162-490: The Arbëreshë ( pronounced [aɾbəˈɾɛʃ] ; Albanian : Arbëreshët e Italisë ; Italian : Albanesi d'Italia ), also known as Albanians of Italy or Italo-Albanians , are an Albanian ethnolinguistic group minority historically settled in Southern and Insular Italy (in the regions of Abruzzo , Apulia , Basilicata , Campania , Molise , mostly concentrated in the region of Calabria and Sicily ). They are
324-669: A Latinis, Grecis et Sclauis ita quod in nullo se intelligunt cum aliis nationibus. (Namely, the above-mentioned Albanians have a language that is different from the languages of Latins, Greeks and Slavs, so that they do not understand each other at all.) The oldest attested document written in Albanian dates to 1462, while the first audio recording in the language was made by Norbert Jokl on 4 April 1914 in Vienna . However, as Fortson notes, Albanian written works existed before this point; they have simply been lost. The existence of written Albanian
486-561: A child is born. But the period of marital bliss does not last long. Milosao's son and wife soon die, and he himself, wounded in battle, perishes on a riverbank within sight of Shkodra. The Italo-Albanian Catholic Church , particular church sui iuris , includes three ecclesiastical jurisdictions: the Eparchy of Lungro degli Italo-Albanesi for the Albanians of Southern Italy based in Lungro ( CS );
648-705: A claim to the land. There were several rebellions on the island of Sicily against the King Ferdinand II , but the end of the kingdom was not brought about until the Expedition of the Thousand in 1860, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi , an icon of Italian Unification, with the support of the House of Savoy and its Kingdom of Sardinia with its economic, political and cultural powerhouse in Northern Italy. The expedition resulted in
810-561: A common period of prehistoric coexistence of several Indo-European dialects in the Balkans prior to 2000 BC. To this group would belong Albanian, Ancient Greek , Armenian , Phrygian , fragmentary attested languages such as Macedonian , Thracian , or Illyrian , and the relatively well-attested Messapic in Southern Italy. The common features of this group appear at the phonological, morphological, and lexical levels, presumably resulting from
972-589: A deep reform of the laws culminating with the promulgation of the Constitutions of Melfi (1231, also known as Liber Augustalis ), a collection of laws for his realm that was remarkable for its time and a source of inspiration for a long time afterward. It made the Kingdom of Sicily a centralised state and established the primacy of written law . With relatively small modifications, the Liber Augustalis remained
1134-674: A hamlet of Cellere; for Molise it is Santa Croce di Magliano (CB); for Campania in the province of Caserta it is Alife; for Puglia they are Casalnuovo Monterotaro, Castelluccio dei Sauri, San Paolo di Civitate (FG), Monteparano, San Giorgio Ionico, San Crispieri, Faggiano, Roccaforzata, Monteiasi, Carosino, Montemesola (TA); for Basilicata they are Brindisi Montagna, Rionero in Vulture (PZ); for Calabria are Cervicati (Çervikat), Mongrassano (Mungrasana), Rota Greca (Rrota), San Lorenzo del Vallo (Sullarënxa '), Sartano, Serra d'Aiello (Serrë, CS), Amato, Arietta (Arjèta), fraction of Petronà, Gizzeria (Jacaria) and
1296-472: A large amount (or the majority) of their sea environment lexicon. A similar phenomenon could be observed with agricultural terms. While the words for 'arable land', 'wheat', 'cereals', 'vineyard', 'yoke', 'harvesting', 'cattle breeding', etc. are native, the words for 'ploughing', 'farm' and 'farmer', agricultural practices, and some harvesting tools are foreign. This, again, points to intense contact with other languages and people, rather than providing evidence of
1458-542: A large number of immigrants from Albania began to enter Italy in the 1990s, they came into contact with local Arbëreshë communities. Since the 1980s, some efforts have been organized to preserve the cultural and linguistic heritage of the language. Arbërisht has been under a slow decline in recent decades, but is currently experiencing a revival in many villages in Italy. Figures such as Giuseppe Schirò Di Maggio have done much work on school books and other language learning tools in
1620-548: A lesser extent Gaeta , Molfetta and Trani , rivalled other Italian maritime republics in their domestic prosperity and maritime importance. From 999 to 1139, the Normans occupied all the Lombard and Byzantine possessions in southern Italy , ended a millennium of imperial Roman rule in Italy and eventually expelled the Muslims from Sicily. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily under Roger II
1782-468: A long romantic ballad portraying the love of Milosao, a fictitious young nobleman in fifteenth-century Shkodra (Scutari), who has returned home from Thessalonica . Here, at the village fountain, he encounters and falls in love with Rina, the daughter of the shepherd Kollogre. The difference in social standing between the lovers long impedes their union until an earthquake destroys both the city and all semblance of class distinction. After their marriage abroad,
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#17330859051411944-475: A number of isoglosses with Albanian. Other linguists linked the Albanian language with Latin , Greek and Armenian , while placing Germanic and Balto-Slavic in another branch of Indo-European. In current scholarship there is evidence that Albanian is closely related to Greek and Armenian, while the fact that it is a satem language is less significant. Armenian Greek Phrygian (extinct) Messapic (extinct) Gheg Tosk Messapic
2106-486: A particular case, since, despite having lost the Albanian language and the customs of origin, they have kept the Greek-Byzantine rite, a peculiar pillar - together with language and customs - of the Albanian identity of the diaspora. In this case the identity is preserved in the religious aspect and in the historical memory. The communities of Cervicati , Mongrassano and Rota Greca , in the province of Cosenza, preserve
2268-494: A population of about 100,000. Some cultural islands survive in the metropolitan areas of Milan , Chieri , Turin , Rome , Naples , Bari , Cosenza , Crotone and Palermo . In the rest of the world, following the migrations of the twentieth century to countries such as Canada , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Uruguay and the United States , there are strong communities that keep Arbëreshë traditions alive. The full list of
2430-535: A possible linguistic homeland (also known as a Urheimat ). The centre of Albanian settlement remained the Mat River. In 1079, the Albanians were recorded farther south in the valley of the Shkumbin River. The Shkumbin, a 181 km long river that lies near the old Via Egnatia , is approximately the boundary of the primary dialect division for Albanian, Tosk and Gheg . The characteristics of Tosk and Gheg in
2592-875: A striking series of defeats for the Sicilian armies against the growing troops of Garibaldi. After the capture of Palermo and Sicily, he disembarked in Calabria and moved towards Naples, and in the meantimem the Piedmontese also invaded the Kingdom from the Marche . The last battles fought were that of the Volturnus in 1860 and the siege of Gaeta , where King Francis II had sought shelter in thepe of for help, which never came. The last towns to resist Garibaldi's expedition were Messina , which surrendered on 13 March 1861, and Civitella del Tronto , which surrendered on 20 March 1861. The Kingdom of
2754-910: A strong sense of identity and are unique in that they speak an archaic dialect of Tosk Albanian called Arbëresh . In the United States and Canada, there are approximately 250,000 Albanian speakers. It is primarily spoken on the East Coast of the United States, in cities like New York City, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Detroit, as well as in parts of the states of New Jersey, Ohio, and Connecticut. In Argentina, there are nearly 40,000 Albanian speakers , mostly in Buenos Aires. Approximately 1.3 million people of Albanian ancestry live in Turkey , with more than 500,000 recognizing their ancestry, language and culture . There are other estimates, however, that place
2916-449: Is a macroregion of Italy consisting of its southern regions . The term " Mezzogiorno " today mostly refers to the regions that are associated with the people, lands or culture of the historical and cultural region that was once politically under the administration of the former Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily (officially denominated as one entity Regnum Siciliae citra Pharum and ultra Pharum , i.e. "Kingdom of Sicily on
3078-659: Is also spoken by 450,000 Albanian immigrants in Greece, making it one of the commonly spoken languages in the country after Greek. Albanian is the third most common mother tongue among foreign residents in Italy . This is due to a substantial Albanian immigration to Italy. Italy has a historical Albanian minority of about 500,000, scattered across southern Italy, known as Arbëreshë . Approximately 1 million Albanians from Kosovo are dispersed throughout Germany , Switzerland and Austria . These are mainly immigrants from Kosovo who migrated during
