Vlach language (Serbia)

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Vlach / Roumanian ^[1] (limba rumână in their own designation ^[2], sometimes rumâneşte / rumâneşce ^{[citation needed]} ; Влашки / Vlaški in Serbian) are the terms used to designate the language spoken by the Vlachs of Serbia.

It's two main variants, Ungurean and Taran, are very close to the Romanian dialects from Banat and Oltenia, respectively. Despite the identical grammatical structure, phonetics and the shared basic vocabulary with Romanian, the Vlach language of Serbia lacks terms for many abstract notions as well as technological, political and scientific concepts. It's speakers use Serb words instead, which is not surprising given that their entire education, from kindergarten to university, has been in Serbian for nearly two centuries.

Serbian authorities consider the language different from Romanian, due to political and historic considerations, however ISO does not assign it a separate language code in the ISO 639 standard. In the 2002 census, 40,054 people in Serbia declared themselves ethnic Vlachs and 54,818 people declared themselves speakers of the Vlach language.

In some notes of the governament of Serbia, officials recognise that "surtenly members of this population have similar characteristics with Romanians, and the language and folklore ride to their Romanian origin. The representants of the Vlach minority sustain their Romanian origin."^[3]

The term "Vlach" is the English transcription of the Serbian term used to describe this language (vlaski), while "Romanian" is the English transcription of its Romanian counterpart (român/rumân).^{[4] [5]}

For example, the National Council representing this minority is called ^[1]:

• Consiliul Naţional al Minorităţii Naţionale Rumâne in Vlach/Romanian,
• Nacionalni Savet Vlaške Nacionalne Manjine in Serbian,
• and National Council of Vlach (Roumanian) National Minority in English.

Futher on, the Romanian/Vlach Democratic Party of Serbia is called in Romanian/Vlach Partidul Democrat al Rumânilor din Sârbia and Vlaška Demokratska Stranka in Serbian. This happens also with the others institutions of the Vlach minority.

Major varieties (graiuri) of the Romanian language
Blue: Southern varieties
Red: Northern varieties

For historical reasons connected with the multicultural region of Vojvodina, Romanian is recognized as a separate language in Serbia and according to the latest census, the number of its speakers was 34,515, while 34,576 people declared themselves as ethnic Romanians. The declared Vlach speakers are mostly concentrated in eastern Serbia, mainly in the Timočka Krajina region and adjacent areas, while declared Romanian speakers are mostly concentrated in Vojvodina.

The term Vlach language(s) is also often used to refer to Eastern Romance languages in general, which includes Romanian. There are considerable differences between these Vlach languages (the Greek, Macedonian and Albanian Vlachs, versus the Vlachs of Istria, versus the Vlachs of Eastern Serbia who are closest to Romanians) and untutored native speakers have difficulties understanding each other.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Website of the Consiliul Naţional al Minorităţii Naţionale Rumâne din Uniunea Statală Serbia şi Muntenegru
2. ^ Website of the Federaţia Rumânilor din Serbie
3. ^ All about Romanians in Timoc, published 31 May 2005
4. ^ Ziua.net
5. ^ Interview with Predrag Balasevic, president of the Romanian/Vlach Democratic Party of Serbia: "We all know that we call ourselves in Romanian Romanians and in Serbian Vlachs."

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