Ethnic Romanians, who along with other Balkan Latin
peoples are known as "Vlachs" today speak Romanian or a near variety
such as Aromanian with Latin cultural and linguistic roots, living
throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
The exact region where the Romanian language and people
formed is not only somewhat a scientific puzzle, but also a heated political
controversy because of territorial conflicts concerning Transylvania
between Romania and Hungary. The competing theories are:
Most Romanian historians support the theory of
substantial Daco-Romanian continuity, and maintain that Transylvania was
continuously inhabited by the ancestors of Romanians.
After the Romans conquered Dacia in 106, a process of
Romanization of the Dacians took place. According to this theory, the
Roman administration retreated from Dacia around 271, but Romanized
Dacians stayed on, and have continuously lived in Dacia throughout the
Dark Ages. Romanians are their descendants.
19th-century Hungarian historians largely supported the
migration theory, which maintained that Transylvania was not inhabited
by Romanians at the time of the Magyar colonisation in the region during
the 10th century.
They contend it was later migration northward of
Romanic peoples from former Roman provinces south of the Danube in the
Balkans that provided today's ethnic population in Romania. This is
somewhat akin to the "Terra Nullius" or "Empty Land" notion espoused by
early English colonists in
After the Romans conquered Dacia in 106, a process of Romanization of
the Dacians took place. According to this theory, the Roman
administration retreated from Dacia around 271, but Romanized Dacians
stayed on, and have continuously lived in Dacia throughout the Dark
Ages. Romanians are their descendants.
The Romans may have provided the Lingua
Franca (Romana) for the region
Extensive Roman colonization of Dacia did occur.
The colonists came from different provinces of the Roman empire. They
had no common language except for Latin. In this multiethnic
environment, Latin, being the only common language of communication,
might have quickly become the dominant language. American history
furnishes similar examples.
Dacian toponyms were kept; examples are the names of some rivers (Samus
- Someş, Marisia - Mureş, Porata - Prut) and the names of some cities
(Petrodava - Piatra Neamţ, Abruttum - Abrud).
Some morpho-syntactic, lexical and phonetical regional differences
within Romanian indicate that in certain regions of Romania the language
preserved more Latin substance than in the rest of the country [1]. The
boundaries of these linguistic areas coincide quite exactly with the
borders of the ancient Roman province of Dacia, encompassing modern
Transylvania, Banat and Oltenia.
The existence of a stronger Latin heritage in the territories of the
ancient Roman Dacia is explained by the intense Romanisation of these
territories, which formed core areas of the Romanian. The uninterrupted
and isolated existence of a Romanised population living there ensured a
conservative transmission of this Latin heritage across generations.
From these core areas Romanian spread over the Carpathians, meanwhile
losing a little of its Latin substance. The general dissemination into
Romanian of words of Magyar origin supports the theory of the Romanian
diffusion from Transylvanian core areas across the Carpathian.
The similarity between the current Romanian traditional clothes and the
Dacian clothes, as depicted on Trajan's Column.
Constantine the Great assumed the title Dacicus Maximus in 336 just like
Trajan did in 106, suggesting the presence of Dacians in Dacia even
after the Aurelian withdrawal of troops from 270-275.
Numerous archaeological sites prove the continuity of Latin settlements
north of the Danube after the evacuation of 271, including:
Daco-Roman ceramic artefacts from the 5th-6th centuries, found at:
Bratei, Soporu de Câmpie, Verbiţa, Sărata Monteoru
Christian tombs and objects found at: Cluj-Napoca, Alba-Iulia, Biertan,
Dej
Walls erected in the 4th century at Sarmizegetusa
Many inscriptions in the Latin language: inscriptions on silver ring
from Micia, ceramic objects from Porolissum, brick found at Gornea,
inscription on bronze object found at Biertan (reading "EGO ZENOVIUS
VOTUM POSUI").
A mosaic map found at Magada, Jordan, which, according to some scholars,
represents the province of Dacia in the IV and V century AD, and its
link to different Middle Eastern trade routes; at present this
interpretation is highly controversial.
