Istro-Romanians

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Map of Istro-Romanian-speaking villages, made by Puşcariu in 1926. Note that the Istro-Romanian speaking area was under Italian rule at the time.

Istro-Romanians (ethnonym: Vlaşi, also: Rumâni and Rumâri; called Ćiribiri / Ćići by the local population and Istrian Vlachs by linguists) are an ethnic group living in Istria, Croatia with a population of 1,200. They traditionally speak the Istro-Romanian language.

[edit] History

Some linguists believe that the Istro-Romanians migrated to their present region about 600 years ago from Transylvania, after the Bubonic plague depopulated Istria. Another theory - by no means the only other theory - is that they came from Serbia. Some loan words suggest that before coming to Istria, Istro-Romanians lived for a longer period of time in Northern Dalmatia. However, it is quite clear that Istro-Romanian split from Daco-Romanian later than the other Eastern Romance languages (Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian), and thus the Serbian theory loses some credibility.

The Transylvanian connection is emphasized by linguists, but more importantly, is alive in the memory of some of the Rumeri themselves who break themselves into two distinct groups - the cicci or cici of surrounding Mune and Žejane area and the vlahi of the Šušnjevica region. Interestingly enough, Iosif Popovici entitled his book Dialectele române din Istria (Halle, 1909) - that is, "The Dialects..." not "The Dialect..." - so indirectly he admitted there were (and still are?) several types of Istro-Romanian dialects in Istria.

White = Romanians
Green = Istro-Romanians
Yellow = Aromanians
Orange = Megleno-Romanians

Insofar as Romanian linguists themselves are concerned, the opinions are divided: Prof. Dr. Iosif Popovici (1876-1928), who had travelled extensively in Istria, endorsed the theory the Istro-Romanians were natives of Ţara Moţilor (Western Transylvania) who "descended" sometimes during the Middle Ages into Istria. ("Dialectele române din Istria", I, Halle a.d.S., 1914, p. 122 and following). This opinion was shared by Ovid Densuşianu (1873-1938), a Romanian folklorist, philologist, and poet who introduced trends of European modernism into Romanian literature, who did not admit that Istro-Romanians are native to Istria, where we find them today (or he still was finding them in the 1930s when he researched for his book Histoire de la langue roumaine, I, p. 337): "Un premier fait que nous devons mettre en evidence, c'est que l'istro-roumain n'a pu se développer à l'origine là où nous le trouvons aujourd'hui".

The first historical record of Istro-Romanians (not necessarily the "cici") dates back to 1329, when Serbian chronicles mention that a Vlach population was living in the area, although there was an earlier mention from the 12th century of a leader in Istria called Radul (that could be a Romanian name).

Pavle Ivić cited the hypothesis that a sizeable Roman population inhabited the Balkans from west to east across the former Yugoslavia.

After World War II, many Istro-Romanians were expelled from their lands, which had been under Italian rule between the World Wars, and ended up in Italy. Those who stayed under Croatian rule underwent forced assimilation. The Italian writer and historian Giuseppe Lazzarini believes that there are more than 5000 Istro-Romanians in Istria, but most of them identify themselves (1991 Census: 811 Istro-Romanians) with other ethnic groups. He believes that the Istro-Romanians are the descendants of the Roman legionaries (moved by Augustus to eastern Istria to colonize the borders of Italy) and Aromanian sheperds, who escaped the Ottoman invasions and moved to a plague depopulated Istria in the 15th century.

Unlike other Romanian speakers, who are Eastern Orthodox, the Istro-Romanians were Roman Catholic. [1]