Albania (placename)

The toponym Albania may indicate several different geographical regions: a country in Southeast Europe; an ancient land in the Caucasus; as well as Scotland, Albania being a Latinization of a Gaelic name for Scotland, Alba;[1] and a city in the U.S. state of New York.

Albania (Southeast Europe)
Further information: Names of the Albanians and Albania

Albania is the name of a country in Southeast Europe, attested in Medieval Latin. The name has derived from the Illyrian tribe of the Albanoi and their center Albanopolis, noted by the astronomer of Alexandria, Ptolemy, in the 2nd century AD.[2][3][4][5] Linguists think that the element *alb- in the root word, is an Indo-European term for a type of mountainous topography, meaning "hill, mountain", also present in Alps.[6] Through the root word alban and its rhotacized equivalents arban, albar, and arbar, the term appears as the ethnonym of Albanians in Medieval Greek documents as Albanoi and Arbanitai, and in Medieval Latin as Albanenses and Arbanenses, gradually entering in other European languages.[7][8]

Arbon

The toponym Arbon (Greek: Ἄρβων or Ἀρβών) [9] or Arbo[10] (Greek: Άρβωνα)[11] is mentioned by Polybius in the History of the World (2nd century BC). It was perhaps an island[12] in Liburnia or another location within Illyria. Stephanus of Byzantium in the 6th century AD, in his important geographical dictionary entitled Ethnica (Εθνικά), cites Polybius, saying it was a city in Illyria and gives a topical name for its inhabitants, calling them Arbonios (Greek: Αρβώνιος) and Arbonites (Greek: Αρβωνίτης).[13]

Albanopolis

Albanopolis was an ancient Illyrian city in the Roman province of Macedon,[14] the center of the Illyrian tribe of Albani, noted by the astronomer of Alexandria, Ptolemy, during 150 AD in his famous work Geography.[15] It was located in the Zgërdhesh hill-fort near Krujë, central Albania.[16][17][18] The city may have a continuation with the name of the city of Albanon or Arbanon, mentioned during the Middle Ages.[19]

Albanoi (Ἀλβανόί) reappeared in Byzantine documents in the 11th century, around 1043, as the exonym of the Albanians.[20] During the late Byzantine period the names Albanoi, alongside Arbanitai, were used interchangeably, and gradually entered other European languages, in which similar derivative names emerged.[21] The national ethnonym of the Albanians has derived from this Illyrian tribe.[22][23][24]

Arbanon

Arbanon, or Albanon, originally, was a region in the mountainous area to the west of Lake Ohrid and the upper valley of the river Shkumbin, in the 11th century AD.[25]

The Albanians are mentioned in Anna Comnena's account Alexiad, as Arbanites, because of their fights against the Normans in the region of Arbanon, during the reign of her father Alexios I Komnenos (1081–1118).[26] Before that, in the book History written in 1079–1080, Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates was first to refer to the Albanoi as having taken part in a revolt against Constantinople in 1043 and to the Arbanitai as subjects of the duke of Dyrrachium.[27] 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 name Illyrians.[28][29]

In the 12th to 13th centuries, Arbanon (Greek: Άρβανον) appears as a principality in Byzantine sources. In 1190 the Principality of Arbanon (Albanian: Principata e Arbërit) became the first Albanian state during the Middle Ages.[30] Its capital was the city of Krujë,[31] the region in which the town of Arbanon originally was located and from which the principality got its name.[32] It seems that this toponym has survived continuously since antiquity in this area.[33] This suggests that probably the toponym "Arbanon" has derived from the ancient city of Albanopolis.[34][35][36]

In Latin documents the territory was known as Arbanum and later as Albaniae.[37] It appears in Bulgarian chronicles as Arbanas.[38] In medieval Serbian sources, the toponym of the country underwent linguistic metathesis and was rendered as Raban and Rabanski for the people.[39][40] This is a typical metathesis in Slavic languages, for example the island of Arba in Croatia now is known as Rab.[41] However, in later Serbian references the ethnonym for Albanians would appear as Arbanasi.[42][43]

