Arvanites: are they Greeks or Albanians?

[alb0zfinest]

There are hundreds of threads talking about this subject already.

[kabeiros]

They should be around 2 million .

No, they are 9 million, maybe more

[wvwvw]

Raine, Wikipedia disagrees:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvanites

Arvanites in Greece originated from Albanian settlers who moved south at different times between the 13th and 16th century from areas in what is today southern Albania.

Anyone can edit Wikipedia, anytime.

Arvanites had been living in Albania long before Albanians arrived in their region. They were billingual in both Greek and Arvanitika which is NOT Albanian but a hybrid language of Albanian, Greek, Latin, and Turkish.

Don't confuse Arvanites with some Albanians who came to Greece and assimilated into the Greek ethnos. Their number was too small, a drop in the Ocean. I am not denying that we have assimilated some Albanians but I DO DENY that Arvanites were Albanian. Their bloodline was Greek.

[alb0zfinest]

Anyone can edit Wikipedia, anytime.

Arvanites had been living in Albania long before Albanians arrived in their region. They were billingual in both Greek and Arvanitika which is NOT Albanian but a hybrid language of Albanian, Greek, Latin, and Turkish.

Don't confuse Arvanites with some Albanians who came to Greece and assimilated into the Greek ethnos. Their number was too small, a drop in the Ocean. I am not denying that we have assimilated some Albanians but I DO DENY that Arvanites were Albanian. Their bloodline was Greek.

1)Wikipedia articles are viewed to make sure they don't contain false information
2)Wikipedia articles get their information from multiple sources, so you don't even have to look at the wikipedia version, just look at their references.

Have you proof of Arvanites living in Albania long before Albanians arrived in the region?
Arvanitika is an Albanian dialect. Now it has some Greek loan words and even the alphabet has been changed, as a result of Arvanite assimilation. And arvanites starting to feel more greek rather then Albanian.

and again you have evidence for such a claim?

[el22]

^^ Arvan is how greeks spell arban == αρβαν.
The word alban itself is in all probability a corruption of arban ~ alban.

[Cleitus]

They are assimilated Albanians.

[alb0zfinest]

Anyways they were once Albanians, now they are Greeks.

[Shqiptar]

They are assimilated Albanians.

Not entirely assimilated since they still speak an Albanian language and still have albanian customs and culture.

[Cleitus]

They are Traitors

[Shqiptar]

Anyways they were once Albanians, now they are Greeks.

Wrong! They are not Greeks otherwise we would not be calling them Arvanites.