Arbanasi people

Today, the community is spread across Croatia. Their original settlements were Arbanasi of Zadar and some villages around Zadar, namely Zemunik, Gračac, Dračevac, Crno, Ploča, etc. The former village derived its name from its founders, the Albanians. The Arbanasi are known to have settled the area during two different periods of migration; the first in 1655 and the second in 1726–33. ==History==

18th century migration and resettlement Arbanasi () is the old ethnonym that the South Slavs used to denote Albanians, dating back to the Middle Ages. The ancestors of Arbanasi people are Catholic Albanians who originated from the villages of Briska (Brisk), Šestan (Shestan), Livari (Ljare), and Podi (Pod) located in Skadarska Krajina () region, then part of the Muslim ruled Ottoman Empire (now modern southern Montenegro). and then 1726–1727 and 1733, to the Zadar area, supported and planned by Archbishop of Zadar Vicko Zmajević and the Venetian republic to repopulate the countryside and hinterland of Zadar. The first migration to Zadar was mentioned on March 23, 1726, when first arrivals who numbered around 56 individuals, and afterwards another 28 families, were temporarily settled in Kaštel Novi, today Herceg Novi. It is considered that they arrived in Zadar in the summer, in July. The group was guided by two brothers of the Pretani family, and the following people are mentioned: The second migration to Zadar was in 1733, and in the document from March 11, 1735, can be seen another 28 families and some members: They bore surnames: As well, there were three Montenegrin families: Zanković, Popović, and Škopelja. Other surnames are Dešpalj, Kalmeta, Karuc (Karuz), Kotlar, Jelenković, Jović, Perović, Vukić, and Ćurković. Around the same time, Chakavian-speaking families from Kukljica, Ugljan, and Zadar hinterland, settled among the Arbanasi, and included: Other Arbanasi settled in the neighbouring villages of Ćurkovići, Paleke, Prenđe and Šestani, as well in the towns of Kotor, Dubrovnik and Zemunik. All other Arbanasi were assimilated, except in Zadar where a settlement formed that they called Arbënesh (for the Italians Borgo Erizzo, for the Croats Varoš Eričina), later becoming known in all local languages as Arbanasi. 21st century In the twenty first century, Arbanasi self identify as Croats or Arbanas Croats and do not want their community associated with the officially recognised Albanian minority of Croatia. In independent Croatia, for some years the language did not receive encouragement until the 2010s. Arbanasi who speak Arbanasi Albanian mostly have a positive view of the language. In 2016, standard modern Albanian was introduced as an optional language class in a Zadar high school in the neighbourhood of Arbanasi with the assistance from Albanian, Kosovo and Croatian authorities. Due to numerous contacts and intermarriage with local Albanians, the Arbanasi are learning more about their roots. An honored member of the community, Franco Marussich, is reconnecting the population to their ancestral land with an upcoming project on the genealogy of most families present in Zadar. ==Arbanasi dialect==

The Gheg Albanian dialect spoken by the Arbanasi is quite unique among Albanian dialects. Among other features it has non-standard imperatives (art! instead of eja! for "come!", cf. past participle ardhur), lack of nasal vowels (peculiar for Gheg dialects), phonological changes including alternations between /s/ and /θ/ and the deletion of /h/, and the loss of trilled /r/. Arbanasi have a long history of interacting with speakers of three other languages, Italian, Croatian and Venetian. Historically, Arbanasi were often trilingual between Albanian, Croatian and Venetian; furthermore, they assimilated a large influx of Chakavian speakers who settled among them. There is a high volume of loanwords from each, but some changes appear to have instead distanced Arbanasi from these languages—this is the case with the replacement of all trilled /r/ (the only rhotic in all three of Croatian, Italian and Venetian) with an alveolar tap, a sound totally absent in all three of these influencers. In other ways Arbanasi behaves like a typical Gheg Albanian dialect. ==Notable people==

Culture and the arts Cinema • Anita Berisha, Croatian actress • Helena Bulaja, Croatian multimedia artist, director and producer • Nera Stipičević, Croatian actress Literature • Niko Karuc, writer and publicist • Kruno Krstić, lexicographer • Šime Dešpalj – composer, music teacher, writer • Valter Dešpalj, cellist and professor at the Academy of Music, University of Zagreb • Ennio Stipčević (b. 1959) - musicologist, member of HAZU • Giovanni Renesi I (), stratioti captain, who served with the Kingdom of Naples • Giovanni Renesi II (1567–1624), military captain and mercenary who served the Venetian Republic until 1607 Politics and diplomacy • Šime (Simeone) Duka, secretary of Vatican archives • Valter Flego, Croatian politician, mayor of Buzet and prefect (Župan) of Istria County • Gjon Gazulli, Albanian Dominican friar, humanist scholar, and diplomat • Božidar Kalmeta, Croatian politician and member of the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party • Đani Maršan (b. 1944), singer, musician, diplomat and Croatian Consul • Ivo Perović, Regent of Yugoslavia for the underage Peter II from 1934 to 1941 • Giacomo Vuxani, Albanian-Italian politician, Vice Prefect, Last Italian Authority of Zadar in 1944 • Josip Gjergja, a Croatian politician and diplomat, born on 11 February 1911 in Arbanasi, Zadar, and died on 18 February 1990 in Belgrade. He joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) in 1934 and was imprisoned from 1935 to 1938. He served as the secretary of Agitprop of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Croatia (CK KPH) from 1940 and actively participated in the anti-fascist struggle from 1941. After World War II, he served as a Yugoslav ambassador to Albania, Bulgaria, Egypt, Libya, India, and Burma. He also held the position of assistant to the Yugoslav Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1959 to 1963. From 1963 to 1972, he was a member of the Federal Assembly of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ), serving as Deputy President of the Federal Assembly from 1970 to 1972. He resigned in 1972 due to disagreements with Josip Broz Tito's political stance on the purge of the leadership of the League of Communists of Croatia (SKH). Religion • Nikola Kekić, bishop of the Greek-Catholic Eparchy of Križevci • Ivan Prenđa, Roman Catholic archbishop of the Archdiocese of Zadar • Janko Šimrak, bishop of the Greek-Catholic Eparchy of Križevci Sciences and education • Ratimir Kalmeta, geographer and linguist • Aleksandar Stipčević, archeologist and historian Sport • Ivan Bulaja, Croatian sailor and sailing trainer • Tomislav Duka, Croatian footballer • Edo Flego, Croatian footballer and football manager • Josip Gjergja, Former Croatian basketball player • Dario Gjergja, Croatian-Belgian basketball coach • Hrvoje Macanović, sport journalist • Teo Petani, Croatian basketball player • Rok Stipčević, Croatian professional basketball player ==See also==