Contemporary sources:
With the beginning of the 11th century, several contemporary sources
mention the presence of Vlachs in Transylvania and the surrounding area,
while a few other sources — though rather blunt in their nature —
mention the Vlach presence in Transylvania as early as 8th century.
These sources also mention the Vlach presence in Pannonia at the arrival
of the Hungarians and they indicate that some of those Vlachs were
pushed from Pannonia by the invading Hungarians and settled in
Transylvania.
In 545, Procopius mention "the trick played by an Ant (a Slav or Alan
from present-day Moldavia) who is supposed to have passed himself off as
a Byzantine General by speaking a form of Latin which he had learned in
these regions."[1] An ancient letter from one Emmerich of Elwangen to
Grimaldus, abbot of St. Gall, written about 860 mention Vlachs living
north of Danube together with Germans, Sarmatians, and Alans;[2] and
"the Weltchronik of 1277, referring to the ninth century," calls those
Dacians for "Wallachen".[3] The Weltchronik of Jansen Enikel, written in
Vienna in 1277, mentions Charlemagne going on a campaign in the east
(around 8th century) and met with Wallachians.[4] At the time of
Charlemagne, the Hungarians of Arpad have yet not arrived in Pannonia,
and the chronicle, when mentioning the Hungarians, refers to the people
inhabiting the future Hungary.
Nestor's Chronicle, (Kiev, 1097-1110), relating events from 862 to
1110, mention Wallachians attacking and subduing the Slavs north of
Danube and settling among them. In the chronicle of Simon of Keza (1282
to 1290), the Vlachs of Pannonia are mentioned as a settled population
after the collapse of the Hunnish Empire.[5] The Anonymous Notary of
King Bela II (1131-1141) or Bela III also mention the presence of Vlachs
in Pannonia and them mixing with Slavs, but retaining their language and
culture.[6] The Descriptio Europć Orientalis, which was written by a
French monk in 1308, discovered in the Paris Library in 1913, mention
ten Vlach kings that were defeated by the Hungarians of Arpad.[7] The
Chronicon Pictum of Vienna, 1358, also mention the Vlachs remaining in
Pannonia after the invasion of Attila's Huns[8] and both Chronicon
Pictum of Vienna and Simon of Kéza note that "three thousand men of the
Hunnish people remained in Pannonia ('in campun Csigla'), calling
themselves Siculi (Zakuli), who upon the arrival of the Hungarians moved
eastwards "cum Vlachis in montibus".[9] In 1236, the monk Ricardus
mention seven Hungarian chiefs that while being in Pannonia, met a Vlach
population[10] while Thomas of Spalato mentioned the same thing.[11] The
poem of the Nibelungs, written between 1140 and 1160, mentions the
wedding of Attila and the presence at it of Vlachs.[12] and Weltchronik
of Rudolph von Ems, written circa 1250, mention Vlachs living in
Pannonia.[13]
The short time of occupation, which lasted only about 165 years, not to
mention the fact that in the last period the Roman occupation was only
formal.
Romans conquered only about 50% of the territories inhabited by
Romanians (Transylvania, Banat, Oltenia and parts of Muntenia, southern
Moldova, eastern Serbia and northern Bulgaria); besides, many Dacians
lived in remote mountainous areas, with little contact with the main
Roman colonies. However it is possible that the process of Romanization
wasn't limited only to major centres.
Most colonists were brought from distant provinces of the Roman Empire,
such as Iberia, Dalmatia, Gaul, Middle East and even Numidia; they
couldn't have spoken a language as close to literary Latin as Romanian
is.
After the Roman withdrawal, a Dacian tribe (the Carpians, living in
Moldavia) conquered the abandoned areas and could have imposed their
language or reverted the Romanization process (if there was any
Romanization process).
