Aroumain

According to the majority of the linguists, the aroumain (or macédo-Rumanian ), in aroumain: limba armãneascã , also indicated by the adverb armâneashti with the alternative armãneshce , is a Romance Langue group of the Eastern Romance Langues, beside the Rumanian , of the Mégléno-Rumanian and the Istro-Rumanian. For certain Rumanian linguists, it is only one dialect of Rumanian, like the dician (disappeared), morlaque the or Dalmatian one (missing), mégléno-Rumanian and istro-Rumanian (who have nothing any more but a few hundreds of speakers). There exists also a school (German and Hungarian) which estimates on the contrary that it is the Daco-Rumanian which is a dialect of the aroumain. Other linguists place it among the mountain Romance languages, with the romanche, the ladin, the frioulan, the istrien, istro-Rumanian, the Dalmatian one and Rumanian. The controversy on the statute of this idiom always continues, even among the intellectuals aroumains.

Speakers

The speakers of this language indicate themselves by name Aroumains (Aromounes) or Valaques (Vlachs), but are named by the people with whom they cohabit Valaques, Koutzovalaques, Sarakatsanes or Zinzares.

Their number is estimated at approximately 300.000, but with those which usually any more do not speak the language, Aroumains could exceed a million people. They are dispersed in the following countries:

Greece: 200.000 (1995, estimate of the Greek authorities; themselves announce 280.000), in Thessalie, Épire and Macedonia);
Albania: 50.000 (1995, T.J. Winnifrith;
Romania: 28.000, including 75% in Dobrogea (Dobroudja) (official estimate; themselves announce 45.000);
Serbia: 15.000 (estimate of Aroumains themselves);
Macedonia: 8.467 according to the census of 1994, but themselves announce 22.000), in the area of Monastir (Bitola);
Bulgaria: 4.770 (2000).

There exists also a relatively important emigration of Aroumains, whose figure is unknown, in Western Europe (France, Germany), with the the United States, the Canada, in Latin America and Australia.

Aroumains form a population speaking a Romance Langue which evolves/moves with the crossroads of the worlds Greek, Albanian and Slavic, and which was marked a long time by the pastoral nomadism. Their traditional legends make Thraces of them become the charriers and the conveyers of the Romains along Via Egnatia and thus romanized. The Greek university position in fact of the Hellènes Latinized. The fact is that Thraces of the south were strongly hellénisés, before being Latinized. Aroumains represent nowadays for those which study them, a true identity headache which short-circuit the logic of the ic State-nations Balkan and " dérange" official stories of the majority of them. Their history is an anthropological, geographical lighting and linguistics of their particularism.

History of the aroumain

At the 10th century at the latest, Eastern Latin or Proto-Rumanian was divided into several languages: Rumanian (spoken in the basin about the low-Danube and marked Slavic and Magyar influences), the dician (spoken in Dobrogea), and the aroumain spoken in Macedonia and around it. Later from the aroumain mégléno-Rumanian was detached (spoken in Macedonia in the west about Axios/Vardar). The dician (disappeared) and the aroumain almost do not have a Magyar influence, less Slavic influence than Rumanian, and much more Greek influences; more those are direct, whereas the Greek influence in Rumanian passed by the Slavic intermediary. In general, it is admitted that the dician and the aroumain were formed in the south of the the Danube, but the exact place is discussed. The majority of the Rumanian linguists consider that it is the area located between the Danube and Haemos (Stara Planina or Grand Balkan), others support that it was constituted, at least partly, in the area of the Pinde and in the south of Albania too. At all events, we have three certainty:

the Roman domination in the whole of Balkans lasted six centuries at least;
the toponyms of the type Campolongo, Montana, Peccoraria, Petrossa, Romania Planina, Vlahina, Vlahoklissoura, Vlashina, Vlasia and other Vlasic meet of Bosnia in the west to the Black Sea in the east, and of the Danube in north to the Peloponnese in the south;
the first document which attests the presence of Aroumains in Macedonia is due to the Byzantine chronicler Kédrénos (976).

