Arvanites

Arvanites (; Arvanitika: , or , ; Greek: , ) are a bilingual population group in Greece of Albanian origin. They traditionally speak Arvanitika, an Albanian language variety, along with Greek. Their ancestors were first recorded as settlers who came to what is today southern Greece in the late 13th and early 14th century. They were the dominant population element in parts of the Peloponnese, Attica and Boeotia until the 19th century.Trudgill (2000: 255). They call themselves Arvanites (in Greek) and Arbëror (in their language). Arvanites today self-identify as Greeks as a result of a process of cultural assimilation,GHM (1995). and do not consider themselves Albanian.Trudgill/Tzavaras (1977). Arvanitika is in a state of attrition due to language shift towards Greek and large-scale internal migration to the cities and subsequent intermingling of the population during the 20th century.

Names

The name Arvanites and its equivalents are today used both in Greek (, singular form , feminine ) and in Arvanitika itself ( or ). In Standard Albanian () all three names are used. The name ''Arvanites'' and its variants are based upon the root ''arb/alb'' of the old ethnonym that was at one time used by all Albanians to refer to themselves. It refers to a geographical term, first attested in Polybius in the form of a place-name (), and then again in Byzantine authors of the 11th and 12th centuries in the form () or (), referring to a place in what is today Albania. The name ''Arvanites'' ("Arbanitai") originally referred to the inhabitants of that region, and then to all Albanian-speakers. The alternative name ''Albanians'' may ultimately be etymologically related, but is of less clear origin (see Albania (toponym)). It was probably conflated with that of the "Arbanitai" at some stage due to phonological similarity. In later Byzantine usage, the terms "Arbanitai" and "Albanoi", with a range of variants, were used interchangeably, while sometimes the same groups were also called by the classicising names ''Illyrians''. In the 19th and early 20th century, ''Alvani'' (Albanians) was used predominantly in formal registers and ''Arvanites'' (Αρβανίτες) in the more popular speech in Greek, but both were used indiscriminately for both Muslim and Christian Albanophones inside and outside Greece. "Until the Interwar period ''Arvanitis'' (plural ''Arvanitēs'') was the term used by Greek speakers to describe an Albanian speaker regardless of his/hers religious background. In official language of that time the term ''Alvanos'' was used instead. The term ''Arvanitis'' coined for an Albanian speaker independently of religion and citizenship survives until today in Epirus (see Lambros Baltsiotis and Léonidas Embirikos, "De la formation d'un ethnonyme. Le terme Arvanitis et son evolution dans l'État hellénique", in G. Grivaud-S. Petmezas (eds.), ''Byzantina et Moderna'', Alexandreia, Athens, 2006, pp. 417-448." In Albania itself, the self-designation ''Arvanites'' had been exchanged for the new name ''Shqiptarë'' since the 15th century, an innovation that was not shared by the Albanophone migrant communities in the south of Greece. In the course of the 20th century, it became customary to use only ''Αλβανοί'' for the people of Albania, and only ''Αρβανίτες'' for the Greek-Arvanites, thus stressing the national separation between the two groups.

There is some uncertainty to what extent the term ''Arvanites'' also includes the small remaining Christian Albanophone population groups in Epirus and West Macedonia. Unlike the southern Arvanites, these speakers are reported to use the name ''Shqiptarë'' both for themselves and for Albanian nationals, although these communities also espouse a Greek national identity nowadays. The word ''Shqiptár'' is also used in a few villages of Thrace, where Arvanites migrated from the mountains of Pindus during the 19th century. However they also use the name ''Arvanitis'' speaking in Greek, while th
''Euromosaic'' (1996)
reports notes that the designation '' Chams'' is today rejected by the group. The report by GHM (1995) subsumes the Epirote Albanophones under the term ''Arvanites'', although it notes the different linguistic self-designation, on the other hand, applies the term ''Arvanites'' only to the populations of the compact Arvanitic settlement areas in southern Greece, in keeping with the self-identification of those groups. Linguistically, the Ethnologue identifies the present-day Albanian/Arvanitic dialects of Northwestern Greece (in Epirus and Lechovo) with those of the Chams, and therefore classifies them together with standard Tosk Albanian, as opposed to "Arvanitika Albanian proper" (i.e. southern Greek-Arvanitika). Nevertheless, it reports that in Greek the Epirus varieties are also often subsumed under "Arvanitika" in a wider sense. It puts the estimated number of Epirus Albanophones at 10,000. Arvanitika proper is said to include the outlying dialects spoken in Thrace.