3240-500: Is called Albanoid in reference to a specific ethnolinguistically pertinent and historically compact language group. Whether descendants or sisters of what was called ' Illyrian ' by classical sources, Albanian and Messapic , on the basis of shared features and innovations, are grouped together in a common branch in the current phylogenetic classification of the Indo-European language family. The first written mention of Albanian
3402-420: Is close enough that it is written using the same Albanian alphabet as Standard Albanian. A Shqiptar (Albanian) listening to or reading Arbërisht is similar to a modern English speaker listening to or reading Shakespearean English . The Arbëresh language is of particular interest to students of the modern Albanian language as it represents the sounds, grammar, and vocabulary of pre-Ottoman Albania. Arbërisht
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#17330859051413564-592: Is considered the closest language to Albanian, grouped in a common branch titled Illyric in Hyllested & Joseph (2022). Hyllested & Joseph (2022) in agreement with recent bibliography identify Greco-Phrygian as the IE branch closest to the Albanian-Messapic one. These two branches form an areal grouping – which is often called "Balkan IE" – with Armenian. The hypothesis of the " Balkan Indo-European " continuum posits
3726-512: Is considered unique in Albanian literature for his poetic sensitivities and the variety of rhythmic expression. Another known artistic figure of that time was Nicola Chetta (1740–1803) known in Albanian as Nikollë Keta . As a poet he wrote verses both in Albanian and Greek language and he has also composed the first Albanian sonnet in 1777. Being a poet, lexicographer, linguist, historian, theologian and rector of Greek seminary, his variety and universality of work distinguish him from other writers of
3888-557: Is estimated to have as many as 7.5 million native speakers. Albanian and other Paleo-Balkan languages had their formative core in the Balkans after the Indo-European migrations in the region. Albanian in antiquity is often thought to have been an Illyrian language for obvious geographic and historical reasons, or otherwise an unmentioned Balkan Indo-European language that was closely related to Illyrian and Messapic . The Indo-European subfamily that gave rise to Albanian
4050-662: Is explicitly mentioned in a letter attested from 1332, and the first preserved books, including both those in Gheg and in Tosk, share orthographic features that indicate that some form of common literary language had developed. By the Late Middle Ages , during the period of Humanism and the European Renaissance , the term lingua epirotica ' Epirotan language ' was preferred in the intellectual, literary, and clerical circles of
4212-589: Is mainly Mediterranean ( Köppen climate classification Csa), except at the highest elevations (Dsa, Dsb) and the semi-arid eastern stretches in Apulia and Molise, along the Ionian Sea in Calabria and the southern stretches of Sicily (BSw). The largest city of southern Italy is Naples , an originally Greek name that it has historically maintained for millennia. Bari , Taranto , Reggio Calabria , Foggia , and Salerno are
4374-594: Is nonetheless often subsumed into the Mezzogiorno . The Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) employs the term " south Italy " ( Italia meridionale , or just Sud , i.e. "south") to statistically identify in its reportings the six mainland regions of southern Italy without Sicily and Sardinia, which form a distinct statistical region under the ISTAT denominated " Insular Italy " ( Italia insulare , or simply Isole "Islands"). These same subdivisions are at
4536-594: Is not one of the group of minority languages that enjoy the special protection of the State under Article 6 of the Italian Constitution. At the regional level, however, Arbërisht is accorded some degree of official recognition in the autonomy statutes of Calabria, Basilicata and Molise. In certain communes the local authorities support cultural and linguistic activities promoted by the Arbëresh communities and have agreed to
4698-579: Is spoken in North-western Greece, while Arvanitika is spoken by the Arvanites in southern Greece. In addition, Arbëresh is spoken by the Arbëreshë people, descendants of 15th and 16th century migrants who settled in southeastern Italy, in small communities in the regions of Sicily and Calabria . These settlements originated from the (Arvanites) communities probably of Peloponnese known as Morea in
4860-482: Is spoken in the south, and Gheg spoken in the north. Standard Albanian is based on the Tosk dialect. The Shkumbin River is the rough dividing line between the two dialects. Gheg is divided into four sub-dialects: Northwest Gheg, Northeast Gheg, Central Gheg and Southern Gheg. It is primarily spoken in northern Albania, Kosovo , and throughout Montenegro and northwestern North Macedonia . One fairly divergent dialect
5022-560: Is the Upper Reka dialect , which is however classified as Central Gheg. There is also a diaspora dialect in Croatia , the Arbanasi dialect . Tosk is divided into five sub-dialects, including Northern Tosk (the most numerous in speakers), Labërisht , Cham , Arvanitika , and Arbëresh . Tosk is spoken in southern Albania, southwestern North Macedonia and northern and southern Greece. Cham Albanian
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5184-399: Is the most probable. Although Albanian shares lexical isoglosses with Greek , Germanic , and to a lesser extent Balto-Slavic , the vocabulary of Albanian is quite distinct. In 1995, Taylor, Ringe , and Warnow used quantitative linguistic techniques that appeared to obtain an Albanian subgrouping with Germanic, a result which the authors had already reasonably downplayed. Indeed,
5346-575: Is the most representative of these Byzantine monuments. From then to the 11th-century Norman conquest the south of the peninsula was constantly plunged into wars between the Byzantines, Lombardy, and the Aghlabid dynasty . The latter established two emirates in southern Italy : the Emirate of Sicily and, for 25 years, the Emirate of Bari . Amalfi , an independent republic from the 7th century until 1075, and to
5508-611: Is the official language of Albania and Kosovo and a co-official language in North Macedonia and Montenegro . Albanian is a recognised minority language in Croatia , Italy , Romania and in Serbia . Albanian is also spoken by a minority in Greece , specifically in the Thesprotia and Preveza regional units and in a few villages in Ioannina and Florina regional units in Greece. It
5670-534: Is usually taken from the families that live there. The social aspect of the Gjitonía is an ancient and historical structure where values of hospitality and solidarity between the families of the neighbourhood coexisted and where there was no difference of social class. Mainly for the Italian-Albanian communities, it is a world where relationships were so strong that they created real family relationships so much so that
5832-547: The Albanian people . Standard Albanian is the official language of Albania and Kosovo , and a co-official language in North Macedonia and Montenegro , as well as a recognized minority language of Italy , Croatia , Romania and Serbia . It is also spoken in Greece and by the Albanian diaspora , which is generally concentrated in the Americas , Europe and Oceania . Albanian
5994-567: The Balkans , was to evolve into the romantic nationalism characteristic of the Rilindja period in Albania. His journalistic, literary and political activities were instrumental not only in fostering an awareness for the Arbëresh minority in Italy but also in laying the foundations for an Albanian national literature. The most popular of his literary works is the above-mentioned Canti di Milosao (Songs of Milosao), known in Albanian as Këngët e Milosaos ,
6156-821: The Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church . It was the only abode of eastern Christianity from the end of the Middle Ages until the twentieth century in Italy . There are institutions and religious congregations of the Byzantine rite in the territory of the Italo-Albanian Church: the Basilian Order of Grottaferrata, the Collegine Sisters of Sacra Famiglia, Piccole operaie dei Sacri Cuori and
6318-1088: The Chalcidean / Cumaean variety of the Greek alphabet , which was adopted by the Etruscans ; the Old Italic alphabet subsequently evolved into the Latin alphabet , which became the most widely used alphabet in the world. Many of the new Hellenic cities became very rich and powerful like Neapolis (Νεάπολις, Naples , "New City"), Syrakousai (Συράκουσαι, Syracuse ), Akragas (Ἀκράγας, Agrigento ), and Sybaris (Σύβαρις, Sibari ). Other cities in Magna Graecia included Tarentum (Τάρας), Metapontum (Μεταπόντιον), Heraclea (Ἡράκλεια), Epizephyrian Locri (Λοκροὶ Ἐπιζεφύριοι), Rhegium (Ῥήγιον), Croton (Κρότων), Thurii (Θούριοι), Elea (Ἐλέα), Nola (Νῶλα), Syessa (Σύεσσα), Bari (Βάριον), and others. Although many of
