Arbëresh language: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Albanian dialectlinguistic spokenvarieties inof Italy}}

| dia1 = [[VaccarizzoApulian Albanian]]

Calabrian|dia3 = Campo Marino Albanian

The invasion of the [[Balkans]] by the [[Ottoman Turks]] in the 15th century caused large waves of emigration from the Balkans to [[southern Italy]]. In 1448, the King of Naples, [[Alfonso V of Aragon]], asked the Albanian noble [[Skanderbeg]] to transfer to his service ethnic Albanian mercenaries. Led by [[Demetrio Reres]] and his two sons, these men and their families were settled in twelve villages in the [[Catanzaro]] area of [[Calabria]]. The following year, some of their relatives and other Albanians were settled in four villages in [[Sicily]].<ref>The Italo-Albanian villages of southern Italy Issue 25 of Foreign field research program, report, National Research Council (U.S.) Division of Earth Sciences Volume 1149 of Publication (National Research Council (U.S.)) Foreign field research program, sponsored by Office of Naval research, report; no.25 Issue 25 of Report, National Research Council (U.S.). Division of Earth Sciences Volume 1149 of (National Academy of Sciences. National Research Council. Publication) Author George Nicholas Nasse Publisher National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, 1964 page 24-25 link</ref><refname="nasse">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VjArAAAAYAAJ&dq=reres+demetrio&pg=PA24|title = The Italo-Albanian Villages of Southern Italy|isbn = 9780598204004|last1 = Nasse|first1 = George Nicholas|year = 1964| publisher=National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council }}</ref> In 1459 [[Ferdinand I of Naples]] also requested assistance from Skanderbeg. After victories in two battles, a second contingent of Albanians was rewarded with land east of [[Taranto]], in [[Apulia]], where they founded 15 villages.<ref>The Italo-Albanian villages of southern Italy Issue 25 of Foreign field research program, report, National Research Council (U.S.). Division of Earth Sciences Volume 1149 of Publication (National Research Council (U.S.))) Foreign field research program, sponsored by Office of Naval research, report; no.25 Issue 25 of Report, National Research Council (U.S.). Division of Earth Sciences Volume 1149 of (National Academy of Sciences. National Research Council. Publication) Author George Nicholas Nasse Publisher National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, 1964 page 25 link</ref><ref name=":0nasse">{{Cite book |last=Nasse |first=George Nicholas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VjArAAAAYAAJ&dq=reres+demetrio&pg=PA25 |title=The Italo-Albanian Villages of Southern Italy |date=1964 |publisher=National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council |isbn=978-0-598-20400-4 |language=en}}</ref> After the death of Skanderbeg (1468), resistance to the Ottomans in Albania came to an end. Subsequently, many Albanians fled to neighbouring countries and some settled in villages in Calabria.

There was a constant flow of ethnic Albanians into Italy into the 16th century, and other Albanian villages were formed on Italian soil.<ref>The Italo-Albanian villages of southern Italy Issue 25 of Foreign field research program, report, National Research Council (U.S.). Division of Earth Sciences Volume 1149 of Publication (National Research Council (U.S.))) Foreign field research program, sponsored by Office of Naval research, report; no.25 Issue 25 of Report, National Research Council (U.S.). Division of Earth Sciences Volume 1149 of (National Academy of Sciences. National Research Council. Publication) Author George Nicholas Nasse Publisher National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, 1964 page 26 link</ref><ref name=":0nasse" /> The new immigrants often took up work as mercenaries with Italian armies. For instance, between 1500 and 1534, Albanians from central [[Greece]] were employed as mercenaries by [[Venice]], to evacuate its colonies in the [[Peloponnese]], as the Turks invaded. Afterwards these troops reinforced defences in southern Italy against the threat of Turkish invasion. They established self-contained communities, which enabled their distinct language and culture to flourish. Arbëreshë, as they became known, were often soldiers for the Kingdom of Naples and the Republic of Venice, between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Despite an Arbëreshë cultural and artistic revival in the 19th century, emigration from southern Italy significantly reduced the population. In particular, migration to the [[Americas]] between 1900 and 1940 caused the total depopulation of approximately half of the Arbëreshë villages. The speech community forms part of the highly heterogenous linguistic landscape of Italy, with 12 recognised linguistic minorities Italian state law (law 482/1999).<ref>{{cite web |titlename=Legge"Legge482" 482 |url=http://www.camera.it/parlam/leggi/99482l.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512051856/http://www.camera.it/parlam/leggi/99482l.htm |archive-date=12 May 2015 |access-date=30 December 2015 |publisher=Camera.it}}</ref> The exact Arbëresh speech population is uncertain, as the Italian national census does not collect data on minority language speakers. This is also further complicated by the Italian state's protection of the Albanian culture and population as a whole and not Arbëresh Albanian specifically. This law theoretically implements specific measures in various fields such as education, communication, radio, press and TV public service, but in the case of the Arberesh community the legal construction of the language as "Albanian" and the community as the "Albanian population" effectively homogenises the language and has not led to adequate provision for the linguistic needs of the communities.{{Citation<ref needed|datename=November"mgr" 2023}}/>

