TIRANA, August 6 – August 6 marks the 118th anniversary of the birth of linguist and Albanologist Prof. Eqrem Çabej, one of the founders of modern Albanian studies.
Çabej was born on August 6, 1908, in Gjirokastër, where he completed his early education. He attended high school in Klagenfurt, Austria, and studied comparative Indo-European linguistics and Albanology at the Universities of Graz and Vienna. He earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Vienna in 1933. Later, he taught Albanian language and literature in Shkodër, Elbasan, Gjirokastër and Tirana. During the 1940s, he worked in Rome on the Albanian Linguistic Atlas among the Arbëresh communities in Italy before returning to Albania in 1944.
Further, Çabej continued his academic work at the Institute of Sciences and became one of the first lecturers at the two-year Higher Pedagogical Institute. After the establishment of the University of Tirana, he taught the history of the Albanian language and historical phonetics. His studies contributed to historical linguistics, Albanology, etymology, grammar, literature and Albanian folklore.
He also helped establish the Academy of Sciences of Albania and worked at the Institute of Linguistics and Literature until the end of his life. During his 50-year scientific career, Çabej researched the origins of Albanians and their historical continuity through linguistic and historical analysis.
His main works include “Etymological Studies in the Field of Albanian”, the critical edition of “The Missal of Gjon Buzuku” and “Studies on the Historical Phonetics of the Albanian Language”. Çabej received the First-Class Republic Award for his scientific work and was posthumously awarded the “Honor of the Nation” Order. He died in Rome on August 13, 1980.
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