History

Arvanites in Greece originate from Albanian settlers who moved south from areas in what is today southern Albania during the Middle Ages. These Albanian movements into Greece are recorded for the first time in the late 13th and early 14th century. The reasons for this migration are not entirely clear and may be manifold. In many instances the Albanians were invited by the Byzantine and Latin rulers of the time. They were employed to re-settle areas that had been largely depopulated through wars, epidemics, and other reasons, and they were employed as soldiers. Some later movements are also believed to have been motivated to evade Islamization after the Ottoman conquest.

Groups of Albanians moved into Thessaly as early as 1268 as mercenaries of Michael Doukas. The Albanian tribes of Bua, Malakasioi and Mazaraki were described as "unruly" nomads living in the mountains of Thessaly in the early 14th century in Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos' 'History'. They numbered approximately 12,000. Kantakouzenos describes a pact they made to serve the Byzantine Emperor and pay tribute to him ca. 1332 in exchange for using the lowland areas of Thessaly in the summer months. Albanian groups were given military holdings Fanari in the 1330s and by the end of the 14th century and the Ottoman takeover of the region, they were an integral part of the military structures of Thessaly. Two of their military leaders known in Byzantine sources as Peter and John Sebastopoulos controlled the small towns of Pharsala and Domokos. Ottoman control began in the late 14th century with the capture of Larissa in 1392-93 and consolidated in the early 15th century. Nevertheless, Ottoman control was threatened throughout this era by groups of Greeks, Albanians and Vlachs who based themselves in the mountainous areas of Thessaly.

The main waves of migration into southern Greece started from 1350, reached a peak some time during the 14th century, and ended around 1600. Albanians first reached Thessaly, then Attica, and finally the Peloponnese. One of the larger groups of Albanian settlers, amounting to 10,000, settled the Peloponnese during the reign of Theodore I Palaiologos, first in Arcadia and subsequently in the more southern regions around Messenia, Argolis, Elis and Achaea. Around 1418, a second large group arrived, possibly fleeing Aetolia, Acarnania and Arta, where Albanian political power had been defeated. After the Ottoman incursion in 1417, other groups from Albania crossed western Greece and may have infiltrated into Achaea. The settled Albanians practiced a nomadic lifestyle based on pastoralism, and spread out into small villages.

In 1453, the Albanians rose in revolt against Thomas and Demetrios Palaiologos, due to the chronic insecurity and tribute payment to the Turks; they were also joined by the local Greeks, who by then had a common leader in Manuel Kantakouzenos. Following the Ottoman conquest, many Albanians fled to Italy and settled primarily in the Arbëreshë villages of Calabria and Sicily. On the other hand, in an effort to control the remaining Albanians, during the second half of the 15th century, the Ottomans adopted favorable tax policies towards them were adopted, likely in continuation of similar Byzantine practices. This policy had been discontinued by the early 16th century.

During the Greek War of Independence, many Arvanites played an important role on fighting on the Greek side against the Ottomans, often as national Greek heroes. With the formation of modern nations and nation-states in the Balkans, Arvanites have come to be regarded as an integral part of the Greek nation. In 1899, leading representatives of the Arvanites in Greece, including descendants of the independence heroes, published a manifesto calling their fellow Albanians outside Greece to join in the creation of a common Albanian-Greek state.

During the 20th century, after the creation of the Albanian nation-state, Arvanites in Greece have come to dissociate themselves much more strongly from the Albanians, stressing instead their national self-identification as Greeks. At the same time, it has been suggested that many Arvanites in earlier decades maintained an assimilatory stance, leading to a progressive loss of their traditional language and a shifting of the younger generation towards Greek. At some times, particularly under the nationalist 4th of August Regime under Ioannis Metaxas of 1936–1941, Greek state institutions followed a policy of actively discouraging and repressing the use of Arvanitika. In the decades following World War II and the Greek Civil War, many Arvanites came under pressure to abandon Arvanitika in favour of monolingualism in the national language, and especially the archaizing Katharevousa which remained the official variant of Greek until 1976. This trend was prevalent mostly during the Greek military junta of 1967–1974.

