Leonardo Lala (1906 – March 4, 2000) was a writer of

Arbëreshë Arbën/Arbër, from which derived Arbënesh/Arbëresh originally meant all Albanians, until the 18th century. Today it is used for different groups of Albanian origin, including: * Arbër (given name), an Albanian masculine given name * Arbëresh ...

Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...

origin from

Contessa Entellina Contessa Entellina ( sq, Kuntisa) is a small ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, in Sicily, southern Italy. Is located in the "Valle del Belìce" at above sea level in the mountains called ''Brinjat'', is situated 80 km from ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and an expert on Arbëresh language, and Arbëreshë history and folk traditions. In 1910 he immigrated to the U.S. (New Orleans), where he remained for about three years. Upon his return in 1913 Lala attended elementary school and finished fourth grade and then began to devote himself to farm work, as did most people in Contessa Entellina. While Lala's education was limited to only elementary school, he remained deeply interested in Arbëresh and Albanian culture. He was a committed researcher who taught himself as much as possible about the language, history and traditions, and wrote several pieces in Italian and Albanian based on his researches, both in prose and verse. Some are reported to have been regularly used in cultural and current affairs of the Italian-Albanian communities. Lala oversaw the writing of a

glossary A glossary (from grc, γλῶσσα, ''glossa''; language, speech, wording) also known as a vocabulary or clavis, is an alphabetical list of Term (language), terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms. Tradi ...

of about 4,000 Arbëreshë words used in Contessa Entellina. Lala retired from farming at the age of 80, and focused on his researches into Arbëreshe culture. He died, aged 94, in Contessa Entellina on March 4, 2000.

References

1906 births 2000 deaths People from Contessa Entellina Writers from the Province of Palermo Italian people of Arbëreshë descent Italian emigrants to the United States Language activists {{italy-writer-stub