Shqiptar

Shqiptar (Albanian definite form: Shqip(ë)tari; Gheg Albanian: Shqyptar/-i; plural: Shqiptarë/-t, Shqyptarë/-t) is an Albanian ethnonym (endonym), by which Albanians call themselves. They call their country Shqipëria (Gheg Albanian: Shqypnia, Shqipnia). It has gradually replaced the Old Albanian endonym Arbënesh/Arbëresh after the Middle Ages in the western Balkans.

Etymology

The first documentation of the adverb/adjective shqip can already be found in the Meshari, the oldest Albanian language book published in 1555 by Gjon Buzuku. Johann Georg von Hahn (1854) was the first to derive the term Shqiptar from the Albanian verbs shqipoj ("to speak clearly") and shqiptoj ("to speak out, pronounce"), while Gustav Meyer (1891) was the first to derive shqipoj from the Latin verb excipere, denoting people who speak the same language, similar to the ethno-linguistic dichotomies Sloven—Nemac and Deutsch—Wälsch. This etymology is widely accepted by modern Albanologists. Demetrio Camarda (1864), on the other hand, was the first to derive Shqiptar from the Albanian noun shqipe or shqiponjë (eagle). This theory, now considered a folk etymology, is based mainly on the symbolic meaning of the eagle for the Albanian people, as it is their national bird, a totem associated with freedom and heroism in Albanian folklore. It has been used as a national symbol since their earliest records, and was a common heraldic symbol for many Albanian dynasties in the Late Middle Ages; an example is the flag of Skanderbeg, whose family symbol was the black double-headed eagle, which is displayed on the Albanian flag.

History

During the Middle Ages, the Albanians called their country Arbëria (Gheg: Arbënia) and referred to themselves as Arbëresh (Gheg: Arbënesh) while known through derivative terms by neighbouring peoples as Arbanasi, Arbanenses / Albaneses, Arvanites (Arbanites), Arnaut, Arbineş and so on.