Fan Noli, the great preacher of the Albanian word

From: Qemal Murati

"Albanian genius, with skill and taste like few others, to a greater extent than anyone else, this great creator of the Albanian word raised the expressive possibilities of our language, contributing to raise it to the rank of the most developed languages, able to express any thought, however lofty, any feeling, however subtle"
Mahir Domi

"The Turkish words that have entered the language and that the people throughout Albania understand, are better Albanian than unsalted and incomprehensible neologisms"
Fan Noli

Fan Noli, like no other, is an institution in itself, to which the Albanian world remains indebted for many things. The Albanian language also owes him, for his unrepeatable fannolics, as much as he also owes the Albanian language, that this language gave him the strength and pride of being Albanian. Today, we can respect Fan Noli not by saying big and selected words for him on special anniversaries, but by working for the Albanian language and using standard Albanian correctly. This tribune worked so hard for this language, for which we work so hard to degrade and ruin it mercilessly and barbarically.

It is difficult to say today what Noli's most important role was: as a writer, as a publicist, as a historian, as a churchman, as a politician, as a translator, as a musicologist, as a polyglot, etc. But one thing is not difficult to know, that Noli was more familiar with the language and used the most fluent Albanian that you can have today.

Unrepeatable Fannoliks

Every time we have the chance to mention Fan Noli's great name - when we read any of his works or when we quote any valuable thoughts or sayings, from those the fannolics (to remind you philippic of Demosthenes, his famous political speeches against King Philip II of Macedonia), we always think of his multidimensional figure: of the poet, historian, politician, statesman, musician, clergyman, translator, polyglot among the most prominent our nation ever. But, nothing less than these is the figure of Noli as the best connoisseur and user of Albanian and as a contributor to theoretical thought and production in the field of language. And precisely because he was the best connoisseur, creator and user of the Albanian language and many other languages, he is also a brilliant poet, orator, publicist and translator from English to Albanian, comparable only to the figure of his close friend and the prince of the Albanian language, Faik Konica.

Noli knew almost all the major languages ​​of the world and is the greatest, most qualitative and unattainable translator. Fan Noli has not only translated religious books, but the luminaries of the world, he has made Shakespeare speak Albanian in his translations (Gjeci Vllasi).

To be at such heights, Fan Noli was not at all hindered by the "poor Albanian language", as this language hindered some other authors of his time, or as standard Albanian still hinders some provincials today. On the contrary, the Albanian language gave him strength like the land gave Ante. With his passionate speech, with his brilliant oratory, with his multidimensional work, he raised this language both in writing and speaking to the highest level. And thus gave a strong arm to the standardization of the Albanian language with new and independent trends. Despisers of Albanian, who accused him of being poor and unworthy to speak this language, Noli would whip them as only he knew:

"Some Albanian authors say that our language is so poor that you can't even give a single sense to an Evgitian. Yes, I say that those authors who say this, are not able to give meaning to Evgyit even with any other language. Never suspect that we don't have great authors because the language doesn't understand us. The great author is also great and dumb. A great painter is a painter even without hands. A beautiful woman looks a thousand times more beautiful if she is dressed in rags. And beautiful ideas are a thousand times more beautiful wrapped in the poor words of the people than in the ornate words of philosophers".

We still have such detractors of Albanian today, even with increased ranks, who call the foreign before the local and the provincial before the national. Except today we don't have a Fan Nol to whip them and make them aware of the wrong path they have taken. In Noli's concept, we could paraphrase that the fault is not in the language, not even in the standard language, which hinders some provincials and semi-politicians a lot, because the language is whatever you want. But the fault lies with the ignorant users who try to bend the language.

About foreign words and unsalted neologisms

Fan Noli's language was not just a talent and a profession, but also a mission. He had deep philological knowledge of language structures, and gave sound advice to purists and purists. For die-hard purists, Noli advises: "The purist who strips his tongue of foreign words does the opposite of what he wants. It breaks the language and does not fix it". He himself used many Turkish words with a contemptuous look (such as officer FOR WHITE), but he used some others because they were already embedded in the Albanian language. In his speech to the National Council, as the prime minister of the country, to best illustrate a translation of Hamlet's tragedy, Noli says that he will use some Turkish words to be better understood. And a voice calling out from the hall: "Albania, Albanian because we don't understand Turkish!", Noli gave the answer:

"Turkish words that have entered the language and are understood by people all over the world Albania, are better Albanian than unsalted and incomprehensible neologisms” (Noli 1977: 59).

Noli is also a master at forming new words. Thus, in addition to the well-known word GOVERNMENT, he will also create the opposition government: Sooner or later the people will understand the throats and the facts, governments and non-governments (Noli 1977: 144). Here is a new word formation of Noli, the government – for corrupt, fraudulent governments. How much it would benefit Albanians if this word were also used for today's governments and governance.

