by Preveza Abrashi. Translation Petrit Latifi

Here the following letter, published for the first time, is found in the archive of the Congregation of Propaganda in Rome[12] in the fund “Scritture riferite nei Congressi” Albania 4, p. 319. In this fund are not the long relations as we find them in the fund “Scritture riferite nei Congressi Generali” and which for the years 1610-1650 have already been published by Albanians.

The contribution to the reconstruction of the historical context of this document is that of Peter Bartl, and the philological work was carried out by Martin Camaj.

The letter of the Leaders of Gash for various reasons has a special linguistic value. According to antiquity, from the form it belongs to the old linguistic evidence even though it was written only four years after the publication of the great work of Pjetër Bogdani.[19] The compiler is not a writer following the tradition of Bud,[20] Bardhi,[21] and Bogdan.

In this case we expect to find in this document the features of a dialect. Other questions arise: Is Tolich a native Albanian or a Slavic? If he was Slavic, is the letter compiled in Albanian without errors? We still find Tol today as a name and surname in Malësia e Madhe but also in Dukagjin (the former region of “Pulat Superior” and “Pulat Inferior”).

It may be that it is an abbreviation of Anatol or – as A. Schmaus thinks – it is more a deviation from Teodor or Todor.[22] There is no doubt that the native language of the vicar Tolich was not Albanian, but Slavic (Croatian). On the other hand, his language represents an early form of the Dukagjin dialect, which in morphological and syntactic terms is almost correct. Tolich knows the spelling of Bud and Bogdan and uses it in composing the letter.