Meanwhile, the Albanians, during the Middle Ages, referred to their country as Arbëria (Gheg Albanian: Arbënia) and called themselves Arbëreshë (Gheg Albanian: Arbëneshë).[44][45][46] In Southeast Europe, a similar term is still used today by the Aromanians, who call the Albanians in their language Arbineshi.[47]

The medieval ethnonym Arbanitai and its corresponding modern ethnonym Arvanites have the same etymology as Albanians, being derived from the stem Alb- by way of a rhotacism, Alb- → Arb- (based on the root *alban- and its rhotacized variant *arban-).[48] In fact, the term Arvanitis (Ἀρβανίτης) [singular form] was established in modern Greek language from the original name Alvanitis (Άλβανίτης), who in return derived from Alvanos (Ἀλβανος).[49][50] Compare the rhotacism of alb- into arv- in the Neapolitan dialect of Italy.

Albania (Caucasus)

Albania as the name of Caucasian Albania, a state and historical region of eastern Caucasus, that existed on the territory of present-day republic of Azerbaijan and partially southern Dagestan.

However, unlike the names of the other two European countries, this name was an exonym given to them by the Romans, as no one knew what the local inhabitants of the region of Caucasian Albania called themselves at the time. Compare also the land in Caucasus called Iberia, and the Iberian peninsula in Europe.

The Udi people and their language, the Udi language, are descendants of the ancient people of Caucasian Albania.[51][52][53]

Alba (Scotland)

Alba, a Gaelic name for Scotland, may be related to the Greek name of Britain Albion, Latinized as Albania during the High Medieval period, and later passed into Middle English as Albany.

Albion (Great Britain)

Albion (Ancient Greek: Ἀλβίων) is the oldest known name of the island of Great Britain. Today, it is still sometimes used poetically to refer to the island. The name for Scotland in the Celtic languages is related to Albion: Alba in Scottish Gaelic, Albain in Irish, Nalbin in Manx and Alban in Welsh, Cornish and Breton. These names were later Latinised as Albania and Anglicised as Albany, which were once alternative names for Scotland. New Albion and Albionoria ("Albion of the North") were briefly suggested as possible names of Canada during the period of the Canadian Confederation.

Albany (New York)

Albany is the capital of the U.S. state of New York and the seat of Albany County. The name originates from the Scottish Duke of Albany, whose title comes from the Gaelic name for Scotland, Alba.[54]

When New Netherland was captured by the English in 1664, they changed the name Beverwijck to Albany, in honor of the Duke of Albany. This was a Scottish title given since 1398, generally to the second son of the King of Scots.[55] Albany is one of the oldest surviving European settlements from the original Thirteen Colonies[56] and the longest continuously chartered city in the United States.