At the 15th century, the chronicler Laonikos Chalkokondilas notices the relationship between the aroumain and Rumanian.

The first documentary certificate of the aroumain goes up with 1156. It is the name of anybody Tsintsiloukis , interpreted like coming from tsintsi luchi (“five wolves”).

The first texts in aroumain, written in Greek alphabet, date from the 18th century:

an inscription on an icon, with the translation in Greek, Albanian and Latin (1731);
a book of liturgy not dated and nonlocalized;
a Greek vocabulary - aroumain - Albanian;
a lexicon of conversation Greek - Albanian - aroumain - Bulgarian;
alphabetical;
a handwritten collection of not dated religious translations.

At the beginning of the 19th century one adopts the Latin alphabet and of the works of Philologie appear, influenced by Rumanian.

Starting from 1864 one publishes literary works and didactic, as well as tests, originals and translated. The most important representatives of this literature are Mihail Nicolescu, Tashcu Iliescu, Constantin Belimace, Nushi Tulliu, Zicu A. Araia, Nicolae Batzaria, George Murnu.

In same time, one works out collections of folk literature, most important after 1890, published by Gustav Weigand and Pericle Papahagi.

Between 1864 and 1945 there was a teaching for Aroumains, but especially in Rumanian, in Greece particularly, which was removed following the episode of the Principauté of Pinde and Voïvodie of Macedonia.

During the history, the language of the religious worship orthodoxe was the Greek and also, during certain time, the aroumain.

Current location

In all the countries where she saw, the tendencies of assimilation of the population aroumaine and, consequently, of loss of its language and its culture, were powerful. However, the language aroumaine remained. Its situation even improved these twenty last years.

The parliamentary Parliament of the the Council of Europe adopted at a session in 1997, the recommendation n° 1333 on the culture and the language aroumaines, by underlining the character threatened of this language. She calls upon the governments of the States where live of Aroumains to facilitate the use of their language in teaching, the worship and the media. Although this recommendation is not entirely followed, the aroumain is taught in some schools: several in Republic of Macedonia, two in Romania, one in Albania. A course of aroumain is given to the Université of Salonique.

One publishes books in aroumain, with the editions Dimândarea Pãrinteascã and Fundaţia Cartea Aromãnã (in Romania), Cartea Aromãnã (in the United States). There exist also periodicals in aroumain: Deşteptarea - Revista Aromânilor , Dimândarea , '' Bana Armâneascâ '' (in Romania), '' Zborlu has nostru '' (in Germany).

The language is cultivated also by various cultural companies aroumaines, such the “Union for the culture and the language aroumaines”, organization in transnational matter of Freiburg-in-Brisgau (Germany), the Macédo-Rumanian Library of the same city, the Company “Fărşărotul” of the United States, or the Association of the French Aroumains “Trâ Armânami” of Paris.

The aroumain is thus not an official language (except in the Kruševo locality, in Republic of Macedonia), nor standardized. It remains a family language, but it has a relatively old written literature.

Regional varieties

The aroumain is a language out of unit gasoline, but with many speeches which are entrepénètrent sometimes and whose classification is discussed. That of Theodor Capidan and Tache Papahagi distinguishes:

a group of north:

the speech farserot , spoken by a named population Farserots, in the surroundings of the Albanian city Frasheri
speech of Moscopole, in this city and its surroundings of Albania
speech of the area of Muzachia (Myzeqe in Albanian), in the south of Albania
speech of Gopeš and Mulovište, in Republic of Macedonia
speech of Bjala, in Republic of Macedonia
speech of the mounts Grammos, in Greece

a group of the south:

speech of Pinde, in Greece
speech of the Olympe, in Greece

C-W communication of the aroumain

The first texts written in aroumain were it with the Greek alphabet. At the beginning of the XIXe century one adopted the Latin alphabet, with a large variety in the transcription of the sounds of the language. One used and one continues to use the Rumanian alphabet, but the C-W communication is still not standardized. There is currently an attempt at standardization started with the Symposium for the standardization of the written form aroumain of Bitola (1997). The action is in hand, but its achievement is difficult, fault of an official authority and because of polemics between intellectuals aroumains, of which some prefer to keep the Rumanian alphabet.

