Etymology of Vlach
Vlach is a Slavic term used to designate the Latin peoples of South-Eastern Europe: Romanians, Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians and Istro-Romanians.
The origin of the name is Germanic: it originates with *Walha by which the early Germanic tribes called their Celtic neighbours, possibly derived from the name of the tribe which was known to the Romans as Volcae (in the writings of Julius Caesar) and to the Greeks as "Ouólkai" (Strabo and Ptolemy), see also Welsh, Valais.
As the Celts of Gaul were Romanized, the word changed its meaning to "Romanic people", as it is still kept in the name of the Walloons of Belgium.
This word for Romanic people was borrowed from the Germanic Goths (as *walhs) by the Slavs. Later on, the meaning of this noun in Slavic languages got narrower or just different:
| Language | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Bulgarian | влах | Romanian / Vlach |
| Bulgarian | влах | man from Wallachia |
| Bulgarian | влах | cattle breeder, shepherd |
| Czech | Valach | man from Wallachia |
| Czech | Valach | man from Valašsko (in Moravia) |
| Czech | valach | shepherd |
| Czech | valach | gelding (horse) |
| Czech | valach | lazy man |
| Czech | Vlach | Italian |
| Polish | Włoch | Italian |
| Polish | Wołoch | Romanian immigrant |
| Polish | wałach | gelding (horse) |
| Russian | валах | man from Wallachia |
| Serbo-Croatian | Vlah | Romanian / Vlach |
| Serbo-Croatian | Vlah | man from Wallachia |
| Serbo-Croatian (Croatian dialects) | Vlah | Istro-Romanian |
| Serbo-Croatian (Dubrovnik dialect) | Vlah | man from Herzegovina |
| Serbo-Croatian (western Croatian dialects) | Vlah | Italian |
| Serbo-Croatian (Croatian dialects) | vlah | medieval cattle breeder |
| Serbo-Croatian (Croatian dialects of Istria) | vlah | new settler |
| Serbo-Croatian (Dalmatian dialects) | vlah | plebeian |
| Serbo-Croatian (Dalmatian insular dialects) | vlah | man from the mainland |
| Serbo-Croatian (western and northern dialects) | vlah | Orthodox Christian |
| Serbo-Croatian (Podravina dialects) | vlah | Catholic who is a neoshtokavian speaker |
| Serbo-Croatian (dialects used by Bosniaks) | vlah | non-Muslim living in Bosnia |
| Serbo-Croatian (Travnik Bosniak dialect) | vlah | Catholic |
| Slovak | Valach | man from Wallachia |
| Slovak | Valach | man from Valašsko (in Moravia) |
| Slovak | valach | shepherd |
| Slovak | valach | gelding (horse) |
| Slovak | Vlach | Italian |
| Slovene | Lah | Italian |
| Slovene | Vlah | Serbian immigrant |
| Ukrainian | волох | Romanian / Vlach |
From the Slavs, it was passed on to other peoples, such as the Hungarians ("Olah") and Greeks ("Vlachoi") and was used for all Latin people of the Balkans. It also acquired a second meaning: "shepherd", after the occupation of many Vlachs of Greece and Serbia. In Albania, the opposite occurred: çoban "shepherd" comes to mean "Vlach".
The term was originally an exonym, as the Vlachs used various words derived from romanus to refer to themselves (români, rumâni, rumâri, aromâni, arumâni etc).
Historically, it was used to refer to all Latin people of the Balkans, but nowadays, this term is only rarely used to refer the Romanians, but rather to refer to the Aromanians, Istro-Romanians and Megleno-Romanians.
However, in Serbia, the Romanian minority (living especially in Vojvodina, Timok valley), although they are speaking the Daco-Romanian (standard Romanian) dialect, they are still referred as "Vlachs". In the Yugoslavian census figures, the Aromanians of Macedonia and the Romanians of Serbia were both classified as "Vlachs".
A name used for the Southern Vlachs of Greece is "Kutsovlach" (literally "limping Vlach"; possibly a reference to the way they spoke Greek), however the Aromanians consider it quite offensive. Another name used to refer to the Aromanians (mainly in the Slavic countries: Serbia and Bulgaria) is 'tsintsar', which is derived from the way the Aromanians say the word 'five': "tsintsi".
References
- Orbis Latinus: Wallachians, Walloons, Welschen
- Victor A. Friedman, The Vlah minority in Macedonia