The Meglen Vlachs (Megleno-Romanians) of Serbia: a Community on the Verge of Extinction

Annemarie Sorescu-Marinković, Mircea Măran

Abstract


The paper aims at presenting the Meglen Vlach community of Serbia, situated in a few villages near the border with Romania. Because of the very small number of members, this community has so far not been known to the scientific community or to the majority population of Serbia.The Meglen Vlachs arrived there in the 1950s from Huma (today in the FY Republic of Macedonia) and were “invisible” in official statistics as they were “concealed” among the Macedonian colonists, intended to repopulate, together with other Yugoslavs, the former German villages. However, many of them left shortly after, to return home, settle in other Macedonian localities or to migrate to Western European countries. Today, the Meglen Vlach dialect is actively spoken in Serbia by only a few people (terminal speakers, in linguistic terms), born in the inter-war period. The paper tries to determine whether their idiom is severely endangered (like the Meglen Vlach dialect in the other countries where it is spoken) or has already become an obsolete language. Finally, the article shows that the linguistic and cultural future of the Meglen Vlachs in Serbia inevitably leads to acculturation and assimilation.


Keywords


Meglen Vlachs, invisible minority, Yugoslavia, endangered language

Full Text:

PDF

References


Atanasov P., Meglenoromâna astăzi, Bucureşti 2002.

Belkis D., Vers une définition de la „méglénité”, “Martor. The Museum of the Romanian Peasant Anthropology Review” 2001, 6.

Coman V., Scurtă privire asupra meglenoromânilor până la sfârşitul secolului al XX-lea, in: Aromâni, meglenoromâni, istroromâni – Aspecte identitare şi culturale, ed. A. Berciu-Drăghicescu, Bucureşti 2012.

Jireček K., Über die Wlachen von Moglena, “Archiv für Slavische Philologie” 1893, 15.

Kahl T., Čuvanje jezika, gubljenje identiteta: Meglenski Vlasi, in: Skrivene manjine na Balkanu, ed. B. Sikimić, Belgrade 2004.

Kahl T., The Islamisation of the Meglen Vlachs (Megleno-Romanians): The Village of Nânti (Nótia) and the „Nântinets” in: “Present-Day Turkey, Nationalities Papers” 2006, 34, 1.

Lozovanu D., Meglenoromânii – aspecte identitare, geografice, etnoidentitare şi etnodemografice, in: Aromâni, meglenoromâni, istroromâni – Aspecte identitare şi culturale, ed. A. Berciu-Drăghicescu, Bucureşti 2012.

Massey D. S. et al., Theories of international migration: a review and appraisal, “Population and Development Review” 1993, 19, 3.

Mihăilescu V., Lecţia megleno-română. Interviu cu Dominique Belkis, in: Balcani după Balcani, Bucureşti 2000.

Mladenovski S., Банатско село Јабука, Скопје 1988.

Nikolin S., Meglenoromânii din Banatul de Sud, “Almanah Libertatea” 2012.

Pleterski J. et al, Istorija Saveza komunista Jugoslavije, Beograd 1985.

Saramandu N., Die Aromunen in der Dobrudsha und ihre Mundart, “Dacoromania” 1975, 3.

Sikimić B., Romanians in Serbian Banat: Dynamic Epistemology, “Slavic Studies” 2014, 61, The Slavic-Eurasian Research Centre Hokkaido University.

Sorescu-Marinković A., Măran M., Megleno-Romanians in Gudurica: Language and Identity, “Memoria Ethnologica” 2014, 52–53.

Sorescu-Marinković A., Măran M., Megleno-Romanians in Serbia – Shifting Borders, Shifting Identity, in: Contextualizing Changes: Migrations, Shifting Borders and New Identities in Eastern Europe, eds. P. Hristov et al., Sofia 2015.

Ţîrcomnicu E., Meglenoromânii – destin istoric şi cultural, Bucureşti 2004.

Trifunoski J. F., O posleratnom naseljavanju stanovništva iz NR Makedonije u tri banatska naselja – Jabuka, Kačarevo i Glogonj, Novi Sad 1958.

Weigand G., Vlacho-Meglen. Eine ethnographisch-philologische Untersuchung, Leipzig 1892.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/rh.2016.41.197
Date of publication: 2016-09-29 09:33:18
Date of submission: 2016-09-26 14:45:09


Statistics


Total abstract view - 1403
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 785

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2016

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.