The alphabet adopted with the symposium of Bitola comprises characters without Diacritiques, except ã . Part of the characters and groups of letters have the same values as in Rumanian: C , this , Ci , che , chi , G , Ge , gi , ghe , ghi , E and O (including in the diphthongs), I and U (including semivocalic), K , Q , W and there in the foreign words. (See on this subject the article Roumain#Règles of reading). However, the alphabet of the aroumain is not unit for all the language, since there are letters and alternative groups of letters, to return two kinds of pronunciation varying according to the speeches.

Letters and specific groups of letters:

Linguistic characteristics compared to Rumanian

The aroumain is the Eastern Romance language considered as most antiquated, to which the structure is close to that of the protoroumain. It resembles Rumanian from the structural point of view much, with relatively unimportant morpho-syntactic differences. It kept the Latin heritage better than mégléno-Rumanian and istro-Rumanian, his structure and its phonetism being influenced little by the surrounding languages. Their influence appears especially in the lexicon. Aroumains have habit to say humorously that " as our name indicates it, we are not of Roumains" , although the " A" initial is not the " a" privative of the Greek, but a phonological characteristic of the aroumain (" a" in front of the " r").

Phonology

The specific sounds of the aroumain appear in the table above.

ã is pronounced, according to the speeches,/ə/,/ɨ/, or between the two.
/dz/ ( dz ),/ʎ/( lj ),/ɲ/( nj ) is found in all the speeches.
/ð/( dh ) is in the loans of the Greek and Albanian, but in certain speeches only. In others he decides /d/.
/θ/( HT ) is also borrowed from the Greek and, generally, he is pronounced as in this language, but can also be marked /t/.
/ɣ/(returned by gh and there ) always comes from the Greek, but also decides /g/.

Evolutions starting from Latin:

Morphology and syntax

Articles

the definite article is placed at the end of the word, as in the other Eastern Romance languages: lup' read (roum. lupul , france “the wolf”), vitsin lji (roum. vecinii , france “the neighbors”), bisearic has (roum. biserica , france “the church”), bisearits the (roum. bisericile , france “churches”).

The male names of people can be used with the definite article: Gog read (Gogu).

In the syntagm name + demonstrative adjective atsel + qualifying adjective, this last can have the definite article or not: omlu atsel bun read or omlu atsel bun (roum. omul acela bun , france “this good man”).

the article indéfini' female singular is unã : unã featã (roum. O fată , france “a girl”).

The name

With the plural there is, in addition to those of Rumanian, two endings borrowed from the Greek:

- adzi for the masculines finished in accentuated final vowel: pãr' adzi (roum. parale , france “under”)

- ate' sau - ATI with the female one: nemusorizm' ate (roum. zăpadă multă , france “much of snow”)

To notice in the déclinaison' :

the genitive is preceded by has to the singular and plural masculine, like with the female singular and plural, even when the had object expressed by a name is placed in front of: muma has ficiorlui (roum. mama băiatului , france “the mother of the boy”), has ficiorlor (roum. băieţilor, france “of the boys”), has featiljei (roum. fetei , france “of the girl”), has featilor (roum. fetelor , france “of the girls”).

the has is used in front of the name with the dative also: lju dau has vitsinlui (roum. it dau vecinului , france “I gives it to the neighbor”).

With the female genitive-dative with definite article there is also the form Ali feate (roum. fetelor , france “of/with the girls”.

With the genitive-dative of the proper names people masculines one places the definite article in front of the name: Al Gog (roum. him Gogu , france “de/à Gogu”).

