Vlach ( VLA(H)K), also Wallachian and many other variants, is a term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate speakers of Eastern Romance languages living in Southeast Europe—south of the Danube (the Balkan peninsula) and north of the Danube. Although it has also been used to name present-day Romanians, the term "Vlach" today refers primarily to speakers of the Eastern Romance languages who live south of the Danube, in Albania, Bulgaria, northern Greece, North Macedonia and eastern Serbia. These people include the ethnic groups of the Aromanians, the Megleno-Romanians and, in Serbia, the Timok Vlachs. The term also became a synonym in the Balkans for the social category of shepherds, and was also used for non-Romance-speaking rural Christians (mostly Orthodox), in recent times in Dalmatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina derogatively. The term is also used to refer to the ethnographic group of Moravian Vlachs who speak a Slavic language but have Vlach origins, as well as for Morlachs and Istro-Romanians.
Etymology The word Vlach/Wallachian (and other variants such as Vlah, Valah, Valach, Voloh, Blac, Oláh, Vlas, Ilac, Ulah, etc.) is etymologically derived from the ethnonym of a Celtic tribe, adopted into Proto-Germanic *Walhaz, which meant 'stranger', from *Wolkā- (Caesar's Latin: Volcae, Strabo and Ptolemy's Greek: Ouolkai). Via Latin, in Gothic, as *walhs, the ethnonym took on the meaning 'foreigner' or 'Romance-speaker' and later "shepherd', 'nomad'. The term was adopted into Greek as Vláhoi or Blachoi (Βλάχοι), Albanian vllah, Slavic as Vlah (pl. Vlasi) or Voloh, Hungarian as oláh and olasz, etc. The root word was notably adopted in Germanic for Wales and Walloon, and in Switzerland for Romansh-speakers (German: Welsch), and in Poland Włochy or in Hungary olasz became an exonym for Italians. The Slovenian term Lahi has also been used to designate Italians. The same name is still used in Polish (Włochy, Włosi, włoskie) and Hungarian (Olasz, Olaszország) as an exonym for Italy, while in Slovak (Vlach - pl. Vlasi, Valach - pl. Valasi), Czech (Vlachy) and Slovenian (Laško, Láh, Láhinja, laško) it was replaced with the endonym Italia. Other forms which were recognised by linguists to designate the "Vlachs" are: Blaci, Blauen, Blachi found in Western medieval sources, Balachi, Walati found in Western sources derived from medieval German, while the Germanic population from Transylvania used also the variants Woloch, Blôch. French sources used mostly Valaques while the medieval Song of Roland used Blos. In English and in modern German the forms Wallachians, Walachen appear, respectively. In the Balkan Peninsula various names such as Rumer, Tzintzars, Morlachs, Maurovlachs, Armâns, Cincars, Koutzovlachs were used, while Muslim sources speak of Ulak, Ilak, Iflak.
Historical uses The term 'Vlach' first appeared in medieval sources and was generally used as an exonym for speakers of the Eastern Romance languages. Although later associated with transhumance across most Southeastern Europe, the early medieval Vlachs were agriculturists and pastoralists, and the practice of transhumant pastoralism only took hold between the 14th and the 19th centuries. Testimonies from the 13th and the 14th centuries show that, although in Europe and beyond, they were called Vlachs or Wallachians (oláh in Hungarian, Vláchoi (Βλάχοι) in Greek, Volóxi (Воло́хи) in Russian, Walachen in German, Valacchi in Italian, Valaques in French, Valacos in Spanish), the Romanians used the endonym rumân or român, from the Latin romānus, meaning 'Roman'. Aromanians use the endonym armãn (pl.: armãni) or rãmãn (pl.: rãmãni), from romānus. From Latin romānus are also the Albanian forms rëmen and rëmër, 'vlach'. Megleno-Romanians designate themselves with the Macedonian form Vla (pl.: Vlaš) in their own language. In historical sources the term "Vlach" could also refer to Slovaks, Hungarians, Balkans, Transylvanians, Romanians, or even Albanians. In late Byzantine documents, the Vlachs are sometimes mentioned as Bulgaro-Albano-Vlachs (Bulgaralbanitoblahos), or Serbo-Albano-Bulgaro-Vlachs. According to the Serbian historian Sima Ćirković, the name "Vlach" in medieval sources had the same rank as the name "Greek", "Serb" or "Latin".
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
