History of the term Vlach

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Vlach is a Slavic-derived term from the Germanic word Valah/Valach used to designate the Romance speaking peoples of South-Eastern Europe: Romanians, Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians and Istro-Romanians.

While historically, it was used to refer to all Latin people of the Balkans,^[1] nowadays, this term is only rarely used to refer to the Romanians, but is instead used to refer to the other Eastern Romanic peoples, living outside Romania.

Contents 1 Origins of the word 2 The word in Slavic languages 3 The word in other languages 4 Usage as autonym 5 See also 6 References

[edit] Origins of the word

• See also: History of the term Walha

The Slavic term in turn derives from Germanic: it originates with *Walha by which the early Germanic tribes called their Celtic neighbours, possibly derived from the name of the tribe which was known to the Romans as Volcae (in the writings of Julius Caesar) and to the Greeks as Ouólkai (Strabo and Ptolemy).^{[citation needed]}

As the Celts of Gaul were Romanized, the word changed its meaning to "Romanic people", as it is still kept in the name of the Walloons of Belgium, and in the German exonyms:

• Welsche, often used in the German speaking part of Switzerland to refer to the people of the French-speaking Romandy,
• Walsche, often used in the German speaking part of Italy to refer to Italians,
• Walsche, used in Switzerland and Bolzano-Bozen for various Rhaeto-Romantic speaking peoples, and
• in numerous placenames (but also Walnuss (Walnut)), for instance Walensee and Walenstadt, as well as Welschbern and Walschtirol (now almost always Verona and Trentino), and especially Walachen/Walachei (Wallachians/Wallachia).

In English a similar form is used for (originally Romano-Celtic) Wales and Welsh, and for the ending -wall in Cornwall.

[edit] The word in Slavic languages

This word for Romanic people was borrowed from the Germanic Goths (as *walhs) into Proto-Slavic some time before the 7th century. However, the first source using the word was the writings of Byzantine historian Kedrenos, from the mid-11th century.

Later on, the meaning of this noun in Slavic languages got narrower or just different:

Language	Form	Meaning
Bulgarian	влах	Romanian / Vlach
Bulgarian	влах	man from Wallachia
Bulgarian	влах	cattle breeder, shepherd
Czech	Valach	man from Wallachia
Czech	Valach	man from Valašsko (in Moravia)
Czech	valach	shepherd
Czech	valach	gelding (horse)
Czech	valach	lazy man
Czech	Vlach	Italian
Macedonian	влав	cattle breeder, shepherd
Polish	Włoch	Italian
Polish	Wołoch	Romanian
Polish	wałach	gelding (horse)
Old Russian	волохъ	man speaking a Romance language
Russian	валах	Romanian / Vlach
Serbian	Влах	citizen of the Republic of Dubrovnik
Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian	Влах, Vlah	Romanian / Vlach
Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian	Влах, Vlah	man from Wallachia
Serbian (Užice dialect)	Вла(х), Старовла(х)	medieval nomadic people from Stari Vlah and Mala Vlaška
Croatian	Vlah	Istro-Romanian
Croatian (Dubrovnik dialect)	Vlah	man from Herzegovina (pejorative)
Croatian (western dialects)	Vlah	Italian (pejorative)
Serbian and Croatian	влах, vlah	medieval nomadic cattle breeder
Croatian (dialects of Istria)	vlah	new settler (pejorative)
Croatian (Dalmatian dialects)	vlah (vlaj)	plebeian (pejorative)
Croatian (Dalmatian insular dialects)	vlah	man from the mainland (pejorative)
Croatian (western and northern dialects)	vlah (vlaj)	Orthodox Christian, usually Serb (pejorative)
Croatian (Podravina dialects)	vlah	Catholic who is a neoshtokavian speaker (pejorative)
Bosnian	vlah, влах	non-Muslim living in Bosnia, usually Serb (pejorative)
Bosnian	vlah	Catholic (pejorative)
Slovak	Valach	man from Wallachia
Slovak	Valach	man from Valašsko (in Moravia)
Slovak	valach	shepherd
Slovak	valach	gelding (horse)
Slovak	Vlach	Italian
Slovene	Lah	Italian (pejorative)
Western Slovenian dialects	Lah	Friulian
Slovene	Vlah	Serbian immigrant (pejorative)
Ukrainian	волох	Romanian / Vlach

[edit] The word in other languages

From the Slavs, it was passed on to other peoples, such as the Hungarians ("Oláh", referring to Romanians; "Olasz", referring to Italians, "Vlachok" referring to Vlachs, generally) and Byzantines/Greeks ("Βλάχοι", "Vláhi") and was used for all Latin people of the Balkans. It also acquired a secondary meaning, "shepherd" – from the occupation of many of the Vlachs of Greece and Serbia. In Albania, the opposite occurred: çoban "shepherd" came to mean "Vlach". In German the word "vlach" was a pejorative name for an Orthodox Christian, a Serbian immigrant.

A name used for the Southern Vlachs of Greece is "Kutsovlach" (literally "limping Vlach"; possibly a reference to the way they spoke Greek), however the Aromanians consider it quite offensive. Another name which was previously used to refer to the Aromanians (mainly in the Slavic countries: Serbia, Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria) is "tsintsar", which is derived from the way the Aromanians say the word 'five': "tsintsi".

Another Balkanic ethnicity is the Morlachs or Mavrovalachi (Greek for "black Vlachs"), living in the Dinaric Alps.

[edit] Usage as autonym

The term was originally an exonym, as the Vlachs used various words derived from romanus to refer to themselves (români, rumâni, rumâri, aromâni, arumâni, armâni etc), but there are some exceptions:

• the Aromanians of Greece, often use "Βλάχοι" (Vlachoi) rather than "Αρμάνοι" (Armanoi) in Greek-language contexts.

• the Megleno-Romanians are the only people who use exclusively the word Vlach (Vlashi) for auto-designation. The loss of the name derived from Romanus most likely concluded in the early 19th century.

• the Romanian minority of Serbia living in Timok Valley (but not those of the Banat, see Romanians of Serbia), although speaking the standard Romanian dialect, are still referred as "Vlachs" in Serbian language. In the Yugoslavian census figures, the Aromanians of Macedonia and the Romanians of Serbia were both classified as "Vlachs".

[edit] See also

• History of the term Walha
• Etymology of Romania
• Origin of Romanians
• English and Welsh

[edit] References

• Orbis Latinus: Wallachians, Walloons, Welschen
• Victor A. Friedman, The Vlah minority in Macedonia
• Steriu T. Hagigogu, "Romanus şi valachus sau Ce este romanus, roman, român, aromân, valah şi vlah", Bucharest, 1939