[Ads-l] Albanians

[Joel S. Berson]

"Following the French and Indian War, Albanians believed themselves 
to be British, but visiting Britons did not recognize them as fellow 
countrymen."

Since this is the first sentence of the description of a talk titled 
"Degrees of Britishness: The People of Albany, New York, and 
Questions of Cultural Community Membership, 1763--1775", I suffered a 
moment of dislocation.  But the next sentence brought me back across the ocean:

"New World Dutch architecture, the Albany Dutch dialect, and the 
Dutch Reformed Church contributed to the British view of the 
Albanians as inter-imperial foreigners: subjects who lived within the 
British empire but stood outside of the British cultural community."

And I find it has a long history, even if not as long as in the 
Caucasuses* -- "Albanian, n.4", "A native or inhabitant of Albany, 
New York State", from 1689.

* Not to be confused with Secaucus, which is not close to Albany.

Joel 

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