Demographics

The 1460-1463 Ottoman taxation cadastre recorded the taxable population of the Peloponnese by households ( ''ḫâne''), bachelors, and widows. Specifically, there were 6,551 (58.37%) Greek and 4,672 (41.63%) Albanian households, 909 (66.25%) Greek and 463 (33.75%) Albanian bachelors, and 562 (72.05%) Greek and 218 (27.95%) Albanian widows. Greeks tended to live in large villages and cities, while Albanians in small villages. Specifically, out of the 580 inhabited villages, 407 are listed as Albanian, 169 as Greek, and four as mixed; however, Greek villages had on average 3.5 times more families than Albanian ones.: "The 580 inhabited locations registered in the TT10-1/14662 are divided into 169 Greek villages, 407 Albanian, and four villages of mixed population (Table 4).... The average number of families residing in Greek villages is 41.29 and the Albanian counterpart is 11.86; hence, the average Greek village was approximately three and a half times larger than the Albanian one. The average Peloponnesian village, when we count Greek, Albanian and mixed settlements, hosted 20.69 families." Many of these settlements have since been abandoned, while others have been renamed. A Venetian source of the mid-15th century estimates that 30,000 Albanians lived in the Peloponnese at that time. Throughout the Ottoman–Venetian wars, many Albanians died or were captured in service to the Venetians; at Nafpaktos, Nafplio, Argos, Methoni, Koroni and Pylos. Furthermore, 8,000 Albanian stratioti, most of them along with their families, left the Peloponnese to continue their military service under the Republic of Venice or the Kingdom of Naples. At the end of the Ottoman–Venetian wars, a large number of Albanians had fled from the Peloponnese to Sicily. In the second half of the 19th century, out of the approximately 730,000 (per the Greek census of 1879) inhabitants of the Peloponnese, and the three neighboring islands of Poros, Hydra and Spetses, Arvanites numbered 90,253 (or 12.3%) in total according to Alfred Philippson; while in a critical response to Philippson's study the same year, Christos Koryllos supported 50,352 (or 6.9%) for the Peloponnese and 20,685 for the three aforementioned islands, totalling 71,037 (or 9.7%). In the mid-19th century, Johann Georg von Hahn had estimated their number throughout Greece to be between 173,000 and 200,000.

There are no official figures about the number of Arvanites in Greece today (no official data exist for ethnicity in Greece). The last official census figures available come from 1951. Since then, estimates of the numbers of Arvanites has ranged from 25,000 to 200,000. The following is a summary of the widely diverging estimates (Botsi 2003: 97):

*1928 census: 18,773 citizens self-identifying as "Albanophone" in all of Greece.
*1951 census: 22,736 "Albanophones".
*Furikis (1934): estimated 70,000 Arvanites in Attica alone.
*Trudgill/Tzavaras (1976/77): estimated 140,000 in Attica and Boeotia together.
*Sasse (1991): estimated 50,000 Arvanitika speakers in all of Greece.
*Ethnologue, 2000: 150,000 Arvanites, living in 300 villages.
*Federal Union of European Nationalities, 1991: 95,000 "Albanians of Greece" (MRG 1991: 189)
* Minority Rights Group International, 1997: 200,000 Arvanites of Greece.
*Jan Markusse (2001): 25.000 Arvanites in Greece
Like the rest of the Greek population, Arvanites have been emigrating from their villages to the cities and especially to the capital Athens. This has contributed to the loss of the language in the younger generation.

File:Pelopones ethnic.JPG, Alfred Philippson's ethnographic map of the Peloponnese, 1890; Albanian-speaking areas in red.
File:The Historical Atlas, 1911 – Distribution of Races in the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor.jpg, American ethnographic map of the Balkan Peninsula, 1911; Albanian-inhabited areas in light orange.
File:Ethnic map europe 1923.jpg, Albanians in Greece (light blue shade), 1923 (C.S. Hammond & Co)
File:Mitteleuropa (ethnische_Karte) 1932.jpg, Albanians in Greece (orange shade), 1932 (Carl Troll)

