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| Arbanas women vested in traditional clothing |
In 2010, the language of the Arbanas of Zara was declared intangible cultural property. Arbanaški is still spoken in the town of Arbanasi, mainly thanks to the contribution of Ana Mazia's family, whose members still communicate with each other only in this language.
Arbanasi is a province with the status of a district in the southeastern part of Zara. The original settlement of Arbanasi was founded in 1726. Most of the inhabitants of Arbanasi are descendants of Catholic Albanians from the area of Shkodra and Tivar, who emigrated in 1726, 1727 and 1733, after whom the settlement took its name. Archbishop of Zadar Vicko Zmajević accepted them and organized their life in the new area.
They took most of the land in the Zemunik area, where they settled permanently, but also in areas such as Murvicë, Raštevic, Polaça, etc. Since its establishment, the settlement was headed by a village headman (škôpi or katunt), directly subordinate to the district headman.
At first they were engaged in heavy labor as well as livestock (shepherds) but the inhabitants of Arbanasi soon became owners or colonizers of most of the land in the Zara area. They were the first in the region to plant corn and managed to make previously uncultivated land productive. They were prominent butchers, sausage makers and cattle traders. In the place in 1866 a primary school for teachers was opened, which was abolished and closed in 1921. Until 1944 Arbaniasi was an independent settlement (Albanesi or Borgo Erizzo in Italian), and later part of Zara.
After 1945, due to the opportunity to obtain Italian citizenship, many inhabitants of Arbanasi moved.
Invited to a television show, Mirta Tomas, a researcher of the Arbanas language and a good speaker of it, emphasized that the Arbanasi language is an archaic form of the Gege dialect of the Albanian language.
It was brought to Croatia by Albanian settlers at the beginning of the 18th century and was first used in the area around Tivar and the surrounding southeastern part of Montenegro.
It is undoubtedly a language on the verge of extinction, as many well-known urban scholars have repeatedly pointed out: Giuseppe Pino Giergia, Maksimilijana Barançic and others.
In Zemunik, for example, it has not been heard for a long time, although several Arban families settled in that place Ravnokotar (Marushiqi, Shestani, Ćurkoviqi, Prenxha, Paleka, etc.) at the same time as in Arbanase of Shkodra.
Lake area, because the adoption of the Croatian language was significantly faster than in Arbanasi. Arbanaški is actually still burning in the town of Arbanasi thanks mainly to Ana Mazia's family, whose members still communicate with each other only in that language. At most three hundred people speak the Arban language from time to time, while five hundred understand it. In Albania itself, it has already become archaic, and difficult to understand for today's Albanians.