Noli's extraordinary language is compared to the language of the greatest masters who created languages: Naim, Fishta, Mjeda, Konica. There is no literary writer today who does not refer to the superior language of Noli. And here is such a reference by the writer and publicist Lazër Stani:

"Albanian, as one of the oldest languages, was created as a language not through literary writing (its writing is unfortunately late) but through these children "born orally" who over thousands of years expressed their feelings, anxieties in Albanian , visions, dreams, hopes. And they managed to create an extraordinary language. The language of Konica, Naim, Fishta, Mjeda, Nolit, but also to other Albanian writers and translators of the twentieth century, it did not come as a coincidence, nor thanks to their linguistic genius. This language had already been created for centuries, but they were able, thanks to their inborn instinct for words, to express themselves in Albanian, freeing this "language of God"as much as they could from linguistic pollution and barbarism".

Fan Noli has a significant contribution to the formation of standard Albanian. With his literary, scientific, historical and musical work, with his translations, with the words he used, with his syntax, he also laid the foundations of the literary or standard language. The Albanian we speak today is also a product of Fan Noli in the delineation of styles, in the creation of new words, in the clever and skillful use of phrases, phraseology, textology, spelling.

Regarding the formation of today's literary Albanian, the best Noli language researcher, Fatmir Agalliu, says:

"Naimi, Samiu and Kristoforidhi are the founders of the common literary language of our nation and Noli is one of the main crowners, if not the most prominent, of the process of its conception and embedding in recent years... Noli's help in the selection of variants and in the embedding of the norm is sensitive. This is definitely related to the prestige of his works and their spread, especially the translations of Skanderbeg's History and poems" (Agalliu 1995: 36, 37).

As the famous linguist Agalliu states, "It is a well-known fact that in the creation and imprinting of the literary form of a language, the main role belongs to fiction, writers". And in this role Noli becomes the forerunner of today's spelling. That's why such contestations that are made to the standard today by some angry perverts who are looking for the province in the common language and the reversal of the standard, maybe to fix the injustices that have been done to the Greek people, are without bread. For such publicist and director Xhelil Ali will say:

"By shouting loudly about the injustices of one dialect to another, or by making publications in the ancient dialects of the Greek language, which even the Greeks themselves do not easily understand, they can only satisfy the ambitions of a few perverted angry people, but by no means does any good come to the language. Such a spirit has begun to have its effects on everyday speech, especially among a significant part of Kosovars, who are tending towards deep dialectalisms, moving away from the standard of the literary language. Only the authors of these ideas can know how to "make way for dialects, but without punishing the standard". As the late Arbër Xhaferi said, "Dialects belong to feudalism - the literary standard, society and the modern state". And below it continues: "Language standard, perhaps the only tissue that binds Albanians from all sides, is now transformed into an instrument that will divide Albanians, not only in Gega and Toska, but also according to political borders". (Let's speak Albanian, but let's get along!, "Telegraf" newspaper, 28.5.2014).

Fan Nolin, as an unparalleled erudite of Albanian and many foreign languages, has been particularly concerned about preserving the nature of Albanian when we write. "Why don't we pay attention to the nature of Albanian?” - said Noli. Even today, shouldn't we ask ourselves this question, when we have corrupted written Albanian with all kinds of perverted constructions with a foreign spirit, not only in vocabulary, but also in morphology, syntax and phraseology?

Fan Noli and his political oratory

Fan Noli was also brilliant in political thought and in oratory, in building the friendships that have connected us with America over time. On June 4, 1959, at the Church of St. George in Boston, on the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, F. Noli also spoke with the fannolics his:

"America is our national mother. It has given us the American way of life, democracy and the possibility of equality. It has given us the four freedoms, ie, freedom in general, freedom from fear, freedom of speech and freedom of belief. Now that we are used to them, we get them for free. We simply forget that we had none of these in the old homeland and that very few countries enjoy them now. This is the day of renewing our memory.

In the old homeland, during the Turkish regime, our people are not allowed to pray to God in their own language. The Turkish government considered the use of the Albanian language in services as subversive, and our old-fashioned bishops thought that the Gospel of Jesus Christ should be preached in a classical language that no one understood. But we believe that the use of a language that is understood by the people agrees with the oldest traditions of the Church. This tradition comes from the time of our savior God, who said to his Apostles: "Go and teach all the nations". In accordance with this ordinance, we have brought God's message to the people, serving, preaching and spreading literature in the language they understand, that is, in Albanian. So far we have published 14 main liturgical books, 10 of them in Albanian and 4 in English. And now the younger generation can also attend services in a language they understand, ie English.

