together the two literary variants already in use, decided on the median literary variant, which would serve as a bridge between "toskërisht" and "gegërisht" and set rules for its orthography, which contributed to the unification of the written language.
The decisions of the Albanian Literary Committee on the standard language and its orthography were later endorsed at the Education Congress of Lushnje (1920) and continued to be applied until the Second World War.

After the Second World War, work on the unification of the national literary language (standard language) and its orthography was organised by the Institute of Sciences. Ad hoc committees were set up to design orthography drafts. Thus, some drafts were designed in 1948, 1951, 1953 and 1956. Two conferences were held in 1952 on the issue of the standard language.

Aleksandër Xhuvani (1880-1961)
He received higher education at the University of Athens. During the period of National Renaissance he started his activity in the study of Albanian language and national education. He performed a great work for providing our schools with textbooks of Albanian language, literature, teaching and psychology. He directed and took part in the work for drafting spelling guides during the years 1949, 1951, 1954 and 1956.
He carried out a lot of activity in the field of the purity and enrichment of Albanian language and also published his work "On the Purity of the Albanian Language" (1956). He collaborated with Professor Eqerem Çabej for writing such works as "Prefixes" (1956) and "Suffixes of the Albanian Language" (1962), which are fundamental treatises in the field of word-formation in the Albanian Language. He also published a series of monographic works on the participle, infinitive and prepositions of the Albanian Language.
He was a good connoisseur and a passionate collector of lexical thesaurus of the folk speech. The words and expressions collected by him were partly published posthumously in the form of a vocabulary. He prepared a second edition of Kristoforidhi's "The Dictionary of the Albanian Language" (1961).
His complete works, extending to several volumes, have not yet been published. The first volume was published in 1980.
In 1967, the Institute of History and Linguistics published the new draft on “Orthography Rules of the Albanian Language“. This draft was applied in all the Albanian territories, the Republic of Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro. Meanwhile, efforts were also made in Kosovo for the unification of the literary language and its orthography.
In 1968, a linguistic conference was held in Prishtina, guided by the principle “one nation-one literary language“. It decided that once the orthography draft was approved and took official form, it would be applied in Kosovo as well. The decisions taken in this conference were of great significance for the unification of the national literary language.
Following a public debate, the draft on “Orthography Rules of the Albanian Language“ of 1967 was submitted for discussion to the Congress on orthography of the Albanian language held in Tirana in 1972. It has gone down in the history of the Albanian language and culture as the Congress of the unification of the national literary language.
Delegates attended the Congress on orthography of the Albanian language from all of the regions of Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Arberësh from Italy. The Congress adopted a resolution which, among others, stated that "the Albanian people now have a unified literary (standard) language“.
The unified national literary language (standard language) was mostly based on the literary variant of the south, especially with regard to the phonetic system, but it also encompasses elements from the literary variant of the north.
After the Congress of Orthography, a number of important works were published which codified the norms of a standard language, such as “The Orthography of the Albanian Language“ (1973), “The Dictionary of Current Albanian“ (1980), “The Dictionary of Present-day Albanian“ (1984), “An Orthographic Dictionary of the Albanian Language“ (1976), “A Grammar of Current Albanian“, I Morphology (…………..), II Syntax (………………..).

