International Journal of Social and Humanity, Vol. 2, No. 6, November 2012

Romanian-Speaking Communities Outside : Linguistic Identities

Dorin Lozovanu

words and terminology from French or Italian, but the last Abstract—Romanian-speaking communities are spread evolution is related to the global process of English much widely than the territory of Romania, being influences. From non-Indo-European languages, two autochthonous inhabitants in the of , regions linguistic families had influences on Romanian vocabulary. of , , , , , Republic of Both are connected with the important waves of migrations to and . Beside the Romanic , the borrowed several influences from Slavic, Greek, the ethnic Romanian . One represented the Altaic Family, th Turkic, Hungarian, Germanic and other languages. with the Turkic group, which influenced since the 9 up to Traditionally divided into four dialects, 19th centuries by various interferences with the Turkic includes regional varieties, some of the idioms being populations (as , , , Oguz, , spoken only outside Romania. Linguistic identity not Turks etc.). The second belongs to the Uralic Family, Ugric corresponding always with the ethnic one, although there can group, represented by the , who migrated to the be found several identifications of the Romanian-speaking th communities. The main factor which contributes to the area since 9 century. preservation of the Romanian language is the access to By different estimations the etymological fund of educational and cultural , which allow developing the Romanian language have about 60 % of Romanic (), ethno-linguistic consciousness. 20 % of Slavic, 5 % of Hungarian and less than 5 % of Turkic, Greek, French, Germanic, Iranian, Arabic and other origins. Index Terms—Dialects, identity, language. native speakers, To be mentioned that absolute majority of the words of Romanian. Arabic and Iranian origin was borrowed through the Turkic

languages. Important to mention that ancient Thracian (Dacian) words representing less than 2 % of the Romanian I. INTRODUCTION: HISTORICAL vocabulary are generally common with the Albanian Romanian language represents the easternmost extension language, demonstrating the close ties between Thracian and of Romanic languages in . It belongs to the Illyrian dialects. Indo-European Linguistic Family. The origin of Romanian language is based on the ancient processes of in South-, by assimilation of local, mainly Thracian-Illyrian population. The Romanization of , II. GEOGRAPHY OF ROMANIAN-SPEAKING COMMUNITIES local branch of these populations, took part in the early Romanian-speaking communities can be divided between centuries AD. the autochthonous one and the Diaspora which consisted of Later, various linguistic influences have occurred, giving newly migration waves. There are important differences also rise to the current Romanian language dialects. Considering on the linguistic background between these two types of the historical processes and geographical position, by communities. The autochthonous Romanian-speaking migrations of different ethnic origin population in the area of communities are generally based on compact and continuous Romanian , the linguistic interferences took part area of historic and linguistic evolution, even the political as well. Among the most important influences was from the border doesn’ correspond to the ethno-linguistically one. part of . It starts from the early 6th century They are represented by the dialectal variations of the and can be considered to be until present for some of the common language, with the gradual transition from one to Romanian-speaking minorities in the territories of actual another idiom. In contrast, the communities which form new countries as Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Republic of Diaspora are based on the recent migrations, often from Macedonia or even in the Republic of Moldova (especially in various regions, which make the different linguistic specific, the eastern part). Slavic influences are indispensable for the generally influenced by the surrounding languages. etymological background, although in the literary language Following the national unity ideas, Romanian-speaking starting with the middle it is tendencies to reduce population, which developed under separate political entities it. Other Indo-European languages which influenced since the middle age, starting with the middle 19th century Romanian was Greek, also direct or indirect word borrows and finishing in 1918, formed Romanian national , from Germanic and . Since the 19th century, which has the ideal to include all the Romanian-speaking following the Romanic origin of language and intellectual regions in one political unit. Even the territory of Romania movements, Romanian literary language took many official suffered several changes during the 20th century; we can consider that part of Romanian ethno-linguistic area was never included in the Romanian political entity. Manuscript received September 26, 2012; revised November 11, 2012. Dorin Lozovanu is with POSDRU/89/1.5//49944, “Al. I. Cuza” Nowadays, ethnic Romanian population is concentrated in University of Iasi, Romania ( -mail: [email protected])

