Arbëresh

The two ethnonyms used by Albanians to refer to themselves are Arbëresh(ë)/Arbënesh(ë) (northwestern variant) and Shqiptar(ë). Arbëresh is the original Albanian ethnonym and forms that basis for most names of Albanians in foreign languages and the name of Albania as a country. Greek Arvanitai, Alvanitai and Alvanoi, Turkish Arnaut, Serbo-Croatian Arbanasi and others derive from this term. Different theories exist for the Ethnonym Shqiptar. Demiraj posits that Shqiptar derives from verb shqipoj (speak clearly) from Latin excipio (understand).^[7] It gradually replaced Arbëresh as the Albanian endonym by the end of the 18th century.

The second theory is the idea that Shqiptar originated from the Scapudar family in medieval Drivastum is an early occurrence of the term. However this theory does not make chronological sense. Shqiptar from the Scapudar family is considered chronologically impossible.

The third proposed etymology is that Shqiptar flows from the word shqiponjë (eagle).^[8] Its first attestation with its present meaning is in the dictionary of Francesco Maria da Lecce (1702) who addresses his readers as my "dear Shqipëtar" in its preface. This third theory matches the laws of Albanian word formation.^[9]

Gudmund Shutte thought that "Skjipetar"(Shqiptar) was a corruption name of the Illyrian tribe Scirtari/Skirtones^[10]

The ethnic name Albanian was used by Byzantine and Latin sources in the forms arb- and alb- since at least the 2nd century A.D,^{[11][lower-alpha 1]} and eventually in Old Albanian texts as an endonym. It was later replaced in Albania proper by the term Shqiptar, a change most likely trigged by the Ottoman conquests of the Balkans during the 15th century.^[12] However, the ancient attestation of the ethnic designation is not considered strong evidence of an Albanian continuity in the Illyrian region, since there are many examples in history of an ethnic name shifting from one ethnos to another.^[11]

References to Albania

• In the 2nd century BC, the History of the World written by Polybius, mentions a location named Arbona (Greek: Ἄρβωνα; Latinised form: Arbo)^[13][14] in which some Illyrian troops, under Queen Teuta, scattered and fled to in order to escape the Romans. Arbona was perhaps an island in Liburnia or another location within Illyria.^[15]
• The names Albanoi and Albanopolis have been attested in ancient funeral inscriptions in present-day North Macedonia. The toponym Albanopolis has been found on a funeral inscription in Gorno Sonje, near the city of Skopje (ancient Scupi), present-day North Macedonia. It was excavated in 1931 by Nikola Vulić and its text was curated and published in 1982 by Borka Dragojević-Josifovska. The inscription in Latin reads "POSIS MESTYLU F[ILIUS] FL[AVIA] DELVS MVCATI F[ILIA] DOM[O] ALBANOP[OLI] IPSA DELVS" ("Posis Mestylu, son of Flavia Delus, daughter of Mucat, who comes from Albanopolis"). It dates to the end of the 1st century AD and the beginning of the 2nd century AD.^[16]
• In the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy, the geographer and astronomer from Alexandria, drafted a map that shows the city of Albanopolis, located Northeast of Durrës) in the Roman province of Macedonia and the tribe of Albanoi,^[17] which were viewed as Illyrians by later historians.^{[18][19][20][21][22]}
• The ethnonym Albanos was found on a funeral inscription from ancient Stobi in present-day North Macedonia, near Gradsko about 90 km to the southeast of Gorno Sonje. The inscription in ancient Greek reads "ΦΛ(ΑΒΙΩ) ΑΛΒΑΝΩ ΤΩ ΤΕΚΝΩ ΑΙΜΙΛΙΑΝΟΣ ΑΛΒΑΝΟ(Σ) ΜΝΗΜ(Η)Σ [ΧΑΡΗΝ]" ("In memory of Flavios Albanos, his son Aemilianos Albanos"). It dates to the 2nd/3rd century AD.^[23]
• In the 6th century AD, Stephanus of Byzantium, in his important geographical dictionary entitled Ethnica (Ἐθνικά),^[24] mentions a city in Illyria called Arbon (Greek: Ἀρβών), and gives an ethnic name for its inhabitants, in two singular number forms, i.e. Arbonios (Greek: Ἀρβώνιος; pl. Ἀρβώνιοι Arbonioi) and Arbonites (Greek: Ἀρβωνίτης; pl. Ἀρβωνῖται Arbonitai). He cites Polybius^[24] (as he does many other times in Ethnica).^[25][26]

