Vlachs or
Walachians ( or ) 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:
Vallachians, Wallachians, Wlachs, Wallachs, Vlahs, Olahs or
Ulahs; Groups that have historically been called Vlachs include: modern-day
Romanians or Daco-Romanians,
Aromanians,
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.
Branches of Vlachs/Romanians and their territories
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"; The Istro-Romanians also have adopted the names
Vlaşi, but still use
Rumâni and
Rumâri to refer to themselves).
The Vlachs are generally considered descendants of Romanised indigenous ancient(
Paleo-Balkanic) peoples such as the
Thracians (incl.
Dacians) and
Illyrians, as well as other populations of the Balkans such as Greeks (
Hellenes and Greco-Romans).
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:
Slavs,
Greeks,
Albanians,
Cumans, and others.
Almost all modern nations in
Central and
Southeastern Europe have native Vlach minorities:
Hungary,
Ukraine,
Serbia,
Croatia,
Macedonia,
Albania,
Bosnia,
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 and
Montenegro. Only in
Romania and the
Republic of Eastern Moldova, the Vlach (Dacoromanian or Romanian proper) population consist an ethnic majority today.
Etymology
The word
Vlach is ultimately of
Germanic origin, from the word
Walha, a name used by ancient Germanic peoples to refer to (mainly)
Romance-speaking neighbours. As such, it shares its history with several ethnic names all across Europe, including the
Welsh and
Walloons.
Slavic people initially used the name Vlachs when referring to
Romanic people in general. Later on, the meaning became narrower or just different. For example
Italy is called
Włochy in
Polish, and
Olaszország ("Olasz country") in
Hungarian.
Through history, the term "Vlach" was often used for groups which were not ethnically Vlachs, often
pejoratively - for example for any
shepherding community, or for
Christians by
Muslims (Karadjaovalides). 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 or pejoratively: barbarians who came from the mountain. In
Greece, the word Βλάχος (Vláhos) is often used as a slur against any supposedly uncouth or uncultured person, but literally it simply means
countryperson and is often used as a synonym for
Χωριάτης (Choriátis) which means
villager.
Territories with Vlach population
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. They reached these regions in search of better pastures, and were called "
Wallachians" ("
Vlasi; Valaši") by the Slavic peoples.
Statal Entities:
Regions:- Vlaşca - a former county of southern Wallachia (a name derived from the Serbian designation for Wallachia: Vlaška);
People
Map of Balkans with regions inhabited by Vlachs/Romanians highlighted
- * Bulgaria - 11,500 (1,000 persons counted as "rumuni" and 10,500 persons counted als "vlasi")
- * Albania - Less than 15,000, there are no exact statistics.
Genetics
Vlachs have a similar genetic structure compared to other southeastern Europeans. Population genetics analyses have demonstrated significant molecular variance among different Vlach groups, suggesting that they do not constitute a homogeneous group. Instead, most of the tested Vlach groups were genetically similar to their Greek and Slavic-speaking neighbours.
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 be have not been strong enough to prevent significant gene flow among the above groups. Bosch
et al. did, however, conclude that there was no significant external genetic input from Italy
[ E Bosch et al. Paternal and maternal lineages in the Balkans show a homogeneous landscape over linguistic barriers, except for the isolated Aromuns. Annals of Human Genetics, Volume 70, Issue 4 (p 459-487)].
Culture
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 .
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 and Greek culture.
Religion
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).
History
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 Latin (
Vulgar Latin).
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 10th century, the
Hungarians arrived in the
Pannonian plain, and, according to the
Gesta Hungarorum written by an anonymous chancellor of King
Bela III of Hungary, the plain was inhabited by
Slavs,
Bulgars, Vlachs or
pastores Romanorum (
shepherds of the Romans) (in original:
sclauij, Bulgarij et Blachij, ac pastores romanorum). However, the chronicle was written around 1146.
In 1185, two noble brothers from
Tarnovo named Peter and Asen led a Bulgarian revolt 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.
See also