6480-458: The Congress of Dibra decided that Albanian schools would finally be allowed. Albanian is an isolate within the Indo-European language family; no other language has been conclusively linked to its branch . The only other languages that are the sole surviving members of a branch of Indo-European are Armenian and Greek. The Albanian language is part of the Indo-European language family and
6642-628: The Crown of Aragon . At his death in 1458, the kingdom was again divided . Ferrante , Alfonso's illegitimate son, inherited Naples. When Ferrante died in 1494, Charles VIII of France invaded Italy by using the Angevin claim to the throne of Naples, which his father had inherited on the death of King René's nephew in 1481, as a pretext, which started the Italian Wars . Charles VIII expelled Ferrante’s successor, Alfonso II of Naples , from Naples in 1495. However, he
Arbëreshë people - Misplaced Pages Continue
6804-711: The Eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi for Albanians of Insular Italy based in Piana degli Albanesi ( PA ); the Territorial Abbacy of Santa Maria of Grottaferrata , with Basilian monks (O.S.B.I.) come from the Italo-Albanian communities, located in the only abbey and abbey church in Grottaferrata ( RM ). The Italo-Albanian Catholic Church being a Byzantine enclave in the Latin West, is secularly inclined to ecumenism between
6966-512: The House of Anjou , who had likewise been ruling it. Thus, the peace was formal recognition of an uneasy status quo . Although the king of Spain had seized both two crowns in the 16th century, the administrations of the two halves of the Kingdom of Sicily remained separated until 1816, when they were reunited in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies . In 1442, Alfonso V conquered the Kingdom of Naples and unified Sicily and Naples once again as dependencies of
7128-598: The House of Hohenstaufen and the papacy led to Sicily's conquest by Charles I , Duke of Anjou . Opposition to French officialdom and taxation combined with incitement of rebellion by agents from the Byzantine Empire and the Crown of Aragon led to the Sicilian Vespers insurrection and successful invasion by king Peter III of Aragon in 1282. The resulting War of the Sicilian Vespers lasted until 1302
7290-517: The Janissary of Muhammad Ali Pasha , an Albanian who became Wāli , and self-declared Khedive of Egypt and Sudan . In addition to the dynasty that he established, a large part of the former Egyptian and Sudanese aristocracy was of Albanian origin. In addition to the recent emigrants, there are older diasporic communities around the world. Albanian is also spoken by Albanian diaspora communities residing in Australia and New Zealand . The Albanian language has two distinct dialects, Tosk which
7452-458: The Korçë District , Kamnik in Kolonja , Kolsh in the Kukës District , Rashtan in Librazhd , and Nezir in the Mat District . As in other parts of Europe, these PreIE people joined the migratory Indo-European tribes that entered the Balkans and contributed to the formation of the historical Paleo-Balkan tribes. In terms of linguistics, the pre-Indo-European substrate language spoken in the southern Balkans probably influenced pre-Proto-Albanian ,
7614-704: The League of Prizren and culminated with the Congress of Manastir held by Albanian intellectuals from 14 to 22 November 1908, in Manastir (present day Bitola ), which decided on which alphabet to use, and what the standardised spelling would be for standard Albanian. This is how the literary language remains. The alphabet is the Latin alphabet with the addition of the letters ⟨ ë ⟩ , ⟨ ç ⟩ , and ten digraphs : dh , th , xh , gj , nj , ng , ll , rr , zh and sh . According to Robert Elsie : The hundred years between 1750 and 1850 were an age of astounding orthographic diversity in Albania. In this period,
7776-457: The Lombards , who annexed the area of Cosenza to their Duchy of Benevento . Consequently, the Lombard and the Byzantine areas became influenced by Eastern monasticism, and much of southern Italy experienced a slow process of orientalisation in religious life (rites, cults and liturgy), which accompanied a spread of Eastern churches and monasteries that preserved and transmitted the Greek and Hellenistic tradition. The Cattolica monastery in Stilo
7938-414: The Middle Ages , the native Albanians in the area of Albania called their country Arbëri or Arbëni and referred to themselves as Arbëreshë or Arbëneshë . In the sixteenth century, the toponym Shqipëria and the demonym Shqiptarë gradually replaced Arbëria and Arbëresh respectively. Nowadays, only the Albanians in Italy , whose ancestors immigrated from the Middle Ages, are called Arbëresh and
8100-402: The Peace of Caltabellotta divided the old Kingdom of Sicily into two. The island of Sicily, called the "Kingdom of Sicily beyond the Lighthouse" or the Kingdom of Trinacria, went to Frederick III of the House of Barcelona , who had been ruling it. The peninsular territories, called Kingdom of Sicily contemporaneously but Kingdom of Naples by modern scholarship, went to Charles II of
8262-810: The Tosk dialect spoken in southern Albania , and is spoken in Southern Italy in the regions of Calabria , Molise , Apulia , Basilicata , Campania , Abruzzi , and Sicily . All dialects of Arbëresh are closely related to each other. The Arbëresh language retains many archaisms of medieval Albanian from pre- Ottoman Albania in the 15th century. It also retains some Greek language elements, including vocabulary and pronunciation. It has also preserved some conservative features that were lost in mainstream Albanian Tosk . For example, it has preserved certain syllable-initial consonant clusters which have been simplified in Standard Albanian (cf. Arbërisht gluhë /ˈɡluxə/ ('language/tongue'), vs. Standard Albanian gjuhë /ˈɟuhə/ ). It sounds more archaic than Standard Albanian, but
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#17330859051418424-438: The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Naples was given to Charles VI , the Holy Roman Emperor . He also gained control of Sicily in 1720, but Austrian rule did not last long. Both Naples and Sicily were conquered by a Spanish army during the War of the Polish Succession in 1734, and Charles, Duke of Parma , a younger son of King Philip V of Spain was installed as King of Naples and Sicily from 1735. Charles inherited
8586-536: The despot of Shkodra ). His second work, Canti storici albanesi di Serafina Thopia, moglie del principe Nicola Ducagino , Naples 1839 (Albanian historical songs of Serafina Thopia, wife of prince Nicholas Dukagjini ), was seized by the Bourbon authorities because of De Rada's alleged affiliation with conspiratorial groups during the Italian Risorgimento . The work was republished under the title Canti di Serafina Thopia, principessa di Zadrina nel secolo XV , Naples 1843 (Songs of Serafina Thopia, princess of Zadrina in
8748-510: The revolutionary year 1848, De Rada founded the newspaper L'Albanese d'Italia (The Albanian of Italy) which included articles in Albanian. This bilingual "political, moral and literary journal" with a final circulation of 3,200 copies was the first Albanian-language periodical anywhere. De Rada was the harbinger and first audible voice of the Romantic movement in Albanian literature, a movement which, inspired by his unfailing energy on behalf of national awakening among Albanians in Italy and in
8910-412: The "Mezzogiorno" after the Second World War . In the 1946 referendum , the region voted to keep the monarchy, with its greatest support coming in Campania . Politically, the region was at odds with the north, which won the referendum to establish a republic. Today, the south remains less economically developed than the northern and central regions, which enjoyed an " economic miracle " in the 1950s and
9072-532: The "absolutely antithetical conditions" of northern and southern Italy at the time of Italian unification in 1861, when south and north were united again after more than one thousand years. Gramsci remarked that in Northern Italy, the historical period of the Comunes had given a special boost to history and in northern Italy existed an economic organization similar to that of the other states of Europe, propitious to further development of capitalism and industry , but in southern Italy, history had been different, and
9234-419: The "civilized, Piedmontese north" (167) to intervene. Another viewm however, was marked by disdain for southern Italy. According to the article, "such manifestations of the south's difference threaten the glowing and gloating sense of northern superiority" (167). These viewpoints clearly indicate the divide between northern and southern Italy in the 1860s. In an attempt to explain the striking difference between
9396-399: The "spur" of the boot, the peninsula of Monte Gargano ; on the Tyrrhenian Sea , the Gulf of Salerno , the Gulf of Naples , the Gulf of Policastro and the Gulf of Gaeta are each named after a large coastal city. Along the northern coast of the Salernitan Gulf and on the south of the Sorrentine Peninsula runs the Amalfi Coast . Off the peninsula's tip is the isle of Capri . The climate