There are very few written documents confirming that Romanic peoples
lived in Dacia in the period between the Roman evacuation of Dacia and
the 10th century. However, written documents from Dark Ages usually
recorded only events relative to the area were they were compiled.
There are no clear traces of Teutonic influences in Romanian language
and it is known that in the 5th and 6th centuries Dacia was inhabited by
Germanic tribes. The influence of passing populations might have been
minimal.
According to Eutropius (book IX, 15), Aurelian abandoned Dacia Traiana
and reorganised a new Dacia Aureliana inside former Moesia Superior in
270-275, settling it with Romans brought from the former Dacia Traiana.
In order to increase taxation, Caracalla decrees in 212 that all freemen
throughout the Roman Empire become Roman Citizens.
Roman Dacia
Purportedly Stretching from Pannonian Plains to
Odessa on the Black Sea, and down well south of the Danube
According to this theory, a Romanic population came from the south in
the Middle Ages and settled down in present-day Romania.
Arguments Supporting this Theory:
Common words in Romanian and Albanian language which may be of Thracian
or Illyrian origin (see also Origin of Albanians and List of Dacian
words). However, according to a number of thracologists, the
Proto-Albanian and Dacian languages were probably related and the common
words could have come from the Dacian language. [2]
There are Vlachs living south of the Danube and speaking East Romance
languages: Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians and Istro-Romanians (in
Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and
Croatia). There are mentions of their presence in those areas since the
early Middle Ages. However this does not necessarily support migration
from the south northwards but rather the other way around.
There are no traces of Teutonic influence in Romanian and it is known
that in the 5th and 6th century Dacia was inhabited by Teutonic tribes.
[3] However influences by passing migratory peoples are usually minimal.
Romanian toponyms in Albania and Bulgaria. [4]
Vlach shepherds migrated northwards with their herds in search of better
pastures. For example they moved along the Carpathian Mountains to
present day Poland and even to the Czech Republic. They influenced very
significantly the culture and language of Polish and Ukrainian
highlanders.
Eutropius mentions the resettlement of Roman citizens from Dacia Traiana
to the south of the Danube in 270-275. This, however, does not
necessarily mean all Roman citizens.
There are far fewer Slavic words in Aromanian than Romanian. According
to linguists proto-Romanian split after the Slavonic settlement in the
Balkan peninsula. It supports the theory that the major Slavonic
influence on Romanian took place after the migration of Vlachs and their
settlement in Slav-populated territories North of the Danube.
Arguments Undermining Later Migration:
The Jireček Line
This notional line in the sand divides the areas of the Balkans which were under
Latin and Greek influences. The few Greek loanwords for religious terms in
Romanian entered via Vulgar Latin, not directly from Greek (ex: Ro. biserică <Latin *basilica <Greek basilike).
Important religious terms in
Romanian came directly from Latin, which suggests the Daco-Romanians
were converted to Christianity in the Latin language. Later on, during
the Middle Ages, Romanians used Church Slavonic as their liturgical
language, so the Eastern Orthodox church organization was probably
brought by Bulgarian Slavs.
This seems to imply the presence of a Slavic
buffer zone between Greeks and Romanians [5] [6]. However this argument
may support the theory about migration from the south since Old Church
Slavonic (the ancestor of the Church Slavonic used in Romania) became a
liturgical language in the Balkans no earlier than 890 AD. The Vlach
migrants from the south could start using it after arriving to present
day Romania, that has been largely inhabited by Slavonic tribes and
subdued to Bulgarian Tsars and influenced by Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
Besides the conversion to Christianity would be made on the territories
of present day Serbia and northern Bulgaria, south of Danube.
The Jireček Line
The Jireček Line is an imaginary line through the ancient
Balkans that divided the influences of the Latin (in the north) and
Greek (in the south) languages until the 4th century.
It goes from
near the city of Laçi in modern Albania to Serdica (now Sofia, in
Bulgaria) and then follows the Balkan Mountains to the Black Sea.
The placing of the line is based on archaeological findings:
most of the inscriptions found to the north of it were written in
Latin, while most of the inscriptions found to the south were in
Greek.
