Megleno-Romanians
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The Megleno-Romanians or Meglen Vlachs (Megleno-Romanian Vlashi; Greek Βλαχομογλενίτες Vlachomoglenítes) are a people inhabiting six villages in the Moglená (Μογλενά) region spanning the Pella and Kilkis prefectures of Central Macedonia, Greece, as well as some villages across the border in the Republic of Macedonia. Unlike the Aromanian Vlachs, the Meglen Vlachs are traditionally sedentary agriculturalists, not transhumants.
They speak a Romance language most often called Megleno-Romanian or Meglenitic by linguists in English and βλαχομογλενίτικα (vlachomoglenítika) or simply μογλενίτικα (moglenítika) in Greek. They themselves call their language vlaheshte, but the Megleno-Romanians in Romania also use megleno-români. It is also spoken in some places in Dobruja, Romania where some Megleno-Romanians moved in the first half of the 20th century and adopted the Megleno-Romanian neologism promoted by the Romanian authorities. Their number is estimated between 12,000 and 20,000.
Unlike all the other Eastern Romanized populations of the Balkans (generically called Vlachs), their name for themselves is not derived from Romanus; they use only the term Vlashi.
Most are Orthodox Christians, but the population of the village of Nânti (Nótia) in Upper Karadjova Plain converted to Islam in the 18th century. They were expelled to Turkey, as part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. They were known as Karadjovalides after the name of the vicinity (Kahl 2006).
In 1926, about 450 families of Megleno-Romanians of Greece moved to Romania and settled in the Southern Dobruja (Cadrilater). After Bulgaria acquired Southern Dobruja, the Megleno-Romanians moved to other regions of Romania, many of them to the village of Cerna in Tulcea County, in which about 1,200 continue to speak Megleno-Romanian. Other Megleno-Romanians migrated to Romania and other countries during World War II and the Greek Civil War, due to the heavy fighting carried out in the Moglená region. As of 1996, in all Romania there were about 820 families that claimed Megleno-Romanian origin.
[edit] References
- Theodor Capidan, "Meglenoromânii" 1. Bucuresti 1925.
- Thede Kahl, "The Islamisation of the Meglen Vlachs (Megleno-Romanians): The Village of Nânti (Nótia) and the 'Nântinets' in Present-Day Turkey". Nationalities Papers 34:1, March 2006.
[edit] External links
- Map with the Megleno-Romanian settlements in Greece and the Republic of Macedonia
- Megleno-Romanii, by Prof. Emil Tarcovnicu
- Meglena, ingropata
- The Vlachs of Greece and their Misunderstood History, by Helen Abadzi
- Studies on the Vlachs by Asterios Koukoudis
- Report on the Vlachs (a term used collectively to refer to Eastern Romance peoples)
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