Aromanian language
Aromanian (also known as
Macedo-Romanian,
Arumanian or
Vlach in most other countries; in Aromanian:
limba aromână,
limba armânească,
armâneashti or
armãneshce) is an
Eastern Romance language spoken in
Southeastern Europe. Its speakers are called
Aromanians.
It was formed after the
Roman conquest of the
Balkans and shares many features with modern
Romanian, having similar grammar and morphology. The most important dissimilarity between Romanian and Aromanian is the vocabulary, which in the case of the former has been influenced to a greater extent by its neighbouring
Slavic languages, while Aromanian has borrowed much vocabulary from the
Greek language with which it has been in close contact throughout its history.
Whether Romanian and Aromanian are two distinct languages or only dialects of the same language is still under debate, in part because the question carries political implications.
The Aromanian language and
people are officially recognised as a minority in the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia, but large Aromanian communities are also found in
Albania,
Greece,
Bulgaria,
Serbia and Montenegro as well as in
Romania, where some Aromanians having migrated from the Balkans after the destruction of the Aromanian settlements in
Moscopole and Gramoste/Grammos.
The language is similar to Romanian and its greatest difference lies in the vocabulary. There are far fewer Slavic words in Aromanian than in Romanian, and many more
Greek words, a reflection of the close contact of Aromanian with Greek through much of its history.
It is generally considered that sometime between 800 and 1,200 years ago, the
Vulgar Latin spoken in the Balkan provinces of the Roman Empire split into four languages:
Daco-Romanian (today's
Romanian language), Aromanian,
Meglenitic and
Istro-Romanian. At the time of the split, the Balkan Vulgar Latin (often called
Proto-Romanian) contained
about 300 common words with Albanian (possibly of close genetic affiliation with the
Dacian language) and about 70 early Slavic borrowings.
Greek influences are much stronger in Aromanian than in other East Romance languages, especially because Aromanian used Greek words to coin new words (
neologisms), while Romanian based most of its neologisms on
Italian and
French.
Also, with the coming of the
Turks in the
Balkans, Aromanian received some
Turkish words as well. Still the lexical composition remains mainly Romance.
There are two major Aromanian dialects which are named after two respective places nowadays located in
Albania: the Moscopole dialect (from the town of
Moscopole, also known as the "Aromanian Jerusalem") and the Gramustean dialect (from the
Gramostea/Grammos region).
The grammar and morphology is very similar to the one in Romanian and unlike to the other Romance languages. The definite article is a
clitic particle appended at the end of the word, both the definite and
indefinite articles can be
inflected, and nouns are classified in three
genders, with neuter in addition to masculine and feminine.
Verbs
Aromanian grammar does have some features that distinguish it from Romanian, an important one being the complete disappearance of
verb infinitives. As such, the tenses and moods that in Romanian use the infinitive (like the
future simple tense and the
conditional mood), are formed in Aromanian in other ways. For the same reason, verb entries in dictionaries are given in their indicative mood, present tense, first person, singular form.
Aromanian verbs are classified in five conjugations instead of just four in Romanian. The table below gives some examples, indicating also the conjugation of the corresponding verbs in Romanian.
| (ind. pres. 1st sg.)> | Romanian
(ind. pres. 1st sg.) | Romanian
(infinitive) | English | | I | cîntu
dau
lucredu | cânt
dau
lucrez | a cânta I
a da I
a lucra I | sing
give
work |
|---|
| II | vedu
şedu
armînu | văd
şed
rămân | a vedea II
a şedea II
a rămâne III (or a rămânea II) | see
sit
stay |
|---|
| III | ducu
cunoscu
ardu | duc
cunosc
ard | a duce III
a cunoaşte III
a arde III | carry, lead
know
burn |
|---|
| IV | moru
fugu
ndulţescu | mor
fug
îndulcesc | a muri IV
a fugi IV
a îndulci IV | die
run
sweeten |
|---|
| V | paţu
avdu
mvirdascu | păţesc (or paţ)
aud
. | a păţi IV
a auzi IV
. | suffer
hear
. |
|---|
Future tense
The future tense is formed in the same way as in archaic Romanian, using an auxiliary invariable particle "va" (derived from the verb "to want") and the
subjunctive mood.
| (archaic)> | English | | va s-cîntu | va să cânt | I will sing |
| va s-cîntî | va să cânţi | you (sg.) will sing |
| va s-cîntî | va să cânte | he/she will sing |
| va s-cîntámu | va să cântăm | we will sing |
| va s-cîntátî | va să cântaţi | you (pl.) will sing |
| va s-cîntî | va să cânte | they will sing |
Pluperfect tense
Whereas in Romanian the
pluperfect tense (past perfect) is formed synthetically (like for instance in
Portuguese), Aromanian uses a periphrastic construction with the auxiliary verb
amu (have) at the imperfect tense (
aveamu) and the past participle, like in
French, except that French replaces
avoir (have) with
être (be) for some verbs. Aromanian shares this feature with
Megleno-Romanian as well as other languages in the
Balkan linguistic union.
Only the auxiliary verb inflects according to number and person:
aveamu,
aveai,
avea,
aveamu,
aveatî,
avea, whereas the past participle doesn't change.
| Romanian | English | | avea mîcată | vea mancat | mâncase | (he/she) had eaten |
| vea durmit | dormise | (he/she) had slept |
Even before the incorporation of Aromanian-speaking territories into the Greek state, the language was subordinated to
Greek, traditionally the Aromanians' language of education and religion.