Settlements

Today, regions with a strong traditional presence of Arvanites are found mainly in a compact area in southeastern mainland Greece, namely across Attica (especially in Eastern Attica), southern Boeotia, the north-east of the Peloponnese, the south of the island of Euboea, the north of the island of Andros, and several islands of the Saronic Gulf including Salamis, Hydra, Poros, Agistri and Spetses. In parts of this area they formed a solid majority until about 1900. Within Attica, parts of the capital Athens and its suburbs were Arvanitic until the late 19th century. There are also settlements in some other parts of the Peloponnese, and in Phthiotis. Albanians also settled on the islands of Kea, Psara, Aegina, Kythnos, Skopelos and Samos. They would thereafter assimilate into the Greek population.Jochalas, Titos P. (1971): Über die Einwanderung der Albaner in Griechenland: Eine zusammenfassene Betrachtung On the immigration of Albanians to Greece: A summary" München: Trofenik. pg. 89-106.

This is a list of settlements with a historical population of Arvanites:
* Boeotia:
** Thespies
** Tanagra
** Leontari, Boeotia
** Oinofyta
* Phthiotis:
** Livanates
** Martino, Phthiotis
** Malesina
* Euboea:
** Kafireas
** Styra
** Zarakes
* Attica:
** Acharnes
** Afidnes
** Agios Stefanos
** Ano Liosia
** Aspropyrgos
** Avlonas
** Chalandri
** Elefsina
** Erythres
** Fyli
** Grammatiko
** Kalamos
** Kalyvia Thorikou
** Kapandriti
** Kamatero
** Keratea
** Kifissia
** Kryoneri
** Malakasa
** Mandra
** Marathonas
** Markopoulo Mesogaias
** Markopoulo Oropou
** Marousi
** Metamorfosi
** Oropos
** Paiania
** Plaka
** Polydendri
** Spata
** Sykamino
** Vari
** Varnavas
** Varympompi
** Vilia
* Corinthia:
** Examilia
* Argolis
** Kranidi
** Methana
** Prosymna

Language use and language perception

Arvanitika is a dialect of the Albanian language, sharing similar features primarily with other Tosk varieties. The name ''Arvanítika'' and its native equivalent Arbërisht are derived from the ethnonym ''Arvanites'', which in turn comes from the toponym Arbëna (Greek: Άρβανα), which in the Middle Ages referred to a region in what is today Albania. Its native equivalents (''Arbërorë, Arbëreshë'' and others) used to be the self-designation of Albanians in general. While Arvanitika was commonly called ''Albanian'' in Greece until the 20th century, the wish of Arvanites to express their ethnic identification as Greeks has led to a stance of rejecting the identification of the language with Albanian as well. In recent times, Arvanites had only very imprecise notions about how related or unrelated their language was to Albanian. Since Arvanitika is almost exclusively a spoken language, Arvanites also have no practical affiliation with the Standard Albanian language used in Albania, as they do not use this form in writing or in media. The question of linguistic closeness or distance between Arvanitika and Albanian has come to the forefront especially since the early 1990s, when a large number of Albanian immigrants began to enter Greece and came into contact with local Arvanitic communities.

Since the 1980s, there have been some organized efforts to preserve the cultural and linguistic heritage of Arvanites. The largest organisation promoting Arvanitika is the "Arvanitic League of Greece" ().

Arvanitika is currently considered in danger of extinction due to it having no legal status in Greece. The language is also not available at any level of the educational system in Greece. Social changes, government policies, and public indifference have also contributed to the decline of the language.

Intercommunity relations

Arvanites were regarded as ethnically distinct from the Greeks until the 19th century. Amongst the Arvanites, this difference was expressed in words such as ''shkljira'' for a Greek person and ''shkljerishtë'' for the Greek language that had until recent decades negative overtones. These words in Arvanitika have their related counterpart in the pejorative term ''shqa'' used by Northern Albanians for Slavs. Ultimately these terms used amongst Albanian speakers originate from the Latin word ''sclavus'' which contained the traditional meaning of "the neighbouring foreigner".Pipa, Arshi (1989). ''The politics of language in socialist Albania''. East European Monographs. p. 178. "North Albanian call Slavs shqé (sg. shqá

With participation in the Greek War of Independence and the Greek Civil War, this has led to increasing assimilation amongst the Arvanites.Hall, Jonathan M. ''Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity''. Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 29, . The common Christian Orthodox religion they shared with the rest of the local population was one of the main reasons that led to their assimilation. Although sociological studies of Arvanite communities still used to note an identifiable sense of a special "ethnic" identity among Arvanites, the authors did not identify a sense of 'belonging to Albania or to the Albanian nation'. Many Arvanites find the designation "Albanians" offensive as they identify nationally and ethnically as Greeks and not Albanians. Jacques Lévy describes the Arvanites as "Albanian speakers who were integrated into Greek national identity as early as the first half of the nineteenth century and who in no way consider themselves as an ethnic minority".

