In the 6th century AD, Stephanus of Byzantium, in his important geographical dictionary entitled Ethnica (бјОёОЅО№ОєО¬), mentions a city in Illyria called Arbon ( Greek: бј€ПЃОІПЋОЅ), and gives an ethnic name for its inhabitants, in two singular number forms, i.e.In the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy, the geographer and astronomer from Alexandria, drafted a map that shows the city of Albanopolis, located Northeast of DurrГ«s) in the Roman province of Macedonia and the tribe of Albanoi, which were viewed as Illyrians by later historians.Arbona was perhaps an island in Liburnia or another location within Illyria. In the 2nd century BC, the History of the World written by Polybius, mentions a location named Arbona ( Greek: бјЊПЃОІП‰ОЅО± Latinised form: Arbo) in which some Illyrian troops, under Queen Teuta, scattered and fled to in order to escape the Romans.Main articles: Names of the Albanians and Albania and Albania (name)

However, the ancient attestation of the ethnic designation is not considered a strong evidence of an Albanian continuity in the Illyrian region, since there are many examples in history of an ethnic name shifting from one ethnos to another. It was later replaced in Albania proper by the term Shqiptar, a change most likely trigged by the Ottoman conquests of the Balkans during the 15th century. The ethnic name Albanian was used by Byzantine and Latin sources in the forms arb- and alb- since at least the 2nd century A.D, and eventually in Old Albanian texts as an endonym. Its first attestation with its present meaning is in the dictionary of Francesco Maria da Lecce (1702) who addresses his readers as my 'dear ShqipГ«tar' in its preface. Derivation of the term Shqiptar from the Scapudar family is considered impossible and a proposed etymology from shqiponjГ« (eagle) is a folk etymology. The mention of a Scapudar family in medieval Drivastum is an early occurrence of the term. It gradually replaced ArbГ«resh as the Albanian endonym by the end of the 18th century. Shqiptar derives from verb shqipoj (speak clearly) from Latin excipio (understand). Greek Arvanitai, Alvanitai and Alvanoi, Turkish Arnaut, Serbo-Croatian Arbanasi and others derive from this term. ArbГ«resh is the original Albanian endonym and forms that basis for most names of Albanians in foreign languages and the name of Albania as a country. The two endonyms used by Albanians to refer to themselves are ArbГ«resh(Г«)/ArbГ«nesh(Г«) (northwestern variant) and Shqiptar(Г«). Location of the Albani at 150 AD in the Roman province of Macedonia ArbГ«resh

The Albanians are also one of Europe's populations with the highest number of common ancestors within their own ethnic group even though they share ancestors with other ethnic groups.

These propositions are however not mutually exclusive. The main theories on Albanian origins all presuppose a Paleo-Balkanic main origin, but they vary between attributing this origin to Illyrians, Thracians, Dacians, or another Paleo-Balkan people whose language was unattested among those who support an Illyrian origin, there is a distinction between the theory of continuity from Illyrian times, and those proposing an in-migration of a different Illyrian population. The surviving pre-Christian Albanian culture shows that Albanian mythology and folklore are of Paleo-Balkanic origin and that almost all of their elements are pagan. Albanian forms a separate branch of Indo-European, first attested in the 15thВ century, having evolved from one of the Paleo-Balkan languages of antiquity. At this point, they were already fully Christianized. Albanians continuously first appear in the historical record in Byzantine sources of the 11th century. The origin of the Albanians has been the subject of historical, linguistic, archaeological and genetic studies.

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