These achievements were made possible thanks to the freedom of belief and the many blessings we enjoy in this great democracy. We are thankful to live in the land of the free man. God bless America! "

More beautiful than that, better than that, we don't know what can be said and written about America that always protected the Albanians. For America who is truly our Mother. We do not know that it is possible to speak better about the use and protection of Albanian in liturgical sermons.

The Albanian world will always be indebted to Fan Noli. The Albanian language remains indebted to him for his unrepeatable fannolics, as much as he remains indebted to the Albanian language that gave him the strength and pride of being Albanian.

We can respect Fan Noli today when we work for the "common Albanian" language

Today we can respect Fan Noli by not saying big and selected words about him on random anniversaries, such as this one. Today, we can respect Fan Noli in the first place by using today's Albanian language correctly, in school and university, in the state and public administration, in the media, for which this tribune worked so hard, that with fiery speeches and with powerful writings he defended the rights of our people, defended this language and fought for a great national issue. We can respect Fan Noli today when we work for the "common Albanian" language (as the revivalists used to say) and when we don't work for the re-standardization of standard Albanian. In a word, when we remember Fan Noli, we should also remember the Albanian language, not to speak Albanian like the shepherds of Sharri, as a publicist and researcher of ideas (Naser Aliu) said. Otherwise, we don't remember Fan Noli in his dimensions. But we remember him in our cultural and spiritual poverty, in his opposite. Let's try to remember it, as much for demagoguery and posing.

Rare are those who have spoken and written the Albanian language like Fan Noli. This is how he speaks and writes in a program before the people of Korça about agriculture: "Albania has the wealth that is visible, which is above the ground and the wealth that is not visible, under the ground. I wish with all my heart that the wealth under the earth is greater than we realize, but it is foolish to fold our hands and expect all the good from this problematic wealth and leave the principle wealth undeveloped (here is a new word of Noli principle wealth = the first, fundamental, main wealth for agriculture), which, as all foreign experts assure us, is enough (here is an adverb used as an adjective) to feed ten times more people (here is a other seat neologism for "inhabitant") than Albania has today" (Noli 1977: 70). For wealth work, the language of Noli is the principle (first, main) wealth that gives us the appearance of the great master.

Martin Camaj, in the essay "On the function of the language of Noli and Konica", investigates that "both Noli and Konica in their writings always had in mind to be understood by all Albanians. They achieved this goal with a high percentage. The path they followed was this: they chose flat stylistic forms, they deliberately avoided the many variants of the sub-dialectal lexicon of rare morphological forms. Perhaps without knowing, they adhered to some principles, following which leads to a linguistic unity" (Shamku 2013).

Fan Noli plowed and planted a lot for the Albanian culture, and above all he planted the seed of an Albanian woman... fannolikat. Albanian in Fan Noli's laboratory has all its flowers and expressions. Therefore, Noli's works are read with pleasure and pleasure and are easily understood by everyone.

About the knowledge of language Jean Herbert said:

"Knowing a language is much more than a lexicon and a syntax. All levels of the language must be known, from the purest to the most popular, the regional features or sociolects must be known, in other words all language deviations, there must also be a deep enough culture to discover the citations or references that are made to it a work, an image, a collective memory".

 In this sense, Noli knew all these levels of the language ideally. He created a great symphony for the language and created a great Albanian for the communication needs of a small nation. In Noli's creative forge, Albanian flows in all its forms.

Noli, about the cognitive values ​​of the language and the nation, said:

"The movement to raise the Albanian language on a national scale started in Tuscany" (Agalliu 1999).

He affirmed this not because it belonged to southern speech, but because this was the real state that Albanian had achieved thanks to the precious work of writers, and to which this chief writer and chief orator Fan S. Noli has made an incalculable contribution. True, Fan Noli was the shortest-lived in power among those who have governed Albania, but Fan Noli is among those writers who, as a creator of the Albanian language and a gardener of Albanian, as a designer, remain long-lived in Albanian literature who never let go of the head of the country.

It is difficult to say today what Noli's most important role was: as a writer, as a publicist, as a historian, as a churchman, as a politician, as a translator, as a musicologist, as a polyglot, etc. But one thing is not difficult to know, that Noli used the most fluent Albanian that you can have today.

The words that he himself said about Faik Konica would apply to Fan Noli:

"Faik Konica, a good connoisseur of fifteen foreign languages, who spoke French like a Frenchman and who spoke English like an Englishman, was undoubtedly the greatest master of writing the Albanian language."

We should not only commemorate Fan Noli on anniversaries, but we should also learn from him how we should work for the Albanian language and how to speak Albanian Albanian.

