Aromanian language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aromanian Armâneashti, Armãneshce, Aromână, Armânească
Spoken in:	Greece, Albania, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Republic of Macedonia
Region:	Southeastern Europe
Total speakers:	300,000 to 600,000[1]
Language family:	Indo-European  Italic   Romance    Eastern Romance     Aromanian
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	rup
ISO 639-3:	rup
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

Aromanian (also known as Macedo-Romanian, Arumanian or Vlach in most other countries; in Aromanian: limba aromână, limba armânească, armâneashti or armãneshce) is an Eastern Romance language spoken in Southeastern Europe. Its speakers are called Aromanians.

It was formed after the Roman conquest of the Balkans and shares many features with modern Romanian, having similar grammar and morphology. The most important dissimilarity between Romanian and Aromanian is the vocabulary, which in the case of the former has been influenced to a greater extent by its neighbouring Slavic languages, while Aromanian has borrowed much vocabulary from the Greek language with which it has been in close contact throughout its history.

Whether Romanian and Aromanian are two distinct languages or only dialects of the same language is still under debate, in part because the question carries political implications.

Contents 1 Geographic distribution 2 History 3 Dialects 4 Grammar 4.1 Verbs 4.1.1 Future tense 4.1.2 Pluperfect tense 5 Situation in Greece 6 Language sample 7 Comparison with Romanian 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Geographic distribution

The Aromanian language and people are officially recognised as a minority in the Republic of Macedonia, but large Aromanian communities are also found in Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia as well as in Romania, where some Aromanians having migrated from the Balkans after the destruction of the Aromanian settlements in Moscopole and Gramoste/Grammos.

[edit] History

The language is similar to Romanian and its greatest difference lies in the vocabulary. There are far fewer Slavic words in Aromanian than in Romanian, and many more Greek words, a reflection of the close contact of Aromanian with Greek through much of its history.

It is generally considered that sometime between 800 and 1,200 years ago, the Vulgar Latin spoken in the Balkan provinces of the Roman Empire split into four languages: Daco-Romanian (today's Romanian language), Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian and Istro-Romanian. At the time of the split, the Balkan Vulgar Latin (often called Proto-Romanian) contained about 300 common words with Albanian (possibly of close genetic affiliation with the Dacian language) and about 70 early Slavic borrowings.

Greek influences are much stronger in Aromanian than in other East Romance languages, especially because Aromanian used Greek words to coin new words (neologisms), while Romanian based most of its neologisms on Italian and French.

Also, with the coming of the Turks in the Balkans, Aromanian received some Turkish words as well. Still the lexical composition remains mainly Romance.

[edit] Dialects

There are two major Aromanian dialects which are named after two respective places nowadays located in Albania: the Moscopole dialect (from the town of Moscopole, also known as the "Aromanian Jerusalem") and the Gramustean dialect (from the Gramostea/Grammos region).

[edit] Grammar

The grammar and morphology are very similar to those of Romanian and unlike the other Romance languages. The definite article is a clitic particle appended at the end of the word, both the definite and indefinite articles can be inflected, and nouns are classified in three genders, with neuter in addition to masculine and feminine.

[edit] Verbs

Aromanian grammar does have some features that distinguish it from Romanian, an important one being the complete disappearance of verb infinitives. As such, the tenses and moods that in Romanian use the infinitive (like the future simple tense and the conditional mood), are formed in Aromanian in other ways. For the same reason, verb entries in dictionaries are given in their indicative mood, present tense, first person, singular form.

Aromanian verbs are classified in five conjugations instead of just the four in Romanian. The table below gives some examples, indicating also the conjugation of the corresponding verbs in Romanian.

