Vaccarizzo Albanese ( Arbëresh: ''Vakarici'') is an Italian town and ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

'' (municipality) of the

province of Cosenza The province of Cosenza ( it, provincia di Cosenza) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Calabria region of southern Italy. Its capital is the city of Cosenza. It contains 150 ''comuni'', listed at list of communes of the Province of Cosenza ...

Calabria , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, southern

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 ...

History

The town was founded in 1470 as Vaccarizzo. In 1863 its toponym changed adding ''Albanese'' (i.e. "

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

n"), due to its origins.

Geography

Vaccarizzo is bordered by

Acri Acri ( Calabrian: ) is a town of 19.949 inhabitants in the northern part of Calabria region in southern Italy. Since 17 September 2001 Acri has had the "status" of city. Acri's coat of arms is represented by three mountains surmounted by thre ...

, San Cosmo Albanese and San Giorgio Albanese.

Language

Vaccarizzo Albanian, the Arbëresh dialect of 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 ...

that is spoken in the villages of Vaccarizzo Albanese and San Giorgio Albanese, in southern

, by approximately 3,000 people. Vaccarizzo Albanian has retained many archaic features of the

Tosk Tosk ( sq-definite, toskërishtja) is the southern group of dialects of the Albanian language, spoken by the ethnographic group known as Tosks. The line of demarcation between Tosk and Gheg (the northern variety) is the Shkumbin River. Tosk is t ...

dialect, on which the Standard Albanian is based.

References

External links

Official website
Arbëresh settlements Cities and towns in Calabria {{Calabria-geo-stub