The
Romanian state began opening schools for the Aromanians in the
1860s, but this initiative was regarded with suspicion by many Aromanians, who thought Romania was trying to assimilate them. Antagonism between Aromanians who rejected what they perceived as Romanian propaganda, and those who accepted the non-Greek identity promoted in the Romanian schools, tore apart the Aromanian community in the first half of the
20th century.
In
1948, the new Soviet-imposed
communist regime of Romania closed all Romanian-run schools outside Romania and since the closure, there has been no formal education in Aromanian and speakers have been encouraged to learn and use the Greek language.
The issue of Aromanian-language education is still a sensitive one, partly because of the painful memories of the bitter divisions the presence of the Romanian schools caused in the past. Many Aromanians oppose the introduction of the language into the education system as
EU and leading Greek political figures have suggested, viewing it as an artificial distinction between them and other Greeks. For example, the former education minister,
George Papandreou, received a negative response from Aromanian mayors and associations to his proposal for a trial Aromanian language education programme. The Panhellenic Federation of Cultural Associations of Vlachs (Πανελλήνια Ομοσπονδία Πολιτιστικών Συλλόγων 'λάχων) expressed strong opposition to EU's recommendation in
1997 that the tuition of Aromanian be supported so as to avoid its extinction.[
1]. On a visit to
Metsovo,
Epirus in 1998, Greek President Costis Stephanopoulos called on Vlachs to speak and teach their language, but its decline continues.
A recent example of the sensitivity of the issue was the 2001 conviction (later overurned in the Appeals Court) to 15 months in jail of
Sotiris Bletsas, a Greek Aromanian who was found guilty of "dissemination of false information" after he distributed informative material on minority languages in Europe (which included information on minority languages of Greece), produced by the
European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages and financed by the
European Commission. His conviction met with broad condemnation in Greece [
2] and it emerged that his case was zealously pursued by Aromanian leaders who viewed themselves as patriotic Greeks and felt confronted by the suggestion that they belonged to a "minority".
There is a controversial hypothesis among some Greek scholars that the Aromanians are Greeks who were Latinised in ancient times. They believe that some non-Romance words in Aromanian, which have cognates in ancient Greek (ex: Aromanian
udare, ancient Greek ουθάρ), are evidence for their claim. This view, however, is not accepted by the majority of scholars, and it does not explain many features of Aromanian (such as the definitive article at the end of words) not found in ancient Greek or Romance.
Tuti iatsăli umineshtsă s-fac liberi shi egali la nămuzea shi-ndrepturli. Eali suntu hărziti cu fichiri shi sinidisi shi lipseashti un cu alantu sh-si poartă tu duhlu-a frătsăljiljei.:(Article 1 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
The following text is given for comparison in Aromanian and in
Romanian, with an English translation. The word choice in the Romanian version was such that it matches the Aromanian text, although in modern Romanian other words might have been more appropriate. The English translation is only provided as a guide to the meaning, with an attempt to keep the word order as close to the original as possible.
| English | | Vocala easti un son dit zburărea-a omlui, faptu cu tritsearea sonoră, libiră sh-fără cheadică, a vimtului prit canalu sonor (adrat di coardili vocali shi ntreaga gură) ică un semnu grafic cari aspuni un ahtari son. | Vocala este un sunet din vorbirea omului, făcut cu trecerea sonoră, liberă şi fără piedică, a vîntului prin canalul sonor (compus din coardele vocale şi întreaga gură) sau un semn grafic care reprezintă un atare sunet. | The vowel is a sound in human speech, made by the sonorous, free and unhindered passing of the air through the sound channel (composed of the vocal chords and the whole mouth) or a graphic symbol corresponding to that sound. | | Ashi bunăoară, avem shasili vocali tsi s-fac cu vimtul tsi treatsi prit gură, iu limba poati si s-află tu un loc ică altu shi budzăli pot si sta dishcljisi ună soe ică altă. | Aşa bunăoară, avem şase vocale ce se fac cu vîntul ce trece prin gură, unde limba poate să se afle într-un loc sau altul şi buzele pot să stea deschise un soi sau altul. | This way, we have six vowels that are produced by the air passing through the mouth, where the tongue can be in one place or another and the lips can be opened in one way or another. | | Vocalili pot s-hibă pronuntsati singuri ică deadun cu semivocali i consoani. | Vocalele pot să fie pronunţate singure sau deodată cu semivocale sau consoane. | The vowels can be pronounced alone or together with semivowels or consonants. |
*The
Balkan linguistic union* Capidan, Theodor.
Aromânii, dialectul Aromân,
Academia Română, Studii şi cercetări, XX
1932.
* Friedman, Victor A., "The Vlah Minority in Macedonia: Language, Identity, Dialectology, and Standardization"
in Selected Papers in Slavic, Balkan, and Balkan Studies, ed. Juhani Nuoluoto, Martii Leiwo, Jussi Halla-aho.
Slavica Helsingiensa 21. University of Helsinki, 2001.
online* Rosetti, Alexandru.
Istoria limbii române, 2 vols., Bucharest, 1965-1969.
*
Ethnologue entry for Aromanian*
Asterios Koukoudis: Studies on the Vlachs*
Greek Helsinki Human Rights Organization: Aromanians (Vlachs) in Greece*
Conjugation of verbs in Aromanian and Istro-Romanian*
Romanian and the Balkans, with some references to Aromanian*
Aromanian settlements on the beginning of the XX. century (map)
roa-rup:Limba armãneascã
