Kostandin Kristoforidhi

Image of Kristoforidhi, year unknown

Kostandin Kristoforidhi (also Konstandin Kristoforidhi ; Greek Κωνσταντίνος Χριστοφορίδης Konstandínos Kristoforídhis ; * 1827 in Elbasan ; † 1895 ibid) was an Albanian author and translator. He was involved in the Albanian national movement Rilindja .

Life

Kristoforidhi attended the Greek high school Zosimea in Ioannina ; later he studied philology in Athens . He was extremely gifted at languages. In addition to his mother tongue Albanian as well as ancient and modern Greek, he also spoke Hebrew, Turkish, Bulgarian, Italian and French.

Kristoforidhi studied the Albanian language intensively . In 1857 he wrote a memorandum in which he justified the need for a uniform written Albanian language and thus gave the initial spark for the relevant efforts within the Albanian national movement.

Kristoforidhis Gian translation of the New Testament

Kristoforidhi wrote the first complete translation of the New Testament and the Psalms into Albanian in 1869 . He worked out both a version in the Gegic and one in the Tuscan dialect, which he gave the same rank for literary production. The London Bible Society encouraged him to translate his work and provided him with material support while he was working and covered the costs for the first printing. Kristoforidhi's independent works are less literary and more practical in nature and didactic. In 1867 he was the head of a commission of writers who established the so-called Stamboller alphabet (a slight adaptation of the Latin alphabet ) as the standard for printing Albanian books.

After staying in Constantinople from 1865 to 1870, Kristoforidhi also made some trips to Albania when he returned to Constantinople in 1878. In 1884 he finally settled in his native town of Elbasan and died there in 1895.

Publications (selection)

• Abetare. (ABC book, Gegisch 1867, Tuscan 1868)
• Dhjata e Re. (New Testament, Gegisch, 1869)
• Istoria e shkronjësë shënjtëruarë. (1872)
• Γραμματική τῆς γλώσσης κατὰ τὴν τοσκικὴν διάλεκτον grammar ē tēs glossēs kata tēn toskikēn dialecton. (Grammar of the Tuscan dialect, 1882)
• Λεξικὸν τῆς ἀλβανικῆς γλώσσης Lexicon tēs albanikēs glōssēs. (Greek-Albanian dictionary, published in Athens in 1904 after his death)

literature

• Kostandin Kristoforidhi and the Albanian Bible. In: Besa. Retrieved on August 25, 2012 (Italian, No. 193, volume 2007. pp. 2–7. (PDF file; 155 kB)).