DOI: 10.7763/IJSSH.2012.V2.174 569 International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 2, No. 6, November 2012 the territory of Romania, representing 16.8 millions or 88.6% the northern part of the country. Important number of the of the total population, although the Romanian-speaking so-call Rudari, Romanian-speaking population of Gypsy population which represent 17.2 millions (90.6%), include origin, also in the central and eastern part of Bulgaria. also persons with different ethnic affiliation. Republic of Macedonia recognise 0.01 mil , as Romanian-speaking populations form the majority in 40 of , the total number of this minority can be up to 0.1 mil, 42 districts of the country (over 90 % in 26 districts). mainly in the Southern and Eastern part of the country. Romanian-speaking communities abroad are concentrated Albania include a number up to 0.2 , forming in the neighbour countries and regions, some of them compact communities in the South of the country, especially forming the continuity of the same ethnic area and another in the districts of Korca, Pogradec, Vlora, Durres, , being the reminiscences of the former larger areas, currently Permet. linguistically and respectively ethnically assimilated by other For Greece is even more complicated to confirm the . number of Romanian-speaking population, due the fact that Republic of Moldova can be considered as the second is no available any ethnic and linguistic official data. By the country with the native Romanian-speaking population. It is de-facto an entity based on the same Romanian national estimations of researchers can be still considered up to 0.3 background, although with the identity and linguistic million of the Aromanian dialect speakers in the regions of self-identification crisis. There are 2.6 millions of Romanians, Northern and particularly North-Western part (). from which 2.5 millions are declared as Moldavians by the Croatia has a small autochthonous minority of Romanian 2004 . Even more complicated is the self-declaration language, known as Istro-Romanians, in the peninsula, of Mother , recorded as Moldavian for 2 millions and of less than 1 thousand persons. Some other 30 thousand can Romanian for 0.5 millions. Practically it is the difference of be added as the Baiesi, a Romanian-speaking population of ethnic and linguistic self-identification, objectively being the mix origin, in the Northern parts of the country. same. Romanians/ represent 78 % of the total include some localities with Romanians, 0.01 population, but little bit less by linguistic criteria. They million, in the border with Romania and some more represent majority in 33 of 35 of the rayons of Republic of than 0.1 million of Baiesi in the south. Moldova, in 16 rayons forming over 90% of population. Due more recent migration processes Romanian-speaking Separate situation exist for the part of the Republic of communities are located now in various countries of the Moldova which is not under control of the official authorities, , especially in Europe, USA, and former USSR. the self-proclaimed entity of “ Moldovan Republic”, Moldavian communities are present in Russian Federation which promote Russian linguistic policy. By the 2004 census (0.17 mil), (0.02 mil) and other former of self-proclaimed authorities Moldovans are 0,18 million, . There are different histories and time of migrations. which represent around 31 % of total population, being Some communities was migrated during 19th century and majority in the 4 of 7 rayons. settled as agrarian colonists in , another are Another country with important Romanian-speaking consequences of the deportations by the Stalin’s regime, but communities is Ukraine, which include parts of historical Moldova, where the native population is Romanian. the majority today represents the work emigration to the main According to the 2001 census Romanian-speaking cities and oil regions from Russia. The origins of these population comprise 0.4 million inhabitants, divided between communities are from the native territories from Republic of two ethnic categories: Romanian (0.15 million) and Moldova and Ukraine. Moldavian (0.25 million). Romanian-speaking communities Communities in Europe are established in some countries are concentrated in the Chernovtsy (0.18 mil), (0.12 up to one century, but the absolute majority is of the new mil), Zakarpatya (0.03 mil), Nikolayev (0.01 mil) and migration waves of the last 20 years. The linguistic Kirovograd (0.01 mil) regions. Assimilation processes take preferences to the Romanic – speaking countries can be part in the detriment of Romanian-speaking communities. considered very important in the determinism of migration Romanian-speaking population is autochthonous one in destination for Romanians. So, , , and the countries of Balkan region, where majority of them are concentrate the most important number of not recognized as Romanian minorities and ’t have any Romanian-speaking communities from recent Diaspora, linguistic rights. coming from Romania, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, Serbia concentrates quite important Romanian-speaking Bulgaria and Serbia. In countries like Italy and Spain the communities, along the border with Romania and not only. number of Romanian-speaking population is over 1 million By official data census there are recorded 0.08 mil and up to 0.5 mil. in France or 0.2 mil. in Portugal. Other Romanians and Vlachs, in reality the number of European countries with high Romanian-speaking number of Romanian-speaking population is up to 0.3 millions. There migrants are (0.2 mil), (0.1 mil), are two major regions with the compact Romanian-speaking Greece (0.1), (0.2), (0.2), (0.1), population, western part of in Autonomous of (0.08), (0.08), almost all the European and the eastern Serbia, known also as region. countries having a Romanian-speaking communities. In USA For Bulgaria official data are even less veridical, only 0.01 are over 0.7 mil and Canada 0.3 mil. Romanian-speaking mil. are recognized as Romanians / Vlachs, de facto over 0.1 communities are to be found in , , million of Romanian-speaking population lives compactly in , , South Africa, and other countries.

