Emrat_e_shqiptarëve_dhe_Shqipërisë
Arvanitasit
Sot, termi arvanitas përdoret nga grekët për t'iu referuar pasardhësve të shqiptarëve ose arbëreshëve që migruan në Greqinë jugore gjatë epokës mesjetare dhe që aktualisht identifikohen si grekë, si rezultat i asimilimit. Ndonjëherë varianti i tij Alvanites mund të përdoret në vend të tyre. Në rajonin e Epirit brenda Greqisë sot, termi arvanitit përdoret ende për një shqipfolës pavarësisht nga shtetësia dhe feja e tyre. Ndërsa termi arvanitika (Αρβανίτικα) përdoret brenda Greqisë për të gjitha varietetet e gjuhës shqipe që flitet atje, ndërsa brenda akademisë perëndimore termi përdoret për gjuhën shqipe që flitet në Greqinë Jugore. . "Botsi's chapter on Arvanitika also gives much useful information but contains some unfortunate errors. The northern dialect of Albanian is Geg, not Gjeg (47 et passim), and the formulation "... Albanian does not constitute the direct descendent of an Indo-European language ..." is flat out wrong. While it is true that we are not certain which lndo-European language Albanian is directly descended from, it is as much the descendent of a single language as Greek or French. The claim that Greek and Latin are "at the origin of Albanian polygensis" (48) is mistaken. To be sure, Albanian was heavily influenced by Latin (much less by Greek, especially in the north), but the core grammar and vocabulary represent a distinct and different branch of Indo-European. The primary shape of the root alban- in deriving the various forms of the relevant name is not clearly presented and the forms Shqipëria (Geg Shqipnia) and Shqip(ë)tar are misspelled. The use of Arvanitika to cover all the Albanian-speakers of Greece no doubt reflects popular Greek usage, but in the North American academic community, this label is restricted to those dialects of Greece for which the term of self-ascription is Arbërisht rather than Shqip. This latter term, which apparently came into use in the 15th century and is derived from an adverb meaning ‘[speak] clearly,’ is used by the Çams as well as in the villages near Florina, Konitsa, in Thrace and, we can add, in Mandres near Kilkis (an enclave that arrived from Mandrica in what is now Bulgaria as a result of the Balkan Wars, although the dialect is now moribund or dead [Eric Hamp, p.c., see Hamp 1965 for more data]). From a strictly dialectological point of view, what we can call Arvanitika proper (Southern Arvanitika in Botsi's terms) represents the southernmost extension of the Albanian dialect continuum with a consistent and gradual development of isoglosses. Arbëresh, on the other hand, shows a diversity of Tosk dialects, the ancestors of whose speakers must have come from all along the western part of the Northern Tosk-Lab-Çam-Arvanitika continuum (Eric Hamp, p.c.). While Arvanitika proper broke off directly from southern cam, the non-cam dialects of Epirus., Macedonia and Thrace are all the results of later northern Tosk migrations." Krahas këtyre etnonimeve termi Arvanitia (Αρβανιτιά) për vendin është përdorur edhe nga shoqëria greke në folklor, thënie, gjëegjëza, valle dhe toponime. Për shembull, disa shkrimtarë grekë përdorën termin Arvanitia krahas termit më të vjetër grek Epirus për pjesë ose të gjithë Shqipërinë bashkëkohore dhe Epirin modern në Greqi deri në shekullin e 19-të. . "During the period of the Ottoman domination the geographic entity of Epirus was a matter of great study for the scholars and the geographers of the time. The way the subject was dealt with was mainly a matter of the ideological perspective of each scholar and of his academic and cultural background, a factor that differentiates both them and the definitions that each one gives. It can be observed that scholars who were influenced by the Ancient Greeks favoured an approach based on Ptolemy's theory that the boundaries of Epirus are the Akrokeravnia mountain range, while those inclined to Byzantine opinions added areas of what was once New Epirus such as Avlona and Dyrrachio. All of them, though, were obliged to determine the differences between the ancient term of Epirus and the new term Arvanitia or Albania, the area of which was similarly disputed. We will confine ourselves to the references of a few scholars of the period of Ottoman domination, particularly those that belong chronologically near the era we are studying. For A. Psalida, "Albania, (former Illyricon and Epirus) is bordered to the east by the lower parts of Macedonia and Thessaly, to the north by Bosnan and Serbia, to the west by the Ionian Sea and to the south by the Gulf of Amvrakia", a perception without any ethnological basis which reflects the literature of the period. The writer uses the word Albania, the scholars’ way of expressing the older Greek term Arvanitia, to refer to Epirus. "Albania consists of two toparchies or kingdoms, one of Epirus and one of Illyricon", the writer continues. With this revision he places the river Aoos as a border between Epirus and Illyricon - Ano Arvanitia (upper Arvanitia), a notion which his student Kosmas the Thesprotian also adopts to define Albania. "Albania to the west is bordered by the Adriatic Sea, to the east by the western parts of Macedonia, to the north by Bosnan, Dalmatia and Montenegro and to the south by Epirus, from which it is divided by the river Viosa or Vousa". In these descriptions it is obvious that Avlona is also included inside the borders of Epirus, although the ancient treatise clearly places it in Macedonia (Ptolemy). A few years later, at the time of the Greek revolution, Psalidas refutes, for obvious reasons, the term Arvanitia and comments: "Epirus is wrongly referred to as Arvanitia, since no one there knows how to speak Arvanitika (Albanian)". The Bishop of Athens, Meletios, in the old and new Geography (1728) defines two terms, Arvanitia which constitutes the western part of Macedonia, and the Old Epirus. The two regions are divided by the river Kelidno, which the writer identifies as a river in the area of Liapouria. We observe that this opinion coincides with Ptolemy’s scheme (Γ′, 12, 4.) to which the latest term, Arvanitia, is now added. As a subdivision of Arvanitia, Meletios newly introduces the old-Byzantine term of New Epirus in which he includes the lands between Hemmara and Dirrachio. In "Modern Geography", the Dimitries restore the boundary to Akrokeravnia mountain, which was the ancient Greeks line of demarcation for the lands of the area. They place the lower part of Arvanitia (Kato Arvanitia) in western Macedonia. All the rest of the geographical or ethnological approaches of the 18th and 19th century are theoretical texts that duplicate more or less the views mentioned above. It can be said that in general there is a tendency to identify the political transformations that occur over time with the determination of geographical boundaries and names."