Back Арнауттар BA Арванити Bulgarian Arvanites Catalan Арнауташ CE Arvanité Czech Arfanitiaid CY Arvaniten German Αρβανίτες Greek Arvanidoj EO Arbanitas Spanish
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| est. 50,000–200,000 (see below) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Attica, Peloponnese, Boeotia, Euboea | |
| Languages | |
| Albanian (Arvanitika), Greek | |
| Religion | |
| Greek Orthodox | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Albanians, Arbëreshë, Greeks |
Arvanites (/ˈɑːrvənaɪts/;[1] Arvanitika: Αρbε̱ρεσ̈ε̰, romanized: Arbëreshë or Αρbε̰ρορε̱, romanized: Arbërorë; Greek: Αρβανίτες, romanized: Arvanítes) are a population group in Greece of Albanian origin.[2] They are bilingual,[3] traditionally speaking Arvanitika, an Albanian language variety, along with Greek. Their ancestors were first recorded as settlers who came to what is today southern Greece in the late 13th and early 14th century. They were the dominant population element in parts of the Peloponnese, Attica and Boeotia until the 19th century.[4] They call themselves Arvanites (in Greek) and Arbëror (in their language). Arvanites today self-identify as Greeks as a result of a process of cultural assimilation,[5][6][7][8] and do not consider themselves Albanian.[9] Arvanitika is in a state of attrition due to language shift towards Greek and large-scale internal migration to the cities and subsequent intermingling of the population during the 20th century.
- ^ Lexico.com, v. "Arvanite"
- ^ Liakopoulos 2022, p. 307:The Albanians, also known as Arvanites in the Greek lands, were first mentioned in the Peloponnese in the second half of the fourteenth century. By 1391 there had been an influx of Albanians that could be hired as mercenaries. The Venetians were in need of colonists and soldiers in their depopulated areas and hence offered plots of arable land, pastures and tax exemptions to the wandering Albanians in southern Greece (Thiriet 1959: 366; Chrysostomides 1995: 206, 291, 337, 339; Topping 1980: 261–71; Ducellier 1968: 47–64). A well-attested-to, more populous Albanian settlement took place during the rule of Theodore I Palaeologus (1384–1407), when ten thousand Albanians appeared before the Isthmus and asked Theodore for permission to settle in the Peloponnese (1394–95). A second wave of immigrants from southern Albania and western mainland Greece descended on the Peloponnese, perhaps in 1417-17. Their establishment was significant for the invigoration of the Albanian demographiy in the peninsula that led to the Albanian rebellion in 1453
- ^ D Tsitsipis, L., 2004. A phenomenological view of language shift. Collegium antropologicum, 28(1), pp.55–62.
- ^ Trudgill (2000: 255).
- ^ Hall, Jonathan M (1997), Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity, Cambridge University Press, p.29.
- ^ Botsi (2003: 90); Lawrence (2007: 22; 156).
- ^ GHM (1995).
- ^ Hart, Laurie Kain (1999). "Culture, Civilization, and Demarcation at the Northwest Borders of Greece". American Ethnologist. 26: 196. doi:10.1525/ae.1999.26.1.196.
- ^ Trudgill/Tzavaras (1977).