{{Paleo-Balkanic family tree|thumb|300px}}

Arbëresh derivesvarieties derive from avarieties medievalof variety ofOld [[Tosk Albanian|Tosk]], which waswere spoken in southern [[Albania]] and from[[Greece]]. which the modern Tosk is also derived.They Ithave followsexperienced a similar evolutionary pattern to [[Arvanitika]], athe similarAlbanian linguistic languagevarieties spoken in Greece. Arbëresh isvarieties are spoken in Southern Italy in the regions of [[Abruzzi]], [[Basilicata]], [[Calabria]], [[Campania]], [[Molise]], [[Apulia]] and [[Sicily]]. The varieties of Arbëresh are closely related to each other but are not always entirely mutually intelligible.

Arbëresh retains many features of medieval Albanian from the time before the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] invasion of Albania in the 15th century. ItArbëresh varieties also retainsretain some [[Greek language|Greek]] elements, including vocabulary and pronunciation, most of which itthey sharesshare with its relative [[Arvanitika]] varieties. Many of the conservative features of Arbëresh were lost in mainstream Albanian Tosk. For example, it has preserved certain syllable-initial consonant clusters which have been simplified in Standard Albanian (cf. Arbëresh {{Lang|aae|gluhë}} {{IPA|/ˈɡluxə/}} ('language/tongue'), vs. Standard Albanian {{wikt-lang|sq|gjuhë}} {{IPA|/ˈɟuhə/}}). Arbëresh most resembles the dialectvarieties of Albanian spoken in the southern region of Albania, andnotably also[[Lab thatAlbanian ofdialect|Lab Albanian]], as well as [[ÇamCham AlbaniansAlbanian dialect|Cham Albanian]].

Arbëresh was commonly called {{Lang|it|Albanese}} ('Albanian' in the Italian language) in Italy until the 1990s. Until the 1980s Arbëresh was mostly a spoken language, except for its written form used in the [[Italo-Albanian Catholic Church|Italo-Albanian Byzantine Church]], and Arbëreshë people had no practical connection with the Standard Albanian language used– inwhich Albaniawas unified as a mainly Gheg-based standard from 1908 to 1969, and as a mainly Tosk-based standard from 1969 – as they did not use the standard Albanian form of writing.<ref name="ReferenceAderhemi">New Albanian Immigrants in the Old Albanian Diaspora: Piana Degli Albanesi. Eda Derhemi</ref>

[[File:Arvanitic.svg|thumb|400px300px|right|Varieties of Albanian]]

Arbëresh language beside medieval mainland Tosk Albanian is also descended from [[Arvanitika]] which evolved separately from other forms of Albanian since the 13th century when its first speakers emigrated to Morea from Southern [[Albania]] and Epirus.{{sfn|Liakopoulos|2022|p=307|ps=:The Albanians, also known as Arvanites in the Greek lands, were first mentioned in the Peloponnese in the second half of the fourteenth century. By 1391 there had been an influx of Albanians that could be hired as mercenaries. The Venetians were in need of colonists and soldiers in their depopulated areas and hence offered plots of arable land, pastures and tax exemptions to the wandering Albanians in southern Greece (Thiriet 1959: 366; Chrysostomides 1995: 206, 291, 337, 339; Topping 1980: 261–71; Ducellier 1968: 47–64). A well-attested-to, more populous Albanian settlement took place during the rule of Theodore I Palaeologus (1384–1407), when ten thousand Albanians appeared before the Isthmus and asked Theodore for permission to settle in the Peloponnese (1394-95). A second wave of immigrants from southern Albania and western mainland Greece descended on the Peloponnese, perhaps in 1417-17. Their establishment was significant for the invigoration of the Albanian demographiy in the peninsula that led to the Albanian rebellion in 1453}} A dialect is defined linguistically as closely related and, despite their differences, by mutual intelligibility.{{Citation needed|reason=There is no such definition of dialect in linguistics|date=May 2024}} In the absence of rigorous linguistic intelligibility tests, the claim cannot be made whether one is a dialect or a separate variant of the same language group.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.academia.edu/41675885 | title=The role of grassroots' media and community leaders for the small endangered languages: The case of Arbëresh of Piana degli Albanesi | last1=Derhemi | first1=Eda }}</ref><ref name="ReferenceAderhemi"/><ref>Derhemi, Eda. Language endangerment and maintenance in the Arbresh of Piana degli Albanesi. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2003.</ref><ref>Di Maggio, Martin Hasan. "Arbëresh: language mixing, translanguaging and possible solutions to maintenance problems."</ref>

*Babiniotis, Georgios (1985): ''Συνοπτική Ιστορία της ελληνικής γλώσσας με εισαγωγή στην ιστορικοσυγκριτική γλωσσολογία.'' ["A concise history of the Greek language, with an introduction to historical-comparative linguistics''"] Athens: Ellinika Grammata.