Di Maggio M. Arberesh The language of Italy’s ethnic Albanians

(без выходных данных) 84 p.Arberesh, known as “Arbërisht” or “Tarbrisht” by its speakers, is the language of a linguistic
minority in Italy called the Arberesh. The Arberesh descend from Albanian settlers in Southern Italy
and Sicily in the 15th Century. The first settlers arrived during the first decades of the Ottoman
Turkish occupation of the Balkans. Many of those first arrivals were from the Himara region of
southern Albania and from the Peloponnese region of Greece, which they called Morea. They were
Albanian speakers belonging to the Greek Orthodox church and their dialect was coloured by the
Greek used in church and still shared features with the Albanian dialect spoken in Himara itself
heavily influenced by Greek). There is a similar group residing in Greece called the Arvanites, who
also call themselves Arberesh and their language Arberisht.