Summary

Giuseppe Crispi’s 1831 work reflects early 19th-century scholarly theories about the origins of the Albanian people and language, drawing heavily on the ideas of the geographer Conrad Malte-Brun. Crispi reports claims that the Albanians of Epirus and Macedonia descended from Trojans and Dardanians, arguing that while the legend of Aeneas may be mythical, broader Trojan and Dardanian migrations could have a historical basis.

On this foundation, he suggests that Albanian shows affinities with Latin. Crispi acknowledges that these similarities come from multiple historical layers, including both ancient linguistic connections and later Roman influence in Epirus. He emphasizes, however, a primordial relationship between Albanian and “primitive” Latin, proposing that Albanian preserves elements of an ancient language once common to early Greek and Italic (Latin) peoples, including the Albani and Sabines. Overall, the work presents Albanian as a key remnant of a very ancient Indo-European linguistic stratum.

In this publication from 1831, Giuseppe Crispi writes of the connection of the Albanians of Troja, citing Conrad Malte-Brun (1775–1826). Conrad was a French-Danish geographer whose ideas about the origins of Albanians and the Albanian language circulated in 19th-century scholarship. His views influenced later writers like Crispi.

Cited:

“…they tell of the Albanians of Epirus and of Macedonia, who came from Troy. It is true, says Malte-Brun, that some scholars have maintained that the migration of Aeneas is a fable; but the migration of the Trojans and the Dardanians may be a historical fact (a). And therefore the Albanian language has close relations with Latin. But, as the same author rightly observes (b), since these relations can be referred to several different periods, it is very difficult to assess them.

There are some that belong to the ancient connection of Aeolic and Pelasgian with primitive Latin; others derive from the spread of the rustic Roman language in Epirus, brought about by Roman military colonies.

For our argument, the ancient connection with primitive Latin suffices; since in this way Albanian attaches itself to ancient Latin and can have a relationship with the language of the ancient Latin peoples, Albani, and Sabines; and when speaking of the Albanians one may understand those who came from the Dardanians of Phrygia. In short, in Albanian we have in part the foundation of the most ancient language both of Greece and of Latium, since the most ancient language that was once spoken in Latium was the same as that which was spoken most anciently in Greece (c).”

Source

Giuseppe Crispi. Memorie sulla lingua albanese, Palermo, 1831.