Armãnji, Aromanians, Latin-Greeks

The southernmost group of Latin speakers still identifying as Romans, rendered as the term Armãnji in Latin script, among others, such as Aroman, Aruman, Arom'n, Arumani, etc, are called Aromanians in English. This is an anglicization of the term Gustav Weigand coined in his 1894 book Die Aromunen. He had previously referred to these people as Olympian Vlachs, based on the fact they called the shadow of Mt. Olympus their home, and then used the exonym the Greeks typically used for the Latin speakers of Northwest Greece. Gustav Weigand, a German linguist and historian, spent a significant amount of time studying these people in the 1880s, living among the community at Livadi, in Thessaly. Here's what he wrote in his 1888 publication Die Sprache der Olympo-Walachen:

In English:

“The character of the Olympian Vlach is reserved, suspicious but entirely honest. Of

particular admiration is his thrift, which borders on stinginess. He holds hospitality to be

sacred, like any self-respecting citizen of the Ottoman Empire. In terms of cleanliness,

moderation, and strict morals, he surpasses the ethnic Greeks.”

The term these people call themselves typically is written with a vowel such as "a" before the "Roman" identifier, due to a linguistic phenomenon called an epenthetic vowel. While not exactly 100% perfect as an example, still a good way to think of this is as if someone answers "I'm a Roman" when asked what group of people they belong to, and then over time, and partly due to interplay with the surrounding languages, the vowel comes to be included with the main word, and the answer to the question is given "I'm Aroman". In official Greek political discourse, they are now referred to using a term best translated as Latin-Greeks.

The term Aromanian is an exonym, that immediately associates these people with Romanians. Indeed, some 40% of the language is mutually intelligible with Romanian. The main difference is that the Aromanian language has absorbed a number of Greek and Albanian loanwords, while the primary language the Romanian language borrowed from is Slavic. This is because Romanians live north of the Danube River and are surrounded by Slavic speaking countries, and the Aromanians have historically called the Gramos and Pindus Mountains of Greece well into Thessaly their home, a great big chunk of Northwest Greece. 

They would typically spend the summer in their cottages in Samarina and the surrounds, and in the winter, herd their flocks into the plains of Thessaly. There is a short film by Tim Salmon, the British linguist and journalist, that details their historic annual migration, albeit in a more modern way, Dhiava: The Autumn Journey. It can be seen in English on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJfom155v_o. In the film, his cohort travels to Vlachogianni, just a handful of miles from Livadi in Thessaly.

The Vlachs, Aromans, Latin-Greeks, were known for wearing black wool coats, carrying simple shepherd staffs, and having a keen sense of direction.

They typically worked in the occupations of mercenary, merchant, craftsman (barrel-making, carpentry, etc), and shepherd, in addition to their original occupation as Roman soldiers. Their historic pastoral association led them to be employed as muleteers and guides, at which they proved especially adept.

But to get a better sense of just who these people are, one needs to back up, way back to 168 BCE. This is when the Roman Empire begins the Macedonian Wars against the Greek and Illyrian population (Illyrians namely being progenitors of the Albanian people), and effectively begins colonizing the eastern Adriatic. This phenomenon begins in earnest after 146 BCE, when Rome defeats the Greeks and Illyrians, making Macedonia a Roman province. The earliest colony was at what is now Preveza, in Epirus, Greece.

Colonists from all over the Roman world were brought in as administrators and muscle men, while locals adopted Roman language, customs, and discipline through military conscription, voluntary service, trade advantages, etc. It is accepted by modern historians that the vast majority of Southeastern Europe was Latin speaking, and the locals identified with the Roman state, just as Gaul (France), and Hispania (Spain) during the empire's heyday. Unfortunately, the administration from the city of Rome broke down, during the late 5th century into the 6th. The Slavic and Germanic peoples breached the Danube River, and colonized the region en masse. The capital of the Roman Empire had been transferred  to Constantinople in 330 CE, and slowly but surely, Greek came to be the favored language over Latin. The descendants of Roman colonists, as Latin speakers, then no longer had political representation, or imperial backing, and took to living in the foothills of mountains, rather than fight a losing battle with the invading Slavic, Germanic, Turkic and other steppe peoples. Today, these Latin speakers east of the Adriatic are best represented by the Romanians north of the Danube River, who took to the Carpathian Mountains, and the "Aromanians" of Northwest Greece, who took to the Gramos, Pindus and Olympus Mountains.

