ARMANJI (Aromanians)

By Sara Gigante and

Staša Arsenović
 The name
 They call themselves “Armânji”,
recalling to the Latin word
“romanus” as they speak a
Neolatin language. Their
language is called Aromanian/
limba Armânească/
But…
Armãn Armãnã
 Greeks call them “Vlachs” or
“Koutsovlachs/Κουτσόβλαχοι” .
Koutso/ κουτσό means “lame”
 In Serbia they are known as
“Tsintsars/Cincari” because they
very often use the sound “c” in
their language
Albanians call them either Vllech
or çoban (meaning: pastoralist)
referred to their original socio-
professional specialisation.
In Romania they are known as
Macedoromanians” or
“Macedonians”.
 The Aromanians probably
originated by the mixture of
Thracian, Illyrian, Greek and
Macedonian people that were
Romanised after the Roman
conquest.
It is possible to distinguish three
main Aromanian branches:
“Gramustians”, “Farsherots” and
“Moscopolitans”.
Aromanians
 The massif Pindus
 The massif Pindus, that reaches the 2637 meters, is
often mentioned as their “land”: casa a nostra – I
muntile (The mountain is our home or Armãnlu tu munti
easti ca amarea arihatipsita (the Aromanian is on his
mountain like on the peaceful sea).
 Moscopole
 Moscopole used to be one of the most important
cultural and commercial cities during the
Ottoman Empire… Today it counts 500
inhabitants…
 Limba Armânească
 TheAromanian language - Limba
Armânească – is a Romance
language, belonging to the same
group with French, Italian,
Spanish, Portuguese and
Romanian.