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 met ...

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 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 include ...

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

Albanians The Albanians (; sq, Shqiptarët ) are an ethnic group and nation native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, culture, history and language. They primarily live in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Se ...

. 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, Europ ...

is the main point of research of the studies.

Studies

Johann Erich Thunmann Johann Erich Thunmann or Johannes or Hans (23 August 1746 — 17 December 1778) was a linguist, historian and theologian born in Thoresund (Södermanland) in Sweden. He studied at Strängnäs and Uppsala then left Sweden to study at Greifswald. T ...

in the 18th century was probably the first Albanologist. He supported the theory of the autochthony of the

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-Eu ...

proved that Albanian language was part of the

Indo-European family The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch ...

. 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 Kin ...

, and

Eqrem Çabej Eqrem Çabej () (6 August 1908 – 13 August 1980) was an Albanian historical linguist and scholar who, through the publication of numerous studies gained a reputation as a key expert in research on Albanian language, literature, ethnology and l ...

. 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 Albanolog ...

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 partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

, 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=Juhoslavija ...

. 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 S ...

(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 ...

(1872–1938) *

Fan Noli Theofan Stilian Noli, known as Fan Noli (6 January 1882 – 13 March 1965), was an Albanian writer, scholar, diplomat, politician, historian, orator, Archbishop, Metropolitan and founder of the Albanian Orthodox Church and the Albanian Orthodox ...

(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 U ...

(1892–1959) *

Tahir Dizdari Tahir Nasuf Dizdari (15 November 1900 – 9 May 1972) was an Albanian orientalist, folklorist, and scholar. He was the main orientalist in Albania, and contributed in identifying and studying oriental words borrowed from Albanian. Life Dizdar ...

(1900–1972) *

Tajar Zavalani Tajar Zavalani known later in his life as Thomas-Henry Zavalani (1903–1966) was an Albanian historian, publicist, and writer. Life Zavalani was born on 15 August 1903 in Monastir, Ottoman Empire, today's Bitola in North Macedonia, or Kor� ...

(1903–1966) *

Stavro Skëndi Stavro Skëndi (born 1905 in Korçë; d. August 17, 1989 in Long Island) was an Albanian American linguist and historian. Career Skendi studied at Robert College in Istanbul, graduating in 1928. He continued his studies at the University of Ge ...

(1905–1989) *

(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 and ...

(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 Decemb ...

(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 (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 orthographic ...

(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 th ...

(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 t ...

(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 o ...

(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, French ...

(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 Y ...

(1930–2014) * Skënder Rizaj (1930–2021) *

Fehmi Agani Fehmi Agani (23 January 1932 – 6 May 1999) was a sociologist and politician in Kosovo who was considered to be the leading thinker and political strategist of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) in the 1990s. He represented the LDK in internat ...

(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 fr ...

(*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 (19 ...

(*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 Anton Nikë Berisha (born 1946) is an Albanian scholar and folklorist. He has been teaching Albanian at the University of Calabria since 1992, and is considered an expert in Albanian oral and Arbëreshë literature. Anton Berisha was born on Aug ...

(*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 still ...

(*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) *

(1746–1778) * François Pouqueville (1770–1838) *

William Martin Leake William Martin Leake (14 January 17776 January 1860) was an English military man, topographer, diplomat, antiquarian, writer, and Fellow of the Royal Society. He served in the British military, spending much of his career in the Mediterrane ...

(1777–1860) *

Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer (10 December 1790 – 26 April 1861) was a German Tyrolean traveller, journalist, politician and historian, best known for his controversial discontinuity theory concerning the racial origins of the Greeks, and for ...

(1790–1861) * Joseph von Xylander (1794-1854) * Johann Georg von Hahn (1811–1869) *

(1834–1880) *

Vikentij Makušev Vikentij Makušev (russian: Викентий Васильевич Макушев) (1837—1883) was a Russian Slavist and Albanologist. He is best known because of his works about Dubrovnik. He was born on 10 November 1837 in Brest Litovsk. His ...

(1837–1883) *

Jan Urban Jarník Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...

(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 (Jičín District), Kovač – 21 February 1945 in Vienna) was an Austrian Slavist, Albanologist, archaeologist and historian. Biog ...

(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 Arbëresh ...

(1883–1958) *

Margaret Hasluck Margaret Masson Hardie Hasluck M.B.E. (1944) (18 June 1885 – 18 October 1948) was a Scottish geographer, linguist, epigrapher, archaeologist and scholar. Biography Margaret Hasluck was born Margaret Hardie and graduated from Aberdeen Universi ...

(1885–1948) *

Jacques Bourcart Jacques Bourcart (5 June 1891 – 24 June 1965) was a French geologist and oceanographer who was involved in producing undersea topographical maps of the Mediterranean Sea. He was a professor of geology at the University of Paris, Sorbonne. He came ...

(1891–1965) *

Giuseppe Valentini Giuseppe Valentini (14 December 1681 – November 1753), nicknamed ''Straccioncino'' (Little Ragamuffin), was an Italian violinist, painter, poet, and composer, though he is known chiefly as a composer of inventive instrumental music. He studied ...

(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 pr ...

(1909–1985) * Agniya Desnitskaya (1912–1992) *

Wacław Cimochowski Wacław Cimochowski (December 22, 1912 in Kursk – July 4, 1982 in Gdynia, Poland) was a Polish philologist who specialized in Indo-European linguistics, especially in Albanology. Career Cimochowski studied linguistics at Stefan Batory Univer ...

(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 Law ...

(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 enroll ...

(*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 Marko Snoj (born 19 April 1959) is an Indo-Europeanist, Slavist, Albanologist, lexicographer, and etymologist employed at the Fran Ramovš Institute for Slovene Language of the Scientific Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Ar ...

(*1959) *

Oliver Schmitt Oliver Jens Schmitt (born 15 February 1973 in Basel) is a professor of South-East European history at Vienna University since 2005. He is a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. His book ''Skanderbeg. Der neue Alexander auf dem Balkan'', ...

(*1973)

References

External links