References to the Albanians

Michael Attaleiates (1022-1080) mentions the term Albanoi twice and the term Arbanitai once. The term Albanoi is used first to describe the groups which rebelled in southern Italy and Sicily against the Byzantines in 1038–40. The second use of the term Albanoi is related to groups which supported the revolt of George Maniakes in 1042 and marched with him throughout the Balkans against the Byzantine capital, Constantinople. The term Arvanitai is used to describe a revolt of Bulgarians (Boulgaroi) and Arbanitai in the theme of Dyrrhachium in 1078–79. It is generally accepted that Arbanitai refers to the ethnonym of medieval Albanians. As such, it is considered to be the first attestation of Albanian as an ethnic group in Byzantine historiography.^[27] The use of the term Albanoi in 1038-49 and 1042 as an ethnonym related to Albanians have been a subject of debate. In what has been termed the "Ducellier-Vrannousi" debate, Alain Ducellier proposed that both uses of the term referred to medieval Albanians. Era Vrannousi counter-suggested that the first use referred to Normans, while the second did not have an ethnic connotation necessarily and could be a reference to the Normans as "foreigners" (aubain) in Epirus which Maniakes and his army traversed.^[27] The debate has never been resolved.^[28] A newer synthesis about the second use of the term Albanoi by Pëllumb Xhufi suggests that the term Albanoi may have referred to Albanians of the specific district of Arbanon, while Arbanitai to Albanians in general regardless of the specific region they inhabited.^[29]

• The Arbanasi people are recorded as being 'half-believers' and speaking their own language in a Bulgarian text found in a Serbian manuscript dating to 1628; the text was written by an anonymous author that according to Radoslav Grujić (1934) dated to the reign of Samuel of Bulgaria (997–1014), or possibly, according to R. Elsie, 1000–1018.^[30]
• In History written in 1079–1080, Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates referred to the Albanoi as having taken part in a revolt against Constantinople in 1043 and to the Arbanitai as subjects of the duke of Dyrrhachium. It is disputed, however, whether the "Albanoi" of the events of 1043 refers to Albanians in an ethnic sense or whether "Albanoi" is a reference to folks from southern Italy under an archaic name (there was also a tribe of Italy by the name of Albani).^[31] However a later reference to Albanians from the same Attaliates, regarding the participation of Albanians in a rebellion in 1078, is undisputed. That rebellion was led by Nikephoros Basilakes, doux of Dyrrhachium.^[32]
• Some authors (like Alain Ducellier, 1968^[33]) believe that Arvanoi are mentioned in Book IV of the Alexiad by Anna Comnena (c. 1148). Others believe that this is a wrong reading and interpretation of the Greek phrase ἐξ Ἀρβάνων (i.e. ‘from Arvana’) found in the original manuscript and in one edition (Bonn, 1839) of the Alexiad.^[34]
• The earliest Serbian source mentioning "Albania" (Ar'banas') is a charter by Stefan Nemanja, dated 1198, which lists the region of Pilot (Pulatum) among the parts Nemanja conquered from Albania (ѡд Арьбанась Пилоть, "de Albania Pulatum").^[35]
• In the 12th to 13th centuries, Byzantine writers used the name Arbanon (Medieval Greek: Ἄρβανον) for a principality in the region of Kruja.
• The oldest reference to Albanians in Epirus is from a Venetian document dating to 1210, which states that “the continent facing the island of Corfu is inhabited by Albanians”.^[36]
• A Ragusan document dating to 1285 states: "I heard a voice crying in the mountains in Albanian" (Audivi unam vocem clamantem in monte in lingua albanesca).^[37]

Pre-Indo-European linguistic substratum

Pre-Indo-European sites are found throughout the territory of Albania; such as in Maliq, Vashtëm, Burimas, Barç, Dërsnik in Korçë District, Kamnik in Kolonja, Kolsh in Kukës District, Rashtan in Librazhd and Nezir in Mat District.^[38] As in other parts of Europe, these migratory Indo-European tribes entered the Balkans and contributed to the formation of the historical Paleo-Balkan tribes, to which Albanians trace their origin. The previous populations – during the process of assimilation by the immigrating IE tribes – have played an important part in the formation of the various ethnic groups generated by their long symbiosis. Consequently, the IE languages that developed in the Balkan Peninsula, in addition to their natural evolution, have also been impacted by the idioms of the assimilated pre-Indo-European people.^[39] In terms of linguistics, the pre-Indo-European substrate language spoken in the southern Balkans has probably influenced pre-Proto-Albanian, the ancestor idiom of Albanian.^[40] 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.^[41] Some loanwords, however, have been proposed, such as shegë 'pomegranate' and lëpjetë 'orach'; compare with pre-Greek lápathon 'monk's rhubarb'.^[42][40] Albanian is also the only language in the Balkans which has retained elements of the vigesimal numeral system – njëzet 'twenty', dyzet 'forty' – which was prevalent in the pre-Indo-European languages of Europe; such as the Basque language, which broadly uses vigesimal numeration.^[38]

This pre-Indo-European substratum has also been identified as one of the contributing factors to the customs of Albanians.^[43]

Attestation

The first attested mention of Albanian occurred in 1285 at the Venetian city of Ragusa (present-day Dubrovnik, Croatia) when a crime witness named Matthew testified: "I heard a voice crying in the mountains in Albanian" (Latin: Audivi unam vocem clamantem in monte in lingua albanesca).^[44]

The earliest attested written specimens of Albanian are Formula e pagëzimit (1462) and Arnold Ritter von Harff's lexicon (1496). The first Albanian text written with Greek letters is a fragment of the Ungjilli i Pashkëve (Passover Gospel) from the 15 or 16th century. The first printed books in Albanian are Meshari (1555) and Luca Matranga's E mbsuame e krështerë (1592).^[45]

