Today, the General Directorate of Archives commemorated Danish albanologist Holger Pedersen, marking the anniversary of his passing on October 25, 1953. As Pedersen used to say, “First, let me say that the Albanian language is a language of a special type.”

The professor at the University of Copenhagen, Holger Pedersen, was an Indo-European linguist who devoted his primary attention to the study of Albanian language. His central thesis defended the theory of Albanian’s origin from Illyrian and emphasized the minimal differences between Albanian dialects compared to other languages. Pedersen is the author of numerous significant books in the field of linguistic studies. He has published a series of studies and works on Celtic, Balto-Slavic languages, and Albanian in both German and Danish.

While staying in Corfu in 1893, the albanologist collected songs and fairy tales, which he later published in a work of linguistic and folklore interest titled ‘Albanische Texte mit Glossar’ (Albanian Texts with Glossary), Leipzig, 1895.

As part of his series of publications on the Albanian language, he released works such as ‘Kontribut për historinë e gjuhës shqipe’ (1894), ‘Tinguj të shqipes’ (1897), ‘Asnjanësi i shqipes’ (1899), ‘Grykoret e shqipes’ (1900), and ‘Studime për gjuhën shqipe’ in Prishtina (2003), among others. These scientific publications delved into complex topics, including phonetics, historical grammar of Albanian, nodal systems, and possessives in Albanian.

In his writings, the philologist and albanologist Holger Pedersen expressed his appreciation for the Albanian language.

/m.ll/