Year VIII, January – June 2023, 1-2

To the origin of the De Radian odyssey and the pre-Milosaic phase «in Italian» (part II)

Girolamo de Rada’s literary work and above all Milosao, his youth
masterpiece have constituted the main subject of research for many scholars, who have analysed its forms, purposes and, especially, the origins. Recent research exploring the earliest phases of the cultural formation of the poet have made it urgent to investigate such origins more in-depth. After having joined the so-called «Calabrian romanticism» – which forms part of the most authentic expressions of Italian Romanticism – Girolamo De Rada composed in Italian displaying the most important ideals which would shortly afterwards appear in Milosao (1836).
The reconstruction of his earliest literary experiences and placing them in the correct historical and cultural context reveal the multifaceted influences accompanying the poet up to the final  version of Milosao, work which was destined to mark the future of modern Albanian literature. His period spent in Naples becomes thus more important, as here he encountered two other major Arbëresh poets who influenced him and his early literary production. It was this period which also marked his cultural emancipation and maturity, and inspired him to continue with the themes that he had absorbed in his country of origin.

A letter from Stefano Remani, parish priest from Shkodra, residing in the archive of Genazzano

The study analyzes the letters (archive of Our Lady of Good Counsel,
Genazzano) by Stefano Remani parish priest of Shkodra  (02.07.1755) and by Tommaso Mariagni (21.03.1760) regarding miracles in the church of St Mary Magdalene in Casena, a suburb of Shkodra; the incurable disagreement between Paulus Campsi, bishop of Shkodra and Remani for the transfer of the parish rejected by the latter, supported in Congregation de Propaganda fide by his uncle Lazzaro Vladagni archbishop of Bar. At the date of the letter Remani had already been removed from the Diocese and was hosted in Dubrovnik. Afterwards, he relocated to Rome where, for his own benefit, from 1756 he intervened in the emigration of Catholic exiles from Bria (Shkodra) to Pianiano.

“Dear friend” – On the relationship between Albanologists Norbert Jokl and his adept Eqrem Çabej

This article is intended as a tribute to the German-Austrian
Jewish linguist and historian for Albanian studies Norbert Jokl (1877-1942), one of the many victims of National Socialist policies in Germany in the last century. The analysis of the correspondence – albeit incomplete – with his former student and adept Eqrem Çabej also underlines the commitment of the Albanian intellectual circles of that time to saving his life. Many people can also understand this writing as a warning against the short-sighted judgments of anthropological-sociological nature that some pseudo-Albanologist wants to forward today about the modern developments in Albanian studies as a complex regional science deeply influenced by the imperialist peripheral politics and the hegemonic, fascist, and  nationalist and even communist politics that the Albanian factor has experienced in time and space. That such judgment in all likelihood is wrong and without any historical support is best proven by the life and work of Norbert Jokl, as well as by the actions of the entire Albanian intellectual world of that time in the most critical moments of his life.

Nominal, adjectival and verbal completives – possible structures in Albanian

This paper explores the structure of Albanian complement clauses
selected by verbs, nominals and adjectives. Taking as a starting point the syntactic distinction between factive and non-factive predicates and the dual complementizer system of Albanian, the author shows the relation between the selecting verb and the  embedded clause. The author also introduces different types of complement clauses, namely the se/që-indicative complements, the
që-subjunctive complements and the infinitive complements. Then, Turano in her paper analyses the phenomenon of the  nominalization, i.e. the formation of nominals from verbs, both eventive and pure propositional. On the other hand, she also shows that some derived nominals have the same structure of their correspondent verbs, whereas other seem to be somehow different in comparison to their verbal counterparts.
Albanian nominalizations do not form a homogenous category. The same picture we find with adjectives projecting complement clauses. Some of their complements are in free distribution, others are in complementary distribution showing that it is impossible to unify the various instances of these structures.

A General Survey on Vepra Pijore (1907-1946)

Vepra Pijore was an association of the Catholic Clergy, founded
in the Saverian Seminary in Shkodra in 1907. The association was created to serve the propose of publishing and distributing useful works such as calendars, novels, history books, hagiography studies, translation of books on religion etc. Standing for Pious Works, the Vepra Pijore formed part of the Albanian National Awakening as it contributed to the national question, to the enriching and purification of the language from Ottoman loans. It also lay the groundwork to the literary Albanian by continually ameliorating phonetics and graphemes used in its publications in time.
The main supporter of the Vepra Pijore was the printing press “Zoja e Papërlyeme”, in Shkodra.
The foundation of the Vepra Pijore was the result of the ceaseless  efforts of a group of clergymen who managed to publish a collection of 44 works spanning difficult years in Albanian history. Fr. Shtjefën Zadrima, S.I., creator of such project along with Fr. Francesco  Genovizzi, S.I., its founder and several other co-operators and benefactors made possible the publication of such collection, which contributed to Albanian literature, history, archaeology and religion.

Street names are the signs of a city. They can be memorials to
different moments in its history. Tirana, the capital of Albania, underwent transformational changes during the 20th century and such transformation is reflected in its street names as well.
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the socio-spatial  transformation processes in the capital of Albania, Tirana.  Grounded on the analysis of the street names of Tirana, on the “names movement”, the paper purports to investigate in-depth consequences of events having a bearing on different historical periods.
Observing the names of the streets of Tirana outlines the general idea that the streets in Tirana are commemorative of historical events in Albania. A detailed analysis of the street names of Tirana during the Communist era (1945-1990) helps to  understand how the ideological hegemony of the regime permeated Albanian life.
The partisan war during World War Two became the foundational narrative of the Communist statehood. The data confirm the general claim that the celebration of the Communist party and statehood in Albania was often coupled with the  celebration of the partisan war with many streets in Tirana commemorating partisan martyrs.

On the translation of EU legislation in Albanian and the creation of the pertaining terminology

Albania has already entered the final stage of the European integration process, that is, membership negotiations. This phase is expected to be long and difficult, requiring considerable resources  and capacities to align all national standards with European ones. In addition to the work of institutions for the adaptation of community legislation (Acquis Communautaire), a large cost is expected to come from the volume of translation required. It is the obligation of each candidate country, aiming for membership, to translate all  community legislation into their own language, as well as national legislation into one of the main languages of the European Union. This process is as complicated and difficult as it is tantalising. In fact, experience has shown that it can complicate institutional affairs even after acquisition of membership.
The EU itself has paid great attention to the process of translation, both of its corpus of documents into the languages of particular countries, and vice versa. It is fundamental that language concepts have the same semantic value everywhere, for the implementation of the same legal acts in all countries and in all languages of the European Union.
Presently, analysing some of the translated documents, we have noticed problems relating to the lack of standardization of  terminology; lack of application of grammar and spelling rules of Albanian, leading to numerous inconsistencies in translations.