Aromanian Vlach and Greek: Shifting Identities

In modern times, with Greek being the only language of instruction and communication in the wider society (Chomsky, 1971), Aromanian’s linguistic and cultural shift has been so profound that this language is now endangered (Dinas et al., 2011) in Greece. Aromanian (Weigand, 1895) is an oral Eastern-Romance language spoken by the Aromanians (armâni, or armãneashti), an ethnic group historically known for transhumance, dispersed over a wide area of the Balkans in what is present-day Peninsular Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Southern Romania, Serbia, and Albania. Their ethnicity (Eriksen, 2010) is controversial, with Greeks believing them Latinised Greeks, Romanians considering them Romanian, and others as Balkan natives from Wallachia (Ružica, 2006). In Greek, they tend to be referred to as ‘Vlachs.’ This term derives from the Latin ‘Volci’ (Volks, Wolks) and was adopted by Germanic speakers when mentioning neighboring Gaulish Celts who had become Latinized. The word and meaning evolved over time: Walachen, Wallais, Wallons, Welschme, etc. These terms are still used in different European languages today and refer to ‘Latin speakers.’ Slavic speakers borrowed and adapted the German word as Olahy, Valachi, Vloh, and for the Byzantines, it became ‘Vlachs.’ Their nomadic and secluded lifestyle between remote valleys and high mountains, confined the Aromanians to hardship and socio-cultural periphery while sparing them from major European conflicts, periods of unrest, shifting borders and powers for one thousand years. From 1975 onward, following the consolidation of the modern Greek Republic, ideologies such as ‘one people, one language’ became intrinsic with Greek nationality and nationalism (Moschonas, 2004). Aromanian had, until then, been transferred mostly in the oral form, lacking written standardization, and passed from generation down to generation in the Epirus, Macedonia, and Thessaly regions of Greece. With modernity, came profound socio-economic changes; Aromanians left their local communities in large numbers (Beis, 2000), looking for a better future in Greek urban centers, Germany, the USA, or Australia. Despite Aromanian folklore, music and traditional festivals being kept alive and even revitalized through numerous associations of Vlachs, many self-identified Aromanians do not speak their ancestral language (Kahl, 2011). What is the rationale behind this (apparent) contradiction? What drove Aromanians away from their native language and led to the shift into the Greek language, society, and culture so completely?