Labuništa


Labuništa is a village in the municipality of Struga, North Macedonia.

Name

Labuništa is an old name dating back to the time of the arrival of Slavic peoples to the Balkans. The origins of the name Labuništa are Greco-Latin from the toponym Albanopolis. Pianka Włodzimierz connects the placename Labuništa with a south-western Balkans settlement of antiquity named Albanopolis, a city marked on an ancient map by Roman geographer Ptolemy. Through metathesis the name Albanopolis entered Slavic where the suffix polis meaning city became išta with dual meanings of either being a patronymic or indicating a place. While the form Alban, a name, underwent metathesis and became Labun in Slavic of which the syllable cluster an became un giving the final form as Labun.

Geography

The village of Labuništa is located at above sea level on the Eastern side of the Jablanica mountain range. The village is located around from Struga, the closest town. The nearest villages to Labuništa include Podgorci, Boroec, Vevčani and Oktisi. The village is located close to the Black Drim river and the Globočica lake.

Demographics

Labuništa has traditionally been inhabited by Orthodox Christian Macedonians and a Macedonian Muslim population. Part of the population is Albanian.

Demographic History

According to Vasil Kanchov's study of Macedonia in 1900, "Macedonia, Ethnography and Statistics",, counted the village as having 660 Bulgarian Christian and 800 Muslim inhabitants.
According to the statistics of Geographers Dimitri Mishev and D. M. Brancoff, the village had a total Christian population of 640 in 1905, consisting of 512 Serbian Patriarchist Bulgarians and 128 Exarchist Bulgarians. According to 1961 data by anthropologist Joel Halpern the village's population was composed of 2,345 Macedonian Muslims and 380 Christian Macedonians.
The population of the village in past censuses:
YearMacedoniansAlbaniansTurksOthers
19611,68737259674
19712,39786529752
19814,19922082143
19941,2281,7991,8161,058

Demographics today

According to the 2002 national census, 5,936 people live in the village. According to the 2002 census, in Labuništa lived:
Regarding the mother tongue of the population, the following results were given:
Common language and origin with Macedonian Christians does not play a role for a majority of Macedonian Muslims regarding self identification which is based on common religion that in Labuništa has led to self declarations of being Albanian. Attempts have been made to introduce the Albanian language in schooling, though these endeavours were not widely supported in Labuništa.

Sports

Local football club FK Labunishta plays in the Macedonian Second League.

Notable people