Language Diversity - Language Diversity - Map of Minorities & Regional and Minority Languages of Europe for and about linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe.

Language

Aromanian (Vlach) (Limba Armãneascã)

Description

Aromanian is spoken by the Aromanians in the southern part of the Balkans and belongs to the Eastern Romance group of the Italic-Romance languages in the Indo-European language family. The word Vlach stems from the name given by neighbouring peoples for the Latin people from the Balkans (Vlachs). The core of the current Aromanian area of settlement are the Pindus Mountains in northwestern Greece, around the city of Metsovo.

Aromanian is a language without a kinstate. The people belonging to the Aromanian ethnic group are living scattered over wide parts of southeastern Europe. The Aromanians can be traced back to what remained of the local Roman population in the Balkans.

The number of speakers is decreasing, because it is hard for the Aromanians to maintain their language. There are no schools that teach this language. Only in Macedonia the Aromanians are recognised as a minority.

Dependent on the country, Aromanian is written in the Latin or the Greek alphabet. A standardised form in the Latin alphabet has meanwhile been established.

Important Words

Hello - bunā dzuā

Thank you - haristo

You are not alone - NU ESHTSĀ SINGUR

Special

Aromanian has, just like Romanian, five different cases. The verbs in Aromanian do not have an infinitive. In dictionaries they are normally included in the first person singular.

Language families

  1. Indo-European
  2. Italic
  3. Romance
  4. Eastern Romance
  5. Aromanian (Vlach)