Shqiptar


Shqiptar is an Albanian ethnonym, by which Albanians call themselves. They call their country Shqipëria.

Etymology

The first documentation of the adverb/adjective shqip can already be found in the Meshari, the oldest Albanian language book published in 1555 by Gjon Buzuku. Johann Georg von Hahn was the first to derive the term Shqiptar from the Albanian verbs shqipoj and shqiptoj. While Gustav Meyer was the first to derive shqipoj from the Latin verb excipere, denoting people who speak the same language, similar to the ethno-linguistic dichotomies Sloven—Nemac and Deutsch—Wälsch. This etymology is widely accepted by modern Albanologists. Demetrio Camarda on the other hand, was the first to derive Shqiptar from the Albanian noun shqipe or shqiponjë. This theory, now considered a folk etymology, is based mainly on the symbolic meaning of the eagle for the Albanian people, as it is their national bird, a totem associated with freedom and heroism in Albanian folklore. It has been used as a national symbol since their earliest records, and was a common heraldic symbol for many Albanian dynasties in the Late Middle Ages; an example is the flag of Skanderbeg, whose family symbol was the black double-headed eagle, which is displayed on the Albanian flag.

History

During the Middle Ages, the Albanians called their country Arbëria and referred to themselves as Arbëresh while known through derivative terms by neighbouring peoples as Arbanasi, Arbanenses / Albaneses, Arvanites, Arnaut, Arbineş and so on. The words Shqipëri and Shqiptar are attested from 14th century onward, but it was only at the end of 17th and beginning of the early 18th centuries that the placename Shqipëria and the ethnic demonym Shqiptarë gradually replaced Arbëria and Arbëreshë amongst Albanian speakers. This was due to socio-political, cultural, economic and religious complexities that Albanians experienced during the Ottoman era. The usage of the old endonym Arbënesh/Arbëresh, however, persisted and was retained by Albanian communities which had migrated from Albania and adjacent areas centuries before the change of the self-designation, namely the Arbëreshë of Italy, the Arvanites of Greece as well as Arbanasi in Croatia. As such, the medieval migrants to Greece and later migrants to Italy during the 15th-century are not aware of the term Shqiptar.

Non-Albanian usage

Use in Western Europe

Skipetar/s is a historical rendering or exonym of the term Shqiptar by some Western European authors in use from the late 18th century to the early 20th century.

Use in South Slavic languages

The term Šiptar used in Serbo-Croatian, Slovene and Macedonian is denoted in an offensive manner and it is also considered derogatory by Albanians when used by South Slavic peoples, due to its negative connotations. After 1945, in pursuit of a policy of national equality, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia designated the Albanian community as ‘Šiptari’, however with increasing autonomy during the 1960s for Kosovo Albanians, their leadership requested and attained in 1974 the term Albanci be officially used stressing a national over an only ethnic, self-identification. These developments resulted in the word Šiptari in Serbian usage acquiring pejorative connotations that implied Albanian racial and cultural inferiority. It continued to be used by some Yugoslav and Serb politicians to relegate the status of Albanians to simply one of the minority ethnic groups. The official term for Albanians in South Slavic languages is Albanac.

Citations