Another “experiment” to establish a common literary Albanian

(The poem “Mili e Haidhia” by Giuseppe Schirò)

Abstract

The first conscious efforts to establish a common variety of Albanian were initiated by members of the Arbëresh (Italo-Albanian) cultural elite in the latter half of the 19th century. Demetrio Camarda (1821–1882), an Arbëresh scholar and political activist, conducted the first linguistic "experiment" aimed at creating a literary variety of Albanian through a dialectal blend, which he demonstrated in his translation of a scholarly work from French. However, this variety failed to gain recognition or widespread use, both within the Arbëresh community and in their historical homeland, remaining largely forgotten for over a century. More than three decades later, Giuseppe Schirò (1865–1927), an Arbëresh poet, scholar, and publicist, and a fellow patriot of Camarda, conducted a similar linguistic "experiment" by revising the language of his poem “Mili e Haidhia”, originally published in 1890. Schirò soon realized that his poem, written in an archaic variety of Albanian such as the Arbëresh dialect, would not be readily understood by all Albanians. Aspiring to be recognized as a poet in his ancestral homeland and to bridge the gap between Arbëresh and Albanian literature, he undertook the task of revising the poem's language to bring it closer to contemporary Albanian, thus contributing to the development of a common literary language. Over the course of more than two decades, Schirò revised the poem three times. These revisions provide insight into the evolution of his efforts to create a common literary variety of Albanian. The first revision (1900) involved only minor changes, consisting of the substitution of a few words and forms from the Arbëresh dialect with more widely accepted terms from the Tosk dialect. The second revision (1907) reflected a much more substantial overhaul of the language. Schirò outlined his objectives, the nature of the changes, and his vision for a unified literary variety of Albanian in an introductory note. For the first time, he sought to incorporate phonetic, grammatical, and lexical elements from the Gheg dialect. His aim was to create a common Albanian that represented an interdialectal blend. However, Schirò continued to deepen the Gheg influence in the language of his poem, a trend that is most apparent in the third revision, published posthumously (1997). His time spent in the Mirdita region of Albania (1913–1914) provided him with a more intimate 68 Kristina Jorgaqi understanding of the northern Gheg dialect, which he subsequently applied to further refine his literary variety. Despite Schirò’s extensive efforts, he did not succeed in creating a truly common literary Albanian that synthesized the dialects of Tosk, Gheg, and Arbëresh, as he had claimed. The linguistic foundation of his work remained firmly rooted in his native Arbëresh dialect. Although Schirò succeeded in blending lexical elements from all three dialects, the phonetic and grammatical features of Gheg that he incorporated into the poem remained minimal and not fully integrated. His version of common literary Albanian, which was driven more by patriotic ideals than by professional linguistic principles, lacked the recognition and dissemination necessary for widespread adoption. It remained confined to his literary oeuvre. Like Camarda's earlier attempt, Schirò’s variety, while more accessible than Camarda’s, met a similar fate. Both contributions are now preserved in the annals of history for the establishement of a common literary Albanian.