However, as Fortson notes, Albanian written works existed before this point; they have simply been lost. The existence of written Albanian 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.^[46]

Toponymy

In the Balkans and southern Italy, several toponyms, river and mountain names which have been attested since antiquity can be explained etymologically via Albanian or have evolved phonologically through Albanian and later adopted in other languages. Inherited toponyms from a Proto-Albanian language and the date of adoption of non-Albanian toponyms indicate in Albanology the regions were the Albanian language originated, evolved and expanded. Depending on which proposed etymology and phonological development linguists support, different etymologies are usually used to link Albanian to Illyrian, Messapic, Dardanian, Thracian or an unattested Paleo-Balkan language.

• Brindisi is a town in southern Italy. Brundisium was originally a settlement of the Iapygian Messapians, descendants of an Illyrian people who migrated from the Balkans to Italy in Late Bronze/Early Iron Age transition. The name highlights the ties between Messapic to Albanian as Messapic brendo (stag) is linked to Old Gheg bri (horns).^[47]
• Bunë is a river in northwestern Albania, near the cities of Shkodër and Ulcinj (Ulqin). The majority of scholars consider it a directly inherited hydronym from Illyrian Barbanna. A less accepted proposition by Eqrem Çabej considers it an unrelated name which derives from buenë (overflow of waters). The hydronym Bunë via which Slavic Bojana emerged, is often seen as indication that Albanian was spoken in the pre-Slavic era in southern Montenegro.^[48][49][50]
• Drin is a river in northern Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia. Similar hydronyms include Drino in southern Albania and Drina in Bosnia. It is generally considered to be of Illyrian origin.^[51]
• Durrës is a city in central Albania. It was founded as an ancient Greek colony and greatly expanded in Roman times. It was known as Epidamnos and Dyrrhachion/Dyrrhachium. Dyrrhachium is of Greek origin and refers to the position of the city on a rocky shore. The modern names of the city in Albanian (Durrës) and Italian (Durazzo, Italian pronunciation: [duˈrattso]) are derived from Dyrrachium/Dyrrachion. An intermediate, palatalized antecedent is found in the form Dyrratio, attested in the early centuries AD. The palatalized /-tio/ ending probably represents a phonetic change in the way the inhabitants of the city pronounced its name.^[52] The preservation of old Doric /u/ indicates that the modern name derives from populations to whom the toponym was known in its original Doric pronunciation.^[53] The initial stress in Albanian Durrës presupposes an Illyrian accentuation on the first syllable.^[49] Theories which support local Illyrian-Albanian continuity interpret Durrës < Dyrratio as evidence that Albanian-speakers continuously lived in coastal central Albania. Other theories propose that the toponym doesn't necessarily show continuity but can equally be the evolution of a loanword acquired by a Proto-Albanian population which moved in the city and its area in late antiquity from northern Albanian regions.^[54][55]
• Epidamnos is the oldest known name of Durrës and it is the first name under which the ancient Greek Corinthian colony was known. It is widely considered to be of Illyrian origin, as first proposed by linguist Hans Krahe,^[56] and is attested in Thucydides (5th century BC), Aristotle (4th century BC), and Polybius (2nd century BC).^[57] Etymologically, Epidamnos may be related to Proto-Albanian *dami (cub, young animal, young bull) > dem (modern Albanian) as proposed by linguist Eqrem Çabej.^[58]
• Erzen is a river in central Albania. It derives from Illyrian Ardaxanos (*daksa "water", "sea") found in Daksa and the name of the Dassareti tribe.^[59]
• Ishëm is a river in central Albania. It is recorded as Illyrian Isamnus in antiquity. Albanian Ishëm derives directly from Isamnus and indicates that its ancestral language was spoken in the area.^[49][60][61]
• Mat is a river in northern Albania. It is generally considered to be of Illyrian origin and originally meant "river bank, shore". It evolved within Albanian as an inherited term from its ancestral language. It indicates that it was spoken in the Mat river valley. A similar hydronym, Matlumë, is found in Kaçanik.^[62][63][64]
• Nish (Niš) is a city in southeastern Serbia. It evolved from a toponym attested in Ancient Greek as ΝΑΙΣΣΟΣ (Naissos), which achieved its present form via phonetic changes in Proto-Albanian and thereafter entered Slavic. Nish might indicate that Proto-Albanians lived in the region in pre-Slavic times.^[65] When this settlement happened is a matter of debate, as Proto-Albanians might have moved relatively late in antiquity in the area which might have been an eastern expansion of Proto-Albanian settlement as no other toponyms known in antiquity in the area presuppose an Albanian development.^[61][66] The development of Nish < Naiss- may also represent a regional development in late antiquity Balkans which while related may not be identical with Albanian.^[67]
• Vjosë is a river in southern Albania and northern Greece. In antiquity, it formed part of the boundary between Illyrian and Epirotic Greek languages. In the early Middle Ages, the Vjosa (in Greek, Aoos or Vovousa) river valley was settled by Slavic peoples. A gradual evolution within Albanian and a borrowing by Slavic-speakers or a borrowing from Slavic *Vojusha into Albanian have been proposed for Albanian Vjosë.^[68][69] Both propositions are disputed. Regardless of the etymology, the Vjosë valley is an area of Albanian-Slavic linguistic contact from the 6th-7th century onwards.^[70]
• Vlorë is a city in southwestern Albania. It was founded as ancient Greek colony Aulona (/Avlon/) in the pre-Roman era. Albanian Vlorë is a direct derivation from ancient Greek Aulon. A proposed Slavic intermediation from *Vavlona has been rejected as it doesn't conform to Albanian phonological development. The toponym has two forms, Vlorë (Tosk) and Vlonë (Gheg), which indicates that it was already in use among the population of Northern Albania before the appearance of rhotacism in Tosk.^[71][72]
• Shkodër is a city in northwestern Albania. It is one of the most significant settlements in Albania and in the pre-Roman era it was the capital of the Illyrian kingdom of Genthius. Late antiquity Scodra was a Romanized city, which even relatively late in the Middle Ages had a native Dalmatian-speaking population which called it Skudra. Slavic Skadar is a borrowing from the Romance name. The origin of Albanian Shkodër/Shkodra as a direct development of Illyrian Scodra or as the development of a Latin loanword in Proto-Albanian is a subject of debate. In theories which reject a direct derivation from Scodra, the possible break in linguistic continuity from the Illyrian form is invoked as indication that Albanian was not spoken continuously in Shkodra and the surrounding area from pre-Roman to late antiquity.^[73][74][47]
• Shkumbin is a river in central Albania. It derives from Latin Scampinus which replaced Illyrian Genusus, as recorded in Latin and ancient Greek literature. A Slavic intermediation has been rejected. Its inclusion in Latin loanwords into Proto-Albanian and phonetic evolution coincides with the historical existence of a large Roman town (near present-day Elbasan) which gave the river its new name.^[61][75]
• Shtip (Štip) is a city in eastern North Macedonia. It was known in antiquity as Astibo-s. It is generally acknowledged that Slavic Štip was acquired via Albanian Shtip.^[65] About the date of settlement of Proto-Albanians in eastern Macedonia similar arguments as in the case of Nish have emerged.^[61][66]

