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The origin of the Albanians has been the subject of historical, linguistic, archaeological and genetic studies. The first mention of the ethnonym Albanoi occurred in the 2nd century AD by Ptolemy describing an Illyrian tribe who lived around present-day central Albania.
All terms share the same Albanian root shqipoj that is derived from the Latin excipere with both terms carrying the meaning of "to speak clearly, to understand". [4] While the Albanian public favours the explanation that the self-ethnonym is derived from the Albanian word for eagle shqipe that is displayed on the national Albanian flag. [4]
The language is spoken by approximately 6 million people in the Balkans, primarily in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece. [1] However, due to old communities in Italy and the large Albanian diaspora, the worldwide total of speakers is much higher than in Southern Europe and numbers approximately 7.5 million.
Albania as the name of Caucasian Albania, a state and historical region of eastern Caucasus, that existed on the territory of present-day republic of Azerbaijan and partially southern Dagestan. However, unlike the names of the other two European countries, this name was an exonym given to them by the Romans , as no one knew what the local ...
Albanian presence in Croatia can be traced back to the beginning of the Late Middle Ages. [155] In this period, there was a significant Albanian community in Ragusa with a number of families of Albanian origin inclusively the Sorgo family who came from the Cape of Rodon in central Albania, across Kotor in eastern Montenegro, to Dalmatia. [156]
What happened to the Illyrians after the settlement of the Slavs in the region is a matter of debate among scholars, and includes the hypothesis of the origin of the Albanian language from an Illyrian language, which is often supported by scholars for obvious geographic and historical reasons but not proven.
This theory, now considered a folk etymology, is based mainly on the symbolic meaning of the eagle for the Albanian people, as it is their national bird, a totem associated with freedom and heroism in Albanian folklore.
[2] [7] [8] The name Arnavutluk for Albanian regions was a geographical designation, while Arnavud kavmı was an ethnic designation, with kavimiyet meaning 'ethnicity'. [6] In modern Turkish Arnavutluk refers only to the Republic of Albania. [12]