Map of Balkans with regions inhabited by Romanians/Vlachs highlighted

The Eastern Romance languages are a group of Romance languages that developed in Southeastern Europe from the local eastern variant of Vulgar Latin. Image File history File links Map-balkans-vlachs. ... The Romance languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, comprise all languages that descended from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ... The Balkans is the historic and geographic name used to describe southeastern Europe (see the Definitions and boundaries section below). ... Vulgar Latin, as in this political graffiti at Pompeii, was the way that ordinary people of the Roman Empire spoke, which was different from the Classical Latin used by the Roman elite. ...

History

From Vulgar Latin, several hundreds of years afterward, a language called Proto-Romanian was developed, which had already most of the features of modern Romanian. According to Romano-Vlach propaganda, which is strongly opposed by Greek and western European scholars, sometime between 800 and 1,200 years ago, due to the foreign invasions (see Romania in the Dark Ages) split into four separate languages: Daco-Romanian (today's Romanian), Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian and Istro-Romanian. The Greeks have proven that the so-called Aromanian is actually a dialect of a mixed composition, containing 60% Latin and 40% Greek words and syntax. Common Romanian (also known as Proto-Romanian) is a hypothetical language considered to have been spoken by the Romanians after the breakdown of the Roman Empire and before it was broken into modern Balkan Romance languages and dialects: Romanian Aromanian Megleno-Romanian Istro-Romanian The place where this language was... The Dark Ages in Romania refer to the period starting with the withdrawal of the Roman administration and ending roughly in the 11th century - with the last phase of the Age of Migrations. ... Daco-Romanian (Romanian: limba dacoromânǎ, Latin: lingua Daco-Romana) is the term used to identify the Romanian language in contexts where distinction needs to be made between the various Eastern Romance languages or dialects (Daco-Romanian, Aromanian, Istro-Romanian, and Megleno-Romanian). ... Aromanian (also known as Macedo-Romanian, Arumanian or Vlach in most other countries; in Aromanian: limba aromână, limba armânească, armâneashti or armãneshce) is an Eastern Romance language spoken in Southeastern Europe. ... Megleno-Romanian (known as Vlăheşte by speakers and Moglenitic, Meglenitic or Megleno-Romanian by linguists) is a Romance language, similar to Aromanian, and Romanian spoken in the Moglená region of Greece, in a few villages in the Republic of Macedonia and also in a few villages in Romania. ... Istro-Romanian is a Romance language used in a few villages in the peninsula of Istria, on the northern part of the Adriatic Sea, in Croatia. ... Aromanian (also known as Macedo-Romanian, Arumanian or Vlach in most other countries; in Aromanian: limba aromână, limba armânească, armâneashti or armãneshce) is an Eastern Romance language spoken in Southeastern Europe. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language characteristic of a particular group of the languages speakers. ...

In addition, in the Soviet Union the Moldovan language was officially introduced, to draw a distinction between the Romanian and Moldovan nations, an attempt that had eventually failed.^{[citation needed]} Moldovan is the official name for the Romanian language in the Republic of Moldova and in the territory of Transnistria. ...

