Irena Natalia Sawicka (born 20 September 1944, in Warsaw) is a Polish linguist, Balkanologist, and Slavicist with significant interest in Albanology. She is among the world's most authoritative linguists who have studied the Albanian language and has greatly contributed to the dissemination, cultivation, and study of Albanian in Poland, as well as the promotion of Albanology worldwide. [1] [2]
In 1968, she graduated with a degree in Slavic philology from the University of Warsaw. After her studies, she began working at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 1972, she obtained her doctoral degree with a dissertation on the structure of consonant clusters in Slavic languages, under the supervision of Janusz Siatkowski. In 1978, she obtained her habilitation degree at the University of Warsaw with a dissertation titled "Issues of Nominal Predication on the Example of the Serbo-Croatian Language." In 1991, she was awarded the title of professor of humanities. [3]
She worked at the Institute of Slavic Studies until 1992, after which she was employed in the Department of Comparative Slavic Studies at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, where she directed the Institute of Slavic Philology and Balkan Studies for many years. Within this university, she also taught Albanian, qualifying some of today's most distinguished Polish Balkanists in Albanology. She retired in 2014.
Sawicka specializes in the phonetics and phonology of Slavic and Balkan languages, including Albanian, as well as typology and geographical linguistics, with a special focus on Southern Slavic languages and Albanian. She is the author of many pioneering works on the grammar and inflection of the Albanian language in Poland. Among her most important studies on Albanian are those on the structure of the syllable in the Albanian language and the syllable structure of the Arbëreshë of Italy. These are included in the monograph "The Structure of the Albanian Syllable," co-authored with her former student Karolina Dargiel, published in 2018 by the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo.
She has participated in the Prishtina Albanological Seminar and in various Albanology conferences in Kosovo. In 1989, she received the award of the Secretary General of the Polish Academy of Sciences, several times the Rector's Award of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, as well as the "Goce Delčev" Award from the Republic of Macedonia and the "Blaže Koneski" Award from the Macedonian Academy of Sciences for her contributions to Macedonian. [4] She is also a member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo. [5]
The phonological system of the Polish language is similar in many ways to those of other Slavic languages, although there are some characteristic features found in only a few other languages of the family, such as contrasting postalveolar and alveolo-palatal fricatives and affricates. The vowel system is relatively simple, with just six oral monophthongs and arguably two nasals in traditional speech, while the consonant system is much more complex.
Rexhep Qosja is an Albanian writer, literary critic and Professor at University of Prishtina. He is a prolific literary critic and literary historian of Albanian literature. As a writer he is mostly known for his 1974 novel 'Death Comes to Me from Such Eyes', translated into multiple languages.
Mark Krasniqi was a Kosovar Albanian ethnographist, publicist, writer and translator who did most of his work while residing in Yugoslavia.
Vaccarizzo Albanian, or Calabria Arbëresh, is a subdialect of the Arbëresh dialect of the Albanian language. Spoken in the villages of Vaccarizzo Albanese and San Giorgio Albanese in southern Italy by approximately 3,000 people, Vaccarizzo Albanian has retained many archaic features of the Tosk dialect, on which the Standard Albanian is based.
Classical music in Kosovo refers to the art music cultivated in Kosovo. The roots of classical music in Kosovo are found in the 1940s and include the time period from the times when Kosovo was part of Yugoslavia to this day. It can be said that there is a tradition of classical music in Kosovo, however, compared to other Balkan countries and especially European countries this tradition is younger. Classical music in Kosovo reaches back about 70 years. Even though in a short period of time, this music has evolved, passing through generations of composers and artists. In his book Albanian: Zhvillimi i stileve në veprat e kompozitorëve shqiptarë të Kosovës, Engjëll Berisha comments:
"The diversity of styles in Albanian music [of Kosovo], its national patterns with sound idea-aesthetic foundations are a characteristic of the European musical reality, so many many works are of interest abroad, too, because during this relatively short period Albanian classical music in Kosovo has compensated for the delay in its development."
