Linguist At Justin Rrota in one of his works, gives an image of the Arbanasi dialect, that was given to him by Italian philologist Tagliavini:[4]"Ni njer e ko pat' ni gomar fort të plak, çish (që) nuk ko mujt' vish (srb.

ma) me punua; përata ko shti në mendime m'e vra, e pe' (prej) likure të tij me bo tamburin.

"The ancestors of Arbanasi people are Catholic Albanians who originated from the southern shore of Lake Shkodër and fled the Muslim-ruled Ottoman Empire to avoid military service and also due to religious discrimination or conversion to Islam.

[5][6] The Arbanasi arrived in Venetian-ruled Dalmatia and settled on the outskirts of Zadar on lands provided by landowner Erizzo, in four neighbouring villages and in the towns of Kotor, Dubrovnik and Zemunik.

[7] One was an oral tradition in which Arbanasi Albanian was spoken at social gatherings, often attended by women who recited folk stories.

[7] Another primary school existed teaching mostly in Croatian and in 1901, it made learning Arbanasi Albanian obligatory for students who had it as a mother tongue.

[7] After World War One, Zadar became part of Italy and during the interwar period, Arbanasi Albanian was at first tolerated and in later years banned from being spoken and taught in school.

[11] Arbanasi Albanian is currently endangered, “with less than 200 fully competent speakers, although there are probably around 500 people that understand the language to some extent” (Kovačec 2002).

[7] In studies of speakers of Arbanasi Albanian, they stated to researchers that the language in Croatia is not stigmatised and they have not encountered issues due to speaking it.

[12] Some Arbanasi feel that the move is a political gesture by the Croatian government that is provocative as it misunderstood their needs of being a distinct community with a unique language.