Map of Balkans with regions currently inhabited by Vlachs/Romanians highlighted

Vlach ( /ˈvlɑːk/ or /ˈvlæk/) is a blanket term covering several modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. English variations on the name include: Wallachians, Walla, Wlachs, Wallachs, Vlahs, Olahs or Ulahs. Groups that have historically been called Vlachs include: modern-day Romanians or Daco-Romanians, Aromanians or Macedo-Romanians, Morlachs, Megleno-Romanians and Istro-Romanians. Since the creation of the Romanian state, the term in English has mostly been used for those living outside Romania.

The Vlachs, which would develop into the modern Romanian ethnicity, do not become tangible before the High Middle Ages in Kedrenos (11th century), and their prehistory during the Migration period is a matter of scholarly speculation^[1] but according to the linguists and to many scholars, the existence of the present Eastern Romance languages prove the survival of the Thraco-Romans in the low-Danube basin during the Migration period^[2] and the Vlachs are all being well considered descendants of Romanised peoples of the area (incl. Thracians, Dacians and Illyrians).^[3]

The term Vlach is originally an exonym. All the Vlach groups used various words derived from romanus to refer to themselves: Români, Rumâni, Rumâri, Aromâni, Arumâni etc. (Note: the Megleno-Romanians nowadays call themselves "Vlaşi", but historically called themselves "Rămâni"^{[citation needed]}; the Istro-Romanians also have adopted the names Vlaşi, but still use Rumâni and Rumâri to refer to themselves).

The Vlach languages, also called the Eastern Romance languages, have a common origin from the Proto-Romanian language. Over the centuries, the Vlachs split into various Vlach groups (see Romania in the Dark Ages) and mixed with neighbouring populations: South Slavs, Greeks, Albanians, Bulgars, and others.

Almost all modern nations in Central and Southeastern Europe have native Vlach minorities: Hungary, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Greece and Bulgaria. In other countries, the native Vlach population have been completely assimilated by the Slavic population and therefore ceased to exist: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bosnia and Montenegro. Only in Romania and the Republic of Moldova does the Vlach (Daco-Romanian or Romanian proper) population comprise an ethnic majority today.

Etymology[link]

Look up Vlach in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The word Vlach is ultimately of Germanic origin, from the word Walha, "foreigner", "stranger", a name used by ancient Germanic peoples to refer to Romance-speaking and Celtic neighbours. It is possibly derived from the name of the Celtic tribe which was known to the Romans as Volcae (in the writings of Julius Caesar) and to the Greeks as Ouólkai (Strabo and Ptolemy).^[4] As such, it shares its history with several ethnic names all across Europe, including the Welsh and Walloons.^[5]

This word for Romanic people was borrowed from the Germanic Goths (as *walhs) into Proto-Slavic some time before the 7th century.^{[citation needed]} The first source using the word was the writings of Byzantine historian Kedrenos, from the mid-11th century.

From the Slavs the term passed to other peoples, such as the Hungarians ("oláh", referring to Vlachs, more specifically Romanians, "olasz", referring to Italians) and Byzantines ("Βλάχοι", "Vláhi") and was used for all Latin people of the Balkans.^{[citation needed][6]}

Word usage[link]

Γάλα Βλάχας (Gála Vláhas) – 'Shepherdess' Milk' – is a well-known brand in Greece

Over time, the term Vlach (and its different forms) also acquired different meanings, like "shepherd" – from the occupation of many of the Vlachs throughout Central and Eastern Europe. In Albania, the opposite occurred: çoban "shepherd" (from Persian chopan, through Turkish) came to mean "Vlach".^{[citation needed]} Also, Italy is called Włochy in Polish, and Olaszország ("Olasz country") in Hungarian. The word "oláh" also exists in Hungarian, but describes only peoples from historical Moldova and Wallacha.^{[citation needed]} The term Vlach can also be found in certain placenames where Roman descendants continued to live after the migrations of Germans and Slavs into new territories, for example Laško in Slovenia.

A name used^{[year needed]} for the Southern Vlachs of Greece (Aromanians) is "Kutsovlach" (literally "limping Vlach"; possibly a reference to the way they spoke Greek) considered offensive.^{[citation needed]} Tsinttsar was used^{[year needed]} to refer to the Aromanians (mainly in the Slavic countries: Serbia, Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria), derived from the way the Aromanians say the word 'five': "tsintsi". The Morlachs or Mavrovalachi (Greek for "black Vlachs"), are a group living in the Dinaric Alps.

