The topic of today's post is the history of the Albanian endonym Albanian = "Albanian", whose use became generalized during the 18th century.
In today's Albanian terminology we find the following terms:
tosk. Albanian ~ geg. Shqyptar = "Albanian"
tosk. Albania ~ geg. Albanian = "Albania"
adverb albanian = "Albanian, in albanian"
A very nice article on the history and etymology of the term is the following by the Albanian linguist Bardhyl Demiraj:
'Shqiptar – The generalization of this ethnic name in the XVIII century', pp. 533-65 in this book (2010).
1. General
According to robert Elsie, This ethnonym first appears in the form albanian in writings of universal Geggi scholars, such as Gjon Buzuku (1555), the Peter Budi (1621) and the Peter Bogdani (1685), at a time when the usual Geggi endonym was Arben ~ Arbenesh (and Arbeni = "Albania"), the unstressed Ghegian analogue of the stressed Toskian Arbër ~ Arbëresh (and Arbërí). These terms are derived from the Latin national Alban-enses (e.g. italian) Albanian) = Albanians/Arbans ("inhabitants Of albano/Arvano") and the rhoticism of the Ethnonym in tosk, shows that this ethnonym was already known to speakers of late proto-Albanian before ~700 aD (cf. the toponym Avlon/Avlon).na > tosk. Vlorë ~ geg. Vlonë).
As I have already mentioned, during the first century of his response (1550-1650) to the writings of Catholic Geghard scholars, the endonym albanian was not particularly well known, even among the Gegs. This is evident from its absence in the Latin-Continental (= Latin-Albanian) dictionary (1635) of Geggi Frang Bardhi (Italian) Francesco Bianchi), in which the latin terms Epirus andEpirote (i.e., Epirotae = Ἠπειρῶται) are rendered gegisti as “Arbeni“ and “arbëneshë“ (= turkish) Albanians) respectively. This is the endonym that the Ghegs took with them from the Shkodra region when in 1726 they settled in the village of Borgo Erizzo (today's Arbanasi = "Albanians" Slavic) near the city of Zadar, Croatia. However, from the beginning of the 18th century, the new endonym Albanian begins to occur more and more frequently and, by the end of the 18th century, had become widely known among the Tosk populations of southern Albania. This is the endonym they brought with them to Thrace. the Arvanites of Evros, most of whom left the Korçë region in the second half of the 18th century. On the contrary, the ethnonym Albanian it is unknown to the Arvanites of mainly Greek territory and to the Arberesids of Italy, who fled from present-day southern Albania during the period 1320-1500.
I begin by quoting a page by Robert Elsie with the first answers to the term albanian:
The Dictionarium Latino-Epiroticum (1635) by Frang Bardhi and his commentary on the lemmas by Bardhyl Demiraj:
1635 did not record the terms Shqyptar, Albanian, the 1702 mario Da Lecce In the introduction to his dictionary Italian-Albanian Dictionary (1702) addresses the Albanian reader as "Oh my dear Albanian» (oh Albanian to teach) and describes the albanian language as "language of" schqippetarevet". The Italian-Arberesis Nicolò Chetta (Nikollë Keta) during the second half of the 18th century, published various dictionaries of the Albanian language, which shows us that at that time the Albanians were known by a multitude of names such as «Macedonians» , «Epirus», «Skypetaroi», «Arnautlari Gauri» (Giaouris/Christian Albanians), adding that "Those whom the "Greeks" call Armatouli we call them Albanian repeat, that is Albanians Turkophagus (Albanian destroyer of the Gentiles)".
I quote Demiraj's description of the dictionaries of Mario Da Lecce and Nicolò Chetta:
Milan Šufflay[/a>, the oldest answer of the national Albanian is the national surname Schipudar which dates back to the second half of the 14th century (1368-1402) to a family from Drisht/Drivastum:
2. Etymology
The dominant view of albanianists today (Orel, Elsie, Demiraj etc.) is that of Johann Georg von Hahn Gustav Meyer, according to which, the adverb albanian = "Albanian" originally meant «understandably» and is related to the verb albanian/eagle/albanian(ë)toj which today means «pronounce, i speak clearly/understandably.» and in the past it also had the meaning "I understand", which is preserved in the language of the old Albanian diaspora in Ukraine (e.g. i didn't pronounce you. = "I didn't understand you"). The verb shqipoj is usually traced back to the Latin verb exception which in popular Latin also acquired the meaning "I understand".
Therefore, the Albanian it is «the one who speaks Albanian clearly/intelligibly».
The ethnonym may have arisen with the addition of rare suffix -tar in the adverb albanian (e.g. adverb kundrë with derivative kontra-tar = "the one who moves against me, comes against me"), but it is more likely that it arose with the addition of frequent and very productive suffix -ar (e.g. village = "peasant/countryman", Korç-ar, Tetov-ar etc.) in the verb subject albanian- of the verb albanian.
By the way, pay attention to what Demiraj writes on pages 550-1 about the term geju with which the Romano-speaking Sicilians slightly mockingly call their Arberesid fellow countrymen. According to the Arberesid scholar Altimari, the term arose from the verb yes ~ gejeni = "I hear, I understand", because the Arbereses often used it in their early conversations with the Romance speakers, when they did not understand what was being said to them. Our own question in slang also comes from the same Arvanite verb «gege?» = "Did you understand? Did you get it? Did you get the point?"
Source: Smerdaleos
