History of the term Vlach
Vlach is a
Slavic-derived term from the germanic word Valah (Valach) used to designate the Romance speaking peoples of
South-Eastern Europe:
Romanians,
Aromanians,
Megleno-Romanians and
Istro-Romanians.
The Slavic term in turn derives from
Germanic: it originates with
*Walha by which the early
Germanic tribes called their Celtic neighbours, possibly derived from the name of the tribe which was known to the Romans as
Volcae (in the writings of
Julius Caesar) and to the Greeks as
Ouólkai (
Strabo and
Ptolemy), see also
Welsh.
As the Celts of Gaul were Romanized, the word changed its meaning to "
Romanic people", as it is still kept in the name of the
Walloons of Belgium and in the German
exonyms:
*
Welsche, often used in the
German speaking part of Switzerland to refer to the people of the
French-speaking
Romandy,
*
Walsche, often used in the
German speaking part of Italy to refer to Italians,
*
Walsche, used in Switzerland and South Tyrol for various
Rhaeto-Romanic peoples, and
* in numerous placenames (but also
Walnuss (
Walnut)), for instance
Walensee and
Walenstadt, as well as
Welschbern and
Walschtirol (now almost always
Verona and
Trentino), and especially
Walachen/
Walachei (
Wallachians/
Wallachia).
This word for Romanic people was borrowed from the Germanic
Goths (as *walhs) into
Proto-Slavic some time before the
7th century. However, the first source using the word was the writings of Byzantine historian
Kedrenos, from the mid-
11th century,
Later on, the meaning of this noun in
Slavic languages got narrower or just different:
| Language | Form! Meaning | | Bulgarian | влах | Romanian / Vlach |
| Bulgarian | влах | man from Wallachia |
| Bulgarian | влах | cattle breeder, shepherd |
| Czech | Valach | man from Wallachia |
| Czech | Valach | man from Valašsko (in Moravia) |
| Czech | valach | shepherd |
| Czech | valach | gelding (horse) |
| Czech | valach | lazy man |
| Czech | Vlach | Italian |
| Macedonian | влав | cattle breeder, shepherd |
| Polish | WÅ‚och | Italian |
| Polish | Wołoch | Romanian immigrant |
| Polish | wałach | gelding (horse) |
| Old Russian | волохъ | man speaking a Romance language |
| Russian | валах | Romanian / Vlach |
| Serbian | Ð'лах | citizen of the Republic of Dubrovnik |
| Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian | Ð'лах, Vlah | Romanian / Vlach |
| Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian | Ð'лах, Vlah | man from Wallachia |
| Croatian | Vlah | Istro-Romanian |
| Croatian (Dubrovnik dialect) | Vlah | man from Herzegovina (pejorative) |
| Croatian (western dialects) | Vlah | Italian (pejorative) |
| Serbian and Croatian | влах, vlah | medieval nomadic cattle breeder |
| Croatian (dialects of Istria) | vlah | new settler (pejorative) |
| Croatian (Dalmatian dialects) | vlah | plebeian (pejorative) |
| Croatian (Dalmatian insular dialects) | vlah | man from the mainland (pejorative) |
| Croatian (western and northern dialects) | vlah | Orthodox Christian (pejorative) |
| Croatian (Podravina dialects) | vlah | Catholic who is a neoshtokavian speaker (pejorative) |
| Bosnian | vlah, влах | non-Muslim living in Bosnia, pejorative |
| Bosniak (Bosniak dialect) | vlah | Catholic (pejorative) |
| Slovak | Valach | man from Wallachia |
| Slovak | Valach | man from Valašsko (in Moravia) |
| Slovak | valach | shepherd |
| Slovak | valach | gelding (horse) |
| Slovak | Vlach | Italian |
| Slovene | Lah | Italian (pejorative) |
| Western Slovenian dialects | Lah | Friulian |
| Slovene | Vlah | Serbian immigrant (pejorative) |
| Ukrainian | волох | Romanian / Vlach |
From the Slavs, it was passed on to other peoples, such as the Hungarians ("Oláh") and Byzantines/Greeks ("Î'λάχοί", "Vlachoi") and was used for all Latin people of the Balkans. It also acquired a second meaning: "
shepherd", after the occupation of many Vlachs of Greece and Serbia. In Albania, the opposite occurred:
çoban "shepherd" comes to mean "Vlach". In German the word "vlach" was a pejorative name for an Orthodox Christian, a Serbian immigrant.
The term was originally an exonym, as the Vlachs used various words derived from
romanus to refer to themselves (
români, rumâni, rumâri, aromâni, arumâni,
armâni etc).
Historically, it was used to refer to all Latin people of the Balkans, but nowadays, this term is only rarely used to refer the Romanians, but rather to refer to the Aromanians, Istro-Romanians and Megleno-Romanians.
However, in Serbia, the Romanian minority (living especially in
Vojvodina,
Timok Valley), although they are speaking the
Daco-Romanian (standard Romanian) dialect, they are still referred as "Vlachs". In the Yugoslavian census figures, the Aromanians of Macedonia and the Romanians of Serbia were both classified as "Vlachs".
A name used for the Southern Vlachs of Greece is "Kutsovlach" (literally "limping Vlach"; possibly a reference to the way they spoke Greek), however the Aromanians consider it quite offensive. Another name used to refer to the Aromanians (mainly in the Slavic countries: Serbia and Bulgaria) is "tsintsar", which is derived from the way the Aromanians say the word 'five': "tsintsi".
Another Balkanic ethnicity is the
Morlachs or
Mavrovalachi (Greek for "black Vlachs").
*
Etymology of Romania*
Origin of Romanians*
English and Welsh*
Orbis Latinus: Wallachians, Walloons, Welschen* Victor A. Friedman,
The Vlah minority in Macedonia* Steriu T. Hagigogu,
"Romanus şi valachus sau Ce este romanus, roman, român, aromân, valah şi vlah", Bucharest, 1939
