Arnaut is a Turkishethnonym used to denoteAlbanians. Arvanid, Arnavud, plural: Arnavudlar : modern Turkish: Arnavut, plural: Arnavutlar; are ethnoyms used mainly by Ottoman and contemporary Turks for Albanians with Arnavutça being called the Albanian language.
Etymology
The original Greek ethnonym Άλβανίτης, derived from Άλβάνος, became Άρβανίτης "Árbanítis" in Modern Greek, which mutated in Turkish, where the spoken Greek "β" was perceived as "v", to Arnavut or Arnaut, by ways of metathesis. A related Greek term is Arvanites. The Ottoman Turks borrowed their name for Albanians after hearing it from the Byzantine Greeks.
Usage
Ethnic marker
During the Ottoman era, the name was used for ethnic Albanians regardless of their religious affiliations, just like it is today. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, due to socio-political disturbances by some Albanians in the Balkans, the term was used as an ethnic marker for Albanians in addition to the usual millet religious terminology to identify people in Ottoman state records. While the term used in Ottoman sources for the country was Arnavudluk for areas such as Albania, Western Macedonia, Southern Serbia, Kosovo, parts of northern Greece and southern Montenegro. In modern Turkish Arnavutluk refers only to the Republic of Albania.
Transfer to other languages
The term Arnā'ūṭ also entered the Arabic language as an exonym for Albanian communities that settled in the Levant during the Ottoman era onward, especially for those residing in Syria. The term Arnaut, plural: Arnauti has also been borrowed into Balkan South Slavic languages like Bulgarian and within Serbian the term has also acquired pejorative connotations regarding Albanians. In Ukraine, Albanians who lived in Budzhak and who later also settled in the Azov Littoral of Zaporizhia Oblast are also known as Arnaut. The city ofOdessa has two streets: Great Arnaut Street and Little Arnaut Street.
Historically used as an exonym, the Turkish term Arnaut has also been used for instance by some Western Europeans as a synonym for Albanians that were employed as soldiers in the Ottoman army. In Romanianarnăut was used in a similar way, since at least the 18th century, for Albanian mercenaries dressed in traditional garb and hired either by the rulers of the Romanian principalities for their court guards, or by the boyars as bodyguards.
