Labovë e Madhe

Not to be confused with Labova e Kryqit.

Labovë, alternatively Labova e Madhe^[1] (Great Labova) or Labova e Zhapës (Zappa's Labova), is a village in the former Odrie municipality, Gjirokastër County, Southern Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it became part of the municipality Gjirokastër.^[2] It is situated roughly 650m above the sea level.

Labovë e Madhe
Village
Labovë e Madhe
Coordinates: 40°12′25″N 20°08′10″E
Country	Albania
County	Gjirokastër
Municipality	Gjirokastër
Municipal unit	Odrie
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)

Name

Afanasy Selishchev (1931), derived Labovë from the Slavic hleb’ meaning bread and Xhelal Ylli (1997) states that is not semantically possible.^[3] The suffix -ov-a is a Slavic formation.^[3] The root word of the toponym might denote the following: a Lab, an inhabitant of Labëria, the proto-Slavic *lap’ for "leaf", or Bulgarian words for plants like lop (petasites), lopen (verbascum), lopuh (arctium tomentosum).^[3] The proto-Slavic reflex a in the placename became o in Slavic, while in Albanian its a, with an Albanian sound change of p to b.^[3] If the toponym is derived from Lab, Ylli suggests it would mean the incoming Slavs encountered the earlier residents there, the Labs.^[3]

In Greek the village is known as "Mega Labovo" (Greek: Μέγα Λάμποβο), meaning "Great Labovo". Mihalis Kokolakis (2003) states that some Greek speaking villages such as Labovë who used characteristic Greek suffixes like ovo had their endings rendered with ova based on Albanian pronunciation in the 1895 Ottoman Salname (administration yearbook) containing population statistics.^[4]

History

Labovë was one of the Albanian Christian villages in the possession of the House of Muçohysaj the ancestral house of Ali Pasha.^[5]

The village was home of the Greek entrepreneurs and national benefactors Evangelos Zappas and his cousin, Konstantinos Zappas. Because of their family name the town is alternatively called "Labovë e Zhapës" although officially it is still called Labovë. The Zappas sponsored the foundation of educational facilities known as Zappeian School (Ζάππεια Διδασκαλεία). In 1875-1876 this consisted of: a primary and a high school, a weaving school for girls, and a library containing 400 volumes from Greek and Latin authors.^[6] Evangelis Zappas participated in 1860 in the debate about Albanian being written and held the view that the language could not become a literary one but should not be abandoned and that a Greek-based alphabet be used for Albanian in the Labovë school founded by him.^[7][8]

In 1913, the village was disputed by Greece and newly independent Albania.^[9] Greek forces occupied the village and Greece claimed Labovë due to its Orthodox population, and a large part of southern Albania as North Epirus.^[9] Villagers were divided between two groups, one that supported Albanian independence and the other wanting to become part of Greece.^[9] According to a local story this is said that happened due to a marriage that time where Albanian songs were sung despite Greek forces having asked to sing in Greek.^[9] As such the International Border Commission allotted Labovë to Albania.^[9]

At 1929 a proposal to re-establish a school for the Greek-speaking children of Labovë was dismissed by state officials, as according to their report the initiative had not been well received by local Albanian Christians.^[10]

Demographics

In the interwar period Nicholas Hammond passed through the area and described Labovë as a place of mixed speech (Albanian and Greek), with Albanian as the mother tongue.^[11] In fieldwork done by Leonidas Kallivretakis in 1992, Labovë e Madhe had an Orthodox Albanian population and Aromanians were as well a community in the village.^[12] The Aromanian presence in Labovë dates to the 20th century when during the communist era of Albania they settled in the village.^[13]

Notable people

• Kristo Meksi, Albanian politician
• Vangjel Meksi, translator of the New Testament in Albanian
• Evangelis Zappas, Greek benefactor
• Konstantinos Zappas, Greek benefactor
• Petros Zappas, Greek entrepreneur and politician
• Ghica family, Romanian-Albanian noble family
• Meksi family
• Apostol Meksi Albanian folkorist
• Hatzigiannis Mexis, (1754 - 1844) was the first governor of Spetses and shipowner with considerable power and wealth, who played an important role in the Greek revolution of 1821 in which he participated with four of his ships and in the newly formed Greek state. His father was Theodoros Mexis(Meksi in Albanian), an Albanian chieftain of Labovë.