Linguistic reconstruction

Albanian is attested in a written form beginning only in the 15th century AD, when the Albanian ethnos was already formed. In the absence of prior data on the language, scholars have used the Latin and Slav loans into Albanian for identifying its location of origin.^[76] Proto-Albanian had likely emerged before the 1st century AD, when contacts with Romance languages began to occur intensively.^[77][78] Some scholars have attempted to conjecture the unattested language, and have eventually drawn up interpretations on the assumed proto-Albanian Urheimat and society based on the reconstructed lexicon.^[79]

Linguistic contacts

Illyrian

Illyrian tribes in the 1st-2nd centuries CE.

The very first recorded mention of a connection between Illyrians and Albanians is in 1709, attributed to the German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Leibniz, most famous for being the co-inventor of calculus along with Isaac Newton. In a series of letters, he first speculated Albanian to be related to the other Slavic languages along the Adriatic, but soon changed his mind and connected the Albanian language to that of the ancient Illyrians.^[163]

In terms of linguists or historians, the theory that Albanians were related to the Illyrians was proposed for the first time by the Swedish^[164] historian Johann Erich Thunmann in 1774.^[165] The scholars who advocate an Illyrian origin are numerous.^{[166][167][168][169]} Those who argue in favour of an Illyrian origin maintain that the indigenous Illyrian tribes dwelling in South Illyria (including today's Albania) went up into the mountains when Slavs occupied the lowlands,^[170][171] while another version of this hypothesis states that the Albanians are the descendants of Illyrian tribes located between Dalmatia and the Danube who spilled south.^[172]

Some of the arguments for the Illyrian-Albanian connection have been as follows:^[169][173]

• From what is known from the old Balkan populations territories (Greeks, Illyrians, Thracians, Dacians), Albanian is spoken in a region where Illyrian was spoken in ancient times.^[102]
• There is no evidence of any major migration into Albanian territory since the records of Illyrian occupation.^[102] Because descent from Illyrians makes "geographical sense" and there is no linguistic or historical evidence proving a replacement, then the burden of proof lies on the side of those who would deny a connection of Albanian with Illyrian.^[174]
• The Albanian tribal society has preserved the ancient Illyrian social structure based on tribal units.^[175][176] In addition, Çabej^[177] analyzed the morphology of some tribal names and pointed out that the Illyrian suffix -at appeared in the names of Illyrian tribes, such as Docleatae, Labeatae, Autariates, Delmatae correspondends to the suffix -at appeared in the 15th century Albanian tribes names like Bakirat and Demat; in Albania today, the suffixes of the names of some villages, such as Dukat and Filat, do match to the Illyrian one.
• Many of what remain as attested words to Illyrian have an Albanian explanation and also a number of Illyrian lexical items (toponyms, hydronyms, oronyms, anthroponyms, etc.) have been linked to Albanian.^[178]
• Words borrowed from Latin (e.g. Latin aurum > ar "gold", gaudium > gaz "joy" etc.^[179]) date back before the Christian era,^[173][102] while the Illyrians on the territory of modern Albania were the first from the old Balkan populations to be conquered by Romans in 229–167 BC, the Thracians were conquered in 45 AD and the Dacians in 106 AD.
• The characteristics of the Albanian dialects Tosk and Gheg^[180] in the treatment of the native and loanwords from other languages, have led to the conclusion that the dialectal split occurred after Christianisation of the region (4th century AD) and at the time of the Slavic migration to the Balkans^[102][181] or thereafter between the 6th to 7th century AD^[182] with the historic boundary between the Gheg and Tosk dialects being the Shkumbin river^[183] which straddled the Jireček line.^[173][184]