9558-530: The 14th century, but they failed to cite specific words. The oldest surviving documents written in Albanian are the " formula e pagëzimit " (Baptismal formula), Un'te paghesont' pr'emenit t'Atit e t'Birit e t'Spertit Senit . ("I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit ") recorded by Pal Engjelli, Bishop of Durrës in 1462 in the Gheg dialect, and some New Testament verses from that period. The linguists Stefan Schumacher and Joachim Matzinger (University of Vienna) assert that
9720-455: The 15th century) and in later years in a third version as Specchio di umano transito, vita di Serafina Thopia, Principessa di Ducagino , Naples 1897 (Mirror of human transience, life of Serafina Thopia, princess of Dukagjin). His Italian-language historical tragedy I Numidi , Naples 1846 (The Numidians), elaborated half a century later as Sofonisba, dramma storico , Naples 1892 (Sofonisba, historical drama), enjoyed only modest public response. In
9882-533: The 18th century there was Giulio Variboba (1724–1788, Jul Variboba ), regarded by many Albanians as the first genuine poet in all of Albanian literature. Born in San Giorgio Albanese (Mbuzati) and educated in Corsini Seminary in San Benedetto Ullano, after many polemics with local priest he went to exile in Rome in 1761 and there he published in 1762 his long lyric poem Ghiella e Shën Mëriis Virghiër (The life of Virgin Mary). The poem has been written entirely in dialect of San Giorgio and has about 4717 lines. Variboba
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#173308590514110044-453: The 1960s and became highly industrialized. Starting from the unification of Italy in 1861–1870, a growing economic divide between the Northern provinces and the southern half of Italy became evident. In the early decades of the new kingdom, the lack of effective land reform, heavy taxes, and other economic measures imposed on the south, along with the removal of protectionist tariffs on agricultural goods imposed to boost northern industry, made
10206-410: The 1990s. In Switzerland , the Albanian language is the sixth most spoken language with 176,293 native speakers. Albanian became an official language in North Macedonia on 15 January 2019. There are large numbers of Albanian speakers in the United States, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Canada . Some of the first ethnic Albanians to arrive in the United States were the Arbëreshë. The Arbëreshë have
10368-453: The Albanian and Germanic branches share a relatively moderate number of lexical cognates. Many shared grammatical elements or features of these two branches do not corroborate the lexical isoglosses. Albanian also shares lexical linguistic affinity with Latin and Romance languages. Sharing linguistic features unique to the languages of the Balkans , Albanian also forms a part of the Balkan linguistic area or sprachbund . The place and
10530-426: The Albanian language was on 14 July 1284 in Ragusa in modern Croatia ( Dubrovnik ) when a crime witness named Matthew testified: "I heard a voice crying on the mountain in the Albanian language" ( Latin : Audivi unam vocem, clamantem in monte in lingua albanesca ). The Albanian language is also mentioned in the Descriptio Europae Orientalis dated in 1308: Habent enim Albani prefati linguam distinctam
10692-435: The Albanian language was put to writing in at least ten different alphabets – most certainly a record for European languages. ... the diverse forms in which this old Balkan language was recorded, from the earliest documents to the beginning of the twentieth century ... consist of adaptations of the Latin, Greek, Arabic, and Cyrillic alphabets and (what is even more interesting) a number of locally invented writing systems. Most of
10854-406: The Albanian migration to Italy. Indeed, scholars argue that Albanians have migrated from the western Balkans to Italy through several waves since the Middle Ages, even before Skanderbeg's period. Another wave of emigration, between 1500 and 1534, relates to Arbëreshë from central Greece. Employed as mercenaries by Venice , they had to evacuate the colonies of the Peloponnese with the assistance of
11016-414: The Arbëresh Communities in Italy is: There are also more than thirty ancient Albanian centers that have lost, in different historical periods and for various reasons, the use of the Albanian language and are thus characterized by a lack of historical and cultural heritage of the Arbëresh: for Emilia-Romagna they are Pievetta and Bosco Tosca, hamlets of Castel San Giovanni (PC); for Lazio it is Pianiano (VT),
11178-416: The Arbëresh people. It comes from the Greek γειτονιά (geitonía). The Gjitonía functions as a microsystem around which the life of the horë (village) revolves; the Gjitonía is a smaller-scale version of the layout of the village often consisting of a small square towards which the alleys are oriented, surrounded by buildings that have openings towards a larger square ( shesh ) on diagonal angles. The name
11340-493: The Arbëreshe phrase Gjitoni gjirì ("neighbourhood relatives") is typical. The Arbëreshë cuisine is composed of the cuisines of Albania and Italy . The style of cooking and the food associated with it have evolved over many centuries from their Albanian origins to a mixed cuisine of Sicilian , Calabrian, and Lucanian influences. These traditional dishes are Piana degli Albanesi ( Palermo , Sicily ): A study from 1918 included 59 Arbëreshë men from Cosenza , Calabria ,
11502-417: The Bourbons in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies were staunch supporters of a feudal system, had feared the traffic of ideas and had tried to keep their subjects insulated from the agricultural and industrial revolutions of Northern Europe. The study by Mack Smith is confirmed by the Italian historian and left-wing politician Antonio Gramsci in his book The Southern Question by which the author emphasizes
11664-476: The Crown of Aragon and France resumed their war over the kingdom, ultimately resulting in an Aragonese victory leaving Ferdinand in control of the kingdom by 1504. The kingdom remained disputed between France and Spain for the next several decades. The French efforts to gain control of it became feebler as the decades went on, and Spanish control was never genuinely endangered. The French finally abandoned their claims to
11826-624: The Faculty of Law of the University of Naples , but the main focus of his interests remained folklore and literature . It was in Naples in 1836 that De Rada published the first edition of his best-known Albanian-language poem, the "Songs of Milosao", under the Italian title Poesie albanesi del secolo XV. Canti di Milosao, figlio del despota di Scutari (Albanian poetry from the 15th century. Songs of Milosao, son of
11988-509: The Greek elements that once formed Magna Graecia. After Pyrrhus of Epirus failed in his attempt to stop the spread of Roman hegemony in 282 BCE, the south fell under Roman domination and remained in such a position until the barbarian invasions (the Gladiator War is a notable suspension of imperial control). It was restored to Eastern Roman control in the 530s after the fall of Rome in
12150-448: The Greek inhabitants of Magna Graecia were entirely Latinized during the Middle Ages , pockets of Greek culture and language remained and have survived to the present day. One example is the Griko people in Calabria ( Bovesia ) and Salento ( Grecìa Salentina ), some of whom still maintain their Greek language ( Griko language ) and customs. The Griko language is the last living trace of
12312-518: The Greek settlers and the native peoples were initially hostilem especially with the Iapygian tribes. The Hellenic influence eventually shaped their culture and way of life. The Romans used to call the area of Sicily and coastal southern Italy Magna Graecia ("Great Greece") since it was so densely populated by coastal Greek colonies ; the ancient geographers differed on whether the term included Sicily or merely Apulia and Calabria with Strabo being
12474-454: The Italian coast. Throughout the 16th century, these migrations continued and other Albanian villages were formed on Italian soil. The new immigrants often took up work as mercenaries hired by Italian armies. According to some albanologists , this historiographic tradition was created ad hoc , as they believe that the resistance of Skanderbeg against the Turks was not the major factor that produced
12636-450: The Italian institutional sources the problems of southern Italy had existed way before Italian unification, and Giustino Fortunato emphasised that the Bourbons were not the only ones responsible for the problems of the south, which had ancient and deep origins in the previous centuries of poverty and isolation, caused by domination by foreign governments. In literature, the period around 1860
12798-458: The Jing of Naples Ferdinand II had no interest in doing useful works to improve the neglected condition of public hygiene, particularly in the provinces, where scarcity of sewer systems and often water shortages were known issues. The problem of brigandage is explained in the book Heroes and Brigands by the southern Italian historian and politician Francesco Saverio Nitti , outlining that brigandage
