Year IX, January – June 2024, 1 – 2

Manifestation of Christian humanism in the biblical texts from the Buzuku’s “Meshar”

The object of the study and the results are mentioned in its very title. Therefore, the authors focus only on biblical texts from the ‘Missal’ (1555) by Gjon Buzuku, which in their entirety undoubtedly occupy the main part.
By classifying the data obtained through intertextual analysis for a series of examples in biblical texts from the New Testament in the ‘Missal’, clearly showing occasional  anomalies especially if compared to the Vulgate, the authors believe to have developed an effective method of work and investigation. Its implementation following philological  tenets enables a convincing positive response to the alternative approach that the authors
have conveyed to the reader with regard to recognizing and deciphering the theme announced in the title.
That Rev. Buzuku, regardless of his position in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, was absorbed in the course of Christian humanism is proven not so much by the preliminary interpretation of several passages at the colophon of the ‘Missal’ , as by the  evidence of intensive direct or indirect use of the Novum Instrumentum omne by the  great humanist Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam. Such work soon assumed the function of a guidepost in the further development of the Reformation in Europe and was  subsequently renamed Textus Receptus.
In fact, it helped both authors to solve the puzzle of the so-called anomalies in the  Buzuku’s ‘Missal’, which not coincidentally correspond to the Albanian editions of the New Testament in the tradition of the Albanian writing of the 19th century.

In diesem Artikel befassen wir uns mit der Figur Skanderbegs in einigen Werken deutscher humanistischer Autoren vom 15. bis zum 17 Jh. Bei diesen Schriften handelt es sich primär um historische Werke, welche aber auch einen gewissen literarischen Wert haben, denn eben in dieser Zeitperiode (15-17. Jh.) gab es oft keine deutliche Trennung zwischen der Geschichtsschreibung und der literarischen Prosa-Schreibweise, und sekundär um propagandistische Schriften für den Türkenkrieg. An erster Stelle geht es darum, eine Darstellung der Skanderbeg-Figur der deutschen Geschichtsschreibung der 15. -17. Jahrhunderte zu geben, deren Werke sowohl im Lateinischen als auch im Frühneuhochdeutschen verfasst und veröffentlicht wurden. Die Textpassagen und die Angaben über Skanderbeg wurden teilweise mit den Daten aus der im Jahre 1510 gedruckten „Historia de vita et gestis Scanderbegii“ des albanischen Humanisten Marinus Barletius (15-16. Jh.) verglichen. Für den Vergleich mit Barletius Werk haben wir die albanische Übersetzung von Stefan Prifti verwendet. Im Artikel geht es auch darum, die Richtigkeit dieser Angaben zu überprüfen.

Jonima, Muji, Menkshi, Ranesi / Renesi – how to understand and translate some medieval Albanian names (Part II)

Appearing in records ranging from the 13th to17th centuries alternately as first names or surnames, but for Renesi, the essay focuses on another group of Albanian nomina some of which still existing today. A compound of Jon and Ma[dh], Jonima in Albanian stands for John the Great. Similar examples in which Albanian surnames stem from adjectives are Jon Parvus and Jon Longus. In fact, the family name Çanmagno (14th century) from  Dubrovnik later on appearing as Zamagna, is the Venetian- Italian version for Gian  Magno, with Çan/Zan/Gian as a typical term of endearment for Giovanni, that is, John  [the Great].
The name and surname Muji appears in 1274 as Lat. Mensis, standing for Month. It was typical for Albanians to use for people names connected with the terminology of the  calendar, namely Kalenda or names of months such as Çun matching with Lat. Junius  and Srb. Novak. In the records from the Dubrovnik archives Mensis also appears as  Mençe, which the author believes must not be mistaken for Menchese. The latter in fact stems from Lat. Dominicus and was very popular both in Dalmatia and present day Albania.
A special case is the surname of the household Ranesi/Renesi, displaying metaphony of  /a/ > /e/, typical of Albanian phonetics. Many members from this household earned fame as warriors (Gr. stratiots) fighting for the Spanish Habsburgs in 16th-17th centuries. The surname, though, comes from the Albanian word rran[j]ëza>rrens, matching with It. pie di monte, Srb. podgora[ica], and Eng. foothill. Such is the case of the still existing Rrenc  in Lezha, in northern Albania and many other places, either settlements or villages  nationwide. Rrenc in Lezha is mentioned as Rhison by the medieval Albanian historian  Marin Barleti.

Preservation of some features of early Albanian in «The Code of Lekë Dukagjini»

The purpose of this study is to highlight the preservation of some features of early Albanian as they appear from “The Code of Lekë Dukagjini”. Of it, form part the following findings: a) archaic words such as: tagër – right; tërkuzë – rope; kujni – common land;  inbi – ownership, etc., b) obsolete words for monetary and measurement units, namely, grosh and okë, which may be found in tales, anecdotes etc., c) obsolete words from the  administrative and law vocabulary, such as: krye i parë – first chapter, nye i dhetët –  article ten, etc. d) use of old forms of words in the Albanian Gheg dialect, e.g. gola – mouth; bulku – farmer; già – meaning domestic animals, cattle; giymës –half; giobet –  fine, penalty, etc. The findings of this study might arguably provide material for further  linguistic elaborations to be conducted on the language in use, in order to also highlight  legal aspects, including studies of old laws in Albanian.