The names of localities according to adverbial phrase of place expressing the destination are generally built without preposition: semi duke Bitule (roum. mă duke the Bitolia , france “I go in Bitola”), but also with a preposition: s-dusi N Sãrunã (roum. nozzle Salonic , france “il/elle was gone to Salonique”).

The qualifying adjective

The degrees of comparison present the following characteristics:

the comparative of greater degree with the adverbs my or cama : (Ca) my husband di noi (roum. May pond decât noi , france “larger (E) that us”)

relative superlative:

(Ca) my + adjectival + definite article: (Ca) my marli di noi (roum. concealment May pond dintre noi , largest france the “of us”)
atsel + (Ca) my + adjectival + definite article: atsel (Ca) my marli (roum. concealment May pond , the “largest” france)

absolute superlative:

with the adverb multu : multu bun (ã) (roum. foarte bun (ă) , france “very good ()”)
with the adverb vãrtos : vãrtos dultse (roum. foarte dulce , very soft france (this) /sucré (E)”)
with the adverb dip : a om dip avut (roum. a om foarte bogat , france “a very rich man”)
by repetition of the adjective, process specific to the balcanic languages: will go linãvoasã-linãvoasã (roum. will era foarte leneşă , france “it was very lazy”)

Pronouns

Characteristics of the use of the personal pronouns :

In the speeches of north, the forms of the mini accusative mine/ (france “me”), clay crusher/tini (france “you”) can be employed with personal, in the place of io and you respectively: mine escu (roum. have sunt , france “I am”), tini ãnsutsi eshti (roum. you însuţi eşti , france “yourself you are”). On the other hand, in the speeches of the south one employs sometimes io with the accusative: fãrã di io (roum. fără mine , france “without me”).
the personal pronoun direct object is built in general without preposition: naked Ti voi clay crusher (roum., naked you vreau EP clay crusher , france “I do not want to be, you”).
the personal pronoun singular female dull direct object is placed, at the compound tenses, in front of the auxiliary verb: U have vidzutã (roum. have văzut-o , france “you saw it”).

the possessive pronoun-adjective is declined, having also joint forms (dull), placed after the name: anjeu (roum. meu , france “my/mien”), tată-nju (roum. tatăl meu , france “my father”), has dadã-meai (roum. mamei Miss, france “de/à my mother”), avoastrã (roum. voastră , france “your/yours” female), feata-vã (roum. fata voastră , france “your daughter”), dzinir-known (roum. ginerele său , france “his/her son-in-law”), has doamnã-sai (roum. stăpânei salts , france “de/à its mistress”).

the relative pronoun care (france “which/that/which/which/which/which”) of Rumanian almost always has as a correspondent tse/tsi : ficiorlu tsi vini (roum. băiatul care fortifies , france “the boy who comes”).

Tse/tsi is also used with other functions that of subject, but without preposition: fu due you odãlu tse will era shi feata (roum. fu due in odaia in care will era şi fata , france “it was taken along in the room where the girl was”).

The numeral ones

Characteristics of the numeral cardinal :

numeral Latin viginti remained in aroumain: yinyints or yinyits (roum. douăzeci , france “twenty”).
One builds with preposition the numeral ones from 11 (from 20 in Rumanian): unsprãdzatsi di dzãli (roum. unsprezece zile , france “eleven days”).
the preposition spri (roum. spre , france “towards”) is used to build the numbers not only from 11 to 19, as in Rumanian, but also from 21 to 29: doi' spri' yinyits (roum. douăzeci şi DOI , france “twenty-two”).
the numbers can be followed definite article and they are declined: doilji, has doilor (roum. CEI DOI, celor DOI , france “both, from/to both”). One uses the definite article to express the hour: you trei' le' oare (roum. will ora it trei , france “at three hours”).

numeral ordinal the is formed of the numeral cardinal + the definite article: shasi' the (roum. Al şaselea , france “sixth”), noau read (roum. Al nouălea , france “ninth”).