Archaeology of Kosovo as a field of study and research was started in the second half of the 20th century. Kosovo's field of archaeology has developed in tandem with the historical study, studies of ancient authors' sources, classic philological studies, theological data research, topographic studies and ground survey, analysis of toponyms, deciphering of epigraphic and historiographic data. First data about antique monuments in Kosovo, were documented from the end of the 19th until the beginning of the Second World War, a time period when Kosovo was visited by researchers, guides, and archaeologists such as: Evans, Boue, Hahn, Kanitz, Tomaschek, Domaschevski, Arpad, Vulic, Jirecek, Patsch, Domenico Mustilli, etc.
The Roman heritage sites in Kosovo represent a multitude of monuments of material and spiritual culture, which reflect the Roman period in this region. Among them, a special place is occupied by those that represent the development of art, such as the plastic monuments that are more frequent, and at the same time occupy an important place, because with the presentation of figures in relief and with numerous inscriptions they speak to us enough for this period.
Rugova is a mountain region located to the north-west of the city of Peja, in Kosovo. According to notes of Rugova it has been inhabited since before the 12th century. In 2013, it was designated a national park by the Parliament of Kosovo.
The Faculty of Arts of Pristina is the faculty of arts of the University of Pristina, located in Pristina, Kosovo.
Albania's Golgotha: Indictment of the Exterminators of the Albanian People, is a German published document of 1913 which was written by the Austrian publicist and politician Leo Freundlich (1875-1953). The document is a compilation of news which he gathered when traveling in the Vilayet of Kosovo during the Serbian invasion of 1912-1913, explaining in detail the full-scale massacres, rape, expulsions, torture and abuse which Albanian civilians suffered under rule by the Serb army and Chetnik paramilitaries. According to the documents of Freundlich, 25,000 Albanians were massacred in the Kosovo Vilayet halfway through the First Balkan War. The document describes the methods of ethnic cleansing which was used to remove the Albanian population of North Macedonia, Northern Albania, and Kosovo. The document was re-translated by Robert Elsie. The reports were confirmed by the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan War.
Kosovo is characterised by a diverse biodiversity and an abundance of different ecosystems and habitats determined by the climate along with the geology and hydrology. Predominantly mountainous, it is located at the center of the Balkan Peninsula bounded by Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the north and east, North Macedonia to the southeast, and Albania to the southwest.
Zef Mirdita was an Albanian historian, university professor and academic from Prizren, Kosovo. He has made a significant contribution to the fields of Illyrology and Balkan studies.
Skënder Anamali was one of the founders of Albanian archaeology. He made significant contributions to the field of Illyrian studies.
The Faculty of Philology is an academic unit within the University of Pristina. Established in 1988 after gaining independence from the Faculty of Philosophy, its roots can be traced back to the Higher Pedagogical School of Prishtina (1958) and the Faculty of Philosophy (1960).
Dea Dardanica is an archaeological artifact found in Kosovo that represents an ancient deity associated with the Dardania region, located in the central-western Balkans, which encompasses parts of modern Kosovo and western North Macedonia.
Remzi Nesimi (1933–2018) was an Albanian linguist, professor, and researcher from North Macedonia. Nesimi's dedication to the Albanian language and education left a lasting mark, and he is remembered as a respected scholar and mentor.
Gunnar Olaf Svane was a distinguished Danish linguist, professor, and scholar specializing in Albanology and Slavic studies. His academic career was primarily associated with Aarhus University in Denmark, where he served as a professor of Slavic studies from 1965 until his retirement in 1994. Svane's expertise extended to medieval Slavic languages and South Slavic languages, but he is particularly renowned for his research on Slavic loanwords in the Albanian language.
Oda Buchholz was a German linguist known for her expertise in the Albanian language. She made contributions to Albanian studies and Balkan linguistics.
Wilfried Fiedler was a German albanologist, balkanologist, and linguist, known for his significant contributions to the studies of the Albanian language and Balkanology.