This line is important in establishing the place where the
Romanian and Aromanian people were formed (see Origin of Romanians),
since it is considered unlikely that a Latin people formed on the
south of it.
The Jireček line was originally used by the Czech
historian Konstantin Jireček in 1911 in a history of the Slavic
people.
Dacian toponyms were kept; examples are the names of some rivers
(Samus - Someş, Marisia - Mureş, Porata - Prut) and the names of
some cities (Petrodava - Piatra Neamţ, Abruttum - Abrud). It should
be noted, however, that the preservation of toponyms only indicates
continuous settlement, and not necessarily continuous settlement by
the same people. A 13th century Hungarian chronicle, Gesta Hungarorum, claims that when
the Magyars arrived in Pannonia, the surrounding areas were inhabited by
Vlachs (Romanians), but this chronicle also said, that Hungarian king,
Ladislaus I. (1077-1095) fought against Cumanians, but Cumanians didn't
live there that time, only from the 13th century. [7]
A chronicle by Venerable Nestor (1056 - 1136 AD) mentions
Wallachians
(Romanians) fighting against Magyars north of the Danube in 898. [8]
No medieval chronicle mentions any large-scale migrations of Romanic
peoples from the Balkans to Romania; contrary to a south to north
movement, a chronicle indicates rather a north to south movement:
according to Cecaumenos' Strategicon (1066), the Vlachs of Epirus and
Thessalia came from north of the Danube and from along the Sava. [9]
Regional differences within Romanian language indicate that in certain
Romanian areas which coincide quite exactly with the ancient Roman
province of Dacia, the language preserved more Latin substance than in
the rest of the country[10]. It would be extremely hard to explain why
Romanians supposedly coming from remote territories southern of the
Danube speak a more Latin Romanian language exactly within the
boundaries of what used to be a Roman province 6-7 centuries before
their alleged arrival to these areas, while in the Romanian spoken
outside the Carpathian Basin those Latin elements were lost.
Morpho-syntactical, lexical and phonetical differences between Romanian
and Aromanian are considerable, making mutual comprehension impossible.
It is therefore extremely difficult to explain how could appear and
differentiate two different Romance languages at the same time and in
the same area, as implied by the immigration theory.
If the hypothesis of a single proto-Romanian language is assumed, than
the split of the proto-Romanian into Aromanian and Romanian should have
taken place some centuries before the 9th century, since linguists agree
that the build up process of both Romanian and Aromanian was completed
up to the 9th century. This implies that a northwards Vlach migration
should not have been possible later than the 7-8th century and not, as
some immigrationists claim, as early as the 11th century.
The name of the Danube in Romanian has a form which appears to be
original (derived from a reconstructed *donaris) and not borrowed from
other languages, which shows that the Romanians always lived somewhere
near this river and not far south like some theories suggest.
Many Vlachs were shepherds in the medieval times, driving their
sheep through the mountains of South-eastern Europe. The Vlachs shepherds
reached as far as Southern Poland and Moravia in the north (by following
the Carpathian range), Dinaric Alps in West, the Pindus mountains in
South, and as far as the Caucasus Mountains in the east [1].
In many of those areas, although with time their descendants lost
the language, but their legacy can still be found today in the cultural
influences: in the customs, folklore and the way of living of the
mountain people, as well as in the placenames of Romanian or Aromanian
origins that are spread all across the region.
Another part of the Vlachs, especially those in the northern parts,
in Romania and Moldova, were traditional farmers growing cereals.
Linguists believe that the large vocabulary of Latin words related to
agriculture shows that there has always been a farming Vlach population,
unlike the Albanians, who have many of these words borrowed from Slavic.
Just like the language, the cultural links between the Northern
Vlachs (Romanians) and Southern Vlachs (Aromanians) were broken by the
10th century, and since then, there were different cultural influences:
Romanian culture was influenced by neighbouring people such as
Hungarians and Slavs and developed itself to what it is today. The
19th century saw an important opening toward Western Europe and
cultural ties with France.