Common features

Main article: Proto-Romanian

This group was one of the earliest to be isolated. As such, they contain a few words which were replaced with Germanic borrowings in Western Romance languages, for example, the word for white is derived from Latin "albus" instead of Germanic "blank". Common Romanian (also known as Proto-Romanian) is a hypothetical language considered to have been spoken by the Romanians after the breakdown of the Roman Empire and before it was broken into modern Eastern Romance languages and dialects: Romanian Aromanian Megleno-Romanian Istro-Romanian The place where this language was... The Eastern Romance languages contain around 300 words considered by many linguists to be of substratum origin [1]. Including place-names and river-names, and most of the forms labelled as being of unknown etymology, the number of the substratum elements in Eastern Romance may surpass 500 basic roots. ... Daco-Romanian (Romanian: limba dacoromânÇŽ, Latin: lingua Daco-Romana) is the term used to identify the Romanian language in contexts where distinction needs to be made between the various Eastern Romance languages or dialects (Daco-Romanian, Aromanian, Istro-Romanian, and Megleno-Romanian). ... Major varieties (graiuri) of the Romanian language Blue: Southern varieties Red: Northern varieties Vlach / Roumanian [1] (limba română in their own designation [2], sometimes rumâneÅŸte / rumâneÅŸce [] ; Влашки / VlaÅ¡ki in Serbian) are the terms used to designate the language spoken by the Vlachs of Serbia. ... Romanian (technically called Daco-Romanian) shares practically the same grammar and most of the vocabulary and phonological processes with the other three surviving Eastern Romance languages: Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian, and Istro-Romanian. ... This article is actively undergoing a major edit. ... This article is actively undergoing a major edit for a short while. ... The Romanian numbers are the system of number names used in Romanian to express counts, quantities, ranks in ordered sets, fractions, multiplication, and other information related to numbers. ... The Romanian language has seven vowels and twenty-two consonants, including two semivowels, and . ... The lexis of the Romanian language (or Daco-Romanian), a Romance language, has changed over the centuries as the language evolved from Vulgar Latin, to Proto-Romanian, to medieval, modern and contemporary Romanian. ... The Romanian Academy (Romanian: Academia Română) is a cultural forum founded in Romania in 1866. ... Academy of Sciences of Moldova (romanian Academia de ÅžtiinÅ£e a Moldovei) is the main scientific centre of the Republic of Moldova, which coordinates research in all areas of science and technology. ... Aromanian (also known as Macedo-Romanian, Arumanian or Vlach in most other countries; in Aromanian: limba aromână, limba armânească, armâneashti or armãneshce) is an Eastern Romance language spoken in Southeastern Europe. ... Megleno-Romanian (known as VlăheÅŸte by speakers and Moglenitic, Meglenitic or Megleno-Romanian by linguists) is a Romance language, similar to Aromanian, and Romanian spoken in the Moglená region of Greece, in a few villages in the Republic of Macedonia and also in a few villages in Romania. ... Istro-Romanian is a Romance language used in a few villages in the peninsula of Istria, on the northern part of the Adriatic Sea, in Croatia. ...

They also share a few sound changes with the western Romance languages: some with Italian, such as [kl] > [kj] (Lat. clarus > Rom. chiar, Ital. chiaro) and also a few with Dalmatian, such as [gn] > [mn] (Lat. cognatus > Rom. cumnat, Dalm. comnut). However, most of them are original, see: Latin to Romanian sound changes. Dalmatian is an extinct Romance language formerly spoken along the Dalmatian coast of Croatia and as far south as Kotor in Montenegro. ... This article presents the sound changes that happened from Latin to Romanian. ...

The languages that are part of this group have some features that differentiate them from the other Romance languages, notable being the grammatical features shared within the Balkan linguistic union as well as some semantic peculiarities, such as lume ("world") being derived from Latin lumen ("light"), inimă ("heart") being derived from Latin anima ("soul"), etc. The Balkan linguistic union or Balkansprachbund is the similarity in grammar, syntax, vocabulary and phonology among languages of the Balkans, which belong to various Indo-European branches, such as Albanian, Greek, Romance and Slavic. ...

They also contain a Paleo-Balkanic substrate of a few hundreds of words, shared with Albanian (considered to be of Dacian origin) and 70 early Slavic borrowings, but the Hungarian language words are found only in Romanian and Istro-Romanian. The Eastern Romance languages contain around 300 words considered by many linguists to be of substratum origin [1]. Including place-names and river-names, and most of the forms labelled as being of unknown etymology, the number of the substratum elements in Eastern Romance may surpass 500 basic roots. ...

Languages

• Romanian (known officially as Moldovan in the Republic of Moldova)
• Megleno-Romanian
• Istro-Romanian

Megleno-Romanian (known as Vlăheşte by speakers and Moglenitic, Meglenitic or Megleno-Romanian by linguists) is a Romance language, similar to Aromanian, and Romanian spoken in the Moglená region of Greece, in a few villages in the Republic of Macedonia and also in a few villages in Romania. ... Istro-Romanian is a Romance language used in a few villages in the peninsula of Istria, on the northern part of the Adriatic Sea, in Croatia. ...

See also

• Romanian substratum words
• List of Romance languages