Beqir Valteri – a victim to his ambition and his love for the homeland 

On 23 February 1924, adolescent Beqir Valteri made an attempt on the life of the  Albanian premier Ahmet Zogu in parliament in Tirana. He was immediately arrested and imprisoned. From that moment on his destiny was at the mercy of the political struggle between the political parties for and against Zogu. He was then freed after the triumph of  the June Revolution in 1924. After the return to power of Zogu in December of the same year, Valteri was forced to join other politicians in exile, a period which lasted fourteen years and took him to several European countries. Thanks to a large number of  documents residing in Italian archives, this article recounts the most salient moments of  Valteri’s life as a political dissident and, at the same time sketches out a more accurate  figure of this courageous and unpredictable patriot.

Classifications of affixes and morphotactic combinations in Albanian

Languages develop interrelated systems of levels in order to build up words or word  forms from smaller units (morphemes) in an almost systematic way. Taking cue from  generative linguistics, the observation of linguistic elements as a hierarchical structure  has opened up new spaces for the author in the approach to such units. The phonological  conditions that influence morphological processes form part of what is known as lexical phonology. Lexical phonology observes this change of linguistic levels during the  formation of new units.
What the author has attempted to generalize through a detailed study is connected with  the identification of the structure of adverbial morphemes as well as with the phonotactic  and morphotactic combinations of the elements that are their constituents. In the paper,  the author forwards a classification of affixes, which have been differentiated according to their ability to form more than one part of speech, distinguishing the question of  homonymy or synonymy of affixes and their function. The latter is their ability or inability to act as lexical heads seen in the light of the X-bar theory of generative morphology. The  author has also explored word formation cycles in this essay.

The Poetry of Gasper Pali. Signs of Poetic Identity

Studies of Albanian literature, particularly in the realm of poetry, generate numerous  discussions, especially concerning authors who have been studied with bias or  marginalized, either intentionally or unintentionally, during certain periods. There is  ample opportunity for reflection and new interpretations, which in turn highlight the  need to revive or re-evaluate the creative works of various poets. Bards, who have offered  significant literary value to their readers, have often been forgotten or inadequately  represented in official institutional contexts.
Gasper Pali, a poet who remains understudied, enigmatic, and largely unknown to  younger generations of readers, appears to have developed his poetics from an emotive- reflexive perspective. His work transitions rationally from external observations to inner  contemplations, revealing a meditative and dramatic state marked by keywords such as  the soul, shadows, and dreams. This paper focuses specifically on his published collection  of poems Prendimi i Andrrimeve, Eng. Twilight of Dreaming, aiming not only to interpret  his poetry but also to delve into the underlying essence of his work,  characterized by longings, sorrows, cravings, nights, and moonlight. The investigation  centres on his realm of fantasies and desires, rather than tangible realizations in the  physical world. Through textual analysis and interpretation, the unique nature of this  contemporary poet emerges. Despite potentially unjust comparisons to Migjeni, who has  perhaps overshadowed Pali’s poetics, it is crucial to recognize that each poet is distinct in  their art, even when their bleak life journeys may show similarities. A unique  communicative code echoes throughout “Twilight of Dreaming”, engaging the poet with  his inner dimension. Critics from the mid-20th century (1945-1990) often viewed this  approach as indicative of Pali’s disinterest in social issues and as an alignment with  Italian hermeticism. Both interpretations were at odds with the ideological orientations of  the regime, leading to his exclusion from collections of the time. By analyzing and interpreting his poems through a semiotic lens (examining communicative signs), the  paper aims at reintroducing this poet to a new audience.

Identification of space through discourse. Elements of oriental discourse in the novel The Fortress by Ismail Kadare

The article aims to explore diachronically the elements of oriental discourse in the novel The Fortress by Ismail Kadare. The different editions of such work, which in time was  published with different titles such as The Fortress, The Drums of Rain, and The Siege,  seem to suggest that the title itself was undergoing a process of continuous remaking. Like the narration in the novel, the essay follows two directions in which the space is  divided in two zones, or two worlds: the inner, B, within the walls of the fortress and the  outer, J, outside its walls. In fact, the vocabulary used serves to the purpose of such  conceptual division, defining the boundary between such two worlds. A high number of  oriental loans in Albanian identifying the outer world is more evident in the first edition,  whereas in the later ones such number dwindled significantly. The same happened with  other loans which were frequently replaced with neologisms coined by Kadare himself.  However, the latest version of the book features an increased Christian aura over zone B, thus driving the distinction with J further apart. Why such choice? In order to convey a  more complete presentation of the novel, necessary due to changes both in its title and  content, the study compares the literary discourse between the first edition by the title  The Fortress (1970) and the latest one which appeared as The Siege (2008), and which  the author considers as the final version of the this novel.

The reference point of periphrastic identity in the poem To Sylvia, as direction towards a linguistic approach in Albanian

Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi and the continuous debate to place his poetry somewhere  between Classicism and Romanticism, has inspired in this article hermeneutical  contemplation penetrating in depth Leopardi’s poetic tonality. At the same time, the  author of the essay avoids participating in such debate, and explores different logical  domains with specific reference to the poem To Sylvia. One of the most intricate works  and also one of the most discussed about in international literature, such poem is at the  centre of the article. Conducting mainly a hermeneutical analysis, the study lingers on  four logical domains in order to approach the poem through different methods. It aims in  fact at a translation into Albanian maintaining intact the original philosophical undertone and especially the sentiment of the poet. Conveying to the reader the chasm, tempo and  the musicality which permeate the poem constitutes one of the tenets of this article.