See also

Notes
  1. Price, Glanville (1992). The Celtic Connection. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-86140-248-9. Retrieved 17 December 2013. Indeed, Eire might well have become the Gaelic name of Scotland as it is that of Ireland. But it was Alba that finally won as the vernacular name while Scotia survived as entirely a literary term
  2. Lloshi 1999, p. 277. "The Albanians of today call themselves shqiptarë, their country Shqipëri, and their language shqipe. These terms came into use between the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries. Foreigners call them albanesi (Italian), Albaner (German), Albanians (English), Alvanos (Greek), and Arbanasi (old Serbian), the country Albania, Albanie, Albanien, Alvania, and Albanija, and the language Albanese, Albanisch, Albanian, Alvaniki, and Arbanashki respectively. All these words are derived from the name Albanoi of an Illyrian tribe and their center Albanopolis, noted by the astronomer of Alexandria, Ptolemy, in the 2nd century AD. Alban could he a plural of alb- arb-, denoting the inhabitants of the plains.
  3. Malcolm 1998, p. 29. "Nor is there any mystery about the origin of this name. In the second century Ptolemy referred to a tribe called the 'Albanoi', and located their town, 'Albanopolis', somewhere to the east of Durres."
  4. Mëniku & Campos 2012, p. 2. "Albanian is an Indo-European language, but like modern Greek and Armenian, it does not have any other closely related living language. Within the Indo-European family, it forms a group of its own. In Albanian, the language is called shqip. Albania is called Shqipëri, and the Albanians call themselves shqiptarë. Until the fifteenth century the language was known as Arbërisht or Arbnisht, which is still the name used for the language in Italy and Greece. The Greeks refer to all the varieties of Albanian spoken in Greece as Arvanitika. In the second century AD, Ptolemy, the Alexandrian mathematician, astronomer and geographer, used the name Albanoi to refer to an Illyrian tribe that used to live in what is now central Albania. During the Middle Ages the population of that area was referred to as Arbanori or Albanon. It is clear that the words Arbëresh, Arvanitika, and even Albanian and Albania are all related to the older name of the language."
  5. Ramadan Marmullaku - 1975, Albania and the Albanians - Page 5
  6. Malcolm 1998, p. 29. "Linguists believe that the ‘Alb-’ element comes from the Indo-European word for a type of mountainous terrain, from which the word ‘Alps’ is also derived."
  7. Elsie, Robert (2005). Albanian literature: A short history. London: I.B. Tauris. pp. 3–4. "Their traditional designation, based on a root *alban- and its rhotacized variants *arban-, *albar-, and *arbar-, appears from the eleventh century onwards in Byzantine chronicles (Albanoi, Arbanitai, Arbanites), and from the fourteenth century onwards in Latin and other Western documents (Albanenses, Arbanenses)."
  8. Malcolm, Noel. "Kosovo, a short history". London: Macmillan, 1998, p. 22–40 "The name used in all these references is, allowing for linguistic variations, the same: 'Albanenses' or 'Arbanenses' in Latin, 'Albanoi' or 'Arbanitai' in Byzantine Greek. (The last of these, with an internal switching of consonants, gave rise to the Turkish form 'Arnavud', from which 'Arnaut' was later derived.)"
  9. Polybius (1823). The general history of Polybius, Tome 1. and escaped to Arbon
  10. Polybius, Histories, 2.11, "Of the Illyrian troops engaged in blockading Issa, those that belonged to Pharos were left unharmed, as a favour to Demetrius; while all the rest scattered and fled to Arbo"
  11. Polybius, Histories, 2.11, "είς τόν Άρβωνα σκεδασθέντες"
  12. Strabo, Geography H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A., Ed,"The Libyrnides are the islands of Arbo, Pago, Isola Longa, Coronata, &c., which border the coasts of ancient Liburnia, now Murlaka."
  13. Ethnica, Epitome, page 111, line 14, : Αρβών πόλις Ιλλυριας.Πολύβιος δευτέρα, το εθνικόν Αρβώνιος και Αρβωνίτης, ως Αντρώνιος και Ασκαλωνίτης.