Throughout history, the term "Vlach" has often been used for groups which were not ethnically Vlachs, and often pejoratively.^{[citation needed]} For example, it might have been used for any shepherding community or as a reference to Christians by Muslims (Karadjaovalides)^{[citation needed]}. In the Croatian region of Dalmatia, Vlaj/Vlah (sing.) and Vlaji/Vlasi (plural) are the terms used by the inhabitants of coastal towns for the people who live inland, and is often intended to be pejorative, as in "barbarians who come from the mountains."^{[citation needed]} In Greece, the word Βλάχος (Vláhos) is often used as a slur against any supposedly uncouth or uncultured person, but literally it means nothing more than countryperson and is often used as a synonym for Χωριάτης (Choriátis) which simply means villager.^{[citation needed]} Maniots, for example, used the word to refer to lowland-dwelling Greeks, and the Maniots of Cargèse used it to refer to native Corsicans.^{[citation needed]}

Usage as autonym[link]

The term was originally an exonym, as the Vlachs used various words derived from romanus to refer to themselves (români, rumâni, rumâri, aromâni, arumâni, armâni, etc.), but there are some exceptions:

• the Aromanians of Greece, almost always use "Βλάχοι" (Vlachoi) rather than "Αρμάνοι" (Armanoi) in Greek-language contexts; in at least some communities (such as Livadhi Olympou), "vlachi" has completely replaced any "romanus"-based ethnonym (likewise for designation of the language), even when speaking in Vlach.
• the Megleno-Romanians use exclusively the word Vlach (Vlashi) for auto-designation. The loss of the name derived from Romanus most likely concluded in the early 19th century.
• the Romanian minority of Serbia living in Timok Valley (but not those of the Banat, see Romanians of Serbia), although speaking the standard Romanian dialect, are still referred as "Vlachs" in Serbian language. In the Yugoslavian census figures, the Aromanians of Macedonia and the Romanians of Serbia were both classified as "Vlachs".

History[link]

Writ issued on 14 October 1465 by the Wallachian voivode Radu cel Frumos, from his residence in Bucharest.

The Jireček line between Latin- and Greek-language Roman inscriptions

The first record of a Balkan Romanic presence in the Byzantine period can be found in the writings of Procopius, in the 5th century. The writings mention forts with names such as Skeptekasas (Seven Houses), Burgulatu (Broad City), Loupofantana (Wolf's Well) and Gemellomountes (Twin Mountains). A Byzantine chronicle of 586 about an incursion against the Avars in the eastern Balkans may contain one of the earliest references to Vlachs. The account states that when the baggage carried by a mule slipped, the muleteer shouted, "Torna, torna, fratre!" ("Return, return, brother!"). However the account might just be a recording of one of the last appearances of Vulgar Latin. The Emperor Justinian I, during whose reign Procopius was writing, was a native Latin speaker and lamented the loss of Latin speech to Greek in his realm. He tried to reestablish the position of the Latin language with the legal compendia he ordered compiled; soon he was frustrated because they proved linguistically inaccessible to judges and lawyers alike, and grudgingly had his Novellae reissued in Greek.

Blachernae, the suburb of Constantinople, was named after a certain Duke from Scythia named "Blachernos". His name may be linked with the name "Blachs" (Vlachs).

In the late 9th century, the Hungarians arrived in the Carpathian basin, where, according to the Gesta Hungarorum written around 1146 by the anonymous chancellor of King Bela III of Hungary, the province of Pannonia was inhabited by Slavs, Bulgars, Vlachs, and pastores Romanorum (shepherds of the Romans) (in original: sclauij, Bulgarij et Blachij, ac pastores romanorum). In the 12–14th century they came under the Kingdom of Hungary, the Byzantine Empire and the Golden Horde.^[7]

In 1185, two noble brothers from Tarnovo named Peter and Asen (their ethnicity is still disputed, some historians claim they were Vlachs, while others put forward different origins) led a Bulgarian and Vlach rebellion against Byzantine Greek rule and declared Tsar Peter II (also known as Theodore Peter) as king of the reborn state. The following year, the Byzantines were forced to recognize Bulgaria's independence and the Second Bulgarian Empire was established. Peter styled himself "Tsar of the Bulgarians, Greeks, and Vlachs" (see Vlach-Bulgar Rebellion), though the reference to Vlachs in the style fell out by the early 13th century.

People[link]

Branches of Vlachs/Romanians and their territories

The Eastern Romance languages, sometimes known as the Vlach languages, are a group of Romance languages that developed in Southeastern Europe from the local eastern variant of Vulgar Latin. There is no official data from Balkan countries such as Greece, Bulgaria, Albania and Serbia.

