Shqip at the Old Albanian Authors from 16th until the Early 18th Century

Abstract

On the basis of a philological approach the use of the adverb/adjective shqip ‘(in) Albanian; clearly, comprehensibly’ in the Old Albanian documents is examined. The principal aim of this research is to ascertain its true meaning, because in Albanology it is widely believed that it already meant ‘(in) Albanian’ in the Old Albanian documents since Gjon Buzuku (1555). In contrary to this assumption, this examination reveals that this very meaning – for the first time surely attested in Bogdani 1685 – only developed secondarily from the meaning ‘clearly, comprehensibly’, which is the only meaning to be found in the texts of Buzuku and Budi (1616–21). This is also the semantic basis of the other secondarily developed meaning ‘honest(ly)’ attested amongst others in the dictionary of da Lecce (1702). The results of this investigation thus contribute to a better understanding of the Albanian self-designation shqiptar which has replaced the older (i) arbënesh/arbëresh at the end of the 18th century. It was also intended to demonstrate the value of the Old Albanian documents which have often been neglected so far in Albanology.