Classify the Libohova sisters

[Arbërori]

Two very popular singers from Southern Albania, they have an Albanian father & Gipsy mother:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6rwBJgoGcY

Eranda:
http://i.imgur.com/eYFd993.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/A6A7fbT.jpg

Irma:

http://i.imgur.com/8X46hOZ.jpg

[Don Arb]

gypos

[Arbërori]

gypos

That's not a classification.

[cally]

Pontid-Alpine and East Med influence.

[Arbërori]

Pontid-Alpine and East Med influence.

They're not fully Albanian.

[cally]

They're not fully Albanian.

I can't see any Indid influence.

[Arbërori]

I can't see any Indid influence.

You have to look past the makeup, just look at Eranda in the beginning of her singing days.

[cally]

I would label any exotic influence she has as Middle Eastern (East Med) - really can't see the Indid or Indo-Brachid which is present in many Balkan Romas.

[Delvios]

When mixed with whites, indids and Indo-brachids tend to look pseudo middle eastern.

[Kastrioti1443]

Interesting. I always saw both of them as exotic, especially Eranda who looks like a badly fed jude.

Anyway, they are not half gypsy, but half Balkan Egyptian ( called Jevg in southern Albania and Ashkali in Kosovo). Gypsy means Roma, another non-european group in albanian lands.

Did you know that also the first Miss Albania in 1991, Valbona Selimllari is also partially Jevg? I had her nephew in class for 2 years and he looked very exotic.

Very very bad... It shows very well how things have mixe, especially during communism and how the cultural and racial identity it is being lost.

Btw, with this East Med... calling every exotic person East Med, ridiculous.

[Arbërori]

Interesting. I always saw both of them as exotic, especially Eranda who looks like a badly fed jude.

Anyway, they are not half gypsy, but half Balkan Egyptian ( called Jevg in southern Albania and Ashkali in Kosovo). Gypsy means Roma, another non-european group in albanian lands.

Did you know that also the first Miss Albania in 1991, Valbona Selimllari is also partially Jevg? I had her nephew in class for 2 years and he looked very exotic.

Very very bad... It shows very well how things have mixe, especially during communism and how the cultural and racial identity it is being lost.

Btw, with this East Med... calling every exotic person East Med, ridiculous.

They are good singers, but they look what they are.

Valbona is part Balkan Egyptian aswell? That's unfortunate, she's beautiful. I always prefered Valbona Coba for Miss Albania though.

It might also be that Eranda is part Vlach and not Albanian. It's unimaginable to me for Albanians to mix with Gypsies or Balkan Egyptians, well atleast for the ones
in my region, as my family for ex. is very racist towards whom we marry. My grandmother is very tribal, she believes its bad luck if I take a girl that is not from our valley.

[Roy]

Orientalid for both.

[Tacitus]

They are good singers, but they look what they are.

Valbona is part Balkan Egyptian aswell? That's unfortunate, she's beautiful. I always prefered Valbona Coba for Miss Albania though.

It might also be that Eranda is part Vlach and not Albanian. It's unimaginable to me for Albanians to mix with Gypsies or Balkan Egyptians, well atleast for the ones
in my region, as my family for ex. is very racist towards whom we marry. My grandmother is very tribal, she believes its bad luck if I take a girl that is not from our valley.

Pardon my ignorance, but what's the difference between Roma and Balkan Egyptians/Ashkali/Jevgs? Always though those terms were interchangeable.

[Arbërori]

Pardon my ignorance, but what's the difference between Roma and Balkan Egyptians/Ashkali/Jevgs? Always though those terms were interchangeable.

Balkan Egyptian origins are said to be Gypsies from Egypt or something along those lines, I'm not sure. Ashkalis are Albanophone Gypsies and Jevgs are usually Balkan Egyptians.

Gabel is another term, but it's rather offensive.

[StormBringer]

I thought Balkan Egyptians are Gypsies who still believe that they originate from Egypt.


Since Gypsies had no chroniclers of their own, their history is difficult to reconstruct. The origin of the Gypsies was a complete mystery until late in the eighteenth century, when their derivation from India was proved by means of early linguistic comparison. Today, it is generally accepted that they emigrated from India to Persia during the Early Middle Ages, and in the High Middle Ages settled in Byzantine regions. Both cultures left their mark on the Romani language, and most common foreign terms like Zigeuner, Cingaro, Tzigan and so on derive from the Greek atsinganoi (athinganoi), which means ‘untouchables’. This term was used by Byzantine authors in the twelfth century to refer to a Gnostic sect as well as to heathen magicians, bear-trainers and snake-charmers. During the fourteenth century, the Gypsies entered the Balkans. From the early fifteenth century they travelled through the whole of Europe. In France, Gypsies were also called ‘Bohémiens’, because they arrived with letters of protection from the king of Bohemia, or ‘Sarrasins’ because of their Oriental appearance.
Since they declared they had come from Little-Egypt, they were called ‘Egyptiens’ by the French, and ‘Egypteners’ or ‘Heydens’ in the Netherlands. The contemporary terms ‘Gypsy’, ‘Gitano’, ‘Gitane’ or some equivalent names in Greece and the Balkans derive from those ‘Egyptians’ as well.
However, Little-Egypt was a Venetian administered region in the Peloponnese, where the Gypsies had settled before being pushed onwards by the Turkish wars.
http://www.medievalists.net/2011/01/02/the-gypsies-and-their-impact-on-fifteenth-century-western-european-iconography/