Ministry of Culture declares 2008 “Year of Eqerem ȡbej”

TIRANA, March 11- The Minister of Culture, Ylli Pango announced officially 2008 the “Cabej year” on the event of the 100th anniversary of the birth of this multidimensional figure of the national culture and especially albanology. This year will host a series of activities coordinated with the Ministry of education and the university departments as well as with the publishing house ‘Cabej” for the publication of other works by the professor Eqerem Cabej. The commission established for this issue will publish soon the calendar of activities for this year. After the “Kadare year’ and the “Kuteli year’, this is the third time that the Ministry undertakes this initiative.
Eqerem ȡbej was born in 1908 in the southern city of Gjirokastra and died in Rome in 1980. He is one of the most distinguished figures of Albanian science and culture. He finished his studies in Vienna and specialized in indo-European languages. His scientific work had a wide compass including language, folklore, the history of literature but especially studies of etymology and lexicology and codification of the official dialect of Albanian.. Eqerem ȡbej has given a special contribution to the final version of the Dictionary of Albanian Language published in Tirana in1980. He has received the “Honor of the Nation’ distinction from the President of the Republic in 2003. His main works are: “Studime etimologjike n롦ush쮠e shqipes” ; “Hyrja n롨istorin롥 gjuh쳠shqipe” ; “Fonetika historike e shqipes”; “Shqiptar촠midis Lindjes dhe Per쯤imit” .(Tirana Times Staff)