Names of the Albanians and Albania
[3] 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.
[2] 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.
[19] 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.
[21][22] 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.
[27][28] 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).
[4][33][34] 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.
[4] 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).
[38] Arvanitis (Αρβανίτης), plural: Arvanites (Αρβανίτες); is a term that was historically used amongst the wider Greek-speaking population to describe an Albanian speaker regardless of their religious affiliations until the interwar period, along with Alvanoi (Αλβανοί).
[46][47] Alongside these ethnonyms the term Arvanitia (Αρβανιτιά) for the country has also been used by Greek society in folklore, sayings, riddles, dances and toponyms.
[56] At the same time Albanian regions within the empire were referred to as Arnavudluk (Albania) and the geographic terms Gegalık (Ghegland) and Toskalık (Toskland) were also used in government documents.
[57] Historically 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.
[58] The term Arnā’ūṭ (الأرناؤوط) 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.
[59] The term Arnaut (Арнаут), plural: Arnauti (Арнаути) has also been borrowed into Balkan south Slavic languages like Bulgarian and within Serbian the word has also acquired pejorative connotations regarding Albanians.
[62] The term Albanesi was used for some Balkan troops recruited (mid 18th - early 19th centuries) by the Kingdom of Naples that indicated their general origins (without implying ethnic connotations) or fighting style, due to the reputation Albanians held of serving as mercenaries in Ottoman armies.
[67] The term Šiptar (Шиптар), plural: Šiptari (Шиптари) and also Šiftari (Шифтари) is a derivation used by Balkan Slavic peoples and former states like Yugoslavia; Albanians consider this derogatory due to its negative connotations, preferring Albanci instead.
