Why is a country called by its inhabitants Shqiptari known to the rest of the world as Albania? | Notes and Queries

Why is a country called by its inhabitants Shqiptari known to the rest of the world as Albania? | Notes and Queries | guardian.co.uk

SEMANTIC ENIGMAS

Why is a country called by its inhabitants Shqiptari known to the rest of the world as Albania?

THE NAME Albania is believed to be derived from the Albanoi, an Illyrian tribe which lived in what is today central Albania, from the second century BC. Since the 16th century, however, Albanians themselves have called their language Shqipe, their country Shqiperia and themselves Shqiptare. Albanian scholars believe that these names are derived from the word shqiptoj, meaning to speak intelligibly. (Source: Albania, by W Bland, Cleo Press, 1988.)
Brian Palmer, St Albans, Herts.

It's not unusual either for different languages to have different names for different countries, nor for them to be related to the words for speech. Germany is from the Latin name of part of the territory for us; for the French it's the land of the Alemanni, for the Germans the land of the Teutons, for the Russians the Germans are Nemtsy, those who cannot speak (sc. Russian); while the various Slav/Slov names (Slovakia, Slovenia, Yugoslavia) are all related to the word which in Russian is 'slovo' and means 'word', i.e. relates to those who can speak. I believe that if you look at the Russian names for the various ethnic groups that they encountered on their eastward expansion across Siberia, in each case the name to designate the group that passed first into Russian usage was the word for 'wild man, savage' in the language of the people to the west of them. Those names have been replaced in modern usage by the peoples' self designation, so 'Tungus' people (from 'Tungu', the Ostyak for 'savage') are now called Evens or Evenks
Michael Heaney, Oxford