12960-585: The King of Naples Alfonso V of Aragon appealed to Skanderbeg to help suppress a revolt at Naples . Skanderbeg sent a force under the leadership of Demetrio Reres , and his two sons. Following a request by the Albanian soldiers, King Alfonso granted them land and they were settled in twelve villages in the mountainous area called Catanzaro in 1448. A year later the sons of Demetrio, George and Basil along with other Albanians were settled in four villages in Sicily. In 1461,
13122-510: The Middle Ages. Among them the Arvanites call themselves Arbëror and sometime Arbëresh. The Arbëresh dialect is closely related to the Arvanites dialect with more Italian vocabulary absorbed during different periods of time. The Albanian language has been written using many alphabets since the earliest records from the 15th century. The history of Albanian language orthography is closely related to
13284-622: The Napoleonic invasion. The wave of migration from southern Italy to the Americas in 1900–1910 and 1920–1940 depopulated approximately half of the Arbëreshë villages, and subjected the population to the risk of cultural disappearance, despite the beginning of a cultural and artistic revival in the 19th century. Since the end of communism in Albania in 1990, there has been a wave of immigration into Arbëreshë villages by Albanians. Arbëresh derives from
13446-698: The Shkumbin river since the Post-Roman and Pre-Slavic period, straddling the Jireček Line . Centuries-old communities speaking Albanian dialects can be found scattered in Greece (the Arvanites and some communities in Epirus , Western Macedonia and Western Thrace ), Croatia (the Arbanasi ), Italy (the Arbëreshë ) as well as in Romania , Turkey and Ukraine . The Malsia e Madhe Gheg Albanian and two varieties of
13608-551: The Spanish throne from his older half-brother in 1759, he left Naples and Sicily to his younger son, Ferdinand IV . Despite the two kingdoms being in a personal union under the House of Bourbon from 1735 onwards, they remained constitutionally separated. Being a member of the House of Bourbon , King Ferdinand IV was a natural opponent of the French Revolution and Napoleon . In January 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte , in
13770-412: The Tosk dialect, Arvanitika in Greece and Arbëresh in southern Italy, have preserved archaic elements of the language. Ethnic Albanians constitute a large diaspora , with many having long assimilated in different cultures and communities. Consequently, Albanian-speakers do not correspond to the total ethnic Albanian population, as many ethnic Albanians may identify as Albanian but are unable to speak
13932-501: The Two Sicilies was dissolved and annexed to the new Kingdom of Italy , which was founded in the same year. At the time of Italian unification, the gap between the former northern states of Italy and the southern two Sicilies was significant: northern Italy had about 75,500 kilometers of roads and 2,316 kilometers of railroads, combined with a wide range of canals connected to rivers for freight transportation; iron and steel production
14094-522: The Two Sicilies, though this meant control only of the mainland portion of the kingdom. Throughout this Napoleonic interruption, King Ferdinand remained in Sicily, with Palermo as his capital. After Napoleon's defeat, King Ferdinand IV was restored by the Congress of Vienna of 1815 as Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies . He established a concordat with the Papal States , which previously had
14256-456: The US, Brazil , Chile , Argentina , Mexico, Venezuela , Uruguay and Canada, and in the various parts of central-northern Europe. It is estimated that there are about 100,000 Italo-Albanians (400,000 if including those outside of Italy); they constitute one of the oldest and largest minorities in Italy . When speaking about their "nation", Arbëresh use the term Arbëria , a loose geographical term for
14418-622: The West in 476, and some form of imperial authority survived until the 1070s. Total East Roman rule was ended by the Lombards by Zotto 's conquest in the final quarter of the 6th century. After the Gothic War (535–554) until the arrival of the Normans , much of southern Italy's destiny was linked to the fortunes of the Eastern Empire even though Byzantine domination was challenged in the 9th century by
14580-859: The ancestor idiom of Albanian. The extent of this linguistic impact cannot be determined with precision due to the uncertain position of Albanian among Paleo-Balkan languages and their scarce attestation. Some loanwords, however, have been proposed, such as shegë ' pomegranate ' or lëpjetë ' orach '; compare Pre-Greek λάπαθον , lápathon ' monk's rhubarb '. Southern Italy Southern Italy ( Italian : Sud Italia , Italian: [ˈsud iˈtaːlja] , or Italia meridionale , Italian: [iˈtaːlja meridjoˈnaːle] ; Neapolitan : 'o Sudde ; Sicilian : Italia dû Suddi ), also known as Meridione ( Italian: [meriˈdjoːne] ) or Mezzogiorno ( Italian: [ˌmɛddzoˈdʒorno] ; Neapolitan: Miezojuorno ; Sicilian: Menzujornu ; lit. ' Midday ' ),
14742-467: The annexed territory of the former Two Sicilies and the economic and political powerhouse centred in the north, racist theories were postulated , suggesting that such a divide had its roots in the coexistence of two mostly incompatible races. The British historian Denis Mack Smith describes the radical difference between Northern and the newly-annexed southern Italy in 1860 as both halves being on quite different levels of civilization. He pointed out that
14904-496: The area has had it record numbers of emigration. The most prevalent issue in southern Italy is its inability to attract businesses and therefore create jobs. Between 2007 and 2014, 943,000 Italians were unemployed, 70% being Italians from the south. Employment in the south is ranked the lowest when compared to countries in the European Union. Italians from the south are also ranked the lowest in terms of financial contributions into
15066-451: The article "This is Not Italy! Ruling and Representing the South", it is clear how the northern elites considered the south. The Piedmontese north felt the need to invade the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and establish a new form of governance based on the northern system, since they viewed the south as underdeveloped and lacking in social capital. Those views of the south can largely be attributed to
15228-462: The author underscored the Sicilians' problems of having to change their old lifestyle and remaining on their island. The novel was adapted by Luchino Visconti for his homonymous 1963 film The Leopard . The southern economy greatly suffered after the Italian unification, and the process of industrialisation was interrupted. This situation of persistent backwardness in the socioeconomic development of
15390-529: The basis of Sicilian law until 1819. His royal court in Palermo from around 1220 to his death saw the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian , which had a significant influence on what was to become the modern Italian language . He also built the Castel del Monte and in 1224 founded the University of Naples , now called, after him, Università Federico II . In 1266, conflict between
15552-573: The bottom of the Italian First level NUTS of the European Union and the Italian constituencies for the European Parliament . Nonetheless, Sardinia and especially Sicily are included as "southern Italy" in most definitions of the southern Italy macroregion. In a similar fashion to France 's Midi ("midday" or "noon" in French ), the Italian term " Mezzogiorno " refers to the intensity and
15714-699: The characteristic religious, ethnic, linguistic and traditional identity of the Arbëreshë community. The Arbëreshë speak Arbërisht , an old variant of the Albanian language which derives from the Tosk Albanian spoken in central-southern Albania and Epirus. In Italy the Albanian Arbëresh language is protected by law number 482/99, concerning the protection of the historic linguistic minorities . The Arbëreshë are scattered also in other parts of Italy. They are in great numbers in North and South America, especially in
15876-464: The colonies. Naples enjoyed a demographic and economic rebirth, mainly due to the interest of King Victor Emmanuel III , who was born there. In the 1950s, the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno was set up as a huge public master plan to help industrialise the south by land reforms creating 120,000 new small farms and by the "Growth Pole Strategy" whereby 60% of all government investment would go to the south to boost
16038-496: The congregation of the Basilian Sisters Daughters of Saint Macrina. Among the Arbëreshë the memory of Skanderbeg and his exploits was maintained and survived through songs, in the form of a Skanderbeg cycle. Arbëreshë people have preserved their Albanian traditinal dances ( vallje ), including the Albanian sword dance . "Gjitonia" is a form of neighbourhood typical of Arbëresh communities and widespread throughout
16200-451: The contact between the various languages. The concept of this linguistic group is explained as a kind of language league of the Bronze Age (a specific areal-linguistics phenomenon), although it also consisted of languages that were related to each other. A common prestage posterior to PIE comprising Albanian, Greek, and Armenian, is considered as a possible scenario. In this light, due to
