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The origin of the Albanians has been the subject of historical, linguistic, archaeological and genetic studies. The first mention of the ethnonym Albanoi occurred in the 2nd century AD by Ptolemy describing an Illyrian tribe who lived around present-day central Albania.
According to the Greek geographer Strabo (died c. 20 c.e.), the Albanians were a federation of twenty-six tribes, each originally having its own king, but by his time united under a single ruler. The people's name for themselves is unknown, but the Greeks and Romans called their country Albania.
Contemporary Albanian language employs a different ethnonym, with modern Albanians referring to themselves as Shqiptarë and to their country as Shqipëria. Two etymologies have been proposed for this ethnonym: one, derived the name from the Albanian word for eagle (shqiponjë).
While the exonym Albania for the general region inhabited by the Albanians does have connotations to Classical Antiquity, the Albanian language employs a different ethnonym, with modern Albanians referring to themselves as Shqip(ë)tarë and to their country as Shqipëria.
The origins of the Albanian people are not definitely known, but data drawn from history and from archaeological and anthropological studies have led some researchers to consider the Albanians to be the direct descendants of the ancient Illyrians.
- Peter R. Prifti
Jan 29, 2019 · The name Albania is derived from the name of an Illyrian tribe called the Arber, or Arbereshë, and later Albanoi, that lived near Durrës. The Illyrians were Indo-European tribesmen who appeared in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula about 1000 B.C., a period coinciding with the end of the Bronze Age and beginning of the Iron Age.
May 18, 2018 · Greeks call historically assimilated Christian Albanians Arvanites or Arbër and refer to recent Albanian immigrant workers as Arvanoi (Albanoi). Ptolemy described the Albanoi, which produced the modern ethnonym Albanians, in the second century b.c.e. as an Illyrian tribe whose town was Albanopolis.