Typological features of present-day standard Albanian
Albanian language is structurally an analytical-synthetic language, with a dominance of synthetic elements tending towards being analytical. Part of its phonetic and grammatical features date back from the ancient Indo-European period, others have developed later.
Albanian language has its own phonological system, which comprises 7 vowel phonemes and 29 consonant phonemes. It is written in the Latin alphabet decided upon in 1908 at the Congress of Manastir.
The Albanian language has 36 letters, 25 of which are simple (a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, x, y, z), 9 are digraphs (dh, gj, ll, nj, rr, sh, th, xh, zh) and 2 diacritic letters (ë, ç).
The Albanian language has an elaborated system of grammatical forms, a binary declension system: definite and indefinite, it retains the case forms (it has five cases), three genders (masculine, feminine and neutral); the latter is going out of use and is used only with a certain category of verbal nouns like të shkruarit, të menduarit, etc.
The noun system has definite and indefinite forms, hence, definite and indefinite declensions; the definite article takes end position like the Romanian and Bulgarian languages; but the article can be pre-positioned with nouns in the possessive case, (i, e malit), articled adjectives (i mirë, i vogël, etc), neutral nouns of the type të folurit, etc. and this article (“i”,”e”) (is nominated “prepositive article”. Apart from inflection with specific endings, Albanian has also an inner inflection (dash ~ desh, marr ~ merr); it has two types of adjectives, articled adjectives (i madh, i ndershëm) and unarticled adjectives (trim, besnik). Numerals are mainly used according to the decimal system (dhjetë, tridhjetë, pesëdhjetë), but vigesimal system is also retained (njëzet, dyzet); compound numerals from 11 through 19 are formed by placing digits first, then the preposition mbë and finally the decimals (njëmbëdhjetë, dymbëdhjetë, etc) like the Romanian and Slavonic languages.
The verb system is varied. Albanian language has a rich system of mood and time forms, part of which dates from an early period, with the rest being evolved during the long historical evolution. Verbs have six moods: indicative, subjunctive, conditional, imperative, "admirative" (expressing a surprise) and "desiderative" (expressing a wish) and three non-finite forms (past participle, infinitive and gerund). The future tense is formed analytically in two ways: with do (form of the verb dua-want) + conjunctive (here, infinitive) - të punoj = do të punoj (I shall work), and with auxiliary verb kam (have) + infinitive për të punuar = kam për të punuar (I have to work).
Word order is generally free but the most common form is subject + verb + object.
The vocabulary of the Albanian language consists of certain layers. Native words date back from an ancient Indo-European period (ditto, Nat, dimmer, motor, Janna, etc.), or are formed in a later period out of Albanian words (ditor, dimëror, i përnatshëm).
Another layer consists of words borrowed from other languages as a result of the contacts the Albanian people have had with other nations over the centuries. Words have been borrowed from Greek, both ancient and modern, from Latin and Romance languages, from Slavonic and Turkish.
Despite the numerous borrowings, Albanian language has retained its originality as a separate Indo-European language.
Albanian language has a generally fixed stress during inflection. In most cases, especially in the noun system, the stress falls on the penultimate syllable.
The spread of the Albanian language
Albanian is currently spoken by over six million people in the Republic of Albania, in Kosovo, by the Albanians of Macedonia, Montenegro and south Serbia as well as in the territory of Çamëri in Greece. Albanian is also spoken in the Albanian settlements in Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, the Ukraine and by Albanians who have migrated to various parts of the world before the Second World War and over the last decade.
The Albanian language is being taught and studied in several universities and Albanological centres abroad, as in Paris, Rome, Naples, Cosenza, Palermo, Petersburg, Peking, Mϋnchen, Bucharest, Salonika, Sophia, etc.
Studies on the Albanian Language
The Albanian language and culture, their ancientness and original character have attracted the attention of foreign and Albanian scholars as early as the 18th century and even before. The language, history and culture of Albanians drew, in particular, the attention of Germanic world. A great philosopher such as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, who worked one century before the emergence of comparative linguistics, was also concerned with it. He held that the comparative study of languages was essential for building a universal history of the world, for understanding and explaining it. In some letters that he wrote to a librarian of the Berlin's Royal Library at the beginning of the 18th century, he pronounced on the nature and origin of Albanian as well, and after some hesitations, he came to the conclusion that Albanian was the language of ancient Illyrians.