570 International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 2, No. 6, November 2012

III. ETHNO-LINGUISTIC UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF and eastern parts of the Republic of Macedonia and small ROMANIAN-SPEAKING COMMUNITIES portion in the south-western Bulgaria. By migration th th By the linguistic criteria Romanian language can be processes in 19 and 20 centuries Aromanian communities divided in four main dialects: Daco-Romanian, Aromanian are present also in Romania (especially in Dobrogea), France, (Macedo-Romanian), Megleno-Romanian and and Germany, USA, Australia and other countries. Istro-Romanian. Aromanian dialect includes two main sub-dialects, Daco-Romanian dialect it is by far the most important and Gramostean spoken in Greece, Macedonia and Bulgaria and numerous. The area of formation for this dialect is considered Farserot mainly in Albania. to be the regions north of the , but should be taken in Megleno-Romanian dialect is one of the smallest and account that large regions south of the Danube also belong to extinct idioms spoken by the less than five thousands people, the Daco-Romanian Linguistic domain. The total number of self-identified as Vlasi. The native region of the the native speakers of this dialect is over 23 millions. It Megleno-Romanian population is situated near the Vardar / include the whole Romania, Republic of Moldova, regions of Axios , known as Meglen, and divided by the actual Ukraine, Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary and the absolute majority border between Greece and Republic of Macedonia. Outside of the Romanian-speaking Diaspora. Being the largest dialect this region there are small communities also in Romania and it also means the highest diversity. By Romanian linguists it . is divided in several sub-dialects, particularly in the Muntean, Istro-Romanian dialect it is by far the most endangered Oltean, Bănăţean, Crişean, Maramureşean and idiom, with the less than one thousand speakers, present in a Moldovenesc. We can distinguish also regional and local few small villages from Istria, in Croatia. idioms, as well a wide range of the transitional idioms The Romanian linguistic identity can be considered as the between the main sub-dialects. For example for the main factor for the Ethnic identification as Romanians. But Moldovan sub-dialect, can be identified Northern, due the historical, geographical and political reasons, many North-Eastern, Central and Southern idioms. By regions, of the Romanian-speaking communities do not share the Muntean sub-dialect is spoken in the South-Eastern part of same Ethnic identity as Romanians. Often, even quite Romania and , Oltean in South-Western artificially, the use of the glotonym Romanian is contested by Romania, North-Western Bulgaria, continued also in the some of the communities. This process is encouraged or even neighbour Serbia. Bănăţean sub-dialect is specific for the created by the authorities for the reason to split the Romanian western part of Romania and for the Romanian-speaking ethnic identity in smaller denominations of regional or communities in Serbia. Crişean is located in North-Western synonym character. Romania and neighbour Hungary, Maramureşean in Among the Romanian-speaking communities outside Northernmost part of Romania and Zakarpatya region of Romania there are following linguistic identities: Ukraine. Moldovan sub-dialect generally covers the A. Romanian historical regions of Moldova, actually divided by Romania Specific for the regions where the Romanian language (North-Eastern part of Romania), Republic of Moldova, have the right of school education, is in church services and Chernovtsy and Odessa regions of Ukraine. cultural institutions. Such communities are in the parts of The Romanian literary language was developed on the basis of Muntean idiom, following, as in the majority of cases, Northern and Herta, in Chernovtsy region and in the location of city and centre of the country. The Zakarpatia region both in Ukraine. In Serbia only in the linguistic model was strongly attached to the French one, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina there are all the with a centralized form based on the predominance of literary ethno-linguistic rights provided. The same is for the small language. Regional idioms of Romanian language remained Romanian community in Hungary, near the border with only at the level of spoken dialects, without the development Romania. Some other regions are confronted with the interior in writing or any other institutionalized form. Was cultivated dispute among the same Romanian-speaking population, the prestigious, cultural and correct literary language in concerned the denomination of the language. This is the case opposition with the regional or local dialects as for the Republic of Moldova and Odessa, partially non-prestigious and useless linguistic idioms. This has as Chernovtsy and other regions in Ukraine, extended also to effect from one side the consolidation of the Romanian the whole former countries of the USSR. common literary language inside Romania and dissolution of the Romanian idioms outside the national state, especially . Moldavian where no any educational facilities in mother was. The use of glotonym Moldavian is related to the Aromanian dialect is second one by the numerical political-territorial entity of Moldova, since the . importance and area of spreading. It includes the The excessive politicization of the linguistic and ethnic reminiscence of Romanized population in the southern part identity in the Republic of Moldova during the Soviet time of the Balkan Peninsula. The distribution of and until nowadays has a destructive and negative impact on Aromanian-speaking communities is very scattered. Being the society. Instead to understand the natural interrelation affected by linguistic and identity assimilation from the between the regional spoken idioms in Moldova, which can surrounding titular nationalities, the number of native freely be considered as Moldavian and common literary speakers continuously decreased, being less than 0.5 million language developed with the same standards and known as in present. The native area of spreading is northern Greece Romanian, the political and academic media wrongly (Epirus, , Macedonia), southern Albania, southern opposite these two similar denominations? Even if was a

