Istrian Albanian was a

Gheg Gheg (also spelled Geg; Gheg Albanian: ''gegnishtja'', Standard sq, gegërishtja) is one of the two major varieties of Albanian, the other being Tosk. The geographic dividing line between the two varieties is the Shkumbin River, which winds ...

variety of the

Albanian language Albanian ( endonym: or ) is an Indo-European language and an independent branch of that family of languages. It is spoken by the Albanians in the Balkans and by the Albanian diaspora, which is generally concentrated in the Americas, Europ ...

, spoken in the village of Katun

History

From the 13th to the 17th century the depopulation of the

Istrian Peninsula Istria ( ; Croatian and Slovene: ; ist, Eîstria; Istro-Romanian, Italian and Venetian: ; formerly in Latin and in Ancient Greek) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic betwee ...

prompted the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice ( vec, Repùblega de Venèsia) or Venetian Republic ( vec, Repùblega Vèneta, links=no), traditionally known as La Serenissima ( en, Most Serene Republic of Venice, italics=yes; vec, Serenìsima Repùblega de Venèsia, ...

to repopulate the region with settlers, which among others included Albanians. The coalescence of the various dialects spoken by the settlers led to the formation of the Istrian Albanian dialect. The only surviving text of the dialect was written by the local scholar Pietro Stancovich in the 1830s. Stankovich recorded a version of the Parable of the Prodigal Son and a vocabulary list of the dialect.

References

Albanian dialects History of Istria Extinct languages of Europe {{ie-lang-stub