Morlachs

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Morlachs


Total population	250,000 est
Regions with significant populations	Bosnia Albania Romania Republic of Macedonia Bulgaria
Language	Vlach and other languages in the areas in which they live
Religion	Eastern Orthodoxy, others
Related ethnic groups	• Vlachs • Romanians • Moldovans • Aromanians • Megleno-Romanians • Istro-Romanians • other Latin peoples

Morlachs (in Greek: Μαυροβλάχοι, Mavrovlachi or Mauro-Vlachs, meaning "Black Vlachs"; in Latin sources: Nigri Latini) were a population of Vlach shepherds that lived in the Dinaric Alps (western Balkans in modern use), constantly migrating in search for better pastures for their sheep flocks. They were probably a blend of Romanized indigenous peoples and Roman colonists.

The adjective "black" is used here with the meaning of "Northern", this metaphor probably deriving from the Turkic practice of naming cardinal directions after colours.

Reports from the mid-11th century tell how the Morlachs lived in the mountainous regions of Montenegro, Bosnia (Stara Vlaška), Herzegovina and on the Dalmatian coast. In the 14th century, some Morlachs moved northward and settled in present-day Croatia where later they would serve as frontier guardians in the Military Frontier between the Habsburg (Croatia) and the Ottoman (Bosnia) Empires, an area sometimes known as Morlachia. The continuous attempts by the feudal lords to reduce them to serfdom failed. It is not clear as yet exactly how the Morlachs survived, but the slower feudalization of the Western Balkans compared to the west of Europe seem to alleviate their decentralization from the feudal bonds. Greater freedom and easier mobility gave rise to the continuous running Slavic serfs whom they encountered, and eventually most Morlachs linguistically assimilated the local Slavs.

By the 15th century, the surviving Morlachs reached the Istrian Peninsula, where their descendants are today mistakenly confused with the Istro-Romanians who are "cici", a distinctly different group from the Morlachs ^{[citation needed]}. With barely a thousand speakers of Istro-Romanian left, the "ciribiri" and/or "vlashki" language is now considered as a severely endangered. Another group reached the island of Krk around 1450 and settled in the villages of Dubašnica and Poljica, where until the 19th century the people spoke an obvious Romanic language which in time, acquired more and more Slavic words and features.

Away from Istria, the term Morlach remained to describe the people of Dalmatian Zagora and Lika. Since the Romanic Morlachs assimilated the Slavs, and with no surviving paraphernalia to identify "pure" Morlachs from Slavicized ones or actual Slavs themselves, the name survived among people, producing a Slavic nation identifying as Morlachs. By the turn of the 20th century, with much of the region forming an Austrian crownland in Austria-Hungary, the Slavic Morlachs' local identity had long been superseded by the term 'Serbo-Croats', which would eventually split the 80% Morlach Slavic Catholics into the Croatian group and the 20% Orthodox followers into a Serbian group. This was done in order to gain strength at a time when non-nationals of Austria and Hungary were compelled to do all they can to unite and resist the Empire.

It is suggested ^{[citation needed]} that the Bunjevci and Šokci are in fact Croatized Catholic Morlachs who speak in Ikavian-Neoshtokavian (eg. mliko milk). The modern Serbs (Orthodox Morlachs) in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Stari Vlah are mostly confined to regions where the Ijekavian accent is used.

According to the 1991 Croatian census, 22 people declared themselves as Morlachs [1].