Messapic

Iapygian migrations in the early first millennium BC.

Messapic is an Iron Age language spoken in Apulia by the Iapygians (Messapians, Peucetians, Daunians), which settled in Italy as part of an Illyrian migration from the Balkans in the transitional period between the Bronze and Iron Ages.^[185] As Messapic was attested after over 500 years of development in the Italian peninsula, it's generally treated as distinct linguistically from Illyrian. Both languages are placed in the same branch of Indo-European. Eric Hamp has grouped them under "Messapo-Illyrian" which is further grouped with Albanian under "Adriatic Indo-European".^[186] Other schemes group the three languages under "General Illyrian" and "Western Paleo-Balkan".^[187] Messapian shares several exclusive lexical correspondences and general features with Albanian. Whether Messapian and Albanian share common features because of a common ancestral Illyrian idiom or whether these are features which developed in convergence among the languages of their grouping in the territory of Illyria. Shared cognates and features indicate a closer link between the two languages.^[188] The cognates include Messapic aran and Albanian arë ("field"), biliā and bijë ("daughter"), menza- (in the name Manzanas) and mëz ("foal"), brendion (in Brundisium) and bri (horn) .^[189] Some Messapian toponyms like Manduria in Apulia have no etymological forms outside Albanian linguistic sources.^[190] Other linguistic elements such as particles, prepositions, suffixes and phonological features of the Messapic language find singular affinities with Albanian.^[191]

Thracian or Daco-Moesian

Aside from an Illyrian origin, a Thracian or Daco-Moesian origin is also hypothesized. There are a number of arguments claimed as evidence. Scholars who support a Dacian origin maintain on their side that Albanians moved southwards between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD from the Moesian area.^[192] Others argue instead for a Thracian origin and maintain that the proto-Albanians are to be located in the area between Niš, Skopje, Sofia and Albania^[193] or between the Rhodope and Balkan Mountains, from which they moved to present-day Albania before the arrival of the Slavs.^[194] According to Vladimir Orel, for example, the territory associated with proto-Albanian almost certainly does not correspond with that of modern Albania, i.e. the Illyrian coast, but rather that of Dacia Ripensis and farther north.^[195]

German historian Gottfried Schramm speculated that the Albanians derived from the Christianized Bessi, after their remnants were allegedly pushed by Slavs and Bulgars during the 9th century westwards into today Albania.^[196] Archaeologically, there is absolutely no evidence of a 9th-century migration of any population, such as the Bessi, from western Bulgaria to Albania.^[197] Also according to historical linguistics the Thracian-Bessian hypothesis of the origin of Albanian should be rejected, since only very little comparative linguistic material is available (the Thracian is attested only marginally, while the Bessian is completely unknown), but at the same time the individual phonetic history of Albanian and Thracian clearly indicates a very different sound development that cannot be considered as the result of one language. Furthermore, the Christian vocabulary of Albanian is mainly Latin, which speaks against the construct of a "Bessian church language".^[198] The elite of the Bessi tribe was gradually Hellenized.^[199][200] Low level of borrowings from Greek in the Albanian language is a further argument against the identification of Albanian with the Bessi.^[201] Also the dialectal division of the Albanian-speaking area in the Early Middle Ages contradicts the alleged migration of Albanians in the hinterland of Dyrrhachium in the first decades of the 9th century AD, especially because the dialectal division of a linguistic space is in general a result of a number of linguistic phenomena occurring during a considerable span of time and requires a very large number of natural speakers.^[202]

Cities whose names follow Albanian phonetic laws – such as Shtip (Štip), Shkupi (Skopje) and Nish (Niš) – lie in the areas, believed to historically been inhabited by Thracians, Paionians and Dardani; the latter is most often considered an Illyrian tribe by ancient historians. While there still is no clear picture of where the Illyrian-Thracian border was, Niš is mostly considered Illyrian territory.^[203]