• Daco-Romanians (Romanians proper) cca. 24,466,500 ^[8](including Moldovans), speaking the Romanian language (Daco-Romanian), known by that name due to their location in the territory of ancient Dacia, who live in:
  • Romania – 17,936,500
  • Moldova – 2,815,000
  • Ukraine – 409,600; in southern Bessarabia and northern Bukovina
  • Serbia – 79,000
  • Hungary – 15,000
  • Bulgaria – 3,584 persons counted as Vlachs and 891 as Romanians, this figure may include Aromanians.^[9]

• Aromanians up to 500,000 (cca. 250,000 speakers of Aromanian)^[10] live in:
  • Greece – 50,000,^[11] mainly in the Pindus Mountains (Greece, like France, does not recognise any ethnic divisions, so there are no statistics kept and the Aromanians of Greece self-identify as Greeks and are accepted as such by the other Greeks. See Demographics of Greece)

• • Albania – 100,000-to-200,000 ^[12][13]
  • Romania – 26,500 ^[14]
  • Macedonia – 20,000 ^[15]

• Megleno-Romanians (speaking the Megleno-Romanian language), living in Greece and in Macedonia – 5,000 ^[16].

• Istro-Romanians (speaking the Istro-Romanian language) living in Croatia, with a population of 1,200, but with fewer than 200 acknowledged native speakers.

• Morlachs – in the 1991 Croatian census 22 people declared themselves Morlachs.

Territories with Vlach population[link]

The evolution of the Eastern Romance languages through the ages.

Besides the separation of some groups (Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians) during the Age of Migration, many other Vlachs could be found all over the Balkans, as far north as Poland and as far west as the regions of Moravia (part of the modern Czech Republic), and the present-day Croatia where the Morlachs gradually disappeared, while the Catholic and Orthodox Vlachs took Croat and Serb national identity.^[17] They reached these regions in search of better pastures, and were called "Wallachians" ("Vlasi; Valaši") by the Slavic peoples.

Statal Entities mentioned in Middle Ages chronicles :

• Wallachia – between the Southern Carpathians and the Danube ("Ţara Românească" in Romanian Language ; "Bassarab-Wallachia": "Bassarab's Wallachia" and "Ungro-Wallachia" or "Wallachia Transalpina" in administrative sources ; "Istro-Vlachia": "Danubian Wallachia" in Byzantine sources ; "Velacia secunda" in Spanish maps) ;
• Moldavia – between the Carpathians and the Nistru river ("Bogdano-Wallachia" - Bogdan's Wallachia, "Moldo-Wallachia", "Maurovlachia", "Black Wallachia", "Moldovlachia" or "Rousso-Vlachia" in Byzantine sources, "Bogdan Iflak" or even "Wallachia" in Polish sources, "L`otra Wallachia" – the "other Wallachia" – in genovese sources and "Velacia tertia" in Spanish maps) ;
• Transylvania (or "Ardeal", "Transylvanian vlachs"^[18] – between the Carpathians and the Hungarian plain, also "Wallachia interior" in administrative sources and "Velacia prima" in Spanish maps) ;
• Bulgarian-Wallachian Empire – between the Carpathians and the Balkan mountains ("Regnum Blachorum et Bulgarorum" in the documents and letters of Pope Innocent III).

Regions and places :

• White Wallachia – in Moesia;^[19]
• Great Wallachia (Μεγάλη Βλαχία, Megáli vlahía) – in Thessaly;^[19]
• Small Wallachia ("Μικρή Βλαχία": Mikrí vlahía) – through Aetolia, Acarnania, Dorida (Doris), Locrida (Locris);^[19]
• Sirmium Wallachia – on the Sava river;^[20]
• Black Wallachia (Morlachia) – in Dalmatia;
• Upper Valachia of Moscopole and Metsovon ("Άνω Βλαχία", Áno Vlahía) – through southern Macedonia, Albania and Epirus;
• Old Vallachia (Stari Vlah) – in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina and western Serbia;^[21]
• Romanian mountains (Romanija planina)– in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina;^[22]
• Vlaşca – a former county of southern Wallachia (a name derived from the Serbian designation for Wallachia: Vlaška) ;
• Greater Wallachia (Muntenia) – east of the Olt river;
• Lesser Wallachia (Oltenia) – west of the Olt river;
• Cisalpine Wallachia/Walachia citeriore (also called "Vulaska", "Vlaska", "Valachia", "Vlaskozemski", Parvan vallachiam, etc.) – Banat ;
• Făgăraș and Haţeg (Valahia transalpina);
• Maramureş;
• Moravian Wallachia (Valašsko in Czech language) – in the Beskid Mountains of the Czech republic.