571 International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 2, No. 6, November 2012 chance to develop the separate literary language, based only occurs the process of separate standard language creation. on the Moldavian dialectal idioms, this has not happened. The use of glotonyms as Megleno-Romanian and The use of Cyrillic alphabet for the Romanian language in the Istro-Romanian is of the scientific provenience, being historical Moldova regions under the attributed to these specific dialects to distinguish them from administration between 1945 until 1989 did not represent the the geo-linguistically point of view. Gradually, some of the sufficient argument for a separate language. Though, in the native speakers took over these names, but not so widely. self-proclaimed “Dniester Moldavian Republic”, Cyrillic Linguistic identity and the language denomination has alphabet it is still in official use, mainly due to the strong greater influence on the Ethnic identity and Ethno-Cultural opposition against the Romanian ethnic and linguistic unity, processes among the Romanian-speaking communities, promoted by this Russian-oriented regime. which are currently developing in two opposite directions, of ethnic-linguistic consolidation and fragmentation. . Vlach

Representing well-known historical synonym for ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Romanian, even older of origin, actually this ethnic and This work was supported by the POSDRU grant linguistic term it is promoted by the authorities of Serbia and /89/1.5/S/49944, “Developing the innovation capacity and Bulgaria in order to invent a separate language name and improving the impact of research through post-doctoral ethnic consciousness for the Romanian-speaking programs”, “” University of Iasi, communities in these countries. If Moldavian, represent a Romania. regional , the Vlach idiom doesn’t exist, being generally as exonym for the Romanian-speaking population REFERENCES used by the surrounding Slavic, Greek and other populations. Nevertheless, especially in Serbia, starting the process to [1] A. Graur, “Încercare asupra fondului principal lexical,” Bucureşti: Editura Academiei RPR, 1954. constitute a separate literary language call Vlach, with [2] T. Kahl and . Lozovanu, Ethnic consciousness in the Republic of different other invented names as Vlarumanian, just for the Moldova, Wien: Austrian Academy of , 2010 purpose to divide the numerous Romanian-speaking [3] . Bochmann, . Dumbrava, and . . V. Î. . I. , Leipziger Universitetsverlag, 2002 community in several pieces. In fact native speakers in [4] A. B. Drăghicescu, R. D. B. Bucureşti, Editura Globus, 1996 Romanian idioms don’t use the term Vlach, but Romanian [5] A. Tanaşoca and . Ş. Tanaşoca, Unitate Romanică şi diversitate (with regional