A roundtable discussion on Albanian toponymy was organized at the "Fan S.Noli" University in Korça, where professors of linguistics and literature presented their findings from field expeditions.
Linguist Ledi Shamku-Shkreli, who is the initiator of the nationwide project "Call your place! Space as memory!", says that the collection of place names is seen as the end result of a lifetime, since the inhabitants have named the place as they have lived it.
Naming places is a semiotic process, says the linguist, explaining that several classifications have been made for toponyms. Among the most distinctive, she lists patronymics, in other words, names based on ownership.
In search of the past, Ledi Shamku-Shkreli says that in different villages from north to south they have found similar words that name the same thing or phenomenon, words that have been alive in Albanian since the writings of Buzuku.
(BalkanWeb)