Relations between Arvanites and other Albanian speaking populations have varied over time. During the onset of the Greek war of Independence, Arvanites fought alongside Greek revolutionaries and against Muslim Albanians. For example Arvanites participated in the 1821 Tripolitsa Massacre of Muslim Albanians,Heraclides, Alexis (2011).
The essence of the Greek-Turkish rivalry: national narrative and identity
'. Academic Paper. The London School of Economics and Political Science. p. 15. "On the Greek side, a case in point is the atrocious onslaught of the Greeks and Hellenised Christian Albanians against the city of Tripolitza in October 1821, which is justified by the Greeks ever since as the almost natural and predictable outcome of more than '400 years of slavery and dudgeon'. All the other similar atrocious acts all over Peloponnese, where apparently the whole population of Muslims (Albanian and Turkish-speakers), well over twenty thousand vanished from the face of the earth within a spat of a few months in 1821 is unsaid and forgotten, a case of ethnic cleansing through sheer slaughter (St Clair 2008: 1-9, 41-46) as are the atrocities committed in Moldavia (were the "Greek Revolution" actually started in February 1821) by prince Ypsilantis." while some Muslim Albanian speakers in the region of Bardounia remained after the war, converting to Orthodoxy.Andromedas, John N. (1976). "Maniot folk culture and the ethnic mosaic in the southeast Peloponnese". ''Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences''. 268. (1): 200. "In 1821, then, the ethnic mosaic of the southeastern Peloponnese (the ancient Laconia and Cynouria) consisted of Christian Tsakonians and Albanians on the east, Christian Maniats and Barduniotes, and Moslem Albanian Barduniotes in the southwest, and an ordinary Greek Christian population running between them. In 1821, with a general Greek uprising impending, rumors of a "Russo-Frankish" naval bombardment caused the "Turkish" population of the southeastern Peloponnese to seek refuge in the fortresses of Monevasia, Mystra, and Tripolitza. Indeed, the Turkobarduniotes were so panic stricken that they stampeded the Moslems of Mystra along with them into headlong flight to Tripolitza. The origin of this rumor was the firing of a salute by a sea captain named Frangias in honor of a Maniat leader known as "the Russian Knight." Some Moslems in Bardunia, and elsewhere, remained as converts to Christianity. Thus almost overnight the whole of the southeastern Peloponnese was cleared of "Turks" of whatever linguistic affiliation. This situation was sealed by the ultimate success of the Greek War for Independence. The Christian Albanians, identifying with their Orthodox coreligionists and with the new nationstate, gradually gave up the Albanian language, in some instances deliberately deciding not to pass it on to their children." In recent times, Arvanites have expressed mixed opinions towards Albanian immigrants within Greece. Negative views are perceptions that Albanian immigrants are "communists" arriving from a "backward country", or an opportune people with questionable morals, behaviors and a disrespect for religion. Other Arvanites during the late 1980s and early 1990s expressed solidarity with Albanian immigrants, due to linguistic similarities and being politically leftist. Relations too between Arvanites and other Orthodox Albanian speaking communities such as those of Greek Epirus are mixed, as they are distrusted regarding religious matters due to a past Albanian Muslim population living amongst them.

