Aromanian

Aromanian (Armãneashti, Armãneashce, Rrãmãneasht)

Aromanian is an Eastern Romance language spoken in Greece, Albania, Macedonia,
Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia by about 300,000 people. Aromanian is closely related
to Romanian, though contains more vocabulary of Greek origin, while Romanian has
absorbed a lot of vocabulary from Slavic languages and Hungarian.

The Aromanians are known by different names, including Vlasi (Macedonian
and Serbian), Vlahi (Greek), Ulahlar (Turkish),
Vllehë or Çobani (Albanian), Vlachs (English),
Wlachen or Walachen (German) and Valaques (French). All
of these words come from the Greek Βλάχοι (vlahoi –
shepherds). The Serbs call the Aromanians Tsintsari, and they are known as
Macedo-Romãni by the Romanians. They call themselves
Armãnji, and their language armãneashti or
limbã armãneascã.

The earliest known examples of written Aromanian are manuscripts of the
Patriarch Fotius dating from around 860-870 AD, and manuscripts written by
St. Naum of Ohrid at about the same time. During the late 18th century many
books in Aromanian were published, all written in the Greek alphabet. Unfortunately
many of the early works in Aromanian were burnt during wars between 1750-1788.

The first person to publish material in Aromanian in the Latin alphabet
was probably Dr. Ioryi Constantin Roja at the beginning of the 19th century.
During the 1980s a new Aromanian spelling system began to emerge and has been
adopted in most countries where Aromanian is spoken, with the exception of Greece
and Romania, where the old spelling systems are still used. The new system, which
eliminates all the accented letters, with the exception of ã, was
proposed by four Aromanian writers and first published in 1985.

Aromanian has some official status in the Republic of Macedonia and is taught
in some primary schools there as an optional subject. Aromanian speakers in
Macedonia have the right to use Aromanian in court, and since 2006 Aromanian has
been the second official language (after Macedonian) in the city of Kruševo (Crushuva).

Aromanian dialects include Cipan, Vargarean, Sarbean, Farsilotu, Gramustean
and Pindean.

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