Conjugation	Aromanian (ind. pres. 1st sg.)	Romanian (ind. pres. 1st sg.)	Romanian (infinitive)	English
I	cîntu dau lucredzu	cânt dau lucrez	a cânta I a da I a lucra I	sing give work
II	vedu şedu armînu	văd şed rămân	a vedea II a şedea II a rămâne III (or a rămânea II)	see sit stay
III	ducu cunoscu ardu	duc cunosc ard	a duce III a cunoaşte III a arde III	carry, lead know burn
IV	moru fugu ndulţescu	mor fug îndulcesc	a muri IV a fugi IV a îndulci IV	die run sweeten
V	paţu avdu mvirdascu	păţesc (or paţ) aud vopsesc	a păţi IV a auzi IV a vopsi IV	suffer hear painting

[edit] Future tense

The future tense is formed in the same way as in archaic Romanian, using an auxiliary invariable particle "va" (derived from the verb "to want") and the subjunctive mood.

Aromanian	Romanian (archaic)	English
va s-cîntu	va să cânt	I will sing
va s-cîntî	va să cânţi	you (sg.) will sing
va s-cîntî	va să cânte	he/she will sing
va s-cîntámu	va să cântăm	we will sing
va s-cîntátî	va să cântaţi	you (pl.) will sing
va s-cîntî	va să cânte	they will sing

[edit] Pluperfect tense

Whereas in Romanian the pluperfect tense (past perfect) is formed synthetically (as for instance in Portuguese), Aromanian uses a periphrastic construction with the auxiliary verb amu (have) as the imperfect tense (aveamu) and the past participle, as in French, except that French replaces avoir (have) with être (be) for some verbs. Aromanian shares this feature with Megleno-Romanian as well as other languages in the Balkan linguistic union.

Only the auxiliary verb inflects according to number and person: aveamu, aveai, avea, aveamu, aveatî, avea, whereas the past participle doesn't change.

Aromanian	Megleno-Romanian	Romanian	English
avea mîcată	vea mancat	mâncase	(he/she) had eaten
	vea durmit	dormise	(he/she) had slept

[edit] Situation in Greece

Even before the incorporation of Aromanian-speaking territories into the Greek state, the language was subordinated to Greek, traditionally the Aromanians' language of education and religion.

The Romanian state began opening schools for the Aromanians in the 1860s, but this initiative was regarded with suspicion by many Aromanians, who thought Romania was trying to assimilate them. Antagonism between Aromanians who rejected what they perceived as Romanian propaganda, and those who accepted the non-Greek identity promoted in the Romanian schools, tore apart the Aromanian community in the first half of the 20th century.

In 1948, the new Soviet-imposed communist regime of Romania closed all Romanian-run schools outside Romania and since the closure, there has been no formal education in Aromanian and speakers have been encouraged to learn and use the Greek language.

The issue of Aromanian-language education is still a sensitive one, partly because of the painful memories of the bitter divisions the presence of the Romanian schools caused in the past. Many Aromanians oppose the introduction of the language into the education system as EU and leading Greek political figures have suggested, viewing it as an artificial distinction between them and other Greeks. For example, the former education minister, George Papandreou, received a negative response from Aromanian mayors and associations to his proposal for a trial Aromanian language education programme. The Panhellenic Federation of Cultural Associations of Vlachs (Πανελλήνια Ομοσπονδία Πολιτιστικών Συλλόγων Βλάχων) expressed strong opposition to EU's recommendation in 1997 that the tuition of Aromanian be supported so as to avoid its extinction.[1]. On a visit to Metsovo, Epirus in 1998, Greek President Costis Stephanopoulos called on Vlachs to speak and teach their language, but its decline continues.

A recent example of the sensitivity of the issue was the 2001 conviction (later overturned in the Appeals Court) to 15 months in jail of Sotiris Bletsas [2][3], a Greek Aromanian who was found guilty of "dissemination of false information" after he distributed informative material on minority languages in Europe (which included information on minority languages of Greece), produced by the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages and financed by the European Commission. His conviction met with broad condemnation in Greece [4] and it emerged that his case was zealously pursued by Aromanian leaders who viewed themselves as patriotic Greeks and felt confronted by the suggestion that they belonged to a "minority". Bletsas was eventually acquitted [5].