16362-404: The continuity of this culture. The first work of Italo-Albanian literature was that of Sicilian archpriest Luca Matranga (1567–1619). The book was titled E mbsuama e krështerë (Christian Doctrine) and it was a simple religious translation in Arbëresh language, aiming at bringing Christianity closer to his people is Southern Italy. While during the 17th century there were no Arbëresh writers, in
16524-683: The cultural orientation and knowledge of certain foreign languages among Albanian writers. The earliest written Albanian records come from the Gheg area in makeshift spellings based on Italian or Greek. Originally, the Tosk dialect was written in the Greek alphabet and the Gheg dialect was written in the Latin script . Both dialects had also been written in the Ottoman Turkish version of the Arabic script , Cyrillic , and some local alphabets ( Elbasan , Vithkuqi , Todhri , Veso Bey, Jan Vellara and others, see original Albanian alphabets ). More specifically,
16686-469: The death of Skanderbeg in 1468, the organized Albanian resistance against the Ottomans came to an end. Like much of the Balkans , Albania became subject to the invading Turks. Many of its people under the rule of Luca Baffa and Marco Becci fled to the neighboring countries and settled in a few villages in Calabria. From the time of Skanderbeg's death until 1480 there were constant migrations of Albanians to
16848-463: The descendants of Albanian refugees settled in the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily who fled from Albania , Epirus , and later some from the numerous Albanian communities of Attica and Morea , between the 14th and the 18th centuries following the death of the national hero Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg and the gradual conquest of the Balkans by the Ottoman Turks. Their culture is determined by
17010-456: The eastern coast of the Black Sea , Eastern Libya and Massalia ( Marseille ). They included settlements in Sicily and the southern part of the Italian peninsula. The first Greek settlers found Italy inhabited by three major populations: Ausones , Oenotrians and Iapyges (the last of which were subdivided into three tribes: Daunians , Peucetians and Messapians ). The relationships between
17172-425: The erection of bilingual road signs. There are associations that try to protect the culture, particularly in the province of Cosenza. The Arbëresh language is used in some private radios and publications. The fundamental laws of the areas of Molise, Basilicata and Calabria make reference to the Arbëresh language and culture. Nevertheless, the increase in training in the use of the written language has given some hope for
17334-660: The fall of the last indigenous state , was an integral part of the Council of Aragon instead and remained as such until the first years of the XVIII° century, when Sardinia was ceded to Austria and eventually handed over to the Alpine -based House of Savoy in 1720. After the War of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century, possession of the kingdom again changed hands. Under the terms of
17496-478: The fall of the post-Bolshevik communist regime in Albania, significant communities of shqiptarë (Albanians of Albania) have entered and integrated into the social fabric of the Italian-Albanian towns. With the struggle for the independence of Kosovo (2008) a very recent group of Albanians, victims of the ethnic cleansing of the Yugoslav regime, has also integrated itself into the various Albanian communities of Italy. In
17658-553: The fifty Arbëreshë communities are adherents to the Italo-Albanian Church , an Eastern Catholic Church . They belong to two eparchies, the Lungro , for the Arbëreshë of Continental Italy , the Piana degli Albanesi , for the Arbëreshë of Sicily , and the Monastery of Grottaferrata of Lazio , whose Basilian monks come largely from the Albanian settlements of Italy. The church is the most important organization for maintaining
17820-455: The first literary records of Albanian date from the 16th century. The oldest known Albanian printed book, Meshari , or "missal", was written in 1555 by Gjon Buzuku , a Roman Catholic cleric. In 1635, Frang Bardhi wrote the first Latin–Albanian dictionary. The first Albanian school is believed to have been opened by Franciscans in 1638 in Pdhanë . One of the earliest Albanian dictionaries
17982-439: The hamlets Mortilla (Mortilë) and Gizzeria Lido (Zalli i Jacarisë), Zagarise, Zangarona (Xingarona), fraction of Lamezia Terme, (CZ); for Sicily they are Mezzojuso (Munxifsi), Palazzo Adriano (Pallaci, PA), Sant'Angelo Muxaro (Shënt'Ëngjëlli, AG), Biancavilla (Callìcari), Bronte (Brontë), San Michele di Ganzaria (Shën Mikelli, CT). The communities of Mezzojuso and Palazzo Adriano , in the province of Palermo, are to be considered
18144-724: The heel and the boot itself. It is an arm of the Ionian Sea . The island of Sardinia , situated to the west of the Italian peninsula and right below the French island of Corsica , may also often be included. On the eastern coast is the Adriatic Sea , leading into the rest of the Mediterranean through the Strait of Otranto (named after the largest city on the tip of the heel). On the Adriatic, south of
18306-524: The highest in the south, and illiteracy in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies reached 87%. In 1860, the southern merchant navy amounted to 260,000 tons, and the northern merchant navy came to 347,000 tons, apart from the Venetian Navy, which was annexed in 1866 and assessed at 46,000 tons. In 1860 the whole Italian merchant navy was the fourth largest in Europe at about 607,000 tons. The southern merchant navy
18468-436: The historical Kingdom of the Two Sicilies , including Abruzzo , Apulia , Basilicata , Calabria , Campania , Molise , and Sicily . The island of Sardinia, although being culturally , linguistically and historically less related to the aforementioned regions than any of them is to one another is frequently included as part of the Mezzogiorno , often for statistical and economical purposes. Southern Italy forms
18630-515: The history we know that region of Puglia since 4-5 century BC was inhabited by the Iapygian tribes such as Daunians , Peuceti , and Messapians . Messapic language , according to some researchers, its same like Albanian language. " bila " means daughter. In region of Vlorë daughter is called the same as the Mesapians called it :" Bila ", in the other regions of Albania is called " Bija ". After
18792-613: The kingdom by the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559. With the Treaty of London (1557), the new client state of the so-called Presidi ("state of the garrisons") was established and governed directly by Spain as part of the Kingdom of Naples. The administration of the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, as well as of the Duchy of Milan , was run by the Council of Italy . The island of Sardinia, which had fully come to be under Iberian sovereignty in 1409 upon
18954-531: The language Arbërisht . The term Arbëreshë and its variants are also used as endonyms by the Arbanasi in Croatia and Arvanites in Greece . The invasion of the Balkans by the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century forced many Arbëreshë to emigrate from Albania and Epirus , Attica , Thebes , Peloponnese then called Morea and other Islands to southern Italy . There were several waves of migrations. In 1448,
19116-460: The language, producing two books Udha e Mbarë and Udhëtimi , both used in schools in the village of Piana degli Albanesi . Linguists focusing on the language include (Albanian) Eda Derhemi, (diaspora born) Martin Di Maggio as well as (Piana degli Albanesi native) Vito Matranga. There is no official political, administrative or cultural structure which represents the Arbëresh community. Arbërësh
19278-534: The language. Standard Albanian is a standardised form of spoken Albanian based on Tosk . The language is spoken by approximately 6 million people in the Balkans, primarily in Albania, Kosovo , North Macedonia , Serbia , Montenegro and Greece . However, due to old communities in Italy and the large Albanian diaspora , the worldwide total of speakers is much higher than in Southern Europe and numbers approximately 7.5 million. The Albanian language
19440-593: The larger number of possible shared innovations between Greek and Armenian, it appears reasonable to assume, at least tentatively, that Albanian was the first Balkan IE language to branch off. This split and the following ones were perhaps very close in time, allowing only a narrow time frame for shared innovations. Albanian represents one of the core languages of the Balkan Sprachbund . Glottolog and Ethnologue recognize four Albanian languages. They are classified as follows: The first attested written mention of
19602-465: The latter alphabets have now been forgotten and are unknown, even to the Albanians themselves. Albanian constitutes one of the eleven major branches of the Indo-European language family , within which it occupies an independent position. In 1854, Albanian was demonstrated to be an Indo-European language by the philologist Franz Bopp . Albanian was formerly compared by a few Indo-European linguists with Germanic and Balto-Slavic , all of which share