There are some close correspondences between Thracian and Albanian words.^[204] However, as with Illyrian, most Dacian and Thracian words and names have not been closely linked with Albanian (v. Hamp). Also, many Dacian and Thracian placenames were made out of joined names (such as Dacian Sucidava or Thracian Bessapara; see List of Dacian cities and List of ancient Thracian cities), while modern Albanian does not allow this.^[204] Many city names were composed of an initial lexical element affixed to -dava, -daua, -deva, -deba, -daba, or -dova, which meant "city" or "town" Endings on more southern regions are exclusively -bria ("town, city"), -disza, -diza, -dizos ("fortress, walled settlement"), -para, -paron, -pera, -phara ("town, village"). Most Illyrian names are composed of a single unit; many Thracian ones are made of two units joined. Several Thracian place-names end in -para, for example, which is thought to mean 'ford', or -diza, which is thought to mean 'fortress'. Thus in the territory of the Bessi, a well-known Thracian tribe, we have the town of Bessapara, 'ford of the Bessi'. The structure here is the same as in many European languages: thus the 'town of Peter' can be called Peterborough, Petrograd, Petersburg, Pierreville, and so on. But the crucial fact is that this structure is impossible in Albanian, which can only say 'Qytet i Pjetrit', not 'Pjeterqytet'. If para were the Albanian for 'ford', then the place-name would have to be 'Para e Besseve'; this might be reduced in time to something like 'Parabessa', but it could never become 'Bessapara'. And what is at stake here is not some superficial feature of the language, which might easily change over time, but a profound structural principle. This is one of the strongest available arguments to show that Albanian cannot have developed out of Thracian or Dacian.^[205]

Bulgarian linguist Vladimir I. Georgiev posits that Albanians descend from a Dacian population from Moesia, now the Morava region of eastern Serbia, and that Illyrian toponyms are found in a far smaller area than the traditional area of Illyrian settlement.^[112] According to Georgiev, Latin loanwords into Albanian show East Balkan Latin (proto-Romanian) phonetics, rather than West Balkan (Dalmatian) phonetics.^[206] Combined with the fact that the Romanian language contains several hundred words similar only to Albanian, Georgiev proposes that Albanian formed between the 4th and 6th centuries in or near modern-day Romania, which was Dacian territory.^[106] He suggests that Romanian is a fully Romanised Dacian language, whereas Albanian is only partly so.^[106] Albanian and Eastern Romance also share grammatical features (see Balkan language union) and phonological features, such as the common phonemes or the rhotacism of "n".^[105] This theory however has been challenged and dismantled by other scholars.^[205][207] While Noel Malcolm suggests Romanian and Aromanian originated in the Southern Balkans from Romanized Illyrians^[205]

Apart from the linguistic theory that Albanian is more akin to East Balkan Romance (i.e. Dacian substrate) than West Balkan Romance (i.e. Illyrian/Dalmatian substrate), Georgiev also notes that marine words in Albanian are borrowed from other languages, suggesting that Albanians were not originally a coastal people.^[106] According to Georgiev the scarcity of Greek loan words also supports a Dacian theory – if Albanians originated in the region of Illyria there would surely be a heavy Greek influence.^[106] According to historian John Van Antwerp Fine, who does define "Albanians" in his glossary as "an Indo-European people, probably descended from the ancient Illyrians",^[208] nevertheless states that "these are serious (non-chauvinistic) arguments that cannot be summarily dismissed."^[106] Romanian scholars Vatasescu and Mihaescu, using lexical analysis of Albanian, have concluded that Albanian was also heavily influenced by an extinct Romance language that was distinct from both Romanian and Dalmatian. Because the Latin words common to only Romanian and Albanian are significantly less than those that are common to only Albanian and Western Romance, Mihaescu argues that Albanian evolved in a region with much greater contact to Western Romance regions than to Romanian-speaking regions, and located this region in present-day Albania, Kosovo and Western North Macedonia, spanning east to Bitola and Pristina.^[115]

An argument against a Thracian origin (which does not apply to Dacian) is that most Thracian territory was on the Greek half of the Jireček Line, aside from varied Thracian populations stretching from Thrace into Albania, passing through Paionia and Dardania and up into Moesia; it is considered that most Thracians were Hellenized in Thrace (v. Hoddinott) and Macedonia.

The Dacian theory could also be consistent with the known patterns of barbarian incursions. Although there is no documentation of an Albanian migration, "during the fourth to sixth centuries the Rumanian region was heavily affected by large-scale invasion of Goths and Slavs, and the Morava valley (in Serbia) was a possible main invasion route and the site of the earliest known Slavic sites. Thus this would have been a region from which an indigenous population would naturally have fled".^[106]

Y-DNA

The three haplogroups most strongly associated with Albanian people are E-V13, R1b and J2b-L283.

