The Nightingale and the Partridge: Singing and Gender among Prespa Albanians

The wedding songs of Muslim Albanian women from the Lake Prespa district of Yugoslavia often portray young men and women as birds. The young man as suitor is most often depicted as a nightingale (bilbil), a bird known for its rapturous singing. A young woman, however, is depicted as a partridge (frllenx4) or ringdove (guguqe), birds that are thought of as beautiful, vulnerable, and quiet in demeanor and song. By combining attributes of physical appearance, bodily demeanor, and singing style into a single image, the women's songs present these features as inextricably re-