THE ATTITUDE OF THE THREE ALBANIAN RINSIERS FOR THE ALBANIAN LANGUAGE ALPHABET – GJERGJ QIRIAZI, FAIK KONICA, MIT’HAT FRASHËRI

This paper aims to give an overview of the stances of three Albanian Renessaince representatives on the Albanian language alphabet and script. This comparison of three important figures of the National Renessaince offers a deeper understanding of their opposing opinions. Gjergj Qiriazi defended the Albanian alphabet that we know and use today, Mit'hat Frashëri the Istanbul alphabet, whereas Faik Konica attacked almost every participant of the Alphabet Congress, underlining that those who claimed to having the ability to solve the issue of the alphabet and the script, did not possess the skills to do so. The objective the paper strives to fulfill is to reflect and summarise opposing stances, proving the difficulty of solving the issue of the alphabet and the discussions that had to be overcome. These Renessaince representatives were selected since each of them represents a specific branch of the Albanian culture: Mithat Frashëri comes from the Frasheri family, in a way- the main promoters of the National Renessaince, Gjergj Qiriazi comes from the group representing the Bible Society, with the mission to translate the Gospel into Albanian, whereas Faik Konica had Western values and a completely different apporach towards the Albanian culture as well as the Albanian alphabet. The article will be enriched by stances and opinions of other authors defending the Arab and Greek scripts for the Albanian language. This study is built by referencing articles by the above-mentioned authors on the Albanian language alphabet.