Society for the Unity of the Albanian Language

For other uses, see Bashkimi (disambiguation).

File:ShoqniaBashkimi 1899.jpg

A photograph of the Shoqëria Bashkimi

Shoqnia e Bashkimit të Gjuhës Shqipe (Society for the Unity of the Albanian Language), usually known as the Shoqnia Bashkimi (The Union Society), or simply Bashkimi i Shkodrës (The Union of Shkodra) was a literary society founded in Shkodra, Ottoman Empire (today's Albania) in 1899.

Its founder and leader was Dom Preng Doçi, Abbot of Mirdita. Other Catholic clerics who joined were Jak Serreqi, Lazër Mjeda, Ndoc Nikaj, Gjergj Fishta, Ndre Mjeda, Pashk Bardhi, Mark Shllaku, Dodë Koleci. The only non-cleric, Albanian politician Luigj Gurakuqi, joined later.

Since Albanian-language groups were forbidden by the Ottoman authorities, it opened as a "religious society". Its starting objectives were:

1. Creation of an Albanian language dictionary;
2. Mandatory correspondence of its members with foreign press organs;
3. Establishment of a weekly or monthly publication of the society; and
4. Participation in the attempt to create a unified Albanian alphabet.

One of its main contributions was the so-called Bashkimi alphabet, a latin script-based alphabet without diacritic letters.

Due to differences of opinion on the future alphabet, brothers Lazër and Ndre Mjeda left the group to initiate their own society, called Agimi ("The dawn"), in 1901. The Bashkimi alphabet was discussed and approved in a conference of Catholic bishops held in Shkodra in 1902, and was presented as a main candidate during the sessions of the Congress of Monastir, 1908, where the Albanian alphabet was unified. The Bashkimi alphabet was rejected in favor of the Istanbul alphabet (Albanian: Alfabeti i Stambollit) by majority vote. The Istanbul alphabet was infused with elements of Bashkimi, i.e. replacing Greek script letters for special sounds with Latin ones, thus resulting in a fusion between the two as the standard Albanian alphabet.

Within few years from its creation, the society published many works, the most important of which was the New Albanian Dictionary (Albanian: Fjaluer i Ri i Shqypes) of 1908. The dictionary included 13,482 words. It remained the most detailed Albanian dictionary until 1954, when the Albanian Institute of Science (a precursor of the Academy of Sciences of Albania) came out with the its first standard dictionary, the "Dictionary of the Science Institute" (Fjalori i Institutit të Shkencave).

See also

• Society for the Publication of Albanian Writings