  14. Ptolemy. "III.13(12).23". Geography
  15. Madrugearu A, Gordon M. The wars of the Balkan peninsula. Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. p. 146
  16. Richard Talbert, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, (ISBN 0-691-03169-X), Map 49 & notes.
  17. Robert Elsie (2010), Historical Dictionary of Albania, Historical Dictionaries of Europe, vol. 75 (2 ed.), Scarecrow Press, pp. 497–498, ISBN 978-0810861886
  18. Ancient Indo-European Dialects: Proceedings, Henrik Birnbaum, Jaan Puhvel - 1966 Page 98
  19. Mëniku & Campos 2012, p. 2. "Albanian is an Indo-European language, but like modern Greek and Armenian, it does not have any other closely related living language. Within the Indo-European family, it forms a group of its own. In Albanian, the language is called shqip. Albania is called Shqipëri, and the Albanians call themselves shqiptarë. Until the fifteenth century the language was known as Arbërisht or Arbnisht, which is still the name used for the language in Italy and Greece. The Greeks refer to all the varieties of Albanian spoken in Greece as Arvanitika. In the second century AD, Ptolemy, the Alexandrian mathematician, astronomer and geographer, used the name Albanoi to refer to an Illyrian tribe that used to live in what is now central Albania. During the Middle Ages the population of that area was referred to as Arbanori or Albanon. It is clear that the words Arbëresh, Arvanitika, and even Albanian and Albania are all related to the older name of the language."
  20. Robert Elsie (2010), Historical Dictionary of Albania, Historical Dictionaries of Europe, 75 (2 ed.) "Their traditional designation, based on a root *alban- and its rhotacized variants *arban-, *albar-, and *arbar-, appears from the eleventh century onwards in Byzantine chronicles (Albanoi, Arbanitai, Arbanites), and from the fourteenth century onwards in Latin and other Western documents (Albanenses, Arbanenses)."
  21. Lloshi, Xhevat (1999). "Albanian" p. 277. "The Albanians of today call themselves shqiptarë, their country Shqipëri, and their language shqipe. These terms came into use between the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries. Foreigners call them albanesi (Italian), Albaner (German), Albanians (English), Alvanos (Greek), and Arbanasi (old Serbian), the country Albania, Albanie, Albanien, Alvania, and Albanija, and the language Albanese, Albanisch, Albanian, Alvaniki, and Arbanashki respectively. All these words are derived from the name Albanoi of an Illyrian tribe and their center Albanopolis, noted by the astronomer of Alexandria, Ptolemy, in the 2nd century AD. Alban could he a plural of alb- arb-, denoting the inhabitants of the plains.
  22. History of the Byzantine Empire, 324–1453 By Alexander A. Vasiliev Edition: 2, illustrated Published by Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1958 ISBN 0-299-80926-9, ISBN 978-0-299-80926-3 (page 613)
  23. History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and nineteenth centuries By Barbara Jelavich Edition: reprint, illustrated Published by Cambridge University Press, 1983 ISBN 0-521-27458-3, ISBN 978-0-521-27458-6 (page 25)
  24. The Indo-European languages By Anna Giacalone Ramat, Paolo Ramat Edition: illustrated Published by Taylor & Francis, 1998 ISBN 0-415-06449-X, 9780415064491 (page 481)
  25. Studies in late Byzantine history and prosopography Volume 242 of Collected studies Variorum reprints ; CS242 Volume 242 of Variorum reprint Author Donald MacGillivray Nicol Edition illustrated Publisher Variorum Reprints, 1986 ISBN 0-86078-190-9, ISBN 978-0-86078-190-5 page. 160
  26. Robert Elsie Texts and Documents of Albanian History: 1081, Anna Comnena; The Norman Invasion of Albania
  27. Michaelis Attaliotae: Historia, Bonn 1853, p. 8, 18, 297
  28. Mazaris 1975, pp. 76–79.
  29. N. Gregoras (ed. Bonn) V, 6; XI, 6.
  30. Clements 1992, p. 31 "By 1190, Byzantium's power had so receded that the archon Progon succeeded in establishing the first Albanian state of the Middle Ages, a principality"