The studies on the Albanian language, however, like on many other languages, began by the mid-19th century, after the emergence of the historical-comparative linguistics. One of the founders of this linguistics, the German scholar Franz Bopp, came to prove, as early as 1854, that Albanian language shared the family of Indo-European languages and occupied a special place in this family. After him, other scholars such as G. Meyer, H. Pederson, N. Jokli, explored various aspects of the lexicon and grammatical structure of Albanian. As early as 1891, G. Meyer embarked on the work of compiling an etymological dictionary of the Albanian language (Etymologisches Wörterbuch der albanesischen Sprache, Strasbourg, 1891), the first dictionary of this type for Albanian. In addition, numerous foreign linguists such as F. Miclosich, G. Weigand, C.Tagliavini, St. Man, E. Hamp, A. Desnickaja, H. Ölberg, H. Mihaescu, W. Fredler, O. Bucholtz, M. Huld, G.B. Pellegrini, etc., have made invaluable contributions to the studying of history of the Albanian language, the problems related to its origin, etymology, phonetics and historical grammar, and, in addition, to the studying of the current state of Albanian
In the meantime, along with the studies on Albanian by foreign linguists, the Albanian linguistics was born and developed. Its beginnings date from the 17th century AD, when Frang Bardhi published the first dictionary of Albanian language "Dictionarium Latino-Epiroticum" (1653). During the National Renaissance, several Albanian grammars were published. So, Dhimitër Kamarda, one of Italy's Arbëresh, published in 1864 his work "Saggio della grammatica comparata sulla lingua albanese", Livorno, 1864, and two years later its 2d vol., "L'Appendice al saggio della grammatica comparata sulla lingua albanese", Prato, 1866. In 1882, Kostandin Kristoforidhi published "The Grammar of the Albanian Language" and in 18*6 Sami Frashëri published "The Grammar of the Albanian Language", two important 19th-century linguistic works on the grammatology of Albanian language. At the end of the 19th century, Kostandin Kristoforidhi prepared another "Dictionary of the Albanian Language", which was published in 1904 and is considered to be the most important work in Albanian lexicography published before the Second World War. In 1909, the association "Bashkimi" published its own dictionary.
After the proclamation of Independence, a series of grammar books and dictionaries were published to meet the needs of schools and national culture. In the field of grammar studies, the most distinguished figure became Prof. Dr. Aleksandër Xhuvani.
A greater development Albanian linguistics saw during the second half of the 20th century, when specialised institutions were established, such as the University of Tirana, the University of Prishtina, the Academy of Sciences, the University of Shkodër and later on other universities in Elbasan, Gjirokastër, Vlorë, Tetovë, etc. During this period, a series of generalising works were created in various fields of linguistics. In the areas of lexicology and lexicography, in addition to lexicological studies, a series of both Albanian and bilingual dictionaries were written, most important being: "The Dictionary of Albanian" (1954), "The Dictionary of Current Albanian Language" (1980), "The Dictionary of Present-day Albanian" (1984), "The Spelling Dictionary of the Albanian Language" (1976), etc. Recently "An Idiomatic Dictionary of Albanian Language" and a "Balkan Idiomatic Dictionary" (1999) have appeared.
In the field of dialectology, the description and study of all Albanian speeches has been carried out and "The Dialectological Atlas of Albanian Language" has been written, which is a monumental work that is soon to come out.
Also, a survey of phonetics and grammatical structures of Albanian through individual studies and various grammar treatises and levels has been carried out, of which "The Albanian Language Grammar" comprised of Morphology I (1995), and Syntax II (1997), drawn up in co-operation with the Academy of Sciences and the Tirana University, with Mahir Domi as editor-in-chief, is the most complete.
In the linguistic studies during the past half-century much space was given to the problems of the history of Albanian language, the ethno-
genesis of Albanian people and their language, the historical phonetics and grammar, etc. Some of the basic works in these areas are the following: "Etymological Studies in the Albanian Field" in 7 volumes by E. Çabej; "The Missal" by Gjon Buzuku (E. Çabej); "A Historical Grammar of the Albanian Language" (Sh. Demiraj); "The Historical Phonology of the Albanian Language" (Sh. Demiraj); "Balkan Linguistics" (Sh. Demiraj), etc.
During this period, Albanian linguistics also resolved the problem of the uniform national literary Albanian language, with theoretical problems of which Prof. Androkli Kostallari has dealt.
In the framework of labour carried out in the field of normative linguistics and the culture of language, a great number of terminological dictionaries on various areas of science and technology have also been compiled.
In addition to numerous works published in the field of linguistics, the activity of linguistic researches by Albanian scholars is reflected in the publication of several research magazines, of which the following are the main ones today: "Philological Studies" (Tiranë); "Albanian Language" (Prishtinë), "Studia Albanica" (Tiranë), "Jehona" (Skopje); etc.
Some of the most eminent figures in Albanian Linguistics during the past two centuries are: Dhimitër Kamarda (an Arbëresh of Italy), Kostandin Kristoforidhi, Sami Frashëri, Aleksandër Xhuvani, Eqerem Çabej, Selman Riza, Kostaq Cipo, Mahir Domi, Shaban Demiraj, Androkli Kostallari, Idriz Ajeti, etc.

