Aromanian
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Wikipedia-Article "Aromanian"
Aromanians (also called: Macedo-Romanians or Vlachs in most other countries; in Aromanian they call themselves arumâni, armâni, rămăni or aromâni) are a people living throughout the southern Balkans, especially in northern Greece, Albania and the Republic of Macedonia, and as an emigrant community in Romania (Dobruja).
They speak the Aromanian language, a Romance language closely related to Romanian. Due to the common language foundations, historians believe that the language link with Romanian was interrupted between the 7th and 9th century, after the most important features of the language were formed.
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Name
The name Aromanian, just as Romanian and Romios (an alternative for "Greek") derives directly from Latin "Romanus", through regular sound changes. Adding "a" in front of certain words that begin with a consonant is a feature of the Aromanian language.
Vlachs was a term used in the Medieval Balkans, as an exonym for all the Romanic people of the region, but nowadays, it is commonly used only for the Aromanians and Meglenites, the Romanians being named Vlachs only in historical context. See also: Etymology of Vlach.
Aromanians in Greece
In Greece, they are not recognised as an ethnic minority, since they do not proclaim a non-Hellenic national identity, instead being considered Latin-speaking Greeks. Their origins are disputed. The Romanian hypothesis contends that Aromanians came to northern Greece from the Danube region; the opposing Greek theory is that they descend from the Romanised local population. It is however clear that until the 9th century, Romanians and Aromanians spoke the same eastern variant of Vulgar Latin, often known as Proto-Romanian.
Despite the Romanian connection, most Aromanians in Greece today identify as Greeks and heirs to the Byzantine tradition. It is interesting to note that Greek-speakers have also called themselves Romans well into modern times in reference to the Greek-speaking East Roman or Byzantine Empire, which called itself Romania several centuries before the modern Balkan nation-state of the same name was conceived. It is in this context that Aromanians played an important role in the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire and generally in Greek society. Prominent Aromanians in Greece have included Ioannis Kolettis, one of the first prime ministers, Evangelos Averof, minister of Defence during the Balkan Wars and Konstantinos Krystallis, the famous poet.
The pressure on Aromanians to assimilate can be traced back to the 18th century, when assimilation efforts were encouraged by the Greek missionary Kosmas Aitolos (1714-1779) who taught that Aromanians should speak Greek because as he said "it's the language of our Church" and established over 100 Greek schools in northern and western Greece.
In 1941, after the Nazi occupation of Greece, some Aromanian nationalists created an autonomous Vlach state under fascist Italian control: the Principality of Pindo. However, this fascist puppet state did not survive the Second World War.
The Aromanians, mostly herdsmen living in high mountain areas (especially in the Pindus area) in northern Greece never had a complete education in their language. Although Romania subsidised schools until 1948, the communist regime ended all links, and there is currently almost no education for Aromanian children in their mother tongue. It seems to be just a matter of time until they are completely assimilated into Greek society.
The European Parliamentary Assembly examined a report on the Aromanians in 1997, and adopted a recommendation that the Greek government should do whatever is necessary to respect their culture and facilitate education in Aromanian and its use in schools, churches and the media. However, efforts to promote the Aromanian language in Greece have often been controversial amongst the Aromanians themselves, many of whom vehemently reject any idea of an officially-sanctioned distinction between them and other Greeks, often due to fear of discrimination by mainstream Greek society. On the other hand, there is a small but vocal minority within the community which strongly supports such efforts. On a visit to Metsovo, Epirus in 1998, Greek President Costis Stephanopoulos called on Aromanians to speak and teach their language, but little has been done in practical terms since then.
Aromanians in Albania
The second largest Aromanian community lives in Albania, counting between 100,000 and 200,000 people. There is currently no education in their native language. The Aromanians, under the name "Vlachs", are a recognised national minority in the Albanian constitution.
Aromanians in the Republic of Macedonia
According to official government figures, there are 8,467 Aromanians in the Republic of Macedonia, even though other sources estimate their numbers as high as 20,000. The Aromanians are recognised as an ethnic minority, and are hence represented in parliament and enjoy ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious rights and the right to education in their language.
They have also received financial support from the Romanian government, which made recognition of the Republic of Macedonia's independence conditional on the extension of minority rights to the Aromanians.
Aromanians in Romania
Since the Middle Ages, due to the Turkish occupation and the destruction of their cities, such as Moscopole, many Aromanians fled their homeland in the Balkans to settle the Romanian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, which had a similar language and a certain degree of autonomy from the Turks. These isolated cases were assimilated by the majority culture.
In 1860, the Romanian government opened almost 100 schools in Greece and the Ottoman territories of Macedonia and Albania in an attempt to inculcate a sense of modern Romanian national identity in a population which historically identified with the Byzantine tradition.
In 1925, 47 years after Dobruja was incorporated into Romania, King Carol II of Romania gave the Aromanians land to settle in this region, which resulted in a significant migration of Aromanians into Romania.
There are currently between 25,000 and 50,000 Aromanians in Romania, most of which are concentrated in Dobruja. Due to their cultural closeness to ethnic Romanians, most of them do not consider themselves to be a distinct ethnic minority but rather a "cultural minority". Recently, there has been a growing movement in Romania, both by Aromanians and by Romanian lawmakers, to recognise the Aromanians either as a separate cultural group or as a separate ethnic group, and extend to them the rights of other minorities in Romania, such as mother-tongue education and representatives in parliament.
See also
Further reading
- Koukoudis, Asterios I. - The Vlachs: Metropolis and Diaspora, ISBN 9607760867
- Capidan, Theodor (1932) Aromânii. Dialectul aromân, Academia Română