19764-412: The letters of correspondents in southern Italy who sent biased letters to leaders of the north, specifically Camillo Benso , urging the invasion and reformation of the south. Although those views of the south were condescending, they also came with a genuine belief that to create a unified Italy, help from the north was necessary. Viewing southern Italy as barbaric served as a sort of justification to allow
19926-459: The lower part of the Italian "boot", containing the ankle ( Campania ), the toe ( Calabria ), the arch ( Basilicata ), and the heel ( Apulia ), Molise (north of Apulia) and Abruzzo (north of Molise) along with Sicily, removed from Calabria by the narrow Strait of Messina . Separating the "heel" and toe of the "boot" is the Gulf of Taranto , named after the city of Taranto , which is at an angle between
20088-460: The main features that are found in language , religious rite , traditional costume, art and gastronomy, still zealously preserved, with the awareness of belonging to a specific ethnic group. Over the centuries, the Arbëreshë have managed to maintain and develop their identities, thanks to their cultural value exercised mainly by the religious communities of the Byzantine Rite . Nowadays, most of
20250-516: The memory of the original cultural heritage. The Albanian migrations, since the beginning of the long diaspora, led to the formation of medium-small arbëreshe communities well integrated in numerous existing cities of central-northern Italy (in particular, Venice) and in the Crown of Aragon (Naples, Bari, Altamura, Barletta, Andria, Trani, Foggia, Bovino, San Severo, Lecce, Brindisi, Potenza, Matera, Melfi, Caltagirone and Piazza Armerina), in most cases reality - again for different reasons - assimilated by
20412-455: The most prominent advocate of the wider definitions. With this colonisation, Greek culture was exported to Italy in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language , its religious rites and its traditions of the independent polis . An original Hellenic civilization soon developed, later interacting with the native Italic and Roman civilisations . The most important cultural transplant was
20574-654: The name of the French Republic , captured Naples and proclaimed the Parthenopaean Republic , a French client state, as successor to the kingdom. King Ferdinand fled from Naples to Sicily until June of that year. In 1806, Bonaparte, by then French Emperor, again dethroned King Ferdinand and appointed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte , as King of Naples. In the Edict of Bayonne of 1808, Napoleon removed Joseph to Spain and appointed his brother-in-law, Joachim Murat , as King of
20736-429: The names for fish and for agricultural activities (such as ploughing ) are borrowed from other languages. A deeper analysis of the vocabulary, however, shows that could be a consequence of a prolonged Latin domination of the coastal and plain areas of the country, rather than evidence of the original environment in which the Albanian language was formed. For example, the word for 'fish' is borrowed from Latin, but not
20898-626: The next largest cities in the area. The region is geologically very active, except for Salento in Apulia , and highly seismic: the 1980 Irpinia earthquake killed 2,914 people, injured more than 10,000 and left 300,000 homeless. In the 8th and the 7th centuries BCE, for various reasons, including demographic crisis (famine, overcrowding etc.), the search for new commercial outlets and ports, and expulsion from their homeland, Greeks began to settle in southern Italy. Also during this period, Greek colonies were established in places as widely separated as
21060-451: The north and Tosk spoken to the south of the Shkumbin river . Their characteristics in the treatment of both native words and loanwords provide evidence that the split into the northern and the southern dialects occurred after Christianisation of the region (4th century AD), and most likely not later than the 6th century AD, hence possibly occupying roughly their present area divided by
21222-509: The number of people in Turkey with Albanian ancestry and or background upward to 5 million. However, the vast majority of this population is assimilated and no longer possesses fluency in the Albanian language, though a vibrant Albanian community maintains its distinct identity in Istanbul to this day. Egypt also lays claim to about 18,000 Albanians, mostly Tosk speakers. Many are descendants of
21384-466: The only surviving representative of its own branch , which belongs to the Paleo-Balkan group . Although it is still uncertain which ancient mentioned language of the Balkans it continues, or where in the region its speakers lived. In general, there is insufficient evidence to connect Albanian with one of those languages, whether Illyrian , Thracian , or Dacian . Among these possibilities, Illyrian
21546-469: The other Southern Balkan populations of Albania and Kosovo . Albanian language Albanian ( endonym : shqip [ʃcip] , gjuha shqipe [ˈɟuha ˈʃcipɛ] , or arbërisht [aɾbəˈɾiʃt] ) is an Indo-European language and the only surviving representative of the Albanoid branch , which belongs to the Paleo-Balkan group . It is the native language of
21708-509: The other side of the Strait " and "across the Strait") and which later shared a common organization into Italy's largest pre-unitarian state , the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies . The island of Sardinia , which was not part of the aforementioned polity and had been under the rule of the Alpine House of Savoy , which would eventually annex the Bourbons' southern Italian kingdom altogether,
21870-455: The paternalist Bourbon administrations produced nothing of value. The bourgeois class did not exist, agriculture was primitive and insufficient to satisfy the local market, there were no roads, no ports and the few waterways that the region had were not exploited because of the region's special geographical features. The living conditions of the people of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies are also illustrated by Raffaele De Cesare, who reported that
22032-592: The period. The most prominent figure among Arbëresh writers and the foremost figure of the Albanian nationalist movement in 19th-century Italy was that of Girolamo de Rada ( Jeronim De Rada ). Born the son of a parish priest of Italo-Albanian Catholic Church in Macchia Albanese ( Maqi ) in the mountains of Cosenza , De Rada attended the college of Saint Adrian in San Demetrio Corone. In October 1834, in accordance with his father's wishes, he registered at
22194-410: The place. The Arbëreshë communities are divided into numerous ethnic islands corresponding to different areas of southern Italy. However, some places have already lost their original characteristics and the language, and others have totally disappeared. Today, Italy has 50 communities of Arbëreshë origin and culture, 41 municipalities and 9 villages, spread across seven regions of southern Italy , forming
22356-506: The position of sunshine at midday in the south of the Italian peninsula . The term came into vogue after the annexation of the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies by the mainland-based Savoyard Kingdom of Sardinia , and the subsequent Italian unification of 1861. Southern Italy is generally thought to comprise the administrative regions that correspond to the geopolitical extent of
22518-418: The regions of southern Italy compared to the other regions of the country, especially the northern ones, is known as the Southern question . Poverty and organised crime were long-standing issues in southern Italy as well and it got worse after unification. Cavour stated the basic problem was poor government, and believed the solution lay in the strict application of the Piedmontese legal system. The main result
22680-669: The result showed that fair hair was present in 27% of them. The same study also showed that the frequencies of light eyes and white skin , were 47% and 67% respectively. The Arbëreshë, from this survey, are found to be overall less pigmented than the Calabrians. They are also taller (m. 1.64) and less dolichocephalic ( cephalic index 80.6). According to Sarno et al. 2015 there are many Y-DNA haplogroups present among Arbëreshë. Those haplogroups are also shared with their Italian and Balkan neighbours. Arbereshe appear as slightly differentiated from native Southern Italians, and instead overlap with
22842-448: The rise of Benito Mussolini , the "Iron Prefect", Cesare Mori , tried to defeat the powerful criminal organizations flowering in the south with some degree of success. However, when connections between mafia and the fascists emerged, Mori was removed, and fascist propaganda declared the mafia defeated. Economically, Fascist policy aimed at the creation of an Italian Empire and southern Italian ports were strategic for all commerce towards
23004-624: The scattered villages in southern Italy which use Arbëresh language. In the light of historical events, the secular continuity of the Albanian presence in Italy is exceptional. In 2017, an official application for inclusion of the Arbëresh people has been submitted to the UNESCO as a living human and social intangible cultural heritage of humanity by the Government of Albania . The Arbëresh villages maintain two or three names, an Italian one as well as one or two native Arbëresh names by which villagers know