Aromanian culture developed initially as a pastoral culture, later
to be greatly influenced by the Byzantine and Greek culture.
Ethnic Vlachs Throughout the Balkans
Condensed From The Myth of Greek
Ethnic 'Purity', Macedonia and Greece, John Shea, 1997 pp.77-96
Significant populations of Vlachs were spread throughout
the Southern Balkans and territories that are today part of Greece,
Macedonia, Bulgaria and Albania.
Vlachs mixed with Albanians and largely colonised the Pindus region.
In general, these Vlach migrants stayed in what is now northern
Greece but staunchly maintained their Latin based language and culture.
In a typically nationalistic bent, some Greek writers have claimed the
Vlachs as ethnic Greeks in an odd attempt to side-step the Latin element in Vlach
language and history. A Greek writer, M. Chrysochoos, the first to suggest that the
Vlachs
living in the passes crossing the Pindus mountains were the linear
descendants of Roman soldiers, postulated those soldiers were actually Greek.
The Vlachs seem to have left Dacia as part of a wave of
migration that
spread throughout the Balkans from Greece, where they are known as Kutzo
Vlachs, Tzintzars, or Aromani, through Bulgaria and Yugoslavia to the
Trieste region . Many of them are still in these areas today. They all
speak
varieties of Romanian, but represent the remnants of originally Dacian-,
Illyrian-, Thracian- and even Scythian- speaking tribes. Vlachs settled
in
Thessaly, Rourneli, the Ionian islands and the Aegean islands.
The Romanian Balkan history professor Motiu has said
that the Vlachs
comprised 7 to 8 percent of the population of Greece, numbering seven to
eight hundred thousand. There have been no population statistics
regarding
the Vlach minority since the Greek census of 1951. The census of 1935
and
1951 recorded 19,703 and 39,855 Vlachs respectively. Greece does not
recognize the presence of a Vlach minority
Footnotes
A Documented
Chronology of Roumanian History p. 22
The letter reads: "gentes
innumeras... "Sunt his Germanique truces et Sarmata
bellax-atque Getae nec non Bastarnae semina
gentis-Dacorumque manus et Martia pectori Alani." A
Documented Chronology of Roumanian History p. 26
A Documented
Chronology of Roumanian History p. 27
The chronicle says:
"Dâ mit fuor der wîgant; Hin ze Ungern in daz land; Und
begund si Kristen machen; Die Ungern unz in Walachen." A
Documented Chronology of Roumanian History p. 39
The chronicle
reads: ""Blakis, qui ipsorum fuerunt pastores et coloni,
remanentes spone in Pannonia"; "Pannonia extitit decem annis
sine rege, Sclavis tantummodo, Grecis, Teutonicis, Messianis,
et Vlachis advenis remanentibus in eadem, qui vivente Ethela
populari servicio ibi serviebant," A Documented Chronology
of Roumanian History p. 23
The chronicle
reads: "Rex Athila...de terro scithia descendens cum valida
manu in terram Pannoniae venitm et fugatis Romanis regnum
obninuit. "Quam terram (Pannoniam) habitabant Sclavi,
Bulgarii et Blachii ac pastores Romanorum. Quia post mortem
Athilae regis terram Pannoniae Romani dicebant pascua esse,
eo quod greges eorum in terra Panoniae pascua Romanorum esse
dicebatur, nam et modo Romani pascumtur de bonis Ungariae...