By Prof. SEIT MANSAKU

 

[Dritan Luan Gjoni]

Re: Vlerat e Kombit Shqiptar (EN) ! ! !

Dijetari i madh i heshtur


Shekulli

Kanë kaluar dhjetë vjet kur mediat franceze shkruanin me gërma të mëdha “Shqiptarët pushtojnë Francën”, ndërsa për të “shqiptari që korrigjon të folurën e francezëve”. Prof.Dr Dhimitri Pilika, konsiderohet si një nga dijetarët më të mëdhenj shqiptarë dhe, madje si pellazgologu më i mirë. Ishte njohës i shkëlqyer i 12 gjuhëve të huaja, mes të cilave 5 gjuhë të vdekura, si latinisht, greqishte e vjetër, hebraisht, kinezçen e vjetër, etj. Ai lindi në Korçë më 30 prill 1923. Pasi mbaron Liceun Francez të vendlindjes fillon studimet pranë Universitetit të Sienës në Itali. Merr pjesë në Luftën Nacionalçlirimtare në drejtimin e njësiteve guerile. Pas Çlirimit, në 1945 zgjidhet kryeredaktor i fletores "Zëri i rinisë", në Korçë dhe bashkëpunon ngushtë me gazetën "Përpara" të Korçës. Jep mësim në shkollat e mesme të Korçës, Tiranës, Vlorës, Gjirokastrës. Nderohet me dy medalje ari dhe i jepet titulli "Doktor" në histori dhe gjuhë shqipe pranë Fakultetit të Filozofisë, si dhe në romanistikë - helenistikë tek Fakulteti i Filologjisë pranë po të njëjtit Universitet të Pragës. Themelon dhe drejton "Seminarin shqiptar", qendër e nderuar studimesh dhe kërkimesh albanologjike pranë Universitetit të Karlit në Pragë, ku ngarkohet si profesor me ligjërimin e mbarë disiplinave albanistike. Gjatë një qëndrimi afro 15-vjeçar nxjerr në dritë, 64 botime çekosllovake me brendi arbërore, si monografi - dorëshkrim, tekste akademike, fjalorë, tekste per gramatikën, historinë e përgjithshme dhe letërsinë, antologji të këngëve tona popullore dhe partizane, kushtetuta jonë shtetërore, vepra "Shqipëria vend shqiponjash" në gjuhët shqip, anglisht, frëngjisht, rusisht, ribotimi i "Fjalorit" të Konstandin Kristoforidhit etj. Gjurmon gjithçka që lidhet me Shqipërinë në letërsinë, artin, shkencën, kulturën çekosllovake në përgjithësi dhe sjell në Shqipëri 30 arka me dokumente të rëndësishme, apo siç i quante “albanica”. Mes tyre renditen dorëshkrimet e “Bletës” së Thimi Mitkos, vulat e Skënderbeut, dorëshkrime mbi Arbërinë, Voskopojën, Gjergj Kastriotin, etj. Kthehet në Tiranë pas prishjes së marrëdhënieve me Çekosllovakinë dhe fillon punën pranë Universitetit të Tiranës dhe vazhdon me zell punën shkencore dhe kërkues. Vazhdon të botojë studime e monografi, si dhe zbulimet e rralla e bëra në Çekosllovaki, si 21 dokumente që vërtetojnë praninë e shqiptarëve në trojet amtare mes shekujve II dhe XI të erës sonë, dorëshkrimin e një poeme të pabotuar, prej mëse 1500 strofash tëtërrokëshe në italishten mesjetare, mbi Gjergj Kastriotin Skënderbeun dhe një pafundësi materialesh të tjera. Internohet në fshatrat e Lushnjes, ku edhe atje vazhdon të punojë. Kur ndodhi kjo, lasgush Poradeci, miku i tij, do të shkruante : “Bretkosat e ugarit se ç’vranë drenë e malit”. Pas viteve ’90, do të vazhdojë aktivitetin e tij dhe do të jetë një nga emrat më të lakuar në sesionet shkencore. Vdes në spital në 31 dhjetor 2003, në mjerim dhe vetmi të plotë.


