Albanology, also known as Albanian studies, is an interdisciplinary branch of the humanities that addresses the

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

costume Costume is the distinctive style of dress or cosmetic of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, profession, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch. In short costume is a cultural visual of the people. The term also was tradition ...

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to ...

, art, culture and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

of Albanians. Within the studies the scientific methods of literature, linguistics, archeology, history and culture are used. However 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, Eur ...

is the main point of research of the studies.

Studies

Johann Erich Thunmann in the 18th century was probably the first Albanologist. He supported the theory of the autochthony of the Albanians and also presented the Illyrian origin theory. Later on

Gustav Meyer Gustav Meyer (25 November 1850 – 28 August 1900) was a German linguist and Indo-European scholar, considered to be one of the most important Albanologists of his time, most importantly by proving that the Albanian language belongs to the Indo-E ...

proved that Albanian language was part of the Indo-European family. In the 20th century such studies were deepened by Norbert Jokl, Milan Šufflay, and Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás, as well as

Karl Reinhold Karl Reinhold (1834–1880) was a German physician and Albanologist from Kingdom of Hannover. He was born in Göttingen, and worked as the physician-in-chief in the Greek Navy, after Prince Otto of Bavaria became King of the newly constituted ...

, and Eqrem Çabej. The studies of Albanology were more institutionally supported in Albania starting in 1940 with the opening of the

Royal Institute of the Albanian Studies The Royal Institute of Albanian Studies (in Albanian: Instituti Mbretnuer i Studimeve Shqiptare) (1940-1944) was a scientific and cultural institute that preceded the Academy of Sciences of Albania. Founded during the Albanian Kingdom (1939–43), ...

, which had preceded the Academy of Sciences of Albania, opened in 1972. Meanwhile, during the 1960s, the

Albanology Institute of Pristina Albanological Institute of Pristina, sq, Instituti Albanologjik i Prishtinës or ''Instituti Albanologjik - Prishtinë'', is the main Institute of Albanology in Kosovo. It is an independent public institution. Together with the Centre of Albanolo ...

was also reconstructed in

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a international recognition of Kosovo, partiall ...

, then part of

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

. The institute emerged from its core founded in 1953.

Notable Albanologists

Albanian-born

Ndoc Nikaj Ndoc Nikaj (15 June 186416 January 1951) was an Albanian priest, writer, and historian. He was the first Albanian novelist to write and publish an original novel in the Albanian language, ( en, Shkodra under siege) of 1905. Biography Born in Sh ...

(1864–1951) *

Gjergj Pekmezi Gjergj Pekmezi (23 April 1872 – 24 February 1938) was an Albanian linguist, philosopher, folklorist and diplomat. In 1916, he became a member of the Literary Commission of Shkodër, which established the first standard form of the Albanian lang ...

(1872–1938) * Fan Noli (1882–1965) *

Costa Chekrezi Costa Chekrezi (31 March 1892 – 10 January 1959), also known as Constantin Anastas Chekrezi ( sq, Kostandin Çekrezi) was an Albanian patriot, historian, and publicist. Biography Chekrezi was born on 31 March 1892 in Ziçisht village, in the ...

(1892–1959) * Tahir Dizdari (1900–1972) * Tajar Zavalani (1903–1966) * Stavro Skëndi (1905–1989) * Eqrem Çabej (1908–1980) *

Namik Resuli Namik Resuli (10 September 1908 - 12 September 1985) was an Albanian linguist and academic. Biography Born in Berat in 1908, after having accomplished elementary studies in Albania he went to Italy, where he finished his secondary studies an ...

(1908–1985) *

Selman Riza Selman Riza (1909–1988) was an Albanian linguist and Albanologist. Riza was one of the founding members of the Albanological Institute of Pristina in 1953. Early life Selman Riza was born in Yakova (now Gjakova), Ottoman Empire on 21 Decem ...

(1909–1988) *

Aleks Buda Aleks Buda (7 September 1910 – 7 July 1993) was an Albanian historian. After completion of his education in Italy and Austria, he returned to Albania. Although his education was in literature, he made a career as a historian during the socialist ...