  31. John V. A. Fine, The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest, p.51.
  32. Frashëri 1964, p. 42
  33. Malcolm, Noel. "Kosovo, a short history". London: Macmillan, 1998, p.22-40 "...and located their town,'Albanopolis', somewhere to the east of Durres. Some such place-name must have survived there, continuously if somewhat hazily, ever since; there was an area called 'Arbanon' in north-central Albania in the eleventh century, and in the early twentieth century 'Arben' was the local name for a region near Kruja".
  34. Malcolm, Noel. "Kosovo, a short history". London: Macmillan, 1998, p.22-40 "...and located their town, 'Albanopolis', somewhere to the east of Durres. Some such place-name must have survived there, continuously if somewhat hazily, ever since; there was an area called 'Arbanon' in north-central Albania in the eleventh century, and in the early twentieth century 'Arben' was the local name for a region near Kruja...The continuity of this name is a striking fact;"
  35. Mëniku & Campos 2012, p. 2. "In the second century AD, Ptolemy, the Alexandrian mathematician, astronomer and geographer, used the name Albanoi to refer to an Illyrian tribe that used to live in what is now central Albania. During the Middle Ages the population of that area was referred to as Arbanori or Albanon. It is clear that the words Arbëresh, Arvanitika, and even Albanian and Albania are all related to the older name of the language."
  36. Ramadan Marmullaku - 1975, Albania and the Albanians - Page 5
  37. Ćirković, Sima (2007).Der Jugoslawien-Krieg: Handbuch zu Vorgeschichte, Verlauf und Konsequenzen. p.19, "Die Albaner hatten im Verlauf des Mittelalters keinen eigenen Staat, doch besaßen sie ein kompaktes, mit einem Ethnonym versehenes Mutterland (Arbanon, Arbanum, Raban, Regnum Albaniae, Albania).
  38. Гюзелев, Боян. Албанци в Източните Балкани, София 2004, p. 29-38; Sofia, 2004 Boyan Guizelev. "ALBANIANS IN THE EASTERN BALKANS": Edited by Vassilka Tankova, p.29-38.
  39. Matica 2007, p. 12. "у наведеном цитату привлачи пажњу чињеница, да је Стефан Немања запосео ,,од Рабна оба Пилота’’. Назив ,,Рабна’’ или ,,Рабан’’, као што је већ у исторнографији истакнуто, изведен је метатезом од именнце ,,Арбаном’’ или ,,Арбанум’’, за које знају грчки и латински извори ис XI и XII века. [in the above quotation draws attention to the fact that Stefan Nemanja possessed ,,Rabna of both Pulats’’. The name ,,Rabna’’ or ,,Raban’’, as has already been pointed out in histriography, is derived from the metathesis of the term ,,Arbanom’’ or ,, Arbanum’’, which is known from Greek and Latin sources during the eleventh and twelfth century.]
  40. Naučna knjiga 1940, p. 729. "За време стварања српске државе Стефаном, сином Немањам, око 1215 год, област Arbanum (спр. Рабан), у којој је био и овај арбанашки Београд [During the creation of the Serbian state Stefan, son of Nemanja, around 1215, the area Arbanum (Sr. Raban), in which this Albanian Berat was]"; p.744. "Наши облици Рабан и рабански постали су без сумње од лат. Arbanum на исти начин као што је Rab постало од лат. Arba… [Our forms Raban and rabanski come without doubt from the Latin. Arbanum in the same manner as Rab came from the Lat. Arba...]"
  41. Naučna knjiga 1940, p.744. "Наши облици Рабан и рабански постали су без сумње од лат. Arbanum на исти начин као што је Rab постало од лат. Arba… [Our forms Raban and rabanski come without doubt from the Latin. Arbanum in the same manner as Rab came from the Lat. Arba...]"
  42. Zbornik za Istocnjacku Istorisku i Knjizevnu Gradu 1940, p. 745. "Арбанас, арбанаски, арбански и арбанашки и све остале од исте основе изведене речи постала су од Arbanus. [Arbanas, arbanaski, arbanski and arbanaški and all of the same grounds derived words have come from Arbanus.]"
  43. History of the Byzantine Empire, 324–1453 By Alexander A. Vasiliev Edition: 2, illustrated Published by Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1958 ISBN 0-299-80926-9, ISBN 978-0-299-80926-3 (page 613)
