Hartës

Hartës is an Albanian noun that designates a person who makes maps and plans. In modern usage, the more common terms for this profession are hartograf or hartues, while hartës appears in some contexts as an older or regional form. A hartës is typically involved in the creation of geographic representations, which may include topographic surveys, city or rural cadastre plans, nautical charts, or thematic maps.

Etymology and usage notes: The word is formed from the Albanian root hart- meaning map or plan, together with the agentive suffix -ës, which yields an occupational noun. Because Albanian has several terms for mapmaking, hartës can appear alongside hartograf and related variants, with regional or historical texts preserving the older form.

Historical context: In historical Albanian-speaking areas, mapmaking complemented administrative, military, and land-management activities. Cartographic work often relied on surveying techniques and field measurements, evolving over time with advances in printing, surveying instruments, and, in contemporary contexts, geographic information systems (GIS).

Contemporary context: Today, the practice of mapmaking in Albanian-speaking regions is largely carried out under the broader field of cartography and GIS. The term hartës may still be encountered in literature or dialectal speech, but official or technical references more commonly use hartograf or hartues.

See also: Cartography, Map, GIS, Cadastre.