(1910–1993) *

Petro Janura Petro Janura (1911–1983) was a main personality of the Albanian language, Albanian literature, literature, and Albanian folklore, folklore in Yugoslavia during 1950s-mid 1980s. A writer, journalist, folklorist, pedagogue, literary critic, and ...

(1911–1983) *

Mahir Domi Mahir Domi (1915–2000) was an Albanian linguist, professor, and academic. He was one of the organizers and main participants of the Albanian Orthography Congress, and member of the follow up commission responsible for deploying the orthographi ...

(1915–2000) *

Dhimitër Shuteriqi Dhimitër Shuteriqi (26 July 1915 ‒ 22 July 2003) was an Albanian scholar, literary historian, and writer. He participated in the anti-fascist National Liberation Movement. After the war he was a member of the People's Assembly and one of the ...

(1915–2003) *

Idriz Ajeti Idriz Ajeti (26 June 1917 – 13 February 2019) was an Albanologist from Kosovo and one of the main researchers and authorities on the Albanian language studies of post World War II. He was involved for a long period in the academic life of the ...

(1917–2019) *

Shaban Demiraj Shaban Demiraj (1920–2014) was an Albanian albanologist, linguist, professor at the University of Tirana from 1972–1990, and chairman of the Academy of Sciences of Albania during the period of 1993-1997. Life Demiraj was born on 1 January ...

(1920–2014) *

Mark Krasniqi Mark Krasniqi (9 October 1920 – 28 August 2015) was an Kosovar Albanian ethnographist, publicist, writer and translator who did most of his work while residing in Yugoslavia. Biography He was born on 19 October 1920 in near Peć, in th ...

(1920–2015) *

Androkli Kostallari Androkli Kostallari (1922–1992) was an Albanian linguist and scholar. He was one of the central figures of the Albanian language studies and founding member and director of the Albanian Institute of History and Linguistics, and later Institute ...

(1922–1992) * Mehdi Bardhi (1927–1994) * Jashar Rexhepagiq (1929–2010) *

Petro Zheji Petro Zheji (18 October 1929 - 14 March 2015) was an Albanian linguist, translator, philosopher, and author from Gjirokastër who lived and worked intellectually in Tiranë, Albania. As a polyglot, he was deeply knowledgeable in the Italian, Fren ...

(1929–2015) *

Besim Bokshi Besim Bokshi (12 November 1930 – 16 August 2014) was an Albanian poet, linguist and philologist. He served as the president of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo during 2008-2011. Career Besim Bokshi was born in Gjakova, Kingdom of ...

(1930–2014) * Skënder Rizaj (1930–2021) * Fehmi Agani (1932–1999) *

Muzafer Korkuti Muzafer Korkuti (born 1936) is an Albanian archaeologist and prehistorian. He is considered an expert on the prehistoric period of Albania. Korkuti was the director of the Institute of Archeology at the Centre for Albanological Studies in Tirana ...

(*1936) *

Rexhep Qosja Rexhep Qosja (born 1936) is an Albanian writer and literary critic from a part of Malësia in modern Montenegro (where locally the region is known as ''Malesija''). Life and career He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Pristina a ...

(*1936) *

Jorgo Bulo Jorgo Bulo (27 April 1939 – 26 November 2015) was an Albanian philologist, historian, and literary critic. Since 2003 up to his death (2015) he was a member of the Albanian Academy of Arts and Sciences. Bulo was born on 27 April 1939 in Sheper ...

(1939–2015) * Anton Berisha (*1946) *

Aurel Plasari Aurel Plasari (born 16 September 1955) is an Albanian, lecturer, scholar, writer, translator and professor. Early life and education Plasari was born in Tirana, where he completed all levels of his education. At the age of seventeen, while stil ...

(*1956)

Foreign-born

Demetrio Franco Demetrio Franco ( sq, Dhimitër Frëngu; 1443–1525) was an Albanian historian. He was a close accomplice of Skanderbeg, later publishing works on his life. Life Franco was born in Drivasto in 1443 to a Catholic family. Through his mother he ...