References

1. "Maps, Weather, and Airports for Labova e Madhe, Albania".
2. "Law nr. 115/2014" (PDF) (in Albanian). p. 6371. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
3. Ylli, Xhelal (1997). Das slavische Lehngut im Albanischen: Teil 2: Ortsnamen. Slavistische Beitraege, 350 (in German). Verlag Otto Sagner. pp. 134, 271. ISBN 9783876907727.
4. Kokolakis, Mihalis (2003). "Η τουρκική στατιστική της Ηπείρου στο Σαλναμέ του 1895" [The Turkish statistics of Epirus in the Salname of 1895]. In Panagiotopoulos, Vasilis; Kallivretakis, Leonidas; Dimitropoulos, Dimitris; Kokolakis, Mihalis; Olibitou, Evdokia (eds.). Πληθυσμοί και οικισμοί του ελληνικού χώρου: ιστορικά μελετήματα [Populations and Settlements in Greece. Historical Studies]. pp. 246, 253, 255. ISBN 9780007094639. ) "ii) Αλδανισμοί... Συναντάμε επίσης τις χαρακτηριστικές καταλήξεις -όβα και -άτ αντί -οβο και -ατές, ακόμη και σε χωριά ελληνόφωνα που διατήρησαν τις «ελληνικές» καταλήξεις: Λάμποβο"
5. Skiotis, Dennis N. (July 1971). "From Bandit to Pasha: First steps in the Rise to Power of Ali of Tepelen, 1750–17841". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 2 (3): 226. doi:10.1017/S0020743800001112. ISSN 1471-6380. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
6. Sakellariou M. V.. Epirus, 4000 years of Greek history and civilization. Ekdotikē Athēnōn Archived 2010-06-14 at the Wayback Machine, 1997. ISBN 978-960-213-371-2, p. 308.
7. Skoulidas, Elias (2013). "The Albanian Greek-Orthodox Intellectuals: Aspects of their Discourse between Albanian and Greek National Narratives (late 19th - early 20th centuries)". Hronos. 7. Archived from the original on 2019-09-23. Retrieved 2017-12-19. para. 16 "At the same period, two wealthy persons Evangelos Zappas, from Labova e Madhe/Mega Lambovo (with a letter to Elpis), and Hristaki Zografo from Qestorat/Kestorati, another village from Lunxhëri, proposed the use of an alphabet with Greek characters. To understand the mentalities, it wasn’t a problem for Hristaki Zografo to promote the teaching of the Albanian language at elementary or primary schools and at the same time to be the president of the Epirotic Syllogue (Ηπειρωτικός Σύλλογος) in Istanbul for the expansion of the Greek educational network in the Ottoman Empire."
8. Clayer, Nathalie (2007). Aux origines du nationalisme albanais: La naissance d'une nation majoritairement musulmane en Europe [The origins of Albanian nationalism: The birth of a predominantly Muslim nation in Europe]. Paris: Karthala. ISBN 9782845868168. p. 201. "Evangelos Zappas (1800-1865) avait participé à la guerre d’indépendence, puis avait fait fortune en Roumanie. Il finança l’ouverture d’écoles, dans son village natal et dans d'autres locatités de l’Epire. En 1860, il participa à ce débat sur la littérarisation de la langue albanaise, qui se déroulait non seulement dans le journal de Pykaios, mais aussi dans l’Elpis, un périodique de la capital grecque. Dans une lettre adressée à ce journal, il estimait que la langue albanaise n’etait pas en mesure de devenir une langue littéraire, mais qu’elle ne devait pas être abandonnée. Il suggérait l’usage de l’alphabet, à base grecque, employeé dans l'ecole de Labovë fondée par ses soins."
9. de Rapper, Gilles; Sintès, Pierre (February 2008). Faire et défaire les frontières du mariage. Échanges matrimoniaux entre la Grèce et l'Albanie: le cas de la région de Gjirokastër. Vivre et tracer les frontières dans les mondes contemporains. Tangier: Centre Jacques Berque. pp. 2–3. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
10. Hemming, Andreas; Kera, Gentiana; Pandelejmoni, Enriketa (2012). Albania: Family, Society and Culture in the 20th Century. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 102. ISBN 9783643501448.
11. Hammond, Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière (1967). Epirus: the Geography, the Ancient Remains, the History and Topography of Epirus and Adjacent Areas. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 209. ISBN 9780198142539. "Whereas Libohovë and the villages north of it are Albanian in speech, those of the plateau form the most easterly pocket of Greek speech in North Epirus. Between Libohovë and the plateau the two hamlets of Labovë (115 houses) are of mixed speech, the mother tongue being Albanian."
12. Kallivretakis, Leonidas (1995). "Η ελληνική κοινότητα της Αλβανίας υπό το πρίσμα της ιστορικής γεωγραφίας και δημογραφίας" [The Greek Community of Albania in terms of historical geography and demography]. In Nikolakopoulos, Ilias; Kouloubis, Theodoros A.; Veremis, Thanos M. (eds.). Ο Ελληνισμός της Αλβανίας [The Greeks of Albania]. University of Athens. ISBN 9789600800548. p. 51. "ΑΧ Αλβανοί Ορθόδοξοι Χριστιανοί, Β Βλάχοι"; p.56. "LABOVA E MADHE ΛΑΜΠΟΒΟ ΜΕΓΑΛΟ/Ζαππαίο 246 ΑΧ + Β"
13. Kahl, Thede (1999). Ethnizität und räumliche Verbreitung der Aromunen in Südosteuropa. Universität Münster: Institut für Geographie der Westfälischen Wilhelms. ISBN 3-9803935-7-7. p. 133. R. Rrămăn (Aromunen mit der Eigenbezeichnung Rrămăn = Farscheroten, Arvanitovlachen)"; p. 146. "Labovë... hoher Anteil R; zu kommunischtischer Zeit angesiedelte aromunische Bevölkerungsgruppen aus südostalbanischen Gebirgen und aus Greichenland."

Further reading

• Meksi, Fedhon (2010). Labovë e Madhe dhe Labovitët: Gjurmime në vite (PDF). Tiranë: Migjeni. ISBN 9789995671891.