Here’s something for an erudite pub quiz! Elbasani (our stop for today) is the birth (and death) place of Kostandin Kristoforidhi 1826-1895. He worked as a lexicographer and grammarian, translating the New Testament into both dialects of Albanian, Gheg and Tosk. But he was kicked out of the London-based Bible Society in 1874 because he didn’t believe the bible was divinely inspired. He then struggled to survive, but held secret classes teaching Albanian.
He was also a member of the Commission on the Alphabet which began meeting in the late 1860s to agree a common language in which to write Albanian. Fourteen years after his death, agreement was finally reached at a congress in Elbasan to formally adopt the Roman alphabet.
He is buried in St Mary’s Church (1486):
PS The opening image was taken from the website https://omniglot.com/writing/elbasan.htm and was apparently invented around the middle of the 18th century.
What a hero!
Absolutely- a man dedicated to language and to his country and clearly still highly respected in his home town.
Extraordinary story. Didn’t know anything about this guy even though we stayed in elbasani. On a more prosaic note, we did have one of the best Italian meals I’ve had anywhere here.
We missed out the sizeable statue of him just outside the walls of the old city. The food is so good, isn’t it? We decided on Greek in Elbasani.
Really inspiring commitment to language and literacy. I didn’t know there were that many Albanians in the UK before the great migrations of the 20th century.
Can’t help I’m afraid – I’m not sure he ever was in London though he was in Istanbul, Malta and Tunis and may have been recruited/ employed by the Bible Society in any of those places, I guess.
I am reminded to so many similar alphabets in Hindi. We are all joined at the roots
Yes, quite right. I remember you finding common words between Hindi and Turkish.
Great post on alphabet and interesting to see the old script in the link.
It’s such an uplifting story I think