The Chams have their own particular cultural identity within Albanian sub-groups. A number of Chams contributed to the Albanian national identity and played an important role in starting the renaissance of the Albanian culture in the 19th century. The Chams speak their own dialect of the Albanian language , the Cham Albanian dialect , which is a Southern Tosk Albanian dialect and one of the two most conservative ones; the other being Arvanitika.
During the late s Chams suffered from intimidation and persecution under the dictatorship of General Metaxas. As a result, on the eve of the Greco-Italian War , Greek authorities deported the adult male Cham population to internment camps [ citation needed ]. After the occupation of Greece , large parts of the Muslim Cham population collaborated with Italian and German forces.
Since the fall of Communism in Albania , Chams in Albania have campaigned for right of return to Greece and restoration of confiscated properties. According to Laurie Hart, the remaining Orthodox Cham communities in Epirus are nowadays assimilated and entirely identify with the Greek nation. As such, the use of Albanian has been relegated to private space within the household. However, this is unlikely since the word's broader ethnographic and dialectal sense encompasses the entire Albanian-speaking population of the Thesprotia and Preveza regional units of Greek Epirus, both the Muslim and Christian populations.
Chams account for the greatest part of the erstwhile substantial Albanian minority in the wider area of the Epirus region ; outside Chameria proper, there are only two Albanian-speaking villages further northeast near Konitsa in Ioannina regional unit , whose inhabitants belong to a different Albanian sub-group, that of the Labs.
It can be found in English sources also as a hybrid form of both names, Tsams. In Greece, Muslim Chams were referred to by a number of names by different authors.
