EMRA VENDESH ME TOPOLEKSEMËN GJARPËN/ GJARPËR
PLACE NAMES WITH TOPOLEXEM GJARPEN/ SNAKE

Summary/Abstract: The name of the snake, as an old Albanian word un-borrowed from the indo-European vocabulary (lat. serpens, sl. zmija), has a great circulation of use in Albanian either in the general lexica or in the toponymy. The name of this living cult creature is widespread in the toponymy and anthroponymy in different regions, especially in the North of Albania or, more precisely, in the Alps: Gjarpni i Dragobisë/ Snake of Dragobia (at the foot of the mountain of this village), Gjarpni i Çeremit /Snake of Çeremi, Gjarpni i Mulosmanajve/ Snake of Mulosmanaj family, Gjarpni i Beshivanve / Snake of Beshivan family. These are four mountains border-crossings with each other. In Melgusha of Shkodra, once upon a time, one of the hills, in the Middle Ages, was called Kodra e Buzgjarpnit.Në Melgushë të Shkodrës, njëra nga kodrat dikur, në mesjetë, quhej Kodra e Buzgjarpnit/ The Hill of the Snake Edge. Later, because there was a church built there, it was named the Kisha e Buzgjarpnit/Church of Buzgjarpni. In Gash of Malësia e Gjakovës there is a village Buçaj (buç - a special denomination of a kind of snake). In Melgusha of Shkodra there is a neighbourhood called once Gjarpaj, as a toponym, and also as an ethnonym for the inhabitants of this neighborhood. In Tomorricë there is a place name Guri i Gjarprit/Stone of the Snake. Nameings of this nature are also encountered in Malësi e Madhe, in Mat and in other areas. In Malësi e Madhe the name of the snake is prominently encountered as anthroponym, more often as a family name, but sometimes also as personal name. In Malësia e Tiranës, probably at Fravesh, there is a neighbourhood called Gjarpaj. They consider they originate from Malësi e Madhe and say that their first ancestor, who came there, was named Gjarpë Pepa /Pepa Snake. Topics observed here, containing the element Gjarpën/ Gjarpër (Snake) in such a wide variety of forms, like: Gjarpnesha, Gjarpnusha, Gjarpthi, Gjarpthat, that are preserved to present times within Albanian territories, are the evidence of preserving the early traces of continuous worshiping the snake among Albanians, passed from the time of their first ancestors, the Illyrians, to the present times. Topolexems named snake has also been found in the Serbian, Montenegrin and Macedonian toponyms (Zmija).

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