Firstly, let say a word about the origin of Albania as a word. The origin of the general name Albania has been taken from the population living in southeast side of Italy, because Albania is seen from there if the visibility of weather is good.
In Italian Alba means Dawn, and Albania means “Alba-nia = the land where the day dawns”). Albania was a province of Roman Empire for many centuries, so this Balkan`s region was logically “baptized” with this name “Albania” by their western neighbors (Italy) in their daily use, and also on their written language and documents. And all the rest of Indo-European languages use this term about Albania.
The name Albanian has been found in records since the time of Ptolemy. On the other hand, it is interesting to mention the fact, that Ottomans used also another word for Albania/ns, which is “Arnavut/luk”. Exactly, they were “Baptized” like this from a Sultan at one of his battles after he was impressed by the bravery of soldiers taken on Ottomans legions from Albania.
Only Albanian soldiers were not given up until the end, in controversy with other soldiers taken from other Ottoman territories of that time who escaped from the enemy.So he asked his generals/pasalar: Who are those so brave who doesn’t turn back? “Arnavut” means “brave and loyal warrior’ from old Persian-Ottoman language.In Calabrian Albanian the name is Arbresh, in Modern Greek Arvan'tis. In Albanian is “Shqipni / Shqiperi”, which means “the land eagle’s sons”.
A more concrete evidence of the Illyrian-Pelasgian origin of the Albanians is supplied by the study of the Albanian language. Notwithstanding certain points of resemblance in structure and phonetics, the Albanian language is entirely distinct from the tongues spoken by the neighboring nationalities.
This language is particularly interesting as the only surviving representative of the so-called Thraco-Illyrian group of languages, which formed the primitive speech of the inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula. In the course of time the Albanian language has been impregnated by a large number of foreign words, mainly of ancient Greek or Latin, which are younger than the Albanian Language, but there are certain indications that the primitive Illyrian language exerted a certain degree of influence on the grammatical development of the languages now spoken in the Balkan Peninsula.
There is, however, a very striking feature in this whole matter: that the Albanian language affords the only available means for a rational explanation of the meaning of the names of the ancient Greek gods as well as the rest of the mythological creations, so as exactly to correspond with the characteristics attributed to these deitis by the men of those times.
The explanations are so convincing as to confirm the opinion that the ancient Greek mythology had been borrowed, in its entirety, from the Illyrian-Pelasgians.
As it was mentioned before, Zeus survives as "Zot" in the Albanian language. The invocation of his name is the common form of oath among the modern Albanians.
Athena ( the Latin Minerva), the goddess of wisdom as expressed in speech, would evidently owe its derivation to the Albanian "E Thena," which simply means "speech." Thetis, the goddess of waters and seas, would seem to be but Albanian "Det" which means "sea."
It would be interesting to note that the word "Ulysses,"whether in its Latin or Greek form "Odysseus," means "traveler" in the Albanian language, according as the word "udhe," which stands for "route" and "travel," is written with "d" or "l," both forms being in use in Albania.
Such examples may be supplied ad libitum. No such facility is, however, afforded by the ancient Greek language, unless the explanation be a forced one and distorted one; but in many instances even such forced and distorted one is not available at all.
In addition, we should not forget the fact that Zeus was a Pelasgian god, par excellence, his original place of worship being Dodona.
It is estimated that of the actual stock of the Albanian language, more than one third is of undisputed Ilyrian origin, and the rest are Illyrian-Pelasgian, ancient Greek and Latin, with a small admixture of Slavic, Italian (dating from the Venetian occupation of the seaboard), Turkish and some Celtic words, too.
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken by about 12.000,000 inhabitants of the eastern Adriatic coast in Albania and also in neighboring countries, principally in Kosova, Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece. There are speakers in southern Italy, Sicily, Greece, and some parts of Turkey.
The two principal dialects, Gheg in the north and Tosk in the south, are separated roughly by the Shkumbin River. The official language, written in a standard roman-style orthography adopted in 1909, was based on the south Gheg dialect of Elbasan from the beginning of the Albanian state until World War II, and since has been modelled on Tosk.
Albanian speakers in Kosova and in Macedonia speak eastern varieties of Gheg. Before 1909, the little literature that was preserved, was written in local makeshift Italianate or Hellenizing orthographies, or even in Turko-Arabic characters.
A few brief written records are preserved from the 15th century, the first being a baptismal formula from 1462. The scattering of books produced in the 16th and 17th centuries originated largely in the Gheg area, and reflect Roman Catholic missionary activities.
Much of the small stream of literature in the 19th century was produced by exiles. Some literary production continued through the 19th century in the Italian enclaves, but no similar activity is recorded in the Greek areas. All these early historical documents show a language that differs little from the current language.
