Albania (toponym) 1557388 207433089 2008-04-22T19:48:46Z Rjwilmsi 203434 [[WP:AWB/T|Typo/date fixing]] , typos fixed: latinized → Latinized using [[Project:AutoWikiBrowser|AWB]] The [[toponym]] '''[[Albania]]''' may indicate several different geographical regions: a country in the [[Balkans]]; an ancient land in the [[Caucasian Albania|Caucasus]]; as well as [[Scotland]], ''Albania'' being a Latinization of a [[Gaelic language|Gaelic]] name for Scotland, ''[[Alba]]''. This article will cover etymology, as well as trace the usage of the toponyms and related toponyms and [[ethnonyms]] from their earliest known occurrence down to present times. ==Caucasian Albania == [[Caucasian Albania]], also known as ''Alvank'' in [[Armenian language|Armenian]],<ref name="Minorsky">V. Minorsky. Caucasica IV. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 15, No. 3. (1953), p. 504</ref><ref name="Olson" /> ''Ardhan'' in [[Parthian language|Parthian]], ''Arran'' in [[Middle Persian|Persian]],<ref name="Bosworth">[http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/v2f5/v2f5a010.html "Arran". ''Encyclopaeida Iranica''. By C.E Bosworth]</ref> and ''Al-Ran'' in [[Arabic]],<ref name="Minorsky" /><ref name="Bosworth" /> was an ancient kingdom, which existed on the territory of present-day [[Republic of Azerbaijan]] and southern [[Dagestan]]. The name "Albania" is [[Latin]], and denotes "mountainous land".<ref name="Olson">[[James Stuart Olson]]. An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires. ISBN 0313274975</ref> The native name for the country is unknown.<ref name="Hewsen">Robert H. Hewsen. Ethno-History and the Armenian Influence upon the Caucasian Albanians, in: Samuelian, Thomas J. (Hg.), Classical Armenian Culture. Influences and Creativity, Chico: 1982, 27-40.</ref> ==Albania (Balkans)== Albania as the name of a region in the [[Balkans]] attested in [[Medieval Latin]]. It may derive from an ethnonym, ''[[Albanoi]]'', the name of an [[Illyrian]] tribe. Some linguists{{Fact|date=November 2007}} propose a derivation from the [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] root ''*albho-'', which meant '[[white]]'; referring perhaps to the snow-capped mountains of [[Albania]]. Others{{Fact|date=November 2007}} think the source may be a non-Indo-European root ''*alb-'', meaning "hill, mountain", also present in ''[[Alpine pasture|alp]]'' "mountain pasture". === Arbon === The toponym '''Arbon''' (Άρβων or Αρβών) is mentioned by [[Polybius]] in the ''History of the World'' (second century BC). The people who lived there were called Arbonitai (Αρβωνίται). Biris relates the name Arbon with the name Arbanitai, and notes the similarities of Arbon with Arben and Arbana. <!-- i'll rewrite that later --> === Albanoi === ''Albanoi'' first occurs in extant written sources in a work of [[Claudius Ptolemaeus|Ptolemy]] dating back to [[130 AD]]. "Albanopolis of the Albanoi" appears on a map of Ptolemy, a place located in what is now North central Albania. The Albanoi were Illyrians, but whether the modern Albanians have an ethnic continuity with the Illyrian ''Albanoi'' is disputed (''see [[Origin of Albanians]]''), and the ethnonym may have been transferred to an unrelated people. The ''Albanoi'' are also named on a Roman-era family [[epitaph]] at [[Scupi]], which has been identified with the Zgërdhesh hill-fort near [[Kruja]] in northern Albania. ===Albania=== According to the Albanian scholar [[Faïk bey Konitza]], the term "Albania" did not displace "Illyria" completely until the end of the fourteenth century. The word "Alba" or "Arba" seems to be connected with the town Arba (modern [[Rab]], Croatia), in prehistoric times inhabited by the Illyrian Liburnians, first mentioned in [[360 BC]]. Approximately a millennium after, some Byzantine writers use the words "Albanon" and "Arbanon" to indicate the region of Kruja. Under the Angiò, in the [[13th century]], the names "Albania" and "Albanenses" indicate the whole country and all the population, as