Agriculture is difficult to impossible in mountainous regions, and so the Aromanians came to rely on animal husbandry instead of farming for their caloric needs. Sheep provide the wool for their clothing, a useful trading resource, and the bulk of their food in the form of meat and dairy. The Aromanians rely on this particular resource heavily enough that in the propaganda of the surrounding countries they are often dismissed as simple shepherds, however this is certainly heavy handed oversimplification rooted in racism and nationalism. During the early Middle Ages, the Latin-Greeks were often employed by the Romaion Empire (the continuation of the Roman Empire administered in the Hellenic language from Constantinople) as guides for their military. Indeed, the first reference to the Romanian/Aromanian language as something distinct from Common Latin used by the military is around this time. Research the "Torna, torna, fratre" events of the 6th century for more information about the early references to these people. 

It is not until 731 CE, that the connection with Rome was finally severed for the ancestors of the Aromanians. It was at this time that the Patriarchate of Constantinople (forebears of what is now the Orthodox church) took over the religious representation and servicing of what is now Northwest Greece and Albania from the Patriarchate of Rome (forebears of what is now the Catholic church). Here a new identity begins to emerge, as the church and its services, which amounted to the main form of political and state representation back then, were in Greek. This split was over the use of images and statues of important church figures, which the Patriarchate of Constantinople was against, while the Roman Papacy maintained “idol worship”.

Throughout the Middle Ages, from about the earliest references to these people colloquially known to their neighbors as Vlachs (a Germanic loanword used to refer to Latin speakers), til about the Ottoman era, the greater region now known as Thessaly was known as Great Vlachia. This is how concentrated the Latin speaking descendants of Roman colonists were in the region. They had long term dwellings built like much of Europe out of stone, wood and plaster, which they lived in exclusively for the summer and part of the seasonal transition, and then led their flocks to pasture in the winter, which is when the surrounding population would largely be able to notice them. These pastures were typically handed down from generation to generation of families, and led to a kind of seasonal pseudo-migration between grassland and home for much of the population until the advent of the World Wars. 

When the Romaion Empire finally falls at the hands of the Ottomans in 1453 once Constantinople is captured, the situation changes immensely. As Latin speakers, the Aromanians are not thought of fondly, and were equated with the Crusading armies of what is now France and Italy, who were fellow Latin speakers. After some time passes, their usefulness as regional guides and their sense of discipline and personal responsibility is coerced by the Ottomans, who recognized these qualities while noting they did not have the political power of the ethnic Greek population. The Aromanians were offered tax incentives (a lower rate), dismissal from the “devshirme” system where the Ottomans would kidnap healthy young men especially from the Christian population to serve as soldiers in their armies, and the allowance (and requirement in many cases) to bear arms. The Aromanians were the only Christian group in the entire region allowed to be armed by the Ottomans. As one can imagine, this led their neighbors to feel a particular way about them, which is why this is crucial information to understand, as the rhetoric surrounding their history is largely written by the neighboring countries, and much of the readily available material online about their history reflects this fact. In many ways, they were simply identified too strongly with the "west" to be accepted by the "east", and in many contexts, seen as too "eastern" to be accepted by the "west".

 The Latin-Greeks during the Ottoman era tended to become merchants, as well as border guards and guides as part of the Ottoman military. Once they had started to acquire some wealth and build cities such as Moscopole in Albania, and Samarina and Metsovo in Greece, the Ottomans banned them from military service, and barred them from carrying weapons. The Ottomans then fueled ethnic tension between them and the Albanians who had started converting en masse to Islam in the early 17th century, which led to raids and pillaging of Aromanian towns. 

This led to the phenomenon of many Aromanians adopting a Greek identity, and a great many ended up becoming fully Hellenized after the Greek Revolution of 1821. Since by this time they had been in the Orthodox church for over a thousand years, their language had absorbed many Greek loanwords, and many of their names (especially in conjunction with recognition in the church) were Greek, and the status of “Christian” and “Greek Orthodox” were synonymous, while those who were interacting with the neighboring populations as merchants and soldiers were typically at least bilingual, Greek being the prestige language in the region, it became the norm to see yourself as a Greek, at least from a political sense. After Greek independence, which many Aromanians had been dear supporters of, the official government policy was hellenization, at times even encompassing the banning of teaching of their Latin language, banning of independent schools, forced naming conventions etc.

Within the last 25 years, Sotiris Bletsas was fined the 2023 U.S. equivalent of $2600, arrested, charged, and sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2001, merely for raising awareness that a Latin language has historically been spoken in a giant chunk of Hellenic territory by passing out a European Bureau of Lesser Used Languages pamphlet. While there is a corollary in Italy due to the numerous Greek colonies of the Italian Peninsula, especially prior to the Roman Empire, which survives as a linguistic phenomenon as Griko/Greko, namely in Salento