• E-V13, the most common European sub-clade of E1b1b1a (E-M78) represents about 1/3 of all Albanian men and peaks in Kosovo (~40%). The current distribution of this lineage might be the result of several demographic expansions from the Balkans, such as that associated with the Balkan Bronze Age, and more recently, during the Roman era with the so-called "rise of Illyrian soldiery".^{[213][214][215][216][217]} The peak of the haplogroup in Kosovo, however, has been attributed to genetic drift.^[214]
• R1b-M269 represents about 1/5 of Albanian men, mostly under clades R-Z2103 and R-PF7562. It is linked with the introduction of the Indo-European languages in the Balkans.^[218] The oldest R1b (> R-RPF7562) sample in historically Albanian-inhabited regions has been found in EBA Çinamak, northern Albania, 2663-2472 calBCE (4045±25 BP, PSUAMS-7926). In the same site during the Iron Age, half of the men carried R-M269 (R-CTS1450 x1).^[219]
• J2b-L283 represents 14-18% of Albanian men.^[220] It peaks in northern Albania. The oldest J-L283 (> J-Z597) sample in Albania found in MBA Shkrel as early as the 19th century BC.^[219] It first spread from the northwestern Balkans southwards during the EBA/MBA with cultures likes Cetina (Dalmatia) and Cetina-derived groups which have yielded most J-L283 samples in antiquity.^[219] In a 2022 study, J-L283 and its paternal clade J-M241 were found in three out of seven Daunian samples.^[221] In IA Çinamak(northern Albania), half of the samples belonged to J-L283.^[219]
• Y haplogroup I is represented by I1 more common in northern Europe and I2 where several of its sub-clades are found in significant amounts in the South Slavic population. The specific I sub-clade which has attracted most discussion in Balkan studies currently referred to as I2a1b, defined by SNP M423^[222][223] This clade has higher frequencies to the north of the Albanophone area, in Dalmatia and Bosnia.^[214] The expansion of I2a-Din took place during Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages and today is common in Slavic speaking peoples.^[224]
• Haplogroup R1a is common in Central and Eastern Europe, especially in Slavic nations,^[225] (and is also common in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent). In the Balkans, it is strongly associated with Slavic areas.^[214]

A study by Battaglia et al. in 2008^[213] found the following haplogroup distributions among Albanians in Albania itself:

The same study by Battaglia et al. (2008) also found the following distributions among Albanians in North Macedonia:

The same study by Battaglia et al. (2008) also found the following distributions among Albanians in Albania itself and Albanians in North Macedonia:

A study by Peričić et al. in 2005^[214] found the following Y-Dna haplogroup frequencies in Albanians from Kosovo with E-V13 subclade of haplogroup E1b1b representing 43.85% of the total (note that Albanians from other regions have slightly lower percentages of E-V13, but similar J2b and R1b):

The same study by Peričić et al. in 2005^[214] found the following Y-Dna haplogroup frequencies in Albanians from Kosovo with E-V13 subclade of haplogroup E1b1b representing 43.85% of the total (note that Albanians from other regions have slightly lower percentages of E-V13, but similar J2b and R1b):

Table notes:

A study on the Y chromosome haplotypes DYS19 STR and YAP and on mitochondrial DNA found no significant difference between Albanians and most other Europeans.^[229]

Larger samples collected by volunteer-led projects, show the Albanians belong largely to Y-chromosomes J2b2-L283, R1b-Z2103/BY611 and EV-13 from Ancient Balkan populations.^[230][231]

In a 2013 study which compared one Albanian sample to other European samples, the authors concluded that it did not differ significantly to other European populations, especially groups such as Greeks, Italians and Macedonians.^{[232][233][213][214]}

mtDNA

Another study of old Balkan populations and their genetic affinities with current European populations was done in 2004, based on mitochondrial DNA on the skeletal remains of some old Thracian populations from SE of Romania, dating from the Bronze and Iron Age.^[234] This study was during excavations of some human fossil bones of 20 individuals dating about 3200–4100 years, from the Bronze Age, belonging to some cultures such as Tei, Monteoru and Noua were found in graves from some necropoles SE of Romania, namely in Zimnicea, Smeeni, Candesti, Cioinagi-Balintesti, Gradistea-Coslogeni and Sultana-Malu Rosu; and the human fossil bones and teeth of 27 individuals from the early Iron Age, dating from the 10th to 7th centuries BC from the Hallstatt Era (the Babadag culture), were found extremely SE of Romania near the Black Sea coast, in some settlements from Dobruja, namely: Jurilovca, Satu Nou, Babadag, Niculitel and Enisala-Palanca.^[234] After comparing this material with the present-day European population, the authors concluded:

Computing the frequency of common point mutations of the present-day European population with the Thracian population has resulted that the Italian (7.9%), the Albanian (6.3%) and the Greek (5.8%) have shown a bias of closer [mtDna] genetic kinship with the Thracian individuals than the Romanian and Bulgarian individuals (only 4.2%).^[234]

Autosomal DNA

Analysis of autosomal DNA, which analyses all genetic components has revealed that few rigid genetic discontinuities exist in European populations, apart from certain outliers such as Saami, Sardinians, Basques, Finns and Kosovar Albanians. They found that Albanians, on the one hand, have a high amount of identity by descent sharing, suggesting that Albanian-speakers derived from a relatively small population that expanded recently and rapidly in the last 1,500 years. On the other hand, they are not wholly isolated or endogamous because Greek and Macedonian samples shared much higher numbers of common ancestors with Albanian speakers than with other neighbors, possibly a result of historical migrations, or else perhaps smaller effects of the Slavic expansion in these populations. At the same time the sampled Italians shared nearly as much IBD with Albanian speakers as with each other.^[232]