Amongst the wider Greek speaking population however, the Arvanites and their language Arvanitika were viewed in past times in a derogatory manner. These views contributed toward shaping negative attitudes held by Arvanites regarding their language and thereby increasing assimilation. In post-dictatorial Greece, the Arvanites have rehabilitated themselves within Greek society through for example the propagation of the Pelasgian theory regarding Arvanite origins. The theory created a counter discourse that aimed to give the Arvanites a positive image in Greek history by claiming the Arvanites as the ancestors and relations of contemporary Greeks and their culture. The Arvanite revival of the Pelasgian theory has also been recently borrowed by other Albanian speaking populations within and from Albania in Greece to counter the negative image of their communities.De Rapper, Gilles (2009).
Pelasgic Encounters in the Greek–Albanian Borderland: Border Dynamics and Reversion to Ancient Past in Southern Albania.
''Anthropological Journal of European Cultures''. 18. (1): 60-61. "In 2002, another important book was translated from Greek: Aristides Kollias' ''Arvanites and the Origin of Greeks'', first published in Athens in 1983 and re-edited several times since then (Kollias 1983; Kolia 2002). In this book, which is considered a cornerstone of the rehabilitation of Arvanites in post- dictatorial Greece, the author presents the Albanian speaking population of Greece, known as Arvanites, as the most authentic Greeks because their language is closer to ancient Pelasgic, who were the first inhabitants of Greece. According to him, ancient Greek was formed on the basis of Pelasgic, so that man Greek words have an Albanian etymology. In the Greek context, the book initiated a 'counterdiscourse' (Gefou-Madianou 1999: 122) aiming at giving Arvanitic communities of southern Greece a positive role in Greek history. This was achieved by using nineteenth-century ideas on Pelasgians and by melting together Greeks and Albanians in one historical genealogy (Baltsiotis and Embirikos 2007: 130—431, 445). In the Albanian context of the 1990s and 2000s, the book is read as proving the anteriority of Albanians not only in Albania but also in Greece; it serves mainly the rehabilitation of Albanians as an antique and autochthonous population in the Balkans. These ideas legitimise the presence of Albanians in Greece and give them a decisive role in the development of ancient Greek civilisation and, later on, the creation of the modern Greek state, in contrast to the general negative image of Albanians in contemporary Greek society. They also reverse the unequal relation between the migrants and the host country, making the former the heirs of an autochthonous and civilised population from whom the latter owes everything that makes their superiority in the present day." However, this theory has been rejected by modern scholars and it is seen as a myth.

Arvanitic culture

Fara

''Fara'' (, means "seed", "descendants" in Arvanitika, from Proto-Albanian ''*pʰarā'') is a descent model, similar to the Albanian tribal system of ''fis''. Arvanites were organised in phares (φάρες) mostly during the reign of the Ottoman Empire. The ''apical ancestor'' was a warlord and the phara was named after him. In an Arvanitic village, each phara was responsible to keep genealogical records (see also registry offices), that are preserved until today as historical documents in local libraries. Usually, there were more than one phares in an Arvanitic village and sometimes they were organised in phratries that had conflicts of interest. Those phratries didn't last long, because each leader of a phara desired to be the leader of the phratry and would not be led by another.

Role of women

Women held a relatively strong position in traditional Arvanitic society. Women had a say in public issues concerning their phara, and also often bore arms. Widows could inherit the status and privileges of their husbands and thus acquire leading roles within a ''fara'', as did, for instance, Laskarina Bouboulina.

Arvanitic songs

Traditional Arvanite folk songs offer valuable information about social values and ideals of Arvanitic societies.

Dress

The traditional clothing of Arvanites included distinctive attire that sometimes identified them in past times as Arvanites from other neighbouring populations. Arvanite males on the Greek mainland wore the '' fustanella'', a pleated like skirt garment or kilt, while those who lived on some Aegean islands wore baggy breeches of the seafaring Greeks.Welters, Lisa (1995). "Ethnicity in Greek dress". In Eicher, Joanne.
Dress and ethnicity: Change across space and time
'. Oxford: Berg Publishers. . p.59. "According to old travel books, the nineteenth-century traveler could readily identify Greek-Albanian peasants by their dress. The people and their garb, labeled as "Albanian", were frequently described in contemporary written accounts or depicted in watercolours and engravings. The main components of dress associated with Greek-Albanian women were a distinctly embroidered chemise or shift and a thick white woolen sleeveless coat called sigouni and for men an outfit with a short full skirt known as the foustanella. Some names for the components of women's garments were Albanian rather than Greek (Welters 1988: 93-4). For instance, bridal and festival chemises with hems embroidered in silk were termed foundi, meaning "the end" in Albanian."