Në kumtesën “Rreth detit Adriatik dhe popullit shqiptar në periudhën e hershme të antikitetit”, prof. Dr. Dhimitër Pilika provon se shqiptarët janë pasardhës së pellazgëve


Shqiptarët, banorët më të hershëm të Adriatikut


Prof. dr. Dhimitër Pilika

Sipas autorëve të lashtë, Adriatiku në fillim quhej “Deti i Kronosit dhe i Reas”, më pas “Gjiri Jonian”, me një emërtim të trefishtë, të lidhur me traditat parahelenike, pellazgjike.
Jo fort larg nga brigjet e Adriatikut, më 1875 u zbulua Dodona, kryeqendra shpirtërore, politike dhe kulturore e pellazgëve, orakulli paragrek i së cilës ka qenë më i lashti dhe më i njohuri në Ballkan e në Europë. Disa qindra dijetarë, klasikë e modernë, shpesh me emër ndërkombëtar, janë marrë me këtë popull. Disa prej tyre kanë përdorur në rrafsh të gjërë, në shërbim të së vërtetës, përparësinë e faktorëve vendimtarë të brendshëm, vendorë. Rrjedhimisht, ata kanë nxjerrë argumente autentikë të pashtershme sidomos pas sjelljes në Luvër të gjetjeve arkeologjike të Dodonës dhe daljes më 1878 në Paris të dy vëllimeve të Konstantinit Karapanos “Dodona dhe rrënojat e saj”. Këto zbulime sensacionale kishin bërë për vete paraprakisht bashkëpunimin aktiv të anëtarëve të Institutit të Francës E. Egger dhe J. De Witte, që mbahen si pasuesit e pellazgistëve francezë J. B. Jourdan (1746), Ch. Dupuis (1798), L. Petit-Radel (1810-1852), J. Michelet (1831), L. Benloeë (1877).
Në shkallë ndërkombëtare prej gjithë përfundimeve të tyre të verifikuara mirë, del se pellazgët, që mbizotëronin në Adriatik, i kanë sjellë Europës, ndër të tjera, alfabetin e parë, qytetërimin më të lashtë: mjeshtërinë, teknikat e dobishme, themelet e shkencës, mitologjinë etj., e në veçanti emrin e vetë Europës, kulturën e grurit, shpikjen e bukës, ndërtimin e qyteteve e bërjen e regjistrimeve, të ligjeve, të monedhave, të Lojërave Olimpike... Pindari gjenial i ka quajtur “paraselenitë”, domethënë që janë shfaqur para daljes së hënës në kupën qiellore... Si rrjedhim, me vërtetimin mbi baza rreptësisht shkencore të autoktonisë me prestigj të pellazgëve kundrejt ardhësve të rinj, helenëve, cili ka qenë zhvillimi i tyre i mëtejshëm në brigjet e Adriatikut? Kjo kumtesë bën një përpjekje për t’iu përgjigjur shkurt kësaj pyetjeje, të parë nga këndvështrimi i popullit shqiptar, pjesëtar i familjes adriatike.
Sipas humanistëve Enea Silvio Pikolomini, para i ardhshëm Piu II, Antonio Sabelikos Rafaelo Volaterranos, e po ashtu më vonë të Pjer Ronsarit, Alfons Lamartinit, Zhyl Mishlesë, Elize Reklysë, Feliks Zhyljenit dhe shumë të tjerëve, vazhdimësia e shqiptarëve shkon në vijë të drejtë te Aleksandri dhe Pirroja, mbretër të Epirit, trashëgimtarë të Dodonës “ab antiquo”. Ky pohim mbështetet gjërësisht nga humanistët tanë Marin Barleti, Frank Bardhi, Pjetër Bogdani, si dhe nga mijëra dëshmi “in loco”, të shkruara dhe gojore. Më 1882 u gjet në Arkivin e Napolit dhe u botua një letër e dijetarit Gjergj Kastriotit-Skënderbeut (1405-1468), poliglotit që dinte pesë gjuhë të huaja bashkë me letërsitë e tyre përkatëse: heroi ynë kombëtar, më 31 tetor 1406 ia dërgonte princit të Tarenit Xhovani-Antonio Orsinit, duke thënë se po t’u besojmë kronikave tona kombëtare, ata na tregojnë se sovranët epirotë e molosë, Aleksandri dhe Pirroja, kanë qenë stërgjyshët e shqiptarëve; këta dy dinastë u shquan me ekspeditat e njohura që ndërmorën përtej Adriatikut. Tërësia e rrethanave domethënëse na tregon se vula zyrtare dhe e fshehtë e Skënderbeut, që u bë e njohur më 1962, ka emblema tërësisht dodonase; përkrenarja e tij, që ruhet në Vjenë, është e njëjtë me helmetën e Pirros, të përshkruar prej Plutarkut; për më tepër, në drurin gjenealogjik të pasardhësve të tij, jo rastësisht janë shquar Pirroja I, Kastrioti-Skëndërbe, si dhe Pirroja II Kastrioti-Skënderbe. Si përfundim, duhet të saktësojmë se vija: Aleksandri dhe Pirroja i Epirit - shqiptarët e sotëm, deri më sot, nuk është kundërshtuar nga asnjë dokument historik i vlefshëm.
Një repertor mjaft i pasur greko-romak, që asnjëherë nuk është hedhur poshtë, vërteton se Aleksandri dhe Pirroja, si molosë, ishin aecidë, pasardhës të drejtpërdrejtë të Eakut, gjyshit të Akilit, i cili që nga Homeri është vlerësuar si mishërimi i vetë prototipit të pellazgut. Veç kësaj, diçka që është plotësisht e provueshme, ka vazhduar ngritja në shkallën e princit, pa asnjë qëllim të paravendosur, e tre nipërve të Skëndërbeut, që sanksionuan onomastikën pellazgjike, mjaft domethënëse, të paraardhësve të tyre parahistorikë: Akili I Kastrioti-Skënderbeu, Akili II Kastrioti-Skënderbeu dhe Akili III Kastrioti-Skënderbeu. Si pasojë logjike e këtij realiteti objektiv, lidhja gjenetike ndërmjet shqiptarëve dhe pellazgëve ka vijuar të imponohet që në zanafillën e epokës moderne, një e vërtetë tashmë e pranuar nga një ushtri specialistësh shqiptarë e të huaj.