23166-421: The situation nearly impossible for many tenant farmers, small businesses and land owners. Multitudes chose to emigrate rather than try to eke out a meagre living, especially from 1892 to 1921. In addition, the surge of brigandage and mafia provoked widespread violence, corruption and illegality. Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti once conceded that places existed "where the law does not operate at all". After
23328-517: The son of Alfonso, king Ferdinand I of Naples again requested the help of Skanderbeg . This time, the legendary leader himself came to Italy with his troops led by one of his generals, Luca Baffa , to end a French-supported insurrection. Skanderbeg was appointed as the leader of the combined Neapolitan-Albanian army and, after winning two decisive battles, the Albanian soldiers effectively defended Naples. This time they were rewarded with land east of Taranto in Apulia, populating 15 other villages. From
23490-448: The southern economy by attracting new capital, stimulating local firms, and providing employment. However, the objectives were largely missed, and the south became increasingly subsidised, dependent on the state and incapable of generating private growth itself. Presently, huge regional disparities still persist. Problems still include pervasive organised crime and very high unemployment rates. Southern Italy's lack of progress in bettering
23652-456: The surrounding culture. Relevant cultural islands survive in the large metropolitan areas of Milan , Turin , Rome , Naples , Bari , Cosenza , Crotone and Palermo . In the rest of the world, following the migrations of the twentieth century in countries such as Canada , the United States , Argentina , Brazil , Chile and Uruguay there are strong communities that they keep the Arbëreshë language and traditions alive. Since 1990, with
23814-478: The time that the Albanian language was formed are uncertain. The American linguist Eric Hamp has said that during an unknown chronological period a pre-Albanian population (termed as "Albanoid" by Hamp) inhabited areas stretching from Poland to the southwestern Balkans. Further analysis has suggested that it was in a mountainous region rather than on a plain or seacoast. The words for plants and animals characteristic of mountainous regions are entirely original, but
23976-405: The time, and used as a synonym for the Albanian language. Published in Rome in 1635, by the Albanian bishop and writer Frang Bardhi, the first dictionary of the Albanian language was titled Latin : Dictionarium latino-epiroticum ' Latin-Epirotan dictionary ' . During the five-century period of the Ottoman presence in Albania , the language was not officially recognised until 1909, when
24138-410: The treatment of the native words and loanwords from other languages are evidence that the dialectal split preceded the Slavic migrations to the Balkans , which means that in that period (the 5th to 6th centuries AD), Albanians were occupying nearly the same area around the Shkumbin river, which straddled the Jireček Line . References to the existence of Albanian as a distinct language survive from
24300-406: The troops of Charles V , as the Turks had invaded that region. Charles V established these troops in southern Italy to reinforce defenses against the threat of Turkish invasion. Established in isolated villages (which enabled them to maintain their culture until the 20th century), Arbëreshë were, traditionally, soldiers for the Kingdom of Naples and the Republic of Venice, from the Wars of Religion to
24462-421: The word for 'gills' which is native. Indigenous are also the words for 'ship', 'raft', 'navigation', 'sea shelves' and a few names of fish kinds, but not the words for 'sail', 'row' and 'harbor'; objects pertaining to navigation itself and a large part of sea fauna. This rather shows that Proto-Albanians were pushed away from coastal areas in early times (probably after the Latin conquest of the region) and thus lost
24624-415: The writers from northern Albania and under the influence of the Catholic Church used Latin letters, those in southern Albania and under the influence of the Greek Orthodox church used Greek letters, while others throughout Albania and under the influence of Islam used Arabic letters. There were initial attempts to create an original Albanian alphabet during the 1750–1850 period. These attempts intensified after
24786-421: Was 17,000 tons per year. By contrast, in the former Bourbon southern state, there were 14,700 kilometers of roads, 184 kilometers of railroads (only around Naples), no canals connected to rivers and iron and steel production was 1,500 tons per year. In 1860, illiteracy rates on the Italian peninsula averaged 75%, with the lowest level of 54% in the northwestern Kingdom of Sardinia (also known as " Piedmont ") and
24948-438: Was an upsurge in brigandage . Therefore, the south experienced great economic difficulties resulting in massive emigration leading to a worldwide Italian diaspora , especially to North America , South America , Australia and other parts of Europe. Many natives also relocated to the industrial cities in northern Italy, such as Genoa , Milan and Turin . A relative process of industrialisation has developed in some areas of
25110-514: Was characterised by its competent governance, multi-ethnic nature and religious tolerance . Normans, Jews, Muslim Arabs, Byzantine Greeks, Lombards and "native" Sicilians lived in relative harmony. However, the Norman domination lasted only several decades before it formally ended in 1198 with the reign of Constance of Sicily , and was replaced by that of the Swabian Hohenstaufen dynasty, thanks to Constance's marriage to Henry VI , member of this family. In Sicily, King Frederick II endorsed
25272-501: Was commonly called Albanese ("Albanian" in Italian) in Italy until the 1990s. Until recently, Arbërisht speakers had only very imprecise notions about how related or unrelated their language was to Albanian. Until the 1980s Arbërisht was exclusively a spoken language, except for its written form used in the Italo-Albanian Church , and Arbëreshë people had no practical affiliation with the Standard Albanian language used in Albania, as they did not use this form in writing or in media. When
25434-418: Was depicted by the Sicilian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa in his famous novel Il Gattopardo ( The Leopard ), set in Sicily at the time of Italian unification. In a famous final scene, Prince Salina, when invited to join the senate of unified Italy, tells a high-ranking Piedmontese officer that "the Sicilian will never want to change, because the Sicilian feels perfect...". With theoe and other words,
25596-423: Was endemic in southern Italy, since the Bourbons themselves relied on it as their military agent. Unlike in southern Italy, there was little brigandage in the other annexed states of Northern and Central Italy, like the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia , the Duchy of Parma , the Duchy of Modena , the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the Papal States . According to the southern Italian historian Giustino Fortunato , and
25758-481: Was in 1284 in a witness testimony from the Republic of Ragusa , while a letter written by Dominican Friar Gulielmus Adea in 1332 mentions the Albanians using the Latin alphabet in their writings. The oldest surviving attestation of modern Albanian is from 1462. The two main Albanian dialect groups (or varieties ), Gheg and Tosk , are primarily distinguished by phonological differences and are mutually intelligible in their standard varieties, with Gheg spoken to
25920-413: Was made up of sailing vessels mainly for fishing and coastal shipping in the Mediterranean Sea and had very few steamships, even if one of the first steamers was built and fitted out in Naples in 1818. Both the merchant and the military navies were insufficient compared to the great coastal extent of southern Italy, defined by the Italian historian Raffaele De Cesare: "… a great pier towards the south". In
26082-438: Was soon forced to withdraw because of the support of Ferdinand II of Aragon to his cousin, Alfonso II's son Ferrantino . Ferrantino was restored to the throne but died in 1496 and was succeeded by his uncle, Frederick IV . The French, however, did not give up their claim and, in 1501, agreed to a partition of the kingdom with Ferdinand of Aragon, who abandoned his cousin, King Frederick. The deal soon fell through, however, and
26244-453: Was written in 1693; it was the Italian manuscript Pratichae Schrivaneschae authored by the Montenegrin sea captain Julije Balović and includes a multilingual dictionary of hundreds of the most frequently used words in everyday life in Italian, Slavic, Greek, Albanian, and Turkish . Pre-Indo-European (PreIE) sites are found throughout the territory of Albania. Such PreIE sites existed in Maliq , Vashtëmi , Burimas , Barç , Dërsnik in
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