  44. Demiraj, Bardhyl (2010), pp. 534. "The ethnic name shqiptar has always been discussed together with the ethnic complex: (tosk) arbëresh, arbëror, arbër — (gheg) arbënesh, arbënu(e)r, arbën; i.e. [arbën/r(—)]. p.536. Among the neighbouring peoples and elsewhere the denomination of the Albanians is based upon the root arb/alb, cp. Greek ’Αλβανός, ’Αρβανός "Albanian", ‘Αρβανίτης "Arbëresh of Greece", Serbian Albanac, Arbanas, Bulg., Mac. албанец, Arom. arbinés (Papahagi 1963 135), Turk. arnaut, Ital. albanese, German Albaner etc. This basis is in use among the Arbëreshs of Italy and Greece as well.
  45. Kamusella, Tomasz (2009). The politics of language and nationalism in modern Central Europe. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 241. "Prior to the emergence of the modern self-ethnonym Shqiptarë in the mid-16th century (for the first time it was recorded in 1555 by the Catholic Gheg, Gjon Buzuku, in his missal), North Albanians (Ghegs) referred to themselves as Arbën, and South Albanians (Tosks) Arbër. Hence, the self-ethnonym Arbëreshë of the present-day Italo-Albanians (numbering about 100,000) in southern Italy and Sicily, whose ancestors, in the wake of the Ottoman wars, emigrated from their homeland in the 14th century. These self-ethnonyms perhaps influenced the Byzantine Greek Arvanites for ‘Albanians,’ which was followed by similar ones in Bulgarian and Serbian (Arbanasi), Ottoman (Arnaut), Romanian (Arbănas), and Aromanian (Arbineş). Shqiptarë could be derived from Albanian shqipoi (from Latin excipere) for ‘to speak clearly, to understand.’ The Albanian public favors the belief that their self-ethnonym stems from shqipe (‘eagle’) found on the Albanian national flag."
  46. 2017 Mate Kapović, Anna Giacalone Ramat, Paolo Ramat; "The Indo-European Languages"; page 554-555
  47. Koukoudis, Asterios (2003). The Vlachs: Metropolis and Diaspora. Thessaloniki: Zitros Publications. ISBN 9789607760869.
  48. Elsie 2005, pp. 3–4. "Their traditional designation, based on a root *alban- and its rhotacized variants *arban-, *albar-, and *arbar-, appears from the eleventh century onwards in Byzantine chronicles (Albanoi, Arbanitai, Arbanites), and from the fourteenth century onwards in Latin and other Western documents (Albanenses, Arbanenses)."
  49. Theißen, Ulrich (2007), p. 90. "Der ursprüngliche Name Άλβανίτης (abgeleitet von Άλβάνος) wurde im Neugriechischen zu Άρβανίτης… In türkischer Vermittlung erfuhr die Silbe -van- eine Metathese zu -nav-, so dass die türkische Form des Namens für die Albaner arnavut bzw. arnaut Lautet. In dieser Form gelangte das Wort ins Bulgarische (BER I/1971: 15). [The original name Άλβανίτης (derived from Άλβάνος) was established in Modern Greek to Άρβανίτης .... In Turkish the syllable was experienced and mediated as -van- and by metathesis to -nav- so that the Turkish form of the name for the Albanians became respectively Arnavut or Arnaut. In this form, the word came into Bulgarian (BER I / 1971: 15).]"
  50. Liotta, Peter H. (2001), p. 198. "Among Greeks, the term "Alvanitis"—or "Arvanitis"—means a Christian of Albanian ancestry, one who speaks both Greek and Albanian, but possesses Greek "consciousness." Numerous "Arvanites" live in Greece today.
  51. V. Minorsky. Caucasica IV. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 15, No. 3. (1953), pp. 504–529.
  52. Gippert; Schulze. : 201.
  53. "Endangered Caucasian Languages in Georgia". Frankfurt University (in German). Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  54. E. G. Cody. The Historie of Scotland. Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons; 1888. OCLC 3217086. p. 354.
  55. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Albany, Dukes of" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 487–489, line two. The title of duke of Albany was first bestowed in 1398....
  56. Larnard, J.N. (1922). Donald E. Smith (ed.). The New Larned History for Ready Reference and Research. Vol. I (A-Bak). C.A. Nichols Publishing Company. p. 195.

References
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