Përfundimisht, origjina pellazgjike e kombit shqiptar, të pandarë prej Adriatikut, është provuar në mënyrë të padyshimtë, pa asnjë hije etnocentrizmi, nëpërmjet përputhjeve, ndihmesave, konvergjensave të pakundërshtueshme të mijëra të dhënave ndërdisiplinore, zakonisht të pabotuara, vendore, që u përkasin fushave të mëposhtme: historigrafisë, nunizmatikës, epigrafisë, fizikës radiometrike, kimisë (së metaleve, tokave etj.), etnologjisë, folkloristikës, gjuhësisë, onomastikës, etimologjisë, antropologjisë, hematologjisë, ballkanologjisë, etruskologjisë, jurisprudencës, paleografisë, statistikës, demografisë, klimatologjisë etj. Afër rivierës sonë, në jug të Buthrotit të lashtë, të cilin e donte aq shumë “Andromaka” e Rasinit të pavdekshëm, gjendet shpella paleolike e Kreshmoit, në të cilën janë gjetur më 1933 “ankorat e argjirit”, një “specialitet” gjithëmesdhetar eskluziv i pellazgëve, të quajtur prej kohësh zotër të deteve.
Një legjendë provinciale, e transmetuar brez pas brezi dhe e shtypur më 1875, e sjell lindjen e Zeusit pellazgjik të Dodonës, që është himnizuar nga “Iliada”, pikërisht te stanet e atit të tij, Kronosit, në rrethinat e qytetit të Anhiazmit ose të Onhezmit, që është emri i babait të Eneut, Ankizit, i cili me sa duket është varrosur këtu (sot Saranda, kryeqendra detare e jona në jug). Gjurmët e kultit të monarkut të gjithëfuqishëm të zotërve të Dodonës, me shpurën e tyre, e mbulojnë gjithë hapësirën adriatike. Tërësia e këtyre atributeve të posaçme, domethënë shqiponja, dushku, rrufeja, demi, shumë më tepër se kudo gjetkë, gjenden me bollëk në bregdetin tonë adriatik, si dhe në brendatokën, deri përtej kufinjve të Dalmacisë, të Peonisë dhe Dardanisë, Kosova e sotme. Në këtë krahinën e fundit kohët e fundit janë vënë re pesëdhjetë mbishkrime “zeusiane”, tashmë të botuara, në shfaqje të tjera të panumërta të trashëgimisë kulturore dhe të teogonisë pellazgjike. Duke mbajtur parasysh lashtësinë dhe vazhdimësinë kaq të qartë e të pandërprerë, studiuesi i shquar i Mesjetës, Alen Dyselje, ka thënë më 1981: “Historia na mëson se lidhur me Kosovën, serbët janë pushtues të ardhur mjaft vonë”...
Do t’i kapërcejmë hollësitë e bollshme për adhurimin e veçantë të secilës prej dymbëdhjetë hyjnive të Dodonës-Olimpit në mjedisin tonë, dhe do të ndalemi vetëm te hyjnesha e dytë e panteonit paragrek: Demetra, e njohur pa përjashtim nga të gjithë si hyjnesha e mirëfilltë pellazgjike, etimologjia e emrit të së cilës shpjegohet vetëm ndërmjet gjuhës shqipe. Shenjat e adhurimit të saj vazhdojnë të jenë të gjalla edhe në vitin 1994. Çdo vit në një datë që nuk ndryshon, duke respektuar ritet pagane të paracaktuara “ab immemorabili”, fshatarët shqiptarë, në pjesën më të madhe gra, të besimeve të ndryshme, shkojnë të lahen veshur me rroba në plazhet tona të Adriatikut me qëllim që të kenë shëndet e pjellshmëri të vazhdueshme. Deri më sot gërmimet kanë zbuluar faltore, flijimore, skulptura, medalione etj. kushtuar këtij mishërimi karakteristik të matriarkatit dhe bujqësisë pellazgjike. Po të vështrohet sipërfaqja e territorit tonë, denduria e tyre është e habitshme, unikale në botën europiane...
Në një largësi jo të madhe nga porti “dardan” i Orikumit në bregdetin adriatik shqiptar, që në agimin e kohëve ndodh një dukuri tepër e rrallë, në rrethinat e fshatit Tragjas, (fshati i sotëm ka po atë emër Tragjas): prodhohet kripë edhe sot e kësaj dite në sasi të mëdha vetvetiu, pa asnjë përpjekje njerëzore, duke përfituar nga veprimi periodik i rrymave detare në gropat e vogla gjeologjike. Sipas fjalëve të Helanikosit dhe Stefan Bizantinit, përfytyrohej se atje ishte djepi i vërtetë i kripës së gjellës, ku Poseidoni, hyjnia tipike pellazgjike i detrave kishte krijuar për herë mbi tokë këtë lëndë të pazëvendësueshme gjatë jetës së njerëzve të vdekshëm...
