Arberesh love poem

Love poem in Arbëreshë (Gjegje, Arbërishtja, Calabrian Albanian, Arbrisht, Arbërisht, Arberesh Albanian, Molise Albanian, Campo Marino Albanian, Central Mountain Albanian, Sicilian Albanian, Autonym : Tarbrisht), a language close to the tosque.

Arbreshe is a language of southern Italy spoken in Basilicata, Abruzzo, Puglia, Molise and Campania, Calabria and Sicily; it is recognized as one of the historic minority languages of Italy, and is part of a revitalization program. It is taught in the regions where the Arbëreshës are, but without a written standard the task is complicated.

In addition, surrounded by an Italian language, omnipresent in all the media, this does not mean, that apart from a few elderly people in a family context, it is used.

In a few places, however, a Greco-Byzantine religious liturgy in the Arbreshe language is maintained, and some local initiatives attempt to keep this language and the culture of those who speak it, alive.

There are 100,000 speakers for this language; one of it interests, is to have as a starting point the ancient Albanian spoken before the arrival of the Turks.

The Arberias, are the Albanian emigrants from southern Italy who arrived in the Middle Ages after 1467. They descend from several waves of immigration from southern Albania between the 15th and 18th centuries during the Ottoman invasions, especially because of religious persecutions, and to flee apostasy.

All these migratory waves have merged with the local populations, to be fully-fledged Italians today.

Italy has one of the most important population densities in the European Union. With a rich past going back to antiquity, it was divided, after the fall of the Roman Empire into kingdoms and great independent cities.

Unified in 1861 the Kingdom of Italy became a republic in 1946. There is still a strong economic imbalance between the north and the south. To the north as to the south its architectural heritage is impressive.