Mountains or Eagles?
Whether learning a foreign language or traveling abroad for the first time we all eventually come to the realization that the names of countries can become a bit tricky. You might find yourself battling blank stares after telling your friends and family about the time you enjoyed the sauna in Suomo (Finland), explored the castles of Hrvatska (Croatia), or when that annoying guy photobombed your pyramid pics in Masr (Egypt). These, perhaps unfamiliar, names are known as "endonyms," or more simply, the names of places as spoken in the language of the people who live there. Each name has its own origin story and Albania, sorry, I mean Shqipëria, is no different. In simplest terms the name "Albania" is believed to derive from the root "Alb," which shares the same Indo-European origin as Alps and simply means "mountain" or "highland". The first known occurrence of the root "Alb" as it pertains to Albania is represented by the Albanoi, an Illyrian tribe from north-central Albania dating back to 130 A.D.. This tribe lived in the eponymous city of Albanopolis (near modern day Kruja) as documented within the works of Ptolemy. Over time, the name "Albanoi" is thought to have slowly spread to other Illyrian tribes until its usage became universal among all the Albanian people and eventually replaced the region’s original name "Illyria" completely by the end of the 14th century. So what about Shqipëria? The root "alb-" came much earlier than this relatively new root "shqip-" meaning "eagle" which now lends itself to the modern endonym "Shqipëri". This surprisingly recent root wasn’t seen until the time of the Turkish invasions in the 15th century and was given due to the presence of eagles throughout the mountains. This name stuck and led to the two-headed bird on the national flag now proudly representing the "land of the eagles". So which root do you prefer? Mountains or Eagles?