Arvanite women were known for wearing a chemise shirt that was heavily embroidered. They also wore a heavily embroidered ''foundi'' or gown like garment that was heavily embroidered in silk and on the mainland the ''sigouni'', a woolen thick white coat. On the Aegean islands, Arvanite women wore silk gowns with Turkish influences.Welters. ''Ethnicity in Greek dress''. 1995. p.68. "Whereas the foustanella represented Greek nationalism to Greeks and non-Greeks alike, the lesser known foundi of the peasant women of Attica communicated that the wearer was Greek-Albanian to the inhabitants of a much smaller geographical area. Greek dress could also have more than one meaning. For example, within Attica, the colours and patterns of the embroidered foundi indicated both ethnicity (Greek-Albanian) and geographical origin (Messoghia villages of Attica). Thus, Greek dress can be simultaneously both ethnic dress and regional dress... One hypothesis generated by the field research projects in Attica and Argolidha-Corinthia was that the white sigouni was associated with Greek Albanians. In villages throughout Attica Greek-Albanian villagers identified this garment as theirs. Other ethnic groups in Attica knew that the outfit with the white sigouni was worn by the Arvanites. In Argolidha and Corinthia, where the population was of mixed ethnic background, I was told again that only the Arvanites wore the sigouni."; p.69. "Similarly, not all areas of Albanian settlement in Greece have traditional clothing which includes the sigouni. Traditional attire attributed to the wealthy islands of Hydra and Aegina was of a type associated with the seafaring Greeks, baggy breeches for men and Turkish inspired silk gowns for women." Terms for Arvanite female clothing were in Arvanitika rather than in Greek.

Notable Arvanites

Greek War of Independence

* Laskarina Bouboulina, female member of Filiki EtaireiaKollias (1983).
* Georgios Kountouriotis,Απομνημονεύματα Μακρυγιάννη. from Hydra, admiral (and briefly Prime Minister)
* Ioannis Orlandos
* Odysseas Androutsos
* Lazaros Kountouriotis
*Andreas Miaoulis
*Dimitris Plapoutas
* Hatzigiannis Mexis

Presidents of Greece

* Pavlos Kountouriotis, admiral

Prime Ministers of Greece

* Antonios KriezisΚριεζής, Θεόδωρος (1948), ''Οι Κριεζήδες του Εικοσιένα''. (also served in the Greek navy during the Revolution)
*Alexandros Diomidis

Politicians

*Theodoros Pangalos, former minister of foreign affairs and deputy prime minister

Clergymen

* Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens, incumbent Archbishop of Athens.

Military

*Theodoros Pangalos,Πάγκαλος, Θεόδωρος (1950). ''Τα απομνημονευματά μου, 1897–1947: η ταραχώδης περιόδος της τελευταίας πεντηκονταετίας''. general and briefly military dictator.
*Alexandros Kontoulis
* Dimitrios Kriezis

Literature

* Panayotis Koupitoris
* Anastas Kullurioti

Folklore

* Aristeidis Kollias
*Vangelis Liapis

Science

* Tasos Neroutsos, physician and scholar

Artists

* Eleni Boukoura-Altamoura, painter

See also

* Albanians in Greece
*Arvanitika
* Arvanitic alphabet
*Souliotes
*Arbëreshë
* Arnauts
* Stratioti
* The Voice of Albania (newspaper)

References

Sources

*
*Bakaoukas, Michael. "Modern Greek National Identity". Center for Applied Philosophy: The Radical Academy
(Online text)
*Banfi, Emanuele (1996), "Minoranze linguistiche in Grecia: Problemi storico- e sociolinguistici" Linguistic minorities in Greece: Historical and sociolinguistic problems" In: C. Vallini (ed.), ''Minoranze e lingue minoritarie: Convegno internazionale''. Naples: Universitario Orientale. 89-115.
*Bintliff, John (2003), "The Ethnoarchaeology of a "Passive" Ethnicity: The Arvanites of Central Greece" in K.S. Brown and Yannis Hamilakis, eds., ''The Usable Past: Greek Metahistories'', Lexington Books. .
*Biris, Kostas (1960): ''Αρβανίτες, οι Δωριείς του νεότερου Ελληνισμού: H ιστορία των Ελλήνων Αρβανιτών''. Arvanites, the Dorians of modern Greece: History of the Greek Arvanites" Athens. (3rd ed. 1998: )
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External links

Arvanite music performed by Thanasis MoraitisArvanitic League of Greece
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Arvanitic Music kithara.grΗ Καινή Διαθήκη Δίγλωττος τουτέστι Γραικική και Αλβανιτική

{{Greece topics

Greek people of Albanian descent