Our Ancient Dialect

The old language still spoken in Greci is the Tosk dialect of Albanian, and thus, historians tell us that our ancient ancestors who settled Greci can trace their earliest origins back to the ancient Illyrians, people who lived in central Europe and migrated southward into the Balkan Peninsula about 1000 BC.

Besides the Tosk dialect, the Albanian language has another main dialect called Gheg. Both dialects are mutually intelligible in their most common forms, with the Gheg dialect having the more unusual sound because of its many nasal vowels. Albanian speakers in Italian and Greek villages use varieties of Tosk.

The Shkumbin River in Albania is the rough dividing line for the dialects, Gheg being common to the north and Tosk to the south.

The characteristic sound resembles Hungarian or Greek, but the dialect retains many archaic traits. It also bears similarities to modern Greek and the Romance languages. The vocabulary has been greatly affected by contacts with other languages, especially Latin. Since the 16th century, major influences are also apparent from Italian, Turkish, modern Greek, Serbian and Slav.

The earliest written Albanian records come from the Gheg area in makeshift spellings based on Italian or Greek and sometimes in Turko-Arabic characters. The first recorded evidence of the written language is a baptismal formula from 1462.

Albanian is of special interest in the study of languages because it stands alone: it is not a part of a larger subgroup of modern languages. Despite the fact that it is spoken by a relatively small number of the worldÕs people, it holds its linguistic place along with other principal branches of the Indo-European languge family.

Albanian is the only modern representative of a distinct branch of the Indo-European language family. It is spoken in Albania and by smaller numbers of ethnic Albanians in other parts of the southern Balkans, along the east coast of Italy, in southern Greece, and in Ukraine.

Grammatically, nouns are declined into three or four cases and show number and gender. An exceptional feature of Albanian grammar is the inflectional attribute of nouns, with changes occurring to specify either definite or general meaning. Nouns, with few exceptions (numerals are one), are followed by their adjectives, and agreeing particle is required by the adjective; the particle precedes the noun. Verbs are commonly irregular in stem formation.

In 1909 an official, standardized Albanian spelling was developed, based on the Gheg dialect and employing the Latin alphabet. After World War II the official language adopted the Tosk dialect as its model.

By Cugino Dick - 9/7/97
Info Source - Encyclopedia Brittanica

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BUT CUGINI....

Now a little speculation:

When we look at our traditional history and the general history of Albania there are reasons to believe that our first ancestors who settled Greci may have spoken the Gheg dialect.

Why?

Well, traditional history tells us that the original Albanese settlers of Greci were mercenary soldiers in Skanderbeg's armies. Historical accounts of Skanderbeg tell us that the soldiers who came with him to Italy were experienced fighting men who were accustomed to winning. Thus it is not unreasonable to believe that these men had fought with Skanderbeg's forces against the Turks in Albania before he brought them to Italy. Skanderbeg's center of operations against the Turks was his mountain stronghold of Kruje, a Gheg speaking area. It's likely that most of his forces were drawn from the mountainous areas around Kruje because history also tells us that the best fighting men came from the remote high mountains.

So... how come they speak the Tosk dialect in Greci now?

My theory is that Tosk in Greci simply evolved over time as other Albanese (mostly Tosks) flooded southern Italy in a series of later emigrations to escape the Turks. These refugees far outnmbered earlier Gheg arrivals and by their sheer numbers established Tosk as the dominant dialect in Southern Italy. Also, since the two dialects are similar and mutually intelligible, the transition could have evolved quite naturally over a long period of time.

It may also be for the simple reason that after World War II the official Albanian language adopted the Tosk dialect as its model.

I'd be interested in your comments...

Please E-mail me.....Dick Vara

9/7/97