Shqiptar (Albaniandefinite form:Shqip(ë)tari;Gheg Albanian:Shqyptar/-i;[1]plural:Shqiptarë/-t,Shqyptarë/-t) is anAlbanianethnonym (endonym), by whichAlbanians call themselves.[2][3] They call their countryShqipëria (Gheg Albanian:Shqypnia, Shqipnia).[2] It has gradually replaced theOld Albanian endonymArbënesh/Arbëresh after theMiddle Ages in the westernBalkans.
The first documentation of the adverb/adjectiveshqip can already be found in theMeshari, the oldest Albanian language book published in 1555 byGjon Buzuku.[4][5]Johann Georg von Hahn (1854) was the first to derive the termShqiptar from the Albanian verbsshqipoj ("to speak clearly") andshqiptoj ("to speak out, pronounce"),[6] whileGustav Meyer (1891) was the first to deriveshqipoj from theLatin verbexcipere, denoting people who speak the same language,[6] similar to the ethno-linguisticdichotomiesSloven—Nemac andDeutsch—Wälsch.[3] This etymology is widely accepted by modernAlbanologists.[7][8][9][10][11]Demetrio Camarda (1864),[12] on the other hand, was the first to deriveShqiptar from the Albanian nounshqipe orshqiponjë (eagle). This theory, now considered a folk etymology, is based mainly on the symbolic meaning of theeagle for the Albanian people, as it is their national bird, atotem associated with freedom and heroism inAlbanian folklore. It has been used as a national symbol since their earliest records, and was a common heraldic symbol for manyAlbanian dynasties in theLate Middle Ages; an example is the flag ofSkanderbeg, whose family symbol was the black double-headed eagle, which is displayed on theAlbanian flag.[13][14][15][16]
During the Middle Ages, the Albanians called their countryArbëria (Gheg:Arbënia) and referred to themselves asArbëresh (Gheg:Arbënesh) while known throughderivative terms by neighbouring peoples asArbanasi,Arbanenses / Albaneses,Arvanites (Arbanites),Arnaut,Arbineş and so on.[2][17][18] The wordsShqipëri andShqiptar are attested from 14th century onward,[19] but it was only at the end of 17th and beginning of the early 18th centuries that the placenameShqipëria and the ethnic demonymShqiptarë gradually replacedArbëria andArbëreshë amongstAlbanian speakers.[2][19] This was due to socio-political, cultural, economic and religious complexities that Albanians experienced during theOttoman era.[2][20] The usage of the old endonymArbënesh/Arbëresh, however, persisted and was retained by Albanian communities which had migrated fromAlbania and adjacent areas centuries before the change of the self-designation, namely the Arbëreshë of Italy, the Arvanites of Greece as well as Arbanasi in Croatia.[21][22][23][24][25][26] As such, the medieval migrants to Greece and later migrants to Italy during the 15th-century are not aware of the termShqiptar.[27]
Skipetar/s is a historical rendering orexonym of the termShqiptar by some Western European authors in use from the late 18th century to the early 20th century.[28]
The termShiptar (Serbo-Croatian Latin andSlovene:Šiptar;Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic andMacedonian:Шиптар) used inSerbo-Croatian, Slovene and Macedonian is anethnic slur, and it is also consideredderogatory by Albanians when used bySouth Slavic peoples, due to its negative connotations.[29][30][31][32][33]
After 1945, in pursuit of apolicy of national equality, theCommunist Party of Yugoslavia designated the Albanian community as Shiptars, however with increasing autonomy during the 1960s forKosovo Albanians, their leadership requested, and attained in 1974, the term Albanians be officially used stressing a national over an only ethnic, self-identification.
These developments resulted in the wordŠiptar inSerbian usage acquiring pejorative connotations that implied Albanianracial and cultural inferiority. It continued to be used by some Yugoslav and Serb politicians to relegate the status of Albanians to simply one of the minority ethnic groups.