[edit] Language sample

Tată a nostru

care eşti în ţeru,

s-aisească nuam a Ta,

s-vină amiraliea a Ta,

s-facă vrerea a Ta,

aşi cumu în ţeru,

aşi şi pisti locu.

Pânea a noastră aţea di tute dzâlele dă-nă o nau adzâ

şi nă ľi iartă amărtilili noastre

aşi cumu ľi iartămu şi noi unu a altui.

Şi nu nă du pri noi la cârtire,

ma nă aveagli di aţelu arău.

Că a Ta easte amiraliea şi puterea

a Tatălui şi Hiliului şi a Spiritului Sântu,

tora, totana şi tu eta etelor.

Amin.

(the Lord's Prayer - source)

---

Tuti iatsăli umineshtsă s-fac liberi shi egali la nămuzea shi-ndrepturli. Eali suntu hărziti cu fichiri shi sinidisi shi lipseashti un cu alantu sh-si poartă tu duhlu-a frătsăljiljei.

(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

[edit] Comparison with Romanian

The following text is given for comparison in Aromanian and in Romanian, with an English translation. The word choice in the Romanian version was such that it matches the Aromanian text, although in modern Romanian other words might have been more appropriate. The English translation is only provided as a guide to the meaning, with an attempt to keep the word order as close to the original as possible.

Aromanian	Romanian	English
Vocala easti un son dit zburărea-a omlui, faptu cu triţearea sonoră, libiră ş-fără cheadică, a vimtului prit canalu sonor (adrat di coardili vocali şi întreaga gură) ică un semnu grafic cari aspuni un ahtari son.	Vocala este un sunet din vorbirea omului, făcut cu trecerea sonoră, liberă şi fără piedică, a vîntului prin canalul sonor (compus din coardele vocale şi întreaga gură) sau un semn grafic care reprezintă un atare sunet.	The vowel is a sound in human speech, made by the sonorous, free and unhindered passing of the air through the sound channel (composed of the vocal chords and the whole mouth) or a graphic symbol corresponding to that sound.
Aşi bunăoară, avem şasi vocali ţi s-fac cu vimtul ţi treaţi prit gură, iu limba poati si s-află tu un loc ică altu şi budzăli pot si sta dişcľisi ună soe ică altă.	Aşa bunăoară, avem şase vocale ce se fac cu vîntul ce trece prin gură, unde limba poate să se afle într-un loc sau altul şi buzele pot să stea deschise un soi sau altul.	This way, we have six vowels that are produced by the air passing through the mouth, where the tongue can be in one place or another and the lips can be opened in one way or another.
Vocalili pot s-hibă pronunţati singuri ică deadun cu semivocali i consoani.	Vocalele pot să fie pronunţate singure sau deodată cu semivocale sau consoane.	The vowels can be pronounced alone or together with semivowels or consonants.

[edit] See also

• The Balkan linguistic union

[edit] References

• Capidan, Theodor. Aromânii, dialectul Aromân, Academia Română, Studii şi cercetări, XX 1932.
• Friedman, Victor A., "The Vlah Minority in Macedonia: Language, Identity, Dialectology, and Standardization" in Selected Papers in Slavic, Balkan, and Balkan Studies, ed. Juhani Nuoluoto, Martii Leiwo, Jussi Halla-aho. Slavica Helsingiensa 21. University of Helsinki, 2001. online
• Rosetti, Alexandru. Istoria limbii române, 2 vols., Bucharest, 1965-1969.

[edit] External links

• Ethnologue entry for Aromanian
• Asterios Koukoudis: Studies on the Vlachs
• Greek Helsinki Human Rights Organization: Aromanians (Vlachs) in Greece
• Conjugation of verbs in Aromanian and Istro-Romanian
• Romanian and the Balkans, with some references to Aromanian
• Aromanian settlements on the beginning of the XX. century (map)