Vlach language (Serbia)

Encyclopedia : V : VL : VLA : Vlach language (Serbia)

Eastern Romance languages Proto-Romanian language Substratum Daco-Romanian (Romanian language>Romanian, Moldovan, Vlach) Grammar | Nouns | Verbs Numerals | Phonology | Lexis Regulating bodies   Romanian Academy   Academy of Sciences of Moldova Aromanian language>Aromanian Megleno-Romanian language>Megleno-Romanian Istro-Romanian language>Istro-Romanian Boyash>Boyash Archaic Romanian This box: [ view] • [ talk] • [ edit]

Vlach (Rumâneşte/Rumâneşce in their own designationWebsite of the [Consiliul Naţional al Minorităţii Naţionale Rumâne din Uniunea Statală Serbia şi Muntenegru]Website of the [Federaţia Rumânilor din Serbie]; Влашки/Vlaški in Serbian) is the term sometimes 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. In Serbia the language is considered 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. For historic 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.

Notes