The Albanians (Albanian: Shqiptarët) and their country Albania (Shqipëria) have been identified by many ethnonyms. The native endonym is Shqiptar. The name "Albanians" (Latin: Albanenses/Arbanenses) was used in medieval Greek and Latin documents that gradually entered European languages from which other similar derivative names emerged. Linguists believe that the alb part in the root word originates from an Indo-European term for a type of mountainous topography, meaning "hill, mountain", also present in Alps. Through the root word alban and its rhotacized equivalents arban, albar, and arbar, the term in Albanian became rendered as Arbëreshë (Gheg Albanian: Arbëneshë) for the people and Arbëria (Gheg Albanian: Arbënia) for the country. Contemporary Albanian language employs a different ethnonym, with modern Albanians referring to themselves as Shqiptarë and to their country as Shqipëria. Two etymologies have been proposed for this ethnonym. One connects it to the verb 'pronounce' (shqiptoj), deriving from Latin excipere. In this instance, the Albanian endonym, like many others, would originally have been a term connoting "those who speak [intelligibly, the same language]"; that is, "those who speak shqip," with shqip referring to the Albanian language itself. The other one derives the name from the Albanian word for eagle (shqiponjë). The eagle was a common heraldic symbol for many Albanian dynasties in the Late Middle Ages and came to be a symbol of the Albanians in general; for example, the flag of Skanderbeg, whose family's symbol was the black double-headed eagle, as displayed on the Albanian flag. Attested from 14th century onward, the placename Shqipëria and the ethnic demonym Shqiptarë gradually replaced Arbëria and Arbëreshë amongst Albanian speakers between the late 17th and early 18th centuries. That era brought about religious and other sociopolitical changes. As such a new and generalised response by Albanians based on ethnic and linguistic consciousness to this new and different Ottoman world emerging around them was a change in ethnonym.
Arbënesh/Arbëresh (Albanian)
Arbën, Arbëneshë, Arbënuer (as rendered in northern Gheg dialects) and Arbër, Arbëreshë, Arbëror (as rendered in southern Tosk dialects) are the old native terms denoting ancient and medieval Albanians used by Albanians. The Albanian language was referred to as Arbërisht (Gheg Albanian: Arbënisht). While the country was called Arbëni, definite: Arbënia and Arbëri, definite: Arbëria by Albanians. These terms as an endonym and as native toponyms for the country are based on the same common root alban and its rhotacized equivalents arban, albar, and arbar. The national ethnonym Albanian has derived from Albanoi, an Illyrian tribe mentioned by Ptolemy with their centre at the city of Albanopolis, located in modern-day central Albania, near the city of Krujë. The alb part in the root word for all these terms is believed by linguists be an Indo-European word for a type of mountainous topography, meaning "hill, mountain", also present in Alps. The Lab, also Labe, Labi; Albanian sub-group and geographic/ethnographic region of Labëri, definite: Labëria in Albania are also endonyms formed from the root alb. These are derived from the syllable cluster alb undergoing metathesis within Slavic to lab and reborrowed in that form into Albanian. Terms derived from all those endonyms as exonyms appear in Byzantine sources from the eleventh century onward and are rendered as Albanoi, Arbanitai and Arbanites and in Latin and other Western documents as Albanenses and Arbanenses. The first Byzantine writers to mention Albanians in an ethnic sense are Michael Attaliates (in the book History) and Anna Comnena (in the book Alexiad), referring to them as Albanoi and Arbanitai, in the 11th century. In later Byzantine usage, the terms "Arbanitai" and "Albanoi" with a range of variants were used interchangeably, while sometimes the same groups were also called by the classicising name Illyrians. The first reference to the Albanian language dates to the year 1285.
The country was known in Byzantine sources as Arbanon (Άρβανον) and in Latin sources as Arbanum. In medieval Serbian sources, the ethnonym for the country derived from the Latin term after undergoing linguistic metathesis was rendered as Rabna (Рабна) and Raban (Рабан), while the adjective was Rabanski (Rабански). From these ethnonyms, names for Albanians were also derived in other languages that were or still are in use. In English Albanians; Italian Albanesi; German Albaner; Greek Arvanites, Alvanitis (Αλβανίτης) plural: Alvanites (Αλβανίτες), Alvanos (Αλβανός) plural: Alvanoi (Αλβανοί); Turkish Arnaut, Arnavut; South Slavic languages Arbanasi (Арбанаси), Albanci (Албанци) and so on. The term Arbëreshë is still used as an endonym and exonym for Albanians that migrated to Italy during the Middle Ages, the Arbëreshë. It is also used as an endonym by the Arvanites in Greece. Within the Balkans, Aromanians still use a similar term, Arbinesh, in the Aromanian language for contemporary Albanians.
Arbanasi
Arbanas (Арбанас), plural: Arbanasi (Арбанаси); is the old ethnonym that the South Slavs, such as the Bulgarians and Serbs, used to denote Albanians, dating back to the Middle Ages. Arbanaski (Арбанаски), Arbanski (Арбански) and Arbanaški (Арбанашки) are adjectives derived from those terms. The term Arbănas was also used by Romanians for Albanians. They first appear with this ethnonym in a Bulgarian manuscript dated 1000–1018, during the reign of Tsar Samuel, in which Arbanasi (Albanians) are mentioned as being half-believers (i.e. non-Orthodox Christians). The term was in use amongst South Slavs until the mid 20th century. The name Arbanasi is still used as an exonym for a small Albanian community in Croatia on the Dalmatian coast that migrated there during the 18th century. In modern South Slavic languages the term is Albanac.
Arvanites
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