Genetics[link]

In 2006, Bosch et al. attempted to analyze whether Vlachs are the descendents of Latinized Dacians, Illyrians, Thracians, Greeks, or a combination of the above. No hypothesis could be proven due to the high degree of underlying genetic similarity possessed by all the tested Balkan groups. The linguistic and cultural differences among various Balkan groups were thus deemed to have not been strong enough to prevent significant gene flow among the above groups.^[23]

Culture[link]

Many Vlachs were shepherds in the medieval times, driving their sheep through the mountains of Southeastern Europe. The Vlach shepherds reached as far as Southern Poland and Moravia in the North (by following the Carpathian range), Dinaric Alps in West, the Pindus mountains in South, and as far as the Caucasus Mountains in the east.^[24]

In many of these areas, the descendants of the Vlachs have lost their language, but their legacy still lives today in cultural influences: customs, folklore and the way of life of the mountain people, as well as in the place names of Romanian or Aromanian origin that are spread all across the region.

Another part of the Vlachs, especially those in the northern parts, in Romania and Moldova, were traditional farmers growing cereals. Linguists believe that the large vocabulary of Latin words related to agriculture shows that they have always been a farming Vlach population. Just like the language, the cultural links between the Northern Vlachs (Romanians) and Southern Vlachs (Aromanians) were broken by the 10th century, and since then, there were different cultural influences:

• Romanian culture was influenced by neighbouring people such as Slavs and later on Hungarians, and developed itself to what it is today. The 19th century saw an important opening toward Western Europe and cultural ties with France.

• Aromanian culture developed initially as a pastoral culture, later to be greatly influenced by the Byzantine Greek culture.

Religion[link]

The religion of the Vlachs is predominantly Eastern Orthodox Christianity, but there are some regions where they are Catholics and Protestants (mainly in Transylvania) and a few are even Muslims (around 500 Megleno-Romanians from Greece who converted to Islam and have been living in Turkey since the 1923 exchange of populations). The Istro-Romanians are entirely Roman Catholics.

See also[link]

• Name of Romania
• Origin of Romanians
• Thraco-Roman
• List of Aromanians
• List of Romanians
• Lex Antiqua Valachorum
• Supplex Libellus Valachorum
• Statuta Valachorum
• Romance-speaking Europe
• History of the term Walhaz
• Welsh
• English and Welsh
• Walloons
• Wallach (disambiguation)
• Wallachia (disambiguation)
• Oláh (disambiguation)
• Volokh, an alternate spelling (East Slavic)

Notes[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

Please expand this article. Some suggested sources are given hereafter. More information might be found in a section of the talk page. (February 2012)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vlachs

• Vlachs in Greece
• French Vlachs Association (in Vlach, EN and FR)
• Studies on the Vlachs, by Asterios Koukoudis
• Aromanian Vlachs: The Vanishing Tribes
• Panhellenic Confederacy of Vlachs' Cultural Associations (in Greek)
• Vlachs' in Greece (in Greek)
• Consiliul A Tinirlor Armanj, Youth Aromanian community and their Projects (in Vlach, EN and RO)
• Vlach in Serbia, Online Since 1999 (in Vlach, EN and RO)
• The Vlach Connection and Further Reflections on Roman History
• Orbis Latinus: Wallachians, Walloons, Welschen

v t e Romanian diaspora Europe Bulgaria • France • Hungary • Italy • Russia • Serbia • Spain • Ukraine • United Kingdom Americas Canada • United States Oceania Australia Related Demographics • Foreign relations • Hungarian diaspora • Immigration to Romania

This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. You can assist by editing it. (February 2012)

Vlachs of Serbia^[1]
Rumâni din Sârbie^[2]

Total population
40.054 (census 2002) 200,000 (est.)
Regions with significant populations
Eastern Central Serbia
Languages
Vlach (Romanian)
Religion
Predominantly † Orthodox Christianity

The Vlachs of Serbia (endonym: Rumâni, Serbian: Власи or Vlasi) are an ethnic minority of Serbia, culturally and linguistically related to Romanians.^[3][4][5] Vlachs mostly live in eastern Serbia, mainly in Timočka Krajina region (roughly corresponding to Bor and Zaječar District districts), but also in Braničevo and Pomoravlje districts. Also a small Vlach population exists in Smederevo and Velika Plana (Podunavlje District), and in the municipalities of Aleksinac and Kruševac (Rasina District), as well as in the South Banat District in Voivodina.

