Introduction
The Aromanians are people who live in the Balkans on the territory of Greece,
Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and
Serbia; they speak a language called Aromanian/ limba Armânească/
armãneashti.
Aromanians are often confuse with Vlachs The groups that can be historically
called Vlach include: modern-day Romanians or Daco-Romanians, Aromanians,
Morlachs, Megleno- Romanians and Istro-Romanians.
Vlach is a German blanket term to name the several Latin peoples descending
from the Latinised populations and speaking Neolatin languages in Central,
Eastern and South- Eastern Europe.
The word was later adopted to define the Aromanians and the Romanians, not
making any difference between them, which often brings to
misunderstandings, moreover in all the Balkan languages the word became a
pejorative synonym for any shepherding community.
These people simply call themselves and want to be called Armânji, on the
Northern part of the massif Pindus in Greece rrmâni recalling to the Latin word
“romanus” as they speak a Neolatin language.
The massif Pindus, that is a mountain located between Northern Greece and
Southern Albania, together with the nearby regions of Thessaly, Epirus and
Macedonia, represent the most significant areas for the history and the
language of this population.
It is possible to distinguish three main Aromanian branches: Gramustians,
Farsherots and Moscopolitans.
The Gramustians were essentially shepherds and take their name from the
mountain “Gramos” that is located on the border between Greece and Albania.
Most of them are concentrated in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
(Veles, Malovishte) and in South- Eastern Bulgaria.
The Farsherots, who call themselves “Rrmâni”, derive their name from a place
called Frasher/Frashër that is nowadays located in Albania, even though they
came from the massif Pindus. They believe that their language is, among the
others, the most similar to Latin. As the Gramustians, they were nomadic
pastoralists or muleteers and they nowadays live in Greece and in Southern
Albania.
The Moscopolitans are from Moscopole (Greek: Moscopolis, Albanian:
Voskopojë), in today’s Albania. This city used to be a very important
economical and cultural centre situated on the major routes of international
trade. For a short period, Moscopole was the second biggest city in the
Ottoman Empire until its decline, due to the raids of Albanians, culminated
later with its total destruction by hand of Ali Pasha, a local Turkish lord in
1788. The Moscopolitans were widely-known as very successful and skilled
tradesmen or craftmen and led mostly a urban lifestyle, e.g. they were the first
who changed the traditional clothes for more modern ones.
After the destruction of Moscopole the Aromanians left the city and started to
emigrate north. Once the Turskish Empire dissolved, the new borders of the
national states found them dispersed through Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, the
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia.
Their current situation changes from coutry to country. It has to be stressed
that they are full Albanian, Bulgarian, Greek, Macedonian, Serbian or
Romanian citizens. They fluently speak the language of the country in which
they live in or even several ones and they tend to fully integrate into the
national societies.They generally preserved their language, even though the
younger generations use it less and less so that the Aromanian language and
culture are today threatened with extinction. It is extremely difficult to declare
the exact number of Aromanians currently living in the Balkans. The Union for
the Aromanian Culture and Language and the Association of French
Aromanians estimate that they are 1.500.000. This might be an
onverstimation. Other sources affirm that they are 500.000.
The Aromanians are not recognised as national minority except in the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. In 1991 the Constitution gave them for
example the right to use their language in the court or to write their names
with their alphabet (in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia the official
alphabet is the Cyrillic, while the Aromanians use the Latin letters). Optional
lessons in Aromanian were introduced into state schools.
Because, as it said before, they are fully integrated in the societies where they
live, they make no political demands, e.g. they never asked to have their own
state, they merely want assistance in preserving their language and culture.
They listed their demands in the resolution that they adopted during the
international conferences held in Mannheim University (1985) and Freiburg
University (1988-1993) . They ask for official regognition as a national minority
and support from the states in which they live in the following fields:
• Language teaching
• Services in Aromanian in their churches
• Newspapers, magazines, and radio and television programmes in
Aromanian
• Support for their cultural associations.
Research plan