Megleno-Romanian (known as by its speakers and Megleno-Romanian or Meglenitic and sometimes Moglenitic or Meglinitic by linguists) is a Balkan Romance language, similar to Aromanian or a

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...

of the

Romanian language Romanian (obsolete spellings: Rumanian or Roumanian; autonym: ''limba română'' , or ''românește'', ) is the official and main language of Romania and the Republic of Moldova. As a minority language it is spoken by stable communities in ...

. It is spoken by the

Megleno-Romanians The Megleno-Romanians, also known as Meglenites ( ruq, Miglinits), Moglenite Vlachs or simply Vlachs ( ruq, Vlaș), are a small Eastern Romance people, originally inhabiting seven villages in the Moglena region spanning the Pella and Kilkis ...

in a few villages in the Moglena region that spans the border between the Greek region of Macedonia and

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

. It is also spoken by emigrants from these villages and their descendants in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

, in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

by a small

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

group, and in

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...

. It is considered an

endangered language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead lang ...

Classification

Megleno-Romanian is a member of the family of Romance languages. More specifically, it is an Eastern Romance language, a language formed after the retreat of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...

from the Balkans. Due to the fact that it is spoken by very few people and because of its similarities with the Aromanian, modern

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania ** Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...

and Istro-Romanian languages, some linguists consider it to be an intermediary between

and Aromanian, often being considered either a dialect of Romanian, a dialect of Aromanian, or an independent language. It is closer to standard Romanian than the Aromanian language, suggesting that it split from Common Romanian later than Aromanian. Megleno-Romanian has been strongly influenced by the neighbouring South Slavic varieties.

Name

The term ''Megleno-Romanian'' has been used by linguists (mainly Romanian), who noticed the similarity to the

. The Megleno-Romanians identify themselves as ''Vlahi'' (see Etymology of Vlach for more on this term).

Geographical distribution

Megleno-Romanian is spoken in several villages in the Pella and Kilkis regional units of Macedonia,

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

, as well as in a handful of villages across the border in

. In one village, Huma, the language is still spoken by most inhabitants. Some people of Megleno-Romanian origin who live in the cities of

Gevgelija Gevgelija ( mk, Гевгелија; ) is a town with a population of 15,685 located in the very southeast of the North Macedonia along the banks of the Vardar River, situated at the country's main border with Greece (Bogorodica- Evzoni), the poi ...

and

Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; r ...

have preserved their native language. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, some Megleno-Romanians moved to

, in

Southern Dobruja Southern Dobruja, South Dobruja or Quadrilateral ( Bulgarian: Южна Добруджа, ''Yuzhna Dobrudzha'' or simply Добруджа, ''Dobrudzha''; ro, Dobrogea de Sud, or ) is an area of northeastern Bulgaria comprising Dobrich and Silis ...

, but were moved to the village of Cerna in

Tulcea County Tulcea County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in the historical region Dobruja, with the capital city at Tulcea. It includes in its northeast corner the large and thinly-populated estuary of the Danube. Demographics In 2011, Tulcea Co ...

(

Northern Dobruja Northern Dobruja ( ro, Dobrogea de Nord or simply ; bg, Северна Добруджа, ''Severna Dobrudzha'') is the part of Dobruja within the borders of Romania. It lies between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, bordered in the south ...

) after the

population exchange between Bulgaria and Romania The population exchange between Bulgaria and Romania was a population exchange carried out in 1940 after the transfer of Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria by Romania. It involved 103,711 Romanians, Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians living in Southern ...

. In Cerna, about 1,200 people continue to speak Megleno-Romanian. In 1940, about 30 families moved from Cerna to the

Banat Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of ...

region of

in the villages of Variaș, Biled and Jimbolia. Some speakers who identified as

, from the village of Nânti (Nótia), were moved to Turkey from Greece as part of the population exchange between them of the 1920s. Some also live in

, specially in the village of

Gudurica Gudurica (; hu, Temeskutas) is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Vršac municipality, in the South Banat District, Vojvodina province. The village has a Serb ethnic majority (66.21%) and a sizable ethnic Macedonian minority (10.49%), a ...

Phonology

Consonants

* Sounds [] as well as [, , ] can also occur from Greek borrowings.