Legal status[link]

Romanians (Vlachs) from the village Zdrelo in 1868

The name they identify with Rumâni din Sârbie in fact means Romanians from Serbia. Although they are ethnographically and linguistically related to the Romanians, within the Vlach community there are divergences on whether they belong or not to the Romanian nation and whether their minority should be amalgamated with the Romanian minority in Vojvodina.^[6]

In a Romanian-Yugoslav agreement from the November 4, 2002, the Yugoslav authorities agreed to recognize the Romanian identity of the Vlach population in Central Serbia,^{[7][dubious – discuss]} but the agreement wasn't applied.^[8] In April 2005, 23 deputies from the Council of Europe, representatives from Hungary, Georgia, Lithuania, Romania, Moldova, Estonia, Armenia, Azerbaïdjan, Denmark and Bulgaria protested against Serbia's treatment of this population.^[9]

The Senate of Romania postponed the ratification of Serbia`s membership candidature to the European Union until the legal status and minority right of the Romanian (Vlach) population in Serbia is solved.^[10][11]

Predrag Balašević, the president of the Vlach party of Serbia accused the government of assimilation by using the national Vlach organization against the interests of this minority in Serbia. ^[12]

Since 2010, the Vlach National Council of Serbia is led by members of leading Serbian Parties (Democrat Party and Socialist Party) and most of them are ethnic Serbs, having no relation to the Vlach/Roumanian minority.^[13] Radiša Dragojević, the actual president of Vlach National Council of Serbia, who is not a Vlach, but an ethnic Serb^[14] stated that none has the right to ask the Vlach minority in Serbia to identify as Romanian or veto anything, firstly because there already is a recognized Romanian minority within Serbia, and because Vlach people in Serbia do not feel discriminated or underprivileged. He also said that Vlachs feel only Serbia as their true homeland. ^[15]

As a response to mister Dragojević`s statement cultural organizations Ariadnae Filum, Društvo za kulturu Vlaha - Rumuna Srbije, Društvo Rumuna - Vlaha „Trajan“, Društvo za kulturu, jezik i religiju Vlaha - Rumuna Pomoravlja, Udruženje za tradiciju i kulturu Vlaha „Dunav“, Centar za ruralni razvoj - Vlaška kulturna inicijativa Srbija and the Vlach party of Serbia protested and stated them as false.^[16][17]

On 1 Mart, 2012, Romania and Serbia signed an agreement about the Vlach population in Serbia.^[18] According to the agreement, members of the Vlach community can declare them self as Romanians and those who do can have access to education, media and religion in their language.^[19]

Origins[link]

Following Roman withdrawal from the province of Dacia at the end of the 3rd century, the name of the Roman region was changed to Dacia Aureliana, and (later Dacia Ripensis) spread over most of what is now called Serbia and Bulgaria, and an undetermined number of Romanized Dacians (Carpi) were settled there.^[20][21] Strong Roman presence in the region persisted through the end of Justinian's reign in the 6th century.^{[22][page needed]}

The region where Romanians, a.k.a. Vlachs predominantly live later on was part of the Second Bulgarian Empire, whose first rulers, the Asens, are considered Vlach.^[23] King Stephen Uroš II Milutin of Serbia had most of Timok after his conquering of rival King Stephen Dragutin's lands. The chroniclers of the crusaders describe meeting Vlachs in the 12th and 13th century in various parts of modern Serbia.^[24][25] Serbian documents from the 13th and 14th century mention Vlachs, including Emperor Dušan the Mighty, in his prohibition of intermarriage between Serbs and Vlachs.^[24][25] 14th and 15th century Romanian (Wallachian) rulers built churches in NE Serbia.^{[26][page needed]} 15th century Turkish tax records (defters) list Vlachs in the region of Branicevo in NE Serbia, near the ancient Roman municipium and colonia of Viminacium.^{[27][page needed]}

Starting in the early 18th century NE Serbia was settled by Romanians (then known by their international exonym as Vlachs) from Banat, parts of Transylvania, and Oltenia (Lesser Walachia).^[24] These are the Ungureni (Ungurjani), Munteni (Munćani) and Bufeni (Bufani). Today about three quarters of the Vlach population speak the Ungurean subdialect. In the 19th century other groups of Romanians, originating in Oltenia (Lesser Wallachia), also settled south of the Danube.^[28] These are the Ţărani (Carani), who form some 25% of the modern population. The very name Ţărani indicates their origin in Ţara Româneasca, i.e., "The Romanian Land," Wallachia and Oltenia. It should be noted that from the 15th through the 18th centuries large numbers of Serbs also migrated across the Danube, but in the opposite direction, to both Banat and Ţara Româneasca. Significant migration ended with the establishment of the kingdoms of Serbia and Rumania, respectively, in the second half of the 19th century.