it is demonstrated by the works of many ancient Albanian writers such as Budi, Blanco and Bogdano. We first learn of the ancestors of the modern Albanians in their native land as the Arbanites of Arbanon in [[Anna Comnena]]'s account (Alexiad, IV) of the troubles in that region caused in the reign of her father Alexius I Comneus ([[1081]]-[[1118]]) by the [[Normans]]. In the ''History'' written in [[1079]]-[[1080]], Byzantine historian [[Michael Attaliates]] was first to refer to the Albanoi as having taken part in a revolt against [[Constantinople]] in [[1043]] and to the Arbanitai as subjects of the duke of [[Dyrrachium]]. Their descendants in Greece and Italy have been called in different ways with the passing of the years: Arbërór (in Arvanitic) or more commonly Arvanites (in Greek), Arbënuer, Arbënor, Arbëneshë, Arbëreshë. === Arbanon === ''[[Arbanon]]'' may have been the name of a district, rather than a particular place. The plain of the Mat has been suggested. The mediaeval ethnonyms ''Arbanitai'' and ''Arbanios'' and the corresponding modern ethnonyms ''[[Arvanite]]'', ''Arber'', and ''[[Arbëreshë]]'' are considered by many linguists to have the same etymology as ''Albania'', being derived from the stem ''Alb-'' by way of a [[rhotacism]], ''Alb-'' → ''Arb-''. Compare the rhotacism of ''alb-'' into ''arv-'' in the [[Neapolitan language|Neapolitan]] dialect of [[Italy]]. Some linguists have argued that ''Arbanitai'' derives from the place, or river, called ''[[Arbanon]]'', and [[Greek language|Greek linguist]] Georgios Babiniotis states that ''Arvanite'', ''Arber'', and ''Arbëreshë'' do not derive from ''Albania'' or ''Albanoi''. However, the ethnonym ''[[Albanians]]'' may itself derive from ''[[Arbanon]]'' [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-26398]. === Shqipëria === There seems to be no doubt that the root Alb- or Arb- is earlier than Shqip-, from which the modern name of the state Shqipëria ([[Tosk Albanian|Tosk]]: Shqipërija, [[Gheg Albanian|Gheg]]: Shqipnija) derives, a name which appears only in the time of the Turkish invasions. The Albanian name of the country, Shqipëria, translates into English as "Land of the Eagles", hence the two-headed bird on the national flag and emblem, and because of the large presence of these animals in the mountainous zones of Albania. Biris notes that the terms Shqipëria and Shqiptarë probably weren't Turkish, since the Ottomans used the term Arnaut. Kollias writes: ''"I believe that the name Shqiptarë was first used by the greatest Albanian hero, [[Skanderbeg|Scanderbeg]]"'', and he also notes the connection with the eagle (shqipe or shqiponjë is Albanian for eagle) of Scanderbeg's emblem. [[The Tale of the Eagle]] is an Albanian [[folk tale]] about the origin of the name Shqipetar. == Albania (Scotland)== [[Alba]], a [[Goidelic languages|Gaelic]] name for [[Scotland]], may be related to the Greek name of Britain [[Albion]], Latinized as ''Albania'' during the High Medieval period, and later passed into Middle English as [[Albany (disambiguation)|Albany]]. Some recent scholarship has however connected it with one of the early names of [[Ireland]], "[[Fodla]]", which is taken to mean (land of the) "going down" (of the Sun), in contrast to Alba which means (land of the) "rising" (of the Sun). This is consistent with one of the ancient emblems of Scotland consisting of a rising sun crossing the horizon, a symbol laden with much significance. == References == {{reflist}} *[[Johann Georg von Hahn]], ''Albanesische Studien'', [[1854]] *[[Kostas Biris]], ''Arvanites'', [[1960]] (3rd edition, 1998: ISBN 960-204-031-9) *Aristeides Kollias, ''Arvanites'', [[1983]] *John J. Wilkes, ''The Illyrians'', [[1992]] {{wiktionarypar|Albania}} [[Category:History of Albania]] [[Category:Placename etymologies]] [[Category:Country name etymology]] [[Category:Exonyms]] [[Category:Roman toponymy]] [[Category:Scottish toponymy]] [[it:Origine e storia del nome dell'Albania]] [[sv:Albaniens namn]]