Arbëresh

The Arbëresh writers, as they are commonly called, profited from the absence of state-imposed restrictions in Italy and published freely to preserve and celebrate their ethnic Albanian heritage. (The term Arbëresh denotes both their dialect and their ethnic origins; it is derived from the word Arbëria,…

…dialect of Albanian known as Arbëresh is spoken by the descendants of 15th-century Albanian mercenaries; Croatian, the smallest minority language, spoken by some 2,000 people, has survived in splendid isolation in Campobasso province in Molise; and Greek, or “Grico” (of uncertain origin), may be heard in two areas in Calabria…