Shumë kohë përpara luftës së Trojës lëvizjet migruese të pellazgëve e kishin përshkruar Adriatikun në drejtim të Apulisë, në grykëderdhjen e lumit Po... Virgjili dhe Aulu-Geli i vështronin këta lundërtarë si banorët e parë të Italisë; sipas Plinit, Solinit, Varronit, Tit Livit, Denisit të Halikarnasit, Ovisit, Tacitit, Higinit, Ceces... këta pellazgë çuan atje për herë të parë shkrimin dhe kulturën e artet. Sipas Denisit të Halikarnasit, Plini e Plutarku, ata madje kanë qenë themeluesit e vërtetë të Romës. Muret e famshme ‘pellazgjike’, ‘ciklopike’, ‘poligonase’, ‘megalitike’, ‘moenia aeacia’, që në një farë mënyre kanë mbetur të pashkatërrueshme deri në ditët tona, dalin zakonisht në gjithë rrethimin e Adriatikut, duke nxjerrë në dukje njësinë e tij. Po shënojmë kalimthi, se Athina vetë themelimin e murit të Akropolit të saj e lidhte me dy arkitektë ndërtues, pellazgët Agronalasi dhe Hiperbiosi, që janë përjetësuar nga Pausania. Më pas, rreth viteve 80-81 para erës sonë vëmë re një zhvendosje masive, me egërsi të padëgjuar në drejtim e përkundërt; 150.000 pellazgë etruskë, të dëbuar nga Gadishulli italik me urdhrin e diktatorit Sula, gjetën strehë të përhershme te bashkëatdhetarët e tyre në Molosi (Shqipëria jugore), e cila më parë ishte përgjakur dhe rrafshuar me tokën tërësisht nga xhelati romak Paul Emili. Kjo zhvendosje e tmerrshme me dhunë na është kumtuar e dëshmuar prej dijetarit frëng të shekujve të iluminizmit, Nikola Feretit, në veprën e tij “Observations”...
Aventurat e heroit legjendar Kadmit, Herkulit, argonautëve, të cilët janë cilësuar si pellazgë nga Lucien i Samosates, Diodori, Pausania, Liciforo e të tjerë, e lidhin ngushtë Adriatikun me stërgjyshët e popullit shqiptar nëpërmjet dyzinash të dëshmive domethënëse, të cilat për shkak të mungesës së kohës, nuk është e mundur të jepen më gjërësisht...
Diodori na mëson se ishulli kaonas i Korkyrës, i cili vetvetiu na sjell ndër mend binjakun dalmat, mban emrin e motrës së Pellazgut, stërgjyshen e përbashkët të gjithë pellazgëve. Më lejoni të citoj një shembull të shkallës së habitshme të arritur nga qytetërimi i tyre paragrek, katër mijë vjet më parë. Në këngën e shtatë të “Odisesë”, poeti, me akribinë e tij proverbiale, përshkruan pallatin e mbretit të pellazgëve feacinë, Alkinoosit në Korfuz:
“Herë shndriti nga një shkëlqim i beftë i diellit ose i hënës, herë shkëlqen banesa e lartë e…………………………….. shqitmadhit Alkinoos. Nga të dy anët e pragut shtriheshin muret e veshura me bronz deri në fund të pallatit; përsipër kanë një brez të kaltër; dyert janë prej ari; pragu është prej bronzi me ndërfutje argjendi; harku është prej ari; nga të dyja anët varen vargonj ari e argjendi, të cilët Hefesi i ka punuar me një art të mrekullueshëm... Brenda përgjatë gjithë mureve janë vënë frone të mbuluara me vela të holla e të lehta, punë dore grash. Aty ulen krerët e feacinëve... Në piedestal të ngritur mirë lartohen shtatore prej ari, që paraqesin djelmosha, të cilët mbajnë në duar pishtarët e ndezur dhe që natën ndriçojnë kthinat e Alkioosit...”
Përpara këtij shkëlqimi pothuaj prej dyzet shekujsh lind pyetja me të drejtë: a është kapërcyer ndonjëherë një madhështi e tillë përrallore?...
Përveç se historian, po edhe njohës i hollë i kësaj kulture ‘adriatike’ të paraardhësve tanë pellazgjikë e ilirë, Lamartini i paharrueshëm do t’i shkruante nga Iskia më 8 shtator 1844 atdhetarit e poetit tonë, Jeronim de Radës, luftëtarit të betuar kundër zgjedhës osmane të asaj kohe: “Jam i lumtur prej kësaj shenje të vëllazërisë poetike e politike midis meje e teje. Poezia ka ardhur nga brigjet tuaja dhe atje duhet të kthehet. Unë nuk kam meritë tjetër, veçse ta parandjej dhe të bëj urimet e para për lirinë e për ringjalljen e Shqipërisë...”
Nga pikëpamja gjuhësore, një numër i madh toponimesh rreth Adriatikut me mbaresën -one (-ona), që ndeshet te Dodone-Dodona, si Aenona, Avlona, Ancona, Aona, Arasona, Aulona, Bausiona, Blanona, Cartona, Cremona, Crotona, Chrysondyona, Flanona, Herona, Narona, Promona, Salona, Sationa, Scardona, Sulmona, Tariona, Triuncona, Verona etj... (për të mos u shtrirë më tej gjeografikisht), duket qartë se këtë po këtë mbaresë të emrit të kryeqytetit të pellazgëve, mëmës së qyteteve europiane. Vetëm analiza e toponimeve dhe etnonimeve primitive, të regjistruara prej kohësh në brigjet rethadriatike, do të na sillte në një përfundim mësimdhënës; një shumicë e emrave të tyre jo rastësisht shpjegohen etimologjikisht nëpërmjet shqipes, ose më mirë, përbëjnë një përkthim fjalë për fjalë nga gjuha jonë. (Dihet sesi Platoni në “Kratilin” e tij dënon rreptë maninë greke për kalkime, që shkaktohej kryesisht prej hegjemonizmit pa cak e kufi). Tabloja e mëposhtme onomastike, ndonëse nuk është e plotë, përsëri është mjaft domethënëse.