form as Rumanian), only the Balcanică, Bucureşti: Editura Fundaţiei PRO, 2004 [6] E. Ţ. Meglenoromânii, Destin istoric si cultural, Bucureşti: Editura Megleno-Romanians and partially Istro-Romanians use the Etnologica, 2004 ethnonym of Vlach for the self-identification. [7] M. Sala and D. L. L. L. R. Bucureşti, Univers Enciclopedic, 2006, Identitatea limbii şi literaturii române în perspectiva globalizării, Iaşi: D. Aromanian Editura Trinitas. 2002 Have a specific situation, due the fact, that it is a [8] A. Graur, Introducere în lingvistică, Bucureşti: Editura Ştiinţifică,1972 recognized dialect which has a separate literary for. Still not Dorin Lozovanu was born in Chisinau on April rich the consolidation as one standard literary form, it uses 28,1975, BSc in Geography, Al. I. Cuza different regional idioms of this dialect, depending from the University of Iasi, Romania, 1998, BSc in Law, Al. I. Cuza University of Iasi, Romania, MSc in Arctic country to country. The most developed literature existing in Studies, University of Lapland, , PhD in the Republic of Macedonia, less in Albania, Romania and Population Geography, Al. I. Cuza University of Bulgaria and almost very rare in Greece. Generally was Iasi, Romania, 2008. He has the following research chosen the , but still can be found inscriptions and university positions: Junior researcher at the Institute of Geography, of in Greek or Cyrillic, especially with the Folkloric character. Moldova (1998-2000); Senior researcher at the National of Disputable is the ethnic and linguistic identity and hierarchy Ethnography and Natural (since 1998); Senior concerning Aromanian relation to Romanian. By one part of Lecturer at the State University (2004 – 2008); Senior Lecturer at the State University of Moldova (since 2005); Postdoctoral researcher at this community and scientists is considered to belong to the the Al. I. Cuza University of Iasi, Romania (POSDRU/89/1.5/S/49944, linguistic and ethnic identity, by others it since 2010). Major publications: Etnoistorie si is a strong movement toward separate, Aromanian (with Etnodemografie Balcanica. Chisinau: Editura USM. 2008; Ethnic consciousness in the Republic of Moldova. Wien: Austrian Academy of alternative names as Macedo-Romanian, Vlach, Armani) Sciences. 2010; Aromani, Meglenoromani, Istroromani. Aspecte identitare identity. si culturale. Bucuresti: Editura Universitatii Bucuresti. 2012. Dr. Lozovanu is president of the Association of Geography and Ethnology of Moldova E. Baiasi and member of IEDRC, CAES, ARGEDONAU, PECSRL, SCK etc. Romanian-speaking communities of Gypsy and mix origin, Award Scientist of the Year 2010 by Academy of Sciences of Moldova and Award for Linguistic Geography “Radu Flora”, Serbia 2011. present mainly in Hungary, Croatia and Serbia. In Hungary

572