In Lazaridis et al. (2022) a transect of samples from Albania which date from the EBA to the present day were tested. The population of Albania "appears to be largely made up of the same components in similar proportions" since the MBA. The core part of this profile consists of 50% Anatolian Neolithic Farmers, 20-25% Caucasus Hunter-Gatherers, 10-15% Eastern Hunter-Gatherers.^[235] According to this study, the speakers of Albanian, as well as Greek and other Paleo-Balkan languages, go back directly to the migration of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists into the Balkans about 5,000 to 4,500 years ago, whose admixture with the local populations generated a tapestry of various ancestry, which in Albanians resulted in the above-mentioned components.^[236]

Another study, from 2023, concludes that "a significant proportion" of the Modern Albanians paternal ancestry comes from West Balkans "including those traditionally known as Illyrians"^[237]

Italian hypothesis

Laonikos Chalkokondyles (c. 1423–1490), the Byzantine historian, considered the Albanians to be an extension of the Italians.^[147] The theory has its origin in the first mention of the Albanians, disputed whether it refers to Albanians in an ethnic sense,^[31] made by Attaliates (11th century): "...For when subsequent commanders made base and shameful plans and decisions, not only was the island lost to Byzantium, but also the greater part of the army. Unfortunately, the people who had once been our allies and who possessed the same rights as citizens and the same religion, i.e. the Albanians and the Latins, who live in the Italian regions of our Empire beyond Western Rome, quite suddenly became enemies when Michael Dokeianos insanely directed his command against their leaders..."^[238]

Caucasian hypothesis

One of the earliest theories on the origins of the Albanians, now considered obsolete, incorrectly identified the proto-Albanians with an area of the eastern Caucasus, separately referred to by classical geographers as Caucasian Albania, located in what roughly corresponds to modern-day southern Dagestan, northern Azerbaijan and bordering Caucasian Iberia to its west. This theory conflated the two Albanias supposing that the ancestors of the Balkan Albanians (Shqiptarët) had migrated westward in the late classical or early medieval period. The Caucasian theory was first proposed by Renaissance humanists who were familiar with the works of classical geographers, and later developed by early 19th-century French consul and writer François Pouqueville. It was soon rendered obsolete in the 19th century when linguists proved Albanian as being an Indo-European, rather than Caucasian language.^[239]

Pelasgian hypothesis

In terms of historical theories, an outdated theory ^[240][241] is the 19th century theory that Albanians specifically descend from the Pelasgians, a broad term used by classical authors to denote the autochthonous, pre-Indo-European inhabitants of Greece and the southern Balkans in general. However, there is no evidence about the possible language, customs and existence of the Pelasgians as a distinct and homogeneous people and thus any particular connection to this population is unfounded.^[40] This theory was developed by the Austrian linguist Johann Georg von Hahn in his work Albanesische Studien in 1854. According to Hahn, the Pelasgians were the original proto-Albanians and the language spoken by the Pelasgians, Illyrians, Epirotes and ancient Macedonians were closely related. In Hahn's theory the term Pelasgians was mostly used as a synonym for Illyrians. This theory quickly attracted support in Albanian circles, as it established a claim of predecence over other Balkan nations, particularly the Greeks. In addition to establishing "historic right" to territory this theory also established that the ancient Greek civilization and its achievements had an "Albanian" origin.^[242] The theory gained staunch support among early 20th-century Albanian publicists.^[243] This theory is rejected by scholars today.^[244] In contemporary times with the Arvanite revival of the Pelasgian theory, it has also been recently borrowed by other Albanian speaking populations within and from Albania in Greece to counter the negative image of their communities.^[245]

"Free Dacian" hypothesis

In the late 19th and early 20th century Romanian linguist Hasdeu speculated the origin of Albanians from the free Dacians (i.e., according to him, the Costoboci, the Carpi and the Bessi), after their alleged migration southwards from outside the Danubian or Carpathian limes during Roman Imperial times. His outdated methods are linguistically unsustainable and his reconstructed narrative is based on no factual evidence.^[246] This unfounded narrative was revived in the late 20th century by Romanian historian I. I. Russu^[247] persistently and beyond the scientific knowledge that was achieved in the meantime. Despite having a history background, he made claims in the field of philology and comparative linguistics, eager to prove the autochthony of the Romanian people in their present-day heartlands (mainly north of the Danube and in Transylvania).^[248] According to him, the pre-Roman lexical element shared with Romanian ("Traco-Dacian"), the massive Roman lexical element in Albanian, and the little Ancient Greek element, indicate an origin from the Thracian Carpi beyond the northeastern borders of the Empire, in the Carpatho-Danubian areas where Romanization could have been averted. Although Russu himself reported Pedersen's argument according to which precisely the large Latin influence and the small Ancient Greek influence speak in favor of the Illyrian origin of Albanian, the question arises why Russu ignored the fact that the large Latin influence actually indicates the location of Albanian within the Roman world and not outside it. Russu's linguistic analysis obviously has errors, and above all his mode of argumentation goes even beyond Hasdeu's romantic narrative.^[249]

Citations

Bibliography