The official (and often neutral) terms for Albanians inSouth Slavic languages areAlbanac (in Serbo-Croatian Latin),Албанац (in Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic),Albanec (in Slovene) andАлбанец (in Macedonian).[34][35][36][37]
Dušan Spasojević, a Serbian gangster, was nicknamed "Šiptar".[38][39] In 2018, the Supreme Court inBelgrade defined the word asracist anddiscriminatory againstAlbanians.[40] In 2019, theSerbian Defense Minister,Aleksandar Vulin, sparked controversy by using the pejorative for Albanians.[41]
During a game betweenAustria andNorth Macedonia at theUEFA Euro 2020, immediately after scoring a goal, Austrian forwardMarko Arnautović—who is of paternalSerb descent—shouted to Macedonian playersEzgjan Alioski andEgzon Bejtulai—bothMacedonian Albanians—"Jeb'o sam ti majku šiptarsku" (Serbian for 'I fucked your Shiptar mother').[42][43][44] He was punished with suspension for the next game againstNetherlands.[45]
"The name used in all these references is, allowing for linguistic variations, the same: 'Albanenses' or 'Arbanenses' in Latin, 'Albanoi' or 'Arbanitai' in Byzantine Greek. (The last of these, with an internal switching of consonants, gave rise to the Turkish form 'Arnavud', from which 'Arnaut' was later derived.)"
"Their traditional designation, based on a root*alban- and its rhotacized variants*arban-,*albar-, and*arbar-, appears from the 11th century onwards in Byzantine chronicles asAlbanoi,Arbanitai,Arbanites, and from the 14th century onwards in Latin and other Western documents asAlbanenses andArbanenses."
"The name with the rootarb- is mentioned in old Albanian documents, but it went out of use in the main part of Albanian-speaking area and remains in use only in diaspora dialects (It.-Alb.arbëresh, Gr.-Alb.arvanitas). In other areas, it has been replaced by the term with the rootshqip-."
"The ethnic name shqiptar has always been discussed together with the ethnic complex: (tosk) arbëresh, arbëror, arbër — (gheg) arbënesh, arbënu(e)r, arbën; i.e. [arbën/r(—)]. [...] Among the neighbouring peoples and elsewhere the denomination of the Albanians is based upon the root arb/alb, cp. Greek 'Αλβανός, 'Αρβανός "Albanian", 'Αρβανίτης "Arbëresh of Greece", Serbian Albanac, Arbanas, Bulg., Mac. албанец, Arom. arbinés (Papahagi 1963 135), Turk. arnaut, Ital. albanese, German Albaner etc. This basis is in use among the Arbëreshs of Italy and Greece as well."
"They called themselves arbënesh, arbëresh, the country Arbëni, Arbëri, and the language arbëneshe, arbëreshe. In the foreign languages, the Middle Ages denominations of these names survived, but for the Albanians they were substituted by shqiptarë, Shqipëri and shqipe... Shqip spread out from the north to the south, and Shqipni/Shqipëri is probably a collective noun, following the common pattern of Arbëni, Arbëri."
"Arbëreshë was the term self-designiation of Albanians before the Ottoman invasion of the 15 century; similar terms are used for Albanian origins populations living in Greece ("Arvanitika," the Greek rendering of Arbëreshë) and Turkey ("Arnaut," Turkish for the Greek term Arvanitika)".
"The Albanians who use the 'Alb-' root are the ones who emigrated to Italy in the fifteenth century, who call themselves 'Arberesh'."
"Today, the common name for Albanians, i.e. Albania, shqiptar, Shqiperia, is more recent. Albanians who settled in Greece in the Middle Ages and those who emigrated to Italy in the 15th century and later do not actually know about this name. The origin of the name Shqiptar is not clearly established. Until recently, the favorite interpretation was that it was derived from the Albanian shqipe "lord, nobility", thus "lord's sons". It is more likely, however, that the modern name given by the Albanians to themselves is derived from shqipon "to speak clearly" or from shqipton "to pronounce" (compared to the Slavic name nemci "dumb; those who do not speak intelligibly")."
"There is similar terminological confusion over the name for the inhabitants of the region. After 1945, in pursuit of a policy of national equality, the Communist Party designated the Albanian community as 'Šiptari' (Shqiptare, in Albanian), the term used by Albanians themselves to mark the ethnic identity of any member of the Albanian nation, whether living in Albania or elsewhere.… However, with the increased territorial autonomy of Kosovo in the late 1960s, the Albanian leadership requested that the term 'Albanians' be used instead—thus stressing national, rather than ethnic, self-identification of the Kosovar population. The term 'Albanians' was accepted and included in the 1974 Yugoslav Constitution. In the process, however, the Serbian version of the Albanian term for ethnic Albanians—'Šiptari'—had acquired an openly pejorative flavor, implying cultural and racial inferiority. Nowadays, even though in the documents of post- socialist Serbia the term 'Albanians' is accepted as official, many state and opposition party leaders use the term 'Šiptari' indiscriminately in an effort to relegate the Kosovo Albanians to the status of one among many minority groups in Serbia. Thus the quarrel over the terms used to identify the region and its inhabitants has acquired a powerful emotional and political significance for both communities."