The lack of detailed census records and the linguistic effects of the Ungureni and Ţărani on the entire Vlach population make it difficult to determine what fraction of the present Vlachs can trace their origins directly to the ancient south-of-the-Danube Vlachs. The Vlachs of NE Serbia form a contiguous linguistic, cultural and historic group with the Vlachs in the region of Vidin in Bulgaria, as well as the Romanians of Banat and Oltenia (Lesser Wallachia).

Some authors^[who?] consider that the majority of Vlachs/Romanians in Timocka Krajina are descendants of Romanians that migrated from Hungary in the 18th and 19th century.^[29]

Language[link]

The language spoken by the Vlachs consists of two distinct Romanian subdialects of Romanian dialects spoken in the neighboring regions of Romania: one major group of Vlachs speaks the subdialect spoken in the Mehedinţi County in western Oltenia, while that of the other major group speaks a subdialect similar to the Romanian subdialect spoken in the neighboring region of Banat.

The Romanian language is not in use in local administration, not even in places where more the members of the minority represent more than 15% of the population. (according to Serbian law, the use of the language in local administration is allowed in places where the minority has a percentage higher than 15%).^[6]

• The Romanian vocabulary in Central Serbia. Researches made by Gustav Weigand:
• 

  The Romanian linguistic areal

• 

  The extension of the Banatian dialect in Central Serbia

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Religion[link]

Romanian Orthodox Church, Malajnica, built in 2004, is the first Romanian church in eastern Serbia in 170 years, during which time Romanians in Timoc had not been allowed to hear liturgy services in their native language.^[30][31][32] Most Vlachs of Eastern Serbia are Orthodox Christians and they used to belong the Serbian Orthodox Church since the 19th century until 24 March 2009 when Serbia recognized the authority of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Valea Timocului and the confessional rights of the Vlachs.^[33]

Previously, the 2006 Serbian law on religious organizations didn't recognize the Romanian Orthodox Church as a traditional church, as it received permission from the Serbian Church to operate only within Vojvodina, but not in Timočka Krajina.^[6] At Malajnica, a "Vlach" priest belonging to the Romanian Orthodox Church met deliberately raised administrative barriers in his attempt to build a church.^[6][34] Other Romanian Orthodox churches are planned or under construction in Jasikovo, Cuprija, Bigrenica and Samarinovac. Additionally, a Romanian Orthodox monastery is under construction in Malajnica. The Romanian Orthodox churches in Eastern Central Serbia are subordinated to the Protopresbyteriat Dacia Ripensis with its seat in Negotin. The protopresbyteriat is subordinated to the Romanian Orthodox diocese Dacia Felix with its seat in Vršac.

The relative isolation of the Vlachs has permitted the survival of various pre-Christian religious customs and beliefs that are frowned upon by the Orthodox Church. Vlach magic rituals are well known across the nowadays Serbia. The Vlachs celebrate the Ospăț (hospitium, in Latin), called in Serbian praznic or slava, though its meaning is chtonic (related to the house and farmland) rather than familial.^{[citation needed]} Other Balkan peoples, notably the Serbs adopted the Christian traditions of the Vlachs. The customs of the Vlachs are very similar to those from Southern Romania (Walachia).^[35]

Subgroups[link]

Vlachs are divided into many groups, each speaking their own variant:

• the Ţărani (Serbian: Carani)
• the Ungureni or Ungureani (Serbian: Ungurjani)
  • Ungureni Munteni (Serbian: Ungurjani-Munćani), meaning: "the ungureni from the mountains"
• Bufani

Of these, the Ungureni of Homolje are related to the Romanians of Banat and Transylvania, since Ungureni (compare with the word "Hungarians") is a term used by the Romanians of Wallachia to describe their kin who once lived in provinces formerly part of the Kingdom of Hungary. The connection is evident not only in vocabulary, but also in the similarities of dialectal phonology and folk music motifs, as well as in sayings such as "Ducă-se pe Mureş" (May the Mureş take him/it away), a reference to the Transylvanian river.