Vowels

Megleno-Romanian has some unique phonetic characteristics, not found in the other Eastern Romance languages: # long vowels: ā, ē, ī, ǭ, ō, ū # ă, â → o, a: câmp → comp (field), mânc → mānanc (I eat) # unstressed initial a disappears: eram → ram (I was), aveam → (We had ), aduc → duc (I bring)

Vocabulary

Much of the vocabulary is of

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

origin and much of its phonetics and semantics is shared with Aromanian and Romanian: (n.b.: MR=Megleno-Romanian, DR=Daco-Romanian, i.e. Romanian) * basilica > MR bisearică, DR ''biserică'' (church, originally "

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its nam ...

") * lumen > MR lumi, DR ''lume'' (world, originally "

light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 t ...

") * monumentum > MR murmint, DR ''mormânt'' (grave, originally "

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

") * strigis > MR strig, DR ''strig'' (I yell, originally " owl") * draco > MR drac, DR ''drac'' (devil, originally " dragon") Megleno-Romanian also contains some words that have cognates with Albanian. These words are present in

Daco-Romanian Romanian (obsolete spellings: Rumanian or Roumanian; autonym: ''limba română'' , or ''românește'', ) is the official and main language of Romania and the Republic of Moldova. As a minority language it is spoken by stable communities in t ...

too: * MR brad; DR ''brad''; cf. Alb. ''bredh'' (fir tree) * MR monz; DR ''mânz''; cf. Alb. ''mës'' (colt) * MR bucuros; DR ''bucuros''; (happy) cf. Alb ''bukur'' (beautiful) There are also some words which are of Slavic origin and which can be found in all the Eastern Romance languages: * MR trup; DR ''trup'' (body); cf. Sl. ''trupŭ'' * MR stăpon; DR ''stăpân'' (master); cf. Old Slavic. ''stopanŭ'', today's Bulgarian ''stopanin'' and Macedonian ''stopan'' There are a number of

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

and

Modern Greek Modern Greek (, , or , ''Kiní Neoellinikí Glóssa''), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the ...

words, several dozens of which are also found in

(

) and Aromanian and about 80 words that were borrowed via

Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Ma ...

and Bulgarian languages and other languages of the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

. Prior to the creation of the modern state of Greece, Megleno-Romanian borrowed very few words directly from Greek. * Gr. ''prósfatos'' > MR proaspit; DR ''proaspăt'' (fresh) * Gr. ''keramídi'' > MR chirămidă; DR ''cărămidă'' (brick) * Gr. ''lemoni'' > MR limonă, via Bulg. ''limon'' (lemon); cf. DR ''lămâie'' The most important influence on Megleno-Romanian was the

East South Slavic languages The Eastern South Slavic dialects form the eastern subgroup of the South Slavic languages. They are spoken mostly in Bulgaria and North Macedonia, and adjacent areas in the neighbouring countries. They form the so-called Balkan Slavic lin ...

, this influence being more profound than that exerted by Greek on Aromanian. Most Slavic terms are of

and Bulgarian origins. The linguist

Theodor Capidan Theodor Capidan (–September 1, 1953) was an Ottoman-born Romanian linguist. An ethnic Aromanian from the Macedonia region, he studied at Leipzig before teaching school at Thessaloniki. Following the creation of Greater Romania at the end ...

argued that the words borrowed show some phonetic features of the Bulgarian language dialect spoken in the

Rhodope Mountains The Rhodopes (; bg, Родопи, ; el, Ροδόπη, ''Rodopi''; tr, Rodoplar) are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, and the largest by area in Bulgaria, with over 83% of its area in the southern part of the country and the remainder in ...

. There are many instances where basic words of Latin origin that can still be found in Daco-Romanian and Aromanian were replaced by Slavic words. In some cases, standard Romanian also independently borrowed the same word. * Bulgarian (Slavic) ''drob'' > MR drob * Bulgarian ''neviasta'' > MR niveastă (bride) * Bulgarian ''gora'' > MR goră (forest)

References

External links

Megleno-Romanii
by Dr. Emil Tarcovnicu
Megleno-Romanian Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words
(from Wiktionary'
Swadesh list appendix
*Asterios Koukoudis
Studies on the Vlachs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Megleno-Romanian Language Megleno-Romanian language Eastern Romance languages Languages of Greece Languages of North Macedonia Languages of Romania Languages of Serbia Languages of Turkey Endangered Romance languages