(1443–1525) * Marcin Bielski (1495–1575) * Johann Erich Thunmann (1746–1778) * François Pouqueville (1770–1838) * William Martin Leake (1777–1860) * Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer (1790–1861) * Joseph von Xylander (1794-1854) * Johann Georg von Hahn (1811–1869) *

(1834–1880) * Vikentij Makušev (1837–1883) * Jan Urban Jarník (1848–1923) *

(1850–1900) *

Lajos Thallóczy Lajos Thallóczy (born Ludwig Strommer, also known as Ludwig von Thallóczy; 8 December 1857 – 1 December 1916) was a Hungarian historian, a politician and diplomat, the head of the joint finance department of the Dual Monarchy, a member of the ...

(1857–1916) * Alexandru Philippide (1859–1933) * Theodor Anton Ippen (1861–1935) *

Carl Patsch Carl Ludwig Patsch, also Karl Ludwig Patsch, sq, Karl Paç; bg, Карл Пач (14 September 1865 in Kovač – 21 February 1945 in Vienna) was an Austrian Slavist, Albanologist, archaeologist and historian. Biography Carl Patsch was bo ...

(1865–1945) * Antonio Baldacci (1867–1950) * Nicolae Iorga (1871–1940) * Mario Roques (1875–1961) * Norbert Jokl (1877–1942) * Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás (1877–1933) * Milan Šufflay (1879–1931) *

Maximilian Lambertz Maximilian Lambertz (27 July 1882 in Vienna – 26 August 1963 in Markkleeberg near Leipzig) was an Austrian linguist, folklorist, and a major personality of Albanology. Biography In the years 1900 to 1905, he studied comparative linguistics and ...

(1882–1963) *

Marco La Piana Marco La Piana (1883–1958) was an Italian scholar of Arbëresh origin. La Piana gave his contribute through his studies on Albanian language and Arbëresh dialects. Biography La Piana was born in Piana degli Albanesi ( sq, Hora e Arbëres ...

(1883–1958) * Margaret Hasluck (1885–1948) * Jacques Bourcart (1891–1965) * Giuseppe Valentini (1900–1979) *

Georg Stadtmüller Georg Stadtmüller (Bürstadt, Hessen, 17 March 1909 – Passau, 1 November 1985) was German historian and Albanologist. Biography He studied German history, classic and oriental philology and history in Freiburg in period 1927–1931. He was pre ...

(1909–1985) * Agniya Desnitskaya (1912–1992) * Wacław Cimochowski (1912–1982) *

Vangelis Liapis Vangelis Liapis ( el, Βαγγέλης Λιάπης, 1914-2008) was a Greek scholar and folklorist. Life Vangelis Liapis was born on 14 August 1914 in Eleusis near Athens, Greece. He was of Arvanite origin. In 1932, he entered the Faculty of ...

(1914–2008) *

Eric P. Hamp Eric Pratt Hamp (November 16, 1920 – February 17, 2019) was an American linguist widely respected as a leading authority on Indo-European linguistics, with particular interests in Celtic languages and Albanian. Unlike many Indo-Europeanists, wh ...

(1920–2019) * Peter Schubert (1938–2003) * James Pettifer (*1949) * Robert Elsie (1950–2017) * Vladimir Orel (1952–2007) *

Pasquale Scutari Pasquale Scutari is an Italian linguist and Albanologist. Scutari was born in the Arbereshe San Costantino Albanese in the Province of Potenza, southern Italy in 1952. He graduated from the "Istituto Magistrale di Lagonegro" and later he enrol ...

(*1952) *

Francesco Altimari Francesco Altimari ( sq, Françesko Altimari, link=no) is an Italian scholar in the field of Albanology. He is honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of Albania (2006), external member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo (2008) and fu ...

(*1955) * Noel Malcolm (*1956) * Marko Snoj (*1959) * Oliver Schmitt (*1973)

References

External links