Ethnic Albanians in the Ukraine:
Patois and Culture

Alexander Novik

Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, St. Petersburg

Nowadays, in the Ukraine there are estimated 5,000 ethnic Albanians. They live mainly in villages situated in the Odessa and Zaporozhye regions. Before migrating to the territory of the Russian empire, Albanians had moved from the southeast of present-day Albania into Bulgaria (Varna region) because of the Osmanli invasion.

The language and many elements of their traditional culture are still preserved and maintained in four Albanian villages: Karakurt, Tyushki, Taz and Dzhandran. From ethnolinguistic and linguistic points of view these Albanian villages are of particular interest and value, since they are excellent examples of a "melting pot." Bulgarians and Gagauz live side by side with Albanians in Karakurt; Russians and Ukrainians share the same space with Albanians in the Azov district. It is worth mentioning that in multi-lingual environments Albanian patois retains its original Balkan features. Co-existence and cultural and language interference with different ethnic groups have resulted in the emergence of unique cultural and language peculiarities typical of Albanians settled in the Ukraine.