Kolec Topalli, linguist, professor, Teacher of the People, was born in Shkodër. He completed high school in his hometown. He attended higher studies at the Higher Pedagogical Institute of Shkodra and completed his studies in the Albanian language and literature department at the University of Tirana (1964). He worked as a teacher in the districts of Kukës, Lezhë, Gramsh and Krujë. General Secretary of the President of the Republic (1992–1997), scientific worker at the Institute of Linguistics and Literature (1997–2006), adviser at the Albanian embassy in Rome (2006–2007). During the years of service in education, he was engaged in language studies and prepared two dissertations (1986, 1991). He mainly dealt with problems of the historical phonetics of Albanian. He is the author of the monographs: “Theksi në gjuhën shqipe” (“Accent in the Albanian language”) (1995), “Për historinë e hundorësisë së zanoreve në gjuhën shqipe” (“On the history of the nasalization of vowels in the Albanian language”) (1996), “Zhvillimi historik i diftongjeve të shqipes” (“The historical development of diphthongs in Albanian”) (1998), “Shndërrime historike në sistemin zanor të gjuhës shqipe” (“Historical changes in the vowel system of the Albanian language”) (2000), “Sonantet e gjuhës shqipe” (“The sonants of the Albanian language”) (2001), “Mbylltoret e gjuhës shqipe” (“The closures of the Albanian language”) (2002), “Fërkimoret e afrikatet e gjuhës shqipe” (“The fricatives and affricates of the Albanian language”) (2003), “Dukuritë fonetike të sistemit bashketingëllor të gjuhës shqipe” (“Phonetic phenomena of the consonantal system of the Albanian language”) (2004 ), “Fonetika historike e gjuhës shqipe” (“Historical phonetics of the Albanian language”) (2005), “Ricerche sulla storia dell’accento in albanese” (“Research on the history of accent in Albanian”), (Kozencze, 2007), “Evolucioni historik i përemrave të shqipes” (“The historical evolution of pronouns in Albanian”) (2008), in which he made a detailed review of the work done before and brought his own help to clarify many problems. He has also published a number of articles in scientific journals abroad. He passed away in 2018. (In the photo: Kolec Topalli)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 2724-2725.
Photo: © Academy of Sciences of Albania
Graphic processing: AHCF
