Vlachs

Vlachs ( other names: geldings, Vlachs, Vlachs, Wlachi, Vlasi, Vlax, Wallachians, Valachos, Vlachos, Olah, Ulah, Blahoi ) is a collective term for Romansh-speaking ethnic groups in South-East Europe, who speak more closely related to each other Balkan Romance languages ​​.

Mostly so that the novels are referred to in the broad sense of the term: Dakorumänen ( the Romanian-speaking population in Romania, Moldova, Northern Bulgaria, Serbia (eastern Central Serbia and Vojvodina), Ukraine and Hungary), Aromanians ( Mazedorumänen ) Meglenorumänen and Istrorumänen.

Disambiguation

The term Vlach was always a foreign name ( exonym ): the Vlachs call themselves with the Latin Romanus ( German "Roman " or " Roman " ) derived names, so for example, as Român (Pl. Români ), Ruman (Pl. Rumani ) Rumar (Pl. Rumari ), Raman (Pl. Ramani ) or arm / Makedonarmãn (Pl. Armânji / Makedonarmãnji ).

The term Vlach is originally from the Germanic and has been used by South Slavic and then partially Latin and Greek mediation in different areas to refer mainly romanized or Roman ethnic groups. The underlying Germanic word " Walchen " ( adjective " welsch " ), Old High German Walha (adjective walhisk ) is, most probably from the Celtic ethnonym ( common names ) of Volker borrowed ( by the first sound shift changes ). As the Celtic neighbors of the Germanic tribes were Romanized, the Germans used the term " welsch " for their neighbors further, which it received the meaning of " Romanesque ". Other examples of the use of the Germanic word in different parts of Europe Wales on the island of Great Britain and Wallonia, in both cases, as the name of Celtic settlement areas. The name of the canton of Valais in Switzerland, however, probably derives from the Latin vallis from the landscape of Galicia in East Central Europe from the princely seat Halych and the autonomous region of Galicia in Spain by the name of the ancient Galläker.

Other Romance peoples have exonyms, which have emerged from the term " Welsch ". Italians, for example, are mentioned in the Hungarian olasz, while the older Hungarian name for Romanians is oláh. German in South Tyrol mentioned earlier their Italian citizens " Walsche ". In Polish, the name Włosi for Italians and Włochy is common for Italy, while the old name for Romanians Woloch is. In western Slovenian dialects the Friulian are called Lah. In Transylvania, the Saxons called the Romanian population " Blochen " or " sheets ".

History

The people of Wallachia were described by the stranger as " Vlachs ". The Principality of Moldavia was sometimes called by the foreigners also " Moldo - Valahia ". The Polish and Russian chronicles from the 12th century, including the Primary Chronicle, the Romanians call east of the Carpathians as " Bolohowenen ". The south of the Carpathians formed in the 13th century Romanian principality was referred to by the stranger as " Wallachia ", but himself called this state " Tara Românească " or " TEARA Rumânească ," meaning " Romanian Land". Since the mid-19th century, the Romanians became rarer designated by the exonym " Vlach ". Today, only small groups of Romanians in Eastern Serbia and Northern Bulgaria, these foreign name, but they call themselves in their native language Romanian "Romani " or " Rumani " (= " Romanians ").

Vlach settlements existed in the northern Carpathians ( Carpathian Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland, Czech / Moravian Wallachia ) and in the Western Balkans ( Morlaken in Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, southern Serbia ). There are novels that were slavicized during the Middle Ages, but their customs and employment as shepherds kept (including transhumance, one among the Vlachs widespread form of sheep ). The Vlachs in the northern Carpathians had immigrated from Maramures, Romania, while it was Morlaken ( Maurowalachen ) in the Western Balkans.

Also, some Roma groups who have lived during the Middle Ages in Wallachia as serfs, and still live in Romania and neighboring countries are sometimes referred to as Vlachs, the correct term is but " Vlax Roma ".