"Et murtuo illo (Athila) preoccupassent Romani principes
terram Pannoniae usque ad Danubium, ubi collocassent
pastores suos." A Documented Chronology of Roumanian History
p. 24
Descriptio Europć
Orientalis, Latin MS. no. 5515, published at Cracow 1916
reads: "Notandum est hic quod inter Machedoniam, Achayan et
Thessalonicum est quidam populus valde magnus et spaciosus
qui vocantur Blazi, qui et olim fuerunt Romanorum pastores,
ac in Ungaria, ubi erant pascua Romanorum, propternimiam
terrae viriditatem et fertilitatem olim morabantur. Sed
tandem ab Ungaris (the Hungarians of Arpad) inde expulsi"
(they had therefore remained in Pannonia after the depature
of the Huns) "ac partes illas fugierunt; habundat enim
caseis optimis, lacte et carnibus super omnes nationes" And
"Pannoni autem, qui inhabitant tunc Pannoniam, omnes erant
pastores Romanorum, et habebant super se decem reges
potentes in tota Moesia at Pannonia, deficiente autem
imperio Romanorum egressi sunt Ungari de Chycia provincia...et
pugnaverunt in campo magno." A Documented Chronology of
Roumanian History pp. 24, 25
The chronicle
reads: "...natali soli derelicto" (by the other races)
"...Vlachis qui ipsorum coloni existere ac pastores
remanentes sponte in Pannonia." A Documented Chronology of
Roumanian History p. 25
Simon de Keza
writes: "remanserant quoque de Hunis virorum tria milia...in
campo Csiglae usque Arpad permanserunt, qui se ibi non Hunos
sed Zaculos vocaverunt...insimulque Pannonia
conquestrata...cum Blackis in montibus confinii sortem
habuerunt." A Documented Chronology of Roumanian History p.
26
Ricardus writes:
"...tendem venerunt in terram quae nunc Ungariam dicitur,
tunc vero dicebatur pascua Romanorum. Quam inhabitandam pre
terris ceteris elegerunt, subjectis sibi populis, qui tunc
habitabant ibidem." A Documented Chronology of Roumanian
History p. 29
Thomas writes:
"Haec regio" (Pannonia) "dicitur antiquitus fuisse pascua
Romanorum." A Documented Chronology of Roumanian History p.
30
The poem reads:
"Der herzoge Ramunc üzer Vlachen land mit sieben hundert
mannen komer fűr si gerant." A Documented Chronology of
Roumanian History p. 38
Rudolph writes:
"Im vromdin sundir sprachin; Valwen und wilde Vlachin;
Ienseit; des sneberges hant; Sint lant du si begant" A
Documented Chronology of Roumanian History p. 38
Some examples of a
more pronounced Latin linguistic heritage in areas of the
ancient Roman Dacia compared to remaining Romania from Atlas Lingvistic Român pe regiuni, vol. I – V, Editura Academiei:
1. Use of the typical Latin tense of simple past
e.g. fui/fuşi/fu
2. Use of the typical Latin inverted interrogation form
e.g. “dusu-te-ai ?” vs. “te-ai dus ?”
3. Existence of Latin words not used in the remaining
Romania
e.g. mâneca (lat.manicare) – to wake up early in the
morning
mănea – (lat. manere) – to stay overnight
4. Existence of Latin forms in contrast to Slavic forms of
the same word
e.g. snow: nea (lat. nive) – zăpadă (sl. zapaditi)
garlic: aiu (lat. alium) – usturoi (rom. constr)
slave: şerb (lat. servus) – rob (sl. robu)
sand: arină (lat. arena) – nisip (bg. nasip)
5. Existence of lexical forms closer to Latin
e.g. flour: fărină (lat. farina) – făină
6. Existence of phonetical forms closer to Latin
e.g. pronunciation of the Romanian diphthong “oa” like
“o”, thus closer to the original Latin “o”, like in
“mo(a)rte” (lat. mortis) (death), “so(a)rtă” (lat. sortis)
(fate)
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ROMANIANS
MIGRATED NORTH
If the hypothesis of a single proto-Romanian language is assumed, than
the split of the proto-Romanian into Aromanian and Romanian should have
taken place some centuries before the 9th century, since linguists agree
that the build up process of both Romanian and Aromanian was completed
up to the 9th century. This implies that a northwards Vlach migration
should not have been possible later than the 7-8th century and not, as
some immigrationists claim, as early as the 11th century. 
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