The Albanian Language on International Mother Language Day

February 21st is International Mother Language Day. This day was declared by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1999. The day commemorates the protests by students from the University of Dhaka, who were of Bengali origin, and who clashed with Pakistani police while demanding that their Bengali language be recognized as an official language. There were casualties in the protest, and a memorial was erected for them.

In UNESCO’s document 16/c, it is stated: “The mother language marks the path of human existence, and through it, it enters society, shapes the culture of the group to which it belongs, and lays the foundation for its intellectual development.”

The Albanian language is among those that have fought for centuries not to be written. As such, this language also has its Martyrs. Today, we will highlight three of them: • Dhaskal Todhrin • Petro Nini Luarasi • Papa Kristo Negovani

Dhaskal Todhri was the First Martyr of the Albanian Language.

He was born in Elbasan in 1730, in the Kala neighborhood, the son of jeweler Filip. His baptismal name was Theodhor Haxhifilipi. He completed his early education in his hometown and later attended the Academy of Voskopoja. Motivated by the desire of the people of Elbasan to recite prayers in the Albanian language at church, Todhri began translating Orthodox Church books, even creating a special alphabet with 53 letters. After 1801, Dhaskal Todri went to Europe and, with the help of Albanians, prepared the necessary letters to print his manuscript. He traveled to Voskopoja to print them, but the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which opposed all other languages, especially Albanian, orchestrated the assassination of Dhaskal Todhri in 1805.

In 1827, his works were publicly burned. Albanologist Johann Georg von Hahn, starting in 1850, and later in his book Albanian Studies in 1854, regarded the alphabet as very ancient, derived from the Pelasgians.

A few of Haxhifilipi’s works have survived. A Mass of Gjon Gojari, written before 1801, is known, as well as another Mass of St. Mary’s, now in Vienna, discovered by Robert Elsie. Lastly, a translation of the catechism, known as the Catechism of Elbasan, which was likely written around 1782, has also appeared.

Petro Nini Luarasi

Petro Nini Luarasi was born in Luaras on April 22, 1865. He was an Orthodox priest, teacher, publicist, and activist in the national movement. His father, Nini Petro Kostallari, was also active in the Albanian National Renaissance as a publicist and teacher.

After finishing his seminar school in Qestorat with teacher Koto Hoxhi, he worked as a teacher in villages in the Kolonje district, preparing a number of future Albanian language teachers. In 1887, Luarasi and his colleague teacher Thanas Sina took over the leadership of the Albanian school in Korça from Pandeli Sotiri after his departure.

Between 1887 and 1893, he opened schools in the Albanian language in Ersekë and several villages in Kolonje. The establishment and promotion of Albanian schools by Luarasi in the Kolonje area brought him into conflict with Filaretos, the Greek Archbishop of Kostur. In 1892, a circular letter was sent to the Albanian Orthodox population of Kolonje urging them to sever ties with Luarasi. Filaretos cursed him as a “renegade” who spread “Masonry and free Protestantism,” condemned his work with Albanian schools, and claimed that the Albanian language “did not exist.”

Luarasi later emigrated to the United States between 1904-1908, where he was an active member of the Albanian National Movement and a founder of the patriotic associations “Malli i Mëmëdheut” and “Pellazgu.” He also worked as the director and teacher at the first Albanian school of the Qiriazi sisters in Korça, and between 1909-1911, he was the director of the school of Negovani, founded by Papa Kristo Negovani.

Luarasi participated in the 1908 Congress of Monastir, which sanctioned the creation of the Albanian alphabet. For his patriotic work, his efforts to separate Albania from the Ottoman Empire, teaching the Albanian language, and his social activism, he was persecuted both by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and the Young Turk regime. He died from poisoning by the Patriarchate on August 17, 1911.

In addition to his teaching work, Petro Nini Luarasi wrote several articles and two poems:

• The Curse of the Albanian Alphabet, (Manastir, 1911) • The Defamation of the Albanian, (Manastir, 1911)

Papa Kristo Negovani

Papa Kristo Harallambi, better known as Papa Kristo Negovani (1875–1905), was an Albanian Orthodox priest and activist in the national movement at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.

He was born in Negovan, near Florina, during the Ottoman Empire, in a village that, together with the neighboring Bellkamen, was populated by Albanians from the region of Kolonje in the 19th century. He attended school in Athens, where his father, Harallamb Çali, a merchant, writer, and patriot priest, sent him. He fought against the efforts of the Church and Greek bourgeoisie to assimilate Albanians and propagated the idea of uniting patriotic forces in the fight against the ambitions of neighboring chauvinistic states. He was later brutally massacred by Greek bandits.

After his father’s death, who was murdered by bandits in 1891, Kristo Negovani had to abandon his studies and worked as a teacher at a Greek primary school in Leskovik to support his family. In 1894, he emigrated to Braila, Romania, where he worked for three years as a carpenter. It was here that he came into contact with the national movement and learned to write in Albanian (using the alphabet of Constantinople). In 1897, he returned to his birthplace, was ordained as a priest, and continued his work as a teacher. He turned his house into a school, teaching over one hundred children and adults to read and write in Albanian. He also held Mass in Albanian, which was greatly opposed by the Greek Orthodox hierarchy.

On February 10, 1905, Negovani conducted a church service in Albanian in the presence of Karavangjelis, the Bishop of Kostur. Upon leaving the church, it is said that he uttered the fateful words, “May the next year not find us among the living.” Two days later, on February 12, 1905, the village was surrounded by bandits who forced the thirty-year-old Negovani, aware of his impending death, to come out of his house in the middle of the night, where he was then brutally massacred with an axe, along with five others, including his brother.

Loni Llogori, one of the most well-known poets of the time, wrote a heart-wrenching elegy:

Papa Kristo was killed And no bell rang for him The mountains of Albania And the caves of the highlands Echoed everywhere Papa Kristo was killed The earth turned black, the sun went dark The day became a day of evil The whole universe trembled Unable to drink the blood they gave To Papa Kristo, who was killed…

CREATED by:

“KORÇA BOOM”