Noli's "five anarchies" and our anarchies today

Noli was one of those great idealists who wanted to make Albania a normal country like other European countries. In the Albanian Parliament in 1924, he would so accurately articulate those "Our five anarchies"(religious anarchy, social anarchy, moral anarchy, patriotic anarchy, anarchy of ideals), that in their essence were, so to speak, programmatic about how to get out of the chaos that the Albanians had created for themselves, and that unfortunately these anarchies are recycled even today.

Our anarchies or our perversions have not stopped almost even after a century since Noli articulated them. On the contrary, today they have become even wilder, more anarchic, with new overlays of perversion.

Religious anarchy: In the name of religion or religious belief, today we have come so far as to contest the universal figures of Skenderbeu and Mother Teresa that the Albanian world was once lucky enough to give to humanity. There is no way not to call it anarchy when anyone can insult national idols, anyone can humiliate symbols, anyone can propagate religious radicalism.

Social anarchy: There is no way not to say that our political class today has become deeply destructive, degenerate, a bunch of ordinary liars and frauds, without culture, without knowledge, without a sense of measure for anything, false moralizers, thugs, extortionists, with processes of open court, with files of crimes and corruption. Have we said it all? Maybe not, because again it seems like words don't say what they should - publicist Mehmet Kraja puts his finger on these wounds of ours.

Moral anarchy: Today from words intellectual, professor, academic finally, the halo of the idealist must be removed and other nuances of meaning must be added, so that the new and old fogs can be removed and the face of the world will appear as they are, people with vices and dubious values ​​or without them at all, liars , selfish and servile to the point of disgust. While the politician has become synonymous with the extortionist and the criminal, but above all with the false and vulgar moralizer, who everywhere in the world tells a lot of lies, but here he lies the most precisely when he says that he does everything for Kosovo and her people (Mehmet Kraja).

Patriotic Anarchy: How many brash, incorrigible arrivistes, uneducated and uneducated, of course they are very "concerned" with the fate and future of the nation and declare themselves patriots, just to be the ones at the head of the institutions.for the good of the ven".

Anarchy of ideals: the former ideals of Noli and other Renaissance people for the language, for the nation, for our national heritage increasingly seem to have turned into unrealized ideals, into a fatal mixture of values ​​and political, identity, historical, worldview, religious and cultural.

Our great Fan Noli, if he were alive today, would add some more anarchies to these anarchies, let's call them "democratic" products:

Linguistic anarchy - a lot of time is spent against the Albanian standard, instead of spending time on learning Albanian. In Italy, let's face it, Italian exists as a language, it is accepted by everyone even though there are dialects very far from the language studied at school. No one thinks of changing the standard.

It is an obvious fact that today we are in the most perverted anti-standard linguistic era, where we have a poor Albanian language that completely deviates from the standard norm and when no one is accountable for this. We have this situation of linguistic irresponsibility in the media, in institutions and in the state and public administration, in the publication of school and university literature, in textbooks, in magazines and in various other editions. Whatever university text and publication you pick up, you will be able to notice numerous linguistic irresponsibility, which lead to the formation of the reader with a deficient linguistic culture.

"The Albanian language is threatened by inertia and some of the chaos of the transition, like the one that involved the national hero Skenderbeu" (Edi Rama), and we should not remain indifferent to this, because we are slipping into linguistic anarchy.

University anarchy - the endless creation of public and private universities in the Albanian world and without any standard, that if a more suitable expression was required to characterize the period of the last years in our country, the most striking would be University mania. Universities that produce fictitious high school diplomas have been called "Universities", as these were financial offices that provided the "elders" of Albanian society with fictitious high school diplomas.

Academic anarchy - see what academies of sciences we have today, Academies of sciences without any scientist, when everyone becomes an academician with a gifted title, without any paper or scientific work to be.

Fan Noli was the first to articulate "Our anarchies", first whipped our vices. Today we must appreciate and re-evaluate Noli when we work for the "common Albanian" language, when we identify our problems, when we put our finger on our wounds, when we fight our anarchies.

But how can we get out of the vicious circle of our anarchies?

In order to get out of this social and national situation that has gripped us, we believe there are two ways that we find articulated in anecdotal form even among the people of Kosovo:

1. 'We love and appreciate each other as much as we hate each other”, and

2. 'Let's know what we don't know".

Only then will we be saved. /Magazine "Academia"/Telegraph/

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Agalliu 1995 = Agalliu, Fatmir, Fan Noli and the literary language of our time, "Our Language" 1-4, Institute of Linguistics and Literature, Tirana, 1995.

Agalliu 1999 = Agalliu, Fatmir, The language of Noli, Tirana 1999.

Noli 1977 = Fan S. Noli, The ball is tied, Rilindja, Pristina, 1977.

Shamku 2013 = Shamku Shkreli, Ledi, Sthe aga of the family, the linguistic energy of Father Zef Pllum, Shqiptarja.com, 29.9.2013.