Agrianes, Antibaris, Auendeates, Autariatae, Avendone, Barbanna, Bari, Bigeste, Bora, Bounima, Bretension, Brina, Brundisium, Busento, Busento, Bylazora, kepi Glotta, Dagnum, Dalmatae, Dalmatia, Delmion, Delminion, Daranti, Daranto, Dardani, Dardania, Dardapara, Dardi, Dassaretae, Dassaretia, Derriopes, Deuriopes, Dimallum, Durrachium, Emathia, Enchelana, Enchelanes, Eordea (Eordia), Gurasson, Gurbicon, Halsion, Helidones, Helidonion, Hellopia, Kerauniabore, Kroia (Kruja), Lamatis, Lim, Lopsi, Lopsoca, Malatis, Maledi, Maljena, Malontina (Maltein), Malontum, Maluentum, Maluntum, deti Croni dhe Rheae, deti Ionium, Mathis, Matoas, Metubarris, Molossia, Ombla, Omphalion, Opitergium, Pelagones, Pelagonia, Petra, Pirustae, Pistum, Ragusium, Rhizon, Sason, Scheria, Stena, Tara, Taras, Tarentum, Taria, Tarin, Tariona, Tariotae, Tarneum, Tarsatica, Tarus, Taulantii, Tergeste, Tergolape, tharandt, tirol, (tyrol), Tragurium (trogir), Trimallum, Ulcaea palus, Ulcianum, Ulcirus mons, Ulcisia castra, Ulco amne, Ulkinion, Vendenis, Vendum, Vindenis, Vindinid etj... (Ndonëse janë larg nga trevat adriatike, e meritojnë të përmenden në këtë rast, për shkak të rëndësisë së tyre të posaçme, vargmalet madhështore Beskidet dhe Karpatet, deti Baltik, Bizanti, Dardanelet, ishulli anatolik Karpathos...)
Nga na tjetër, një shkencë eksperimentale, antropologjia, nëpërmjet korifejve të saj. J. Deniker, E. Pittard, na jep sigurinë se shqiptarët e sotëm e kanë prejardhjen e tyre drejtpërdrejtë nga pellazgët. Në Adriatik dalin metropolet tona antike: Durrësi, Apolonia dhe më në jug Buthroti, që të tria të lulëzuara shumë shekuj përpara themelimit të Romës, nëse i besojmë Apianit, Antologi Palatinit, Barletit, si dhe Apolodorit, Plutarkut, Pausanias dhe Teukerit të Cizikës, Virgjilit, Stefan Bizantinit...Deri në fillim të erës së re ato kanë përdorur pa ndonjë ndërprerje kalendarin e rëndësishëm pellazgjik të Bunimës, sipas mbishkrimeve tashmë të njohura. Teatrot e tyre, krahas atyre të Nikesë, Bylisit, Orikumit, Hadrionopolit, Foinikës, Dodonës etj. kanë shkëlqyer gjatë antikitetit me emrin e dëgjuar dhe dendësinë gjeografike... Ajka e aristokracisë romake i bënte të kapërcenin Adriatikun pinjollët e saj që ta përsosnin arsimimin e tyre dhe të specializoheshin te ne në fushën e filozofisë, letërsisë, arteve, pa përjashtuar artin ushtarak. Për këtë qëllim Jul Cezari pati zgjedhur Durrahiumin, një qendër e rëndësishme kulturore dhe ekonomike, me rreth njëqind mijë banorë, e cila ekspononte materiale të çmueshme (argjend etj.), esenca mjekësore dhe kozmetike shumë të kërkuara. Lidhur me Oktavian Augustin, Mark Vipsanius, Agripën, Mecenën, ata parapëlqenin Apologjinë tonë kundrejt Romës dhe Athinës, ndërsa Ciceroni, që e kishte parë në vend Apoloninë, e ka quajtur “mafnam urbem et gravem”.
Nga fillimi i shekullit XIII para erës së re, bashkëvëllai i pellazgut Akil, Diomedi - paraardhësi i Aleksandrit Molos, që shpëtoi nga lufta e Trojës, u end pa pushim nëpër pellgun adriatik. Ai i dha emrin e vet ishullit të Diomedit dhe një faltoreje “të adhurueshme e të shenjtë”, sipas Aristotelit të Scimnosit, duke e përfunduar atje poshtë harkun e jetës.
Pothuaj njëkohësisht Pirro Neotolemi, djali i arkipellazgut Akil, erdhi te plazhet adriatike të afërta me Buthrotin dhe mbretëroi në “viset e molosëve” (Prejardhjen e tij pellazgjike e kanë sanksionuar edhe Eniusi, Ovidi, Prisciani...) Në brigjet e Adriatikut, sipas Stefan Bizantinit, ai themeloi qytetin e Bylisit, që e përkujtonte në monedhat e veta. Thuhet se, nëpërmjet përzgjedhjes së përsëritur, ka përsosur një racë të lartë gjedhësh, që e kanë lëvduar me të drejtë Aristoteli, Teopompi, Varroni, Plini, Arriani, Eliani, Ateneu : ky lloj ka ardhur deri te rritësit e sotëm të racave rekorde. Akileidi, veç të tjerash, mbahet si krijuesi i një valleje tërheqëse, pirrikes, që ende vazhdon dhe lulëzon në Shqipëri...
Ndër studiuesit tanë mësimet e urta të një historie të tillë të gjatë ushqejnë dhe ndriçojnë të kaluarën e të ardhmen, kurdoherë në shërbim të paqes, të lirisë, të vëllazërisë mes popujve të Adriatikut dhe të mbarë botës... Plejada të tëra përfaqësuesish të shkencës franceze kanë dhënë ndihmesë të frytshme për ndriçimin e problemeve themelore të pellazgologjisë në kuadrin e kulturave mesdhetare. E ndiej veten të nderuar që këtu të bëj një homazh të përzemërt e të fuqishëm për ta, në veçanti për kujtimin e pashuar të Robert d’Anzhelisë dhe Dominik Briquel-it. Ata pajtohen të gjithë sesa e sigurtë është mirënjohja e popullit tonë, e “besës”, fjalës së dhënë të shqiptarëve, i cili kurrë nuk do ta harrojë bujarinë e popullit vëlla francez.
(Kumtesë e paraqitur në Kolokuimin ndërkombëtar “E kaluara dhe e ardhmja e Hapësirës Adriatike”, organizuar në Paris më 29 e 30 nëntor 1994 nga institucioni shkencor kulturor ndërkontinental “Horizont 2000”, nën kujdesin e lartë të ministrit francez të punëve të jashtme, Alen Zhupe.)
Përkthyer nga frëngjishtja nga prof.dr. Xhevat Lloshi


21/03/2005
KATEGORIA: Kulture