The Ţărani of the Bor, Negotin and Zaječar regions are closer to Oltenia (Lesser Walachia) in their speech and music. The Ţărani have the saying "Nu dau un leu pe el" (He's not worth even a leu). The reference to "leu" (lion) as currency most likely goes back to the 17th century when the Dutch-issued daalder (leeuwendaalder) bearing the image of a lion was in circulation in the Romanian principalities and elsewhere in the Ottoman Empire whose own currency was habitually being debased by the government. In the Romanian principalities, as well as in Bulgaria, the leeuwendaalder (in Romanian and Bulgarian leu and lev, respectively) came to symbolize a strong currency. Indeed on gaining independence in the 19th century both countries adopted this name for their new currencies. Since newly independent Serbia named its currency (the dinar) after the Roman denarius, the reference to the leu among the Ţărani is an indication of their connection to, if not origin in, what is now Romania.

There has been considerable intermixing between the Ungureni and Ţărani so that a dialect has evolved sharing peculiarities of both regions.

The Bufani are immigrants from Lesser Walachia (Oltenia).

There is also a population of vlachophone (Vlach speaking) Roma centered around the village of Lukovo, as well as a few Aromanian families who live in Knjaževac, but both of them form a tiny migrant groups.

Ethnic map of the Balkans from 1861, by Guillaume Lejean

Ethnic map of the Balkans prior to the First Balkan War, by Paul Vidal de la Blache.

Map of Balkans with regions inhabited by Vlachs highlighted

Dushan’s prohibition^[36] of a land-bound serf (i.e., Serb man) from marrying a then Vlach (today Romanian) woman testifies to the desire of the agriculturalists to ease their oppression by returning to the relatively freer life led by the Vlachs (Romanian).

Population[link]

In the 2002 census 40,054 people in Serbia declared themselves ethnic Vlachs, and 54,818 people declared themselves speakers of the Vlach language.^[37] The Vlachs of Serbia are recognized as a minority, like the Romanians of Serbia, which number 34,576 according to the 2002 census. On the census, the Vlachs declared themselves either as Serbs, Vlachs or Romanians. Therefore, the "real" number of the people of Vlach origin could be much greater than the number of recorded Vlachs, both due to mixed marriages with Serbs and also Serbian national feeling among some Vlachs.

Historical population[link]

The following numbers reflect on the possible number of Vlachs in the censuses:

• 1816: 97,215 Romanians (10% of Serbia's population.)^[38]
• 1856: 104,343 Romanians^[39]
• 1859: 122,593 Romanians
• 1866: 127,545 Romanians (10,5% of Serbia's population)^[40]
• 1884: 149,713 Romanians
• 1890: 143,684 Romanians
• 1895: 159,000 Romanians (6,4% of Serbia's population)^[41]
• 1921: 159,549 Romanians/Cincars by mother tongue in Serbia (Vojvodina is not included)
• 1931: 57,000 Romanians-Vlachs by mother tongue were recorded in Eastern Serbia (52,635 in the Morava Banovina and the rest in southern parts of Danube Banovina, south of the Danube).
• 1953: 198,793 Vlach-speakers in central Serbia (169,670 declared as Serbs, 29,000 as Vlachs)^{[citation needed]}
• 1961: 1,330 Vlachs
• 1981: 135,000 people declared Vlach as their mother language (population figure given for the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)^[42]
• 1991: 71,536 Vlach-speakers in Serbia (of those 53,721 Serbs, 16,539 Vlachs; out of the 17,807 declared Vlachs, 677 Serbo-Croat-speakers)^{[citation needed]}
• 2002: 40,054 declared Vlachs, 54,818 people declared Vlach as their mother language (population figures given for entire Serbia) or 39,953 declared Vlachs, 54,726 people declared Vlach as their mother language (population figures given for Central Serbia only)^[37]

The Vlach (Romanian) population of Central Serbia is concentrated mostly in the region limited by Morava River (west), Danube River (north) and Timok River (south-east). See also: List of settlements in Serbia inhabited by Vlachs.

By some Romanian and Western European organizations, in eastern Serbia live around 250,000 - 400,000^[43] people of Romanian(vlach) origin.

Identity[link]

The term "Vlach" is the English transcription of the Serbian term used to describe this group (Vlasi), while "Roumanians" or "Romanians" is the English transcription of its Romanian counterpart (român/rumân).^[44][45]

Despite their recognition as a separate ethnic group by the Serbian government, Vlachs are cognate to Romanians in the cultural and linguistic sense. Some Romanians, as well as international linguists and anthropologists, consider Serbia's Vlachs to be a subgroup of Romanians. Additionally, the Movement of Romanians-Vlachs in Serbia, which represents some Vlachs, has called for the recognition of the Vlachs as a Romanian national minority, giving them similar rights to the Romanians of Vojvodina. However, on the last census results most Vlachs of Eastern Serbia opted rather for the Serbian exonym vlasi (=Vlachs) than rumuni (=Romanians).^[37] As a result of serbianization, most Vlachs declare themselves as "Serbs" on the census during Communist Yugoslavia, though the number of those who preferred to declare Vlachs or Romanians strongly increased from 1991 (16,539 declared vlasi and 42 declared rumuni) to 2001 (39,953 declared vlasi and 4,157 declared rumuni)