As for the numbers collectifs' , whereas in Rumanian there is only amândoi (aroumain amindoi or shamindoi , france “(all) both”), in aroumain, with the same process one obtains (HS) amintrei (roum. toţi trei , france “(all) three”), (HS) aminpatru (roum. toţi patru , france “(all) four”), (HS) amintsintsi (roum. toţi cinci , france “(all) five”), etc

The verb

The verbs aroumains are distributed in four classes of conjugation, like the Rumanian verbs. In 1st and in 4th there are two subclasses: verbs without suffix and verbs with suffix.

Present indicative

With the imperfect code , the 3rd person of plural is identical to the 3rd person of the singular.

With the difference of Rumanian, the preterit code is used in the spoken language, even more often than the made up past. One distinguishes verbs with accent on the ending (those of the table below) and verbs with accent on the radical.

The verbs with accent on the radical have the ending - HS (U) with the 1st person of the singular: sco' shu (roum. scosei , transitive france “I left”), aprim shu (roum. aprinsei , france “I lit”), shu (roum. dusei , france “I carried out”).

With the made up last code , the auxiliary verb am' (france “to have”) takes its complete forms.

At the difference of Rumanian, the synthetic code pluperfect was not preserved in aroumain. It was replaced by an analytical pluperfect, like French, with the auxiliary amndt (“to have”) with the imperfect one.

aveam cãntatã (roum. cântasem , france “I had sung”)

aveai cãntatã

avea cãntatã

aveam cãntatã

aveatsi cãntatã

avea cãntatã

There are several forms of indicative future , of which most widespread builds itself with the verb voi (“to want”) with the 3rd person of the singular of the present indicative ( goes ) for all the people of the future + the subjunctive present: goes s-cãntu (roum. voi cânta , france “I will sing”).

the future code former is formed with goes + the made up last subjunctive: goes Sam cãntatã (roum. voi fi cântat , france “I will have sung”).

the subjunctive has four times in aroumain (two in Rumanian): present, imperfect, preterit and last made up. He is used with the conjunction sã having three other alternatives: , if and S .

With the subjunctive present , the 1st conjugation, the 3rd person does not differ from the same person of the present indicative.

Subjunctive imperfect : s-cãntam ( S + the imperfect code).

Subjunctive last made up : Sam cãntatã ( S + the made up last code).

Subjunctive pluperfect : s-aveam cãntatã ( S + the code pluperfect).

the conditional present is not analytical, as in Rumanian, but synthetic, as in French.

s-cãntarim (roum. aş cânta , france “I would sing”)

s-cãntari

s-cãntare/cãntari

s-cãntarim

s-cãntarit

s-cãntare/cãntari

conditional last the is generally formed with imperfect verb voi (“to want”), with the single form vrea for all the people of conditional last + the conditional present: vrea s-cãntarim (roum. aş fi cântat , france “I would have sung”).

With the requirement , separately the shapes of the 2nd person similar to those of Rumanian (imperative itself), it there also of the forms for the 1st person, with the conjunction ace (borrowed from the Greek) + the subjunctive present and, with the 3rd person, in addition to the conjunction S (ã) , one uses also tired + the subjunctive present.

Infinitive aroumain not having a short form (see hereafter), the negative requirement of the 2nd person of the singular to the same form as the affirmative one: naked cãntã! (roum. naked cânta! , the short form of infinitive, france “does not sing! ”).

infinitive has only one long form, inherited Latin.

Infinitive is used especially as a name. It has some verbal values however also:

in impersonal construction with goes or lipseashte (roum. trebuie , france “it is necessary”): goes scriare unã chart (roum. trebuie să scrie O scrisoare , france “it is necessary to write a letter”), lipseashte zburãre Cu a mastur (roum. trebuie vorbit Cu a meşter , france “it is necessary to speak with a specialist of the profession”)
subordinated to verbs expressing displacement: urban clearway s-ducã avinare (roum. urban clearway să ducă să vâneze , france “it wanted to go to drive out”)
in a construction with the adverb unã : unã strigare, tutsi -adunarã (roum. îndată this strigă, toţi adunară , france “as soon as il/elle was shouted, all gathered”)
in the place of the supinum (unknown of the aroumain): trã beare (roum. of băut , france “with drinking”)

gerund

In the takes part, there is only one form for the masculine and female plural.

