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 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 Norbert Jokl (February 25, 1877 – probably May 1942) was an Austrian Albanologist of Jewish descent who has been called the father of Albanology. Early life Jokl was born in Bzenec (then Bisenz), Southern Moravia (now the Czech Republic ...

Milan Šufflay Milan Šufflay (8 November 1879 – 19 February 1931) was a Croatian historian and politician. He was one of the founders of Albanology and the author of the first Croatian science fiction novel. As a Croatian nationalist, he was persecuted in th ...

, and

Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás Baron Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás (also Baron Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás, Baron Nopcsa, Ferenc Nopcsa, báró felsőszilvási Nopcsa Ferenc, Baron Franz Nopcsa, and Franz Baron Nopcsa; May 3, 1877 – April 25, 1933) was a Hungarian Aristoc ...

, 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, which had preceded the

Academy of Sciences of Albania The Academy of Sciences of Albania ( sq, Akademia e Shkencave e Shqipërisë), founded in 1972, is the most important scientific institution in Albania. In the 1980s, several research institutes began at the University of Tirana were transferred ...

, 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 (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 Dizd ...

(1900–1972) * Tajar Zavalani (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 (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 (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 orthograp ...

(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 (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 (1920–2015) * Androkli Kostallari (1922–1992) *

Mehdi Bardhi Mehdi Bardhi (14 September 1927 - 3 April 1994) was a Kosovar linguist, author, and teacher. Life Bardhi was born in Prizren, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He completed his primary and secondary education in Prizren and Pristina. Af ...

(1927–1994) *

Jashar Rexhepagiq Jashar Rexhepagiq ( sh, Jašar Redžepagić; 1929–2010) was an Yugoslav Albanian and Kosovar scholar and writer. Jashar Rexhepagiq was born in Plav in Montenegro and went to school in Berane and Peja. He studied education at the University of ...

(1929–2010) * Petro Zheji (1929–2015) * Besim Bokshi (1930–2014) * Skënder Rizaj (1930–2021) * Fehmi Agani (1932–1999) * Muzafer Korkuti (*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 ...

(*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 Shepe ...

(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 A ...

(*1946) * Aurel Plasari (*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 Marcin Bielski (or ''Wolski''; 1495 – 18 December 1575) was a Polish soldier, historian, chronicler, renaissance satirical poet, writer and translator. His son, , royal secretary to king Sigismund III Vasa, was also a historian and poet. He wa ...

(1495–1575) * Johann Erich Thunmann (1746–1778) *

François Pouqueville François Charles Hugues Laurent Pouqueville (; 4 November 1770 – 20 December 1838) was a French diplomat, writer, explorer, physician and historian, member of the Institut de France. First as the Turkish Sultan's hostage, then as Napoleon Bo ...

(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 Johann Georg von Hahn (11 July 1811 – 23 September 1869) was an Austrian Empire, Austrian and later Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian diplomat, Philology, philologist and specialist in History of Albania, Albanian history, Albanian language, lan ...

(1811–1869) *

(1834–1880) * Vikentij Makušev (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 Alexandru I. Philippide (; May 1, 1859 – August 12, 1933) was a Romanian linguist and philologist. Educated in Iași and Halle, he taught high school for several years until 1893, when he secured a professorship at the University of Iași tha ...

(1859–1933) *

Theodor Anton Ippen Theodor Anton Max Ippen (November 29, 1861 – January 31, 1935) was an Albanologist and diplomat from Austria-Hungary. Ippen belonged to the group of Albanologists who published their works on Albania through the state-financed institutes of Au ...

(1861–1935) * Carl Patsch (1865–1945) * Antonio Baldacci (1867–1950) *

Nicolae Iorga Nicolae Iorga (; sometimes Neculai Iorga, Nicolas Jorga, Nicolai Jorga or Nicola Jorga, born Nicu N. Iorga;Iova, p. xxvii. 17 January 1871 – 27 November 1940) was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, Albanologist, poet ...

(1871–1940) *

Mario Roques Mario Roques (1 July 1875 – 8 March 1961) was a French scholar, professor of history of medieval literature and renowned Romance philologist. He translated and edited ''Le Roman de Renart''. Biography Mario Roques was born in Peru where his ...

(1875–1961) *

(1877–1942) *

(1877–1933) *

(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 (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 (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 (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 James Pettifer is a British academic, author and journalist who has specialised in Balkan affairs. He was born in 1949 in Hereford and was educated at King's School, Worcester, and Hertford College, Oxford. Pettifer has travelled extensively in ...

(*1949) *

Robert Elsie Robert Elsie (June 29, 1950 – October 2, 2017) was a Canadian-born German scholar who specialized in Albanian literature and folklore. Elsie was a writer, translator, interpreter, and specialist in Albanian studies, being the author of numerou ...

(1950–2017) *

Vladimir Orel Vladimir Emmanuilovich Orël (russian: Владимир Эммануилович Орëл; 9 February 1952 – 5 August 2007) was a Russian linguist and etymologist. Biography At the Moscow State University he studied theoretical linguistics ( ...

(1952–2007) * Pasquale Scutari (*1952) * Francesco Altimari (*1955) *

Noel Malcolm Sir Noel Robert Malcolm, (born 26 December 1956) is an English political journalist, historian and academic. A King's Scholar at Eton College, Malcolm read history at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and received his doctorate in history from Trinity Col ...

(*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 (*1973)

References

External links