Romania has given modest financial support to the Vlachs for the preservation of their culture and language, since at present the Vlachs' language is not recognized officially in any localities where they form a majority, there is no education in their mother tongue and there is no media or education funded by the Serbian state. Also there are no church services in Vlach. Until very recently in the regions populated by Vlachs the official policy of the Serbian Orthodox church opposed the giving of non-Serbian baptismal names.

On the other hand, some Vlachs consider themselves to be simply Serbs that speak the Vlach language.^{[citation needed]}

Vlach is commonly used as a historical umbrella term for all Latin peoples in Southeastern Europe (Romanians proper or Daco-Romanians, Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians). After the foundation of the Romanian state in the 19th century, the Romanians living in the Romanian Old Kingdom and in Austria-Hungary have only seldom been called "Vlachs" by the foreigners, while the use of the exonym "Romanians" was encouraged even by officials and the Romanian population ceased to use the exonym "Vlach" for their own designation. Only in the Serbian and Bulgarian Kingdom, where the officials didn't encourage the population to use the modern exonym "Romanian", the old designation "Vlach" was kept, but the term "Romanian" was used in statistical reports (but only up to the Interwar period, when they changed even here the designation "Romanian" into "Vlach").^[46] From this reason, the Romanians of Vojvodina (hence those who lived in Austria-Hungary), prefer to use today the modern exonym "Romanian", while those of Central Serbia still use the ancient exonym "Vlach". However, both groups use the endonym "Romanians", calling their language "Romanian" (română or rumână).^[47][48]

In some notes of the government of Serbia, officials recognise that "certainly members of this population have similar characteristics with Romanians, and the language and folklore ride to their Romanian origin". The representatives of the Vlach minority sustain their Romanian origin.^[49]

Notable Vlachs[link]

• Bojan Aleksandrovic (Boian Alexandrovici), the Romanian priest who in 2004 successfully managed to build the first Romanian Orthodox Church in eastern Serbia in the last two centuries.^[50][51]
• Zoran Lilić, the president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between 1993 and 1997.^{[citation needed]}
• Branko Olar, one of the best known singers of Romanian folklore from Eastern Serbia, originating from the village of Slatina near Bor
• Staniša Paunović, a well-known Romanian folklore singer, originating from Negotin, from Eastern Serbia

See also[link]

• Romanians of Serbia
• Romanians in Bulgaria
• History of the term Vlach
• Thraco-Roman
• Eastern Romance substratum
• Romanian language
• Origin of the Romanians
• Legacy of the Roman Empire
• The Balkan linguistic union
• Romance languages

References[link]

• National Council of Vlachs (in Serbia), DEKLARACIJA NACIONALNOG SAVETA VLAHA O OSTVARIVANJU I UNAPREĐENJU PRAVA VLAŠKE NACIONALNE ZAJEDNICE, [Declaration of the National Council] (06. 11. 2010) by President Rаdišа Drаgojević.
• M. V. Fifor. Assimilation or Acculturalisation: Creating Identities in the New Europe. The case of Vlachs in Serbia. Published in Cultural Identity and Ethnicity in Central Europe, Jagellonian University, Cracow 2000
• Vlasi... ko su, sta su i odakle poticu ? (Serbian language)
• Viorel Dolha - Totul despre românii din Timoc (I, II, III, IV, V, VI) (Romanian language)

External links[link]

• History of the Romanians-Vlachs of Serbia
• Romanians-Vlachs of Serbia online portal
• Information about the Romanians-Vlachs of Serbia
• first forum of the Romanians-Vlachs of Serbia
• Romanians-Vlachs of Serbia
• The Vlach (Roumanian) Federation of Serbia
• Museum of Majdanpek
• MP3 recordings of Vlach speech
• Romanian Ethnogenesis
• Maps of Vlachs in north-east Serbia
• The Vlachs in Yugoslavia and their magic
• The Vlach gardens of Eastern Serbia
• Report on the State of Human Rights of Rumanians and Vlachs in Serbia
• History of the Romanians living on the South of the Danube (Romanian/Serbian)
• Community of Vlachs of Serbia/Zajednica Vlaha Srbije
• The situation of national minorities in Vojvodina and of the Romanian ethnic minority in Serbia, 2008 report from the Council of Europe (archive version)