The verbs called “with accent on the radical” have different endings: arsu (roum. ars , france “flaring”), aprimtu (roum. aprins , “lit” france), coptu (roum. copt , “cooked” france).

Specific uses of the participle:

with active direction: duruta mumã (roum. mama iubitoare , france “the mother magnetizes”)
in the place of infinitive with substantival value: tru ishitã DIN hoarã (roum. ieşirea DIN sat , france “at the exit of the village”)
with the adverb unã : unã intratã N casã, O bagã will chiatra sun limbã (roum. cum has intrat in casă, pune will piatra sub limbă , france “as soon as il/elle enters the house, il/elle puts the stone under the language”)
denied: tini, nor vinitã, vrei s-fudzi? (roum. you, abia have venit şi vrei să pleci? , france “hardly come (E), you want to already leave? ”)

Lexicon

Funds lexical

The aroumain guard of the words and the Latin directions which do not exist any more in the other Eastern Romance languages: bashu (roum. sărut , france “I embrace”), cusurinu (roum. văr , france “cousin”), dimãndari (roum. poruncă , france “command, order”), uinu (roum. of oaie , france “of sheep”), agiunu (roum. flămând , france “with jeun”), fumealje (roum. familie, copii , france “family, children”), largu (roum. departe , france “far”), vatãmu (roum. ucid , france “I kill”).

Loans:

Greek (most): arisescu (roum. îmi place , france “, that I like likes I”), asime (roum. argint , france “money” - metal), hoarã (roum. sat , france “village”), xen (roum. străin , “foreign” france), lipseashce (roum. trebuie , france “it is necessary”), nostimu (roum. gustos , “tasty” france)
Slavic: celnicu (roum. stăpân, proprietar , main france “, owner”), dobru (roum. bun , “good” france), mutrescu (roum. privesc , france “I look at”)
Albanian: bãnedzu (roum. trăiesc , france “I live”), etã (roum. timp, veac , france “time, century”), minduescu (roum. gândesc, cred , france “I think”)
Turkish: adets (roum. obicei , france “habit, practice”), bitisescu (roum. sfârşesc , france “I finish”), cãsãbã (roum. oraş , france “city”).

In the current literary language, the foreign words are generally those which were borrowed by Rumanian also: proectu (“project”), entsiclopedii (“encyclopedia”), completu , orighinalu (“original”), litsentsã (“license”).

Derivation

specific Suffixes :

- heart : bãrbat' heart (roum. mulţi bărbaţi , france “much of men”), urãts heart (roum. urâţenie , france “ugliness”)

- ic, - icã : frãt ic (roum. frăţior , france “little brother, frérot”), fiti cã (roum. fetiţă , france “young girl”)

- ice' : gur' ice (roum. guriţă , france “small mouth”)

- inã : fucur inã roum. ( loc unde its făcut jib , france “place where one made fire”)

- ãriu' : vãc' ãriu (roum. mulţime of vaci , france “multitude of cows”)

- ish' : munt' ish (roum. of munte , france “of mountain”)

- iu' : limn' iu (roum. grămadă of lemne , france “wood pile”)

- ut' : plãng' C (roum. plânset , france “sobs”)

Préfixes' specific:

xenu- (of the Greek): xenu lucredzu (roum. will lucrez lucru străin , france “I do a work which is not mine”), csenu zburãscu (roum. vorbesc aiurea , france “I speak anyhow, badly”)
para (of the Greek): para FAC (roum. FAC prea mult , france “I make too much”), para lucredz (roum. will lucrez prea mult , “I work too much”)
sum- : sum arãd (roum. râd EP jumătate , france “I laugh with reserve”)

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