Linguistic Consultation of Pristina 1968

Abstract

In this paper, an empirical study has been made about the organization of the ‘Language Consultation’ in 1968, the contribution and the influence given by the intellectuals of the time, in order to further implement the slogan “One nation-one national literary language”.
The work done by genuine scholars paved the way for the organization of the 1972 ‘Spelling Congress’, in which orthographic rules were established.
Two aspects of the issue were raised during the consultation discussions: one had to do with the choice of code, with the possibility that the differences between the two language variants would be flattened, while the second aspect directly touched on the issue that Albanians should have only one written language. It was thought that the existence of two variants of literary language could have much wider national-political implications.
The main decision of the Consultation Congress was the immediate acceptance of the project mentioned by Tirana for a single literary language as a written language for
the Albanians of Yugoslavia. Numerous remarks on the details related with the code would be sent further for review. The resolution was publicly supported by the Speaker of the Provincial Assembly, Fadil Hoxha.
The Prishtina Language Consultation ended the parallel development of the two ways of writing the language. The Spelling Congress four years later in Tirana only confirmed this situation.
Academician Idriz Ajeti was the man who dedicated his life to the Albanian language. He was a strong supporter for a unified language. His positive and converging views on the history of the formation and development of literary Albanian, paved the way for the historic decision of the Linguistic Consultation of Prishtina 1968, “One nation - one national literary language”!