Vlachs of northeastern Serbia

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Vlachs of Serbia
Total population 50,000(cens.) - 245,700 (est.)
Regions with significant populations Serbia:
40,000
Bulgaria:
10,000
Language Vlach (Romanian)
Religion Predominantly Eastern Orthodox.
Related ethnic groups other Latin peoples

The Vlachs of northeastern Serbia (Vlach/Romanian: Rumâni, Serbian: Власи or Vlasi, Bulgarian: власи, vlasi) are an ethnic group of Serbia and Bulgaria, culturally and linguistically cognate to Romanians.

The term "Vlach" is the English transcription of the Serbian term used to describe this group (vlaski), while "Romanian" is the English transcription of its Romanian counterpart (român/rumân).[1] [2]

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 representants of the Vlach minority sustain their Romanian origin."[3]

They mostly live in eastern Serbia, mainly in Timočka Krajina region (roughly corresponding to Bor and Zaječar districts), but also in Braničevo and Pomoravlje districts. Some Vlachs also live around Vidin in Bulgaria. Also the small Vlach population is recognised in Smederevo and Velika Plana (Podunavlje), and in municipalities Aleksinac and Krusevac (Rasina).

Contents

[edit] Religion and language

Most Vlachs are Eastern Orthodox Christians by faith and they speak the Vlach (Romanian) language. The language spoken by one major group of Vlachs is similar to the Oltenian dialect spoken in Romania while that of the other major group is similar to the Romanian dialect of Banat.

The Serbian Vlachs belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church, however, by the canon of Orthodox church, no other local Orthodox church is allowed to operate within its territory. The relative isolation of the Vlachs has permitted the survival of various pre-Christian religious rites that are frowned upon by the Orthodox Church. Like the Serbs, Vlachs celebrate the 'slava', though its meaning is chtonic (related to the house and farmland) rather than familial.

Although the Vlachs of the Timočka Krajina are culturally and linguistically cognate to Romanians, their history since the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century has significantly affected their political and cultural orientation towards the Serbian state and church.

[edit] Subgroups

Vlachs are divided into four different groups, each speaking their own distinct dialects:

  • the Carani (Ţărani)
  • the Ungurjani (Ungureani / "Ungureni")
  • Ungurjani-Munćani (Ungureani-Munceani / "Ungureni-Munteni")
  • Bufani.

Of these, the Ungurjani or '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 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 it away), a reference to the Transylvanian river.

The Ţărani (Carani) of the Bor, Negotin and Zaječar regions are closer to the Olteni in their speech and music. The Ţăran saying 'Nu dau un leu pe el' (He's not worth even a leu) can possibly show their Romanian origin since the leu is a Romanian monetary unit. However, it can also show a possible trade connections between Carani and the Romanian population that live just across the Danube.

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

There is also a group of Vlachophone Roma centered around the village of Lukovo, as well a few Aromanian families who live in Knjaževac but they form a tiny migrant group.

[edit] Origins

Part of the Vlachs of East Serbia were settled there from the regions north of Danube in early 18th century. Most of them were colonized by Habsburg state on lands that were emptied during the so-called "Great Migration of Serbs" (1689-90; as an interesting note, when referring to those refugees, sources often call them Vlachs) when tens of thousands of Serbs fled this region to escape Turkish reprisals for the insurection.

The origin of some Vlachs of Serbia is also visible from their own self-designations: Ungurjani, who came from Hungary (i.e. Transylvania). The Carani (Ţărani) are either authocthonic Vlach population of the region (Their name means "people of the country" or "countrymen") either they came from Walachia (in Romanian Tara Romanesca - "Romanian State"). Both of the two above stated regions of present-day Romania as well as Serbia were in possession of Habsburg Empire from 1717, but Serbia was lost in 1739 to Turks.

The area (mainly Timok Valley) where the bulk of Vlachs live was part of modern Serbia starting from 1830. Prior to that, the land was part of the Habsburg Empire and the Ottoman Empire (Pashalic of Vidin and Pashalic of Smederevo).

The second wave of Vlachs from present-day Romania came in the beginning of the 19th century. In 1835 feudalism was fully abolished in the Principality of Serbia and a large number of individuals and smaller groups from Walachia came there to beneficiate from the status of free peasants.

The conception that all Vlachs of Serbia are descendants of original Roman population of Balkans that never moved from this region is possibly incorrect. A romance-speaking population certainly existed in the mountainous region in Middle Ages, but probably it mostly disappeared by the 15th century, partly due to intermixing with Slavs and partly due to Serb migrations from the South, mostly the region of Kosovo. However, some of the Vlachs of Serbia are descendants of the original romance-speaking population that survived Slavic migrations.

Also, the Vlachs from area aroung Vidin in Bulgaria, with whom the Vlachs of Timok form a continuous group, separated only by the Danube by the rest of Romanians, are natives to the area, not being the result of colonisation or emigration.

[edit] Population

Area inhabited by Vlachs in 2004 according to Romanian organizations
Enlarge
Area inhabited by Vlachs in 2004 according to Romanian organizations

In the 2002 census 40,054 people declared themselves ethnic Vlachs, and 54,818 people declared themselves speakers of the Vlach language[4]. The Vlachs of Serbia are recognized as an autochthonous ethnic group, separate to the Romanians of Serbia, which number 34,576 according to the 2002 census. On the census, the Vlachs declared themselves either as Serbs or Vlachs. Therefore, the real number of Vlach people is much greater than the number of recorded Vlachs, both due to mixed marriages with Slavs and also Serbian national feeling among some full-blooded Vlachs.

Historical population (according to different censuses)

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

  • 1816: 97,215 Romanians/Vlachs (10% of Serbia's population)[5]
  • 1859: 122,593 Romanians/Vlachs
  • 1884: 149,713 Romanians/Vlachs
  • 1890: 143,684 Romanians/Vlachs
  • 1895: 159,510 Romanians/Vlachs
  • 1921: 142,773 Vlach-speakers in Central Serbia
  • 1931: 57,000 Romanian/Vlach/Cincar speakers were recorded in Eastern Serbia (52,635 in the Morava Banovina and the rest in southern parts of Danube Banovina south of the Danube) [citation needed]
  • 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) [6]
  • 1991: 71,536 Vlach-speakers in Serbia (of those 53,721 Serbs, 16,539 Vlachs, 42 Romanians; out of the 17,807 declared Vlachs, 677 Serbocroat-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) [4]

The Vlach population is concentrated mostly in the region limited by Morava River (west), Danube River (north) and Timok River (south-east). According to the sources from the Vlach community, the Vlachs live in 134 villages (exclusively with Vlach population) and in 20 towns (with mixed population - Zaječar, Negotin, Bor, Kladovo, Majdanpek, Požarevac,Smederevo,Velika Plana, Jabukovac, etc).

By some Vlach organizations, in Eastern Serbia live around 250.000 Vlachs,although the results of censuses can't prove that.

Estimated number of Vlachs in Eastern Serbia by municipality (2004 status)

  • Niski District

TOTAL : 245,700

[edit] Vlach identity

Despite their recognition as a separate ethnic group by the Serb 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 most Vlachs of Eastern Serbia opt either for the Vlach, Serb or even Yugoslav identity before the Romanian one.[4]

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 and the giving of baptismal Vlach names is not permitted.

Family names of Vlachs are Serbian, or sound Serbian because of the late 19th century edict that all citizens of Serbia have last names ending in -ić, the base of the name usually coming from the then father's name: Nikolić, Marković, Radulović. There are a few notable exceptions where the Vlach / Romanian origin is evident, as in Jepurović (from iepure, meaning rabbit), Florić (from floare, meaning flower) or Stngačilović (from stangaci, meaning left-handed).

On the other hand, some Vlachs consider themselves to be simply Serbs that speak the Vlach language. In fact ethnic research has found that among the Serb-speaking population of Eastern Serbia, some are Slavicized Vlachs and some Vlach-speakers were formerly Slavs (such as in the village of Šljivar) or even Roma (such as in Lukovo). Most Vlachs do not see themselves as ethnic Romanians, because, while culturally and linguistically cognate to Romanians, they have lived in Serbia for generations and hence do not identify with the Romanian nation, but rather see themselves as a distinct Eastern Romance people. [citation needed]

Many of those Vlachs who see themselves as Serbs were historically hard-line Serbian nationalists, and many fought as volunteers on the Serbian side in the wars in Krajina and Bosnia, together with Serbs from those regions whom they saw as religious and ethnic brethren. One of the reasons why Vlachs consider Serbs to be their ethnic brethren is because many Serbs have Vlach origin. The Serbian Orthodox Church has played a large role in this. In addition, during the Ottoman rule, Serbs migrated from the cities and valleys to the mountains where they mixed with Vlach population; thus, many present-day Serbs have both Slavic and Vlach blood.

It must be noted that Vlach is commonly used as a historical umbrella term for all Latin peoples in Southeastern Europe, including Romanians. In more recent usage, it is a synonym for Latin peoples south of the Danube, hence excluding Romanians. The old meaning is the origin for the modern Vlach ethnic identity, since Vlachs see themselves as descendants of those ancient Vlach peoples, and rather see Romanians as a subgroup of the Vlachs than Vlachs as a subgroup of Romanians. From the Vlach point of view, Romanians are those Vlachs who created their state of Romania and succeeded in gaining world acceptance for their own name for themselves, rather than the exonym term Vlach. In their own language Vlachs never use the term Vlach, but Rumân. They call their language română [7], but sometimes also rumâneşce/româneşte [citation needed].

[edit] Famous Vlachs

Possibly the best known Vlach from eastern Serbia is Zoran Lilić, who was the president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between 1993 and 1997.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ziua.net
  2. ^ Interview with Predrag Balasevic, president of the Romanian/Vlach Democratic Party of Serbia: "We all know that we call ourselves in Romanian Romanians and in Serbian Vlachs."
  3. ^ All about Romanians in Timoc, published 31 May 2005
  4. ^ a b c (Serbian) Official Results of Serbian Census 2002–Population by ethnic groups, p. 2 PDF and Official Results of Serbian Census 2002–Population by language, p. 12 PDF
  5. ^ (Romanian) V. Arion; Vasile Pârvan; G. Vâlsan; Pericle Papahagi; G. Bogdan-Duică. România şi popoarele balcanice (1913). Tipografia Românească. Bucureşti, p. 22
  6. ^ (Serbian) Ranko Bugarski, Jezici, Beograd, 1996.
  7. ^ Website of the Federaţia Rumânilor din Serbie

[edit] External links

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