Arvanites

Arvanites (/ˈɑːrvənaɪts/; Arvanitika Albanian: Αρbε̱ρεσ̈ε̰, romanized: Arbëreshë or Arvanitika Albanian: Αρbε̰ρορε̱, romanized: Arbërorë; Greek: Αρβανίτες, romanized: Arvanítes) are a population group in Greece of Albanian origin. For many centuries the Arvanites regarded themselves and were regarded by Greeks as a distinct ethnic community. Their important role in the Greek War of Independence and the common Christian Orthodox religion they shared with the rest of the Greek-speaking population, led to them being regarded as an integral part of the Greek nation in the 19th century and they were exposed to increasing assimilation by the modern Greek state.

During the 20th century, Arvanites in Greece began to dissociate themselves much more strongly from the Albanians, stressing instead their national self-identification as Greeks. The Greek government pursued policies that actively discouraged the use of Arvanitika, and today, almost all Arvanites self-identify as Greeks and do not consider themselves Albanian. Nowadays, they are bilingual, traditionally speaking Arvanitika – an Albanian variety – along with Greek. Arvanitika is currently in a state of attrition due to a language shift towards Greek, the large-scale internal migration to the cities, and the subsequent intermingling of the Arvanite community with the wider Greek population during the 20th century onwards.

Albanians were first recorded as settlers who came to what is today southern Greece in the late 13th and early 14th century, with the last old migratory wave occurring in the second half of the 18th century. They were the dominant population element in parts of the Peloponnese, Attica, and Boeotia up until the 19th century. After settling in Greece, numerous groups from these Albanian communities began to migrate to Italy during the 15th–16th centuries, and now form part of the Arbëreshë community.