Congress of Manastir

The Congress of Monastir (Albanian Kongresi i Manastirit ) was a meeting of Albanian writers and intellectuals from the patriotic 14 to 22 November 1908. During the meeting, which was held in Bitola (Albanian / Turkish Manastir / Manastır ), the participants agreed on a unified alphabet for the Albanian written language. Since then, a strictly phonetic spelling applies with only two special characters. These rules are still valid today, and the Congress of Monastir is therefore considered as the birth of a modern unified Albanian orthography.

Background

Beginning of the 20th century, the Albanians, the only people in South-Eastern Europe, which is still fully lived under Ottoman rule and had no national state. A relatively small group of patriotic intellectuals and writers strove for a generation is to establish an independent Albanian written language and literature. By 1900, quite a large number had arisen primarily poetic works, the first newspapers published in Albanian, there were first textbooks and grammars.

The Albanian cultural movement of the time, which is in the Albanian historiography Rilindja called ( Engl. rebirth), but was inhibited by the fragmentation and isolation of their not very numerous carrier. The Albanians were divided denominational Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox. Their settlement area was distributed to several Ottoman administrative districts ( vilayets ). Albania had no nationally significant cultural center. In the north of Shkodra was especially important for Catholics, along with Prizren in Kosovo. In the center of the country Elbasan was a center of the Muslims in the south there were Korçë for the Orthodox and now belonging to Macedonia, Bitola. Many of the Albanian literary lived not in the traditional Albanian settlement area but in the Ottoman capital Istanbul or in exile. The most important Diaspora community existed in Bucharest. Albanian was nowhere admitted as academic and administrative language and the Ottoman authorities have at times also the pressure of Albanian books banned.

They spoke and wrote in the two main dialects, Gheg and Tosk, and even used different alphabets. Although the trend for some time, went to the Latin script - previously had the Muslims in Arabic script and the Orthodox written with Greek letters - but the beginning of the 20th century there were two relevant versions, the " Bashkimi alphabet " of Shkodra and the " Stamboller alphabet ", which was used mainly in Istanbul and southern Albania. By 1900, efforts increased among the Albanian patriots to work towards a cultural association that would ultimately pave the way of political unity.

The Congress

The Young Turk movement took in its first phase (1907/1908) and the national minorities in the Ottoman Empire more freedom. In this situation, agreed representatives from all major Albanian cities and from the Diaspora held a meeting in Bitola, to clarify the issue of unified notation. This was not least an important prerequisite for the introduction of Albanian-language teaching, it was hoped that at this time by the government. Even in advance of the Congress there have been numerous agreements between the individual groups.

The 150 delegates - representatives of cultural associations and churches, newspaper editors, writers, teachers of private schools, etc. - Came out of the entire Albanian settlement area, from Istanbul and Bucharest, from Egypt, Italy and even the United States. It was hosted by an association of wealthy Muslim merchants in Bitola. To the head of the Congress of the Istanbul-based journalist Mithat Frashëri was chosen. Immediately summarized the delegates the decision that from now on only the Latin alphabet should be used. In a second step, they agreed on a strictly phonetic spelling. This one was the slightly revised Bashkimi alphabet (named after the Cultural Association of Shkodra ) the preference. Since then, Albanian is written with the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet and two special characters. For the presentation of many sounds are a number of digraphs use.

Museum of Albanian alphabet

In the building where the conference was held, the Museum of the Albanian alphabet ( Macedonian Музеј на албанската азбука ) was established in December 2010. In January 2011, the museum was promised support by the Ministry of Culture. In discussions flared up since the entry in the National Register and the design of the new logo should only be done in the Macedonian language: The Museums of Macedonia were all different ethnicities and therefore would have to be referred to in the national language. Furthermore, the competent authorities indicated that Albanians represent less than 20 percent of the population Bitolas. This irony has its cause in the still lack of equality of the Albanian language in Macedonia.

In November 2012, the museum's permanent exhibition was opened in the newly renovated building.