In which parts of Italy do people speak Albanian?

In some areas of southern Italy there are towns where the Albanian language is spoken. The reasons for this can be traced back centuries, in particular to the waves of migration to Italy of people from Albania. The exiles founded several communities, which have since preserved a culture, religion, traditions and language different from the rest of the surrounding territories.

Let’s take a look at the towns where Albanian is spoken and why.

What is the history of Albanians in Italy?

Albania, together with other territories that were part of the Byzantine Empire and were located in the Balkans and in what is now Greece, was gradually conquered by the Ottoman Turks. This began in the 15th century, particularly after the death of the Albanian national hero George Castriota Scanderbeg.

The Albanians thus began to flee the country, giving rise to a true diaspora that continued for a long time, until the 18th century.

The refugees headed towards Southern Italy, founding various communities that have maintained the spoken and written Albanian language to the present day, as well as festivals, traditions, customs, gastronomy and, last but not least, the Byzantine religious rite, characterised by icons and mosaics and by the liturgy in the Greek language.

These communities are called ‘arbëreshë’ and they proudly try to keep their traditions alive.

From a linguistic point of view, they constitute linguistic islands or alloglots, that is, they are characterised by a different language compared to the surrounding Italian-speaking areas.

The language still spoken today preserves the morphological features and vocabulary of the one used at the time of migration, that is to say it is an ancient Albanian, even though, as always happens, over the centuries it has been influenced by Italian, local dialects and the languages of the various successive rulers, both at a substrate and superstrate level.

Where Albanian is spoken in Italy

In Italy the Albanian communities are found in the South and are distributed among various regions, namely Molise, Abruzzo, Basilicata, Puglia, Campania, Calabria and Sicily.

Calabria is the region with the greatest number of Arbëresh communities, and in particular they are concentrated in the province of Cosenza.

It is estimated that there are 100,000 Albanian-speaking citizens in Italy, divided into about 50 towns: of these, almost 60,000 reside in Calabria, distributed among 30 municipalities and 3 hamlets.

UNESCO World Heritage status

Since 1999, with law no. 482, the Albanian community has been recognised and protected as one of the ethnic and linguistic minorities present in Italy. In 2020, the arbëreshe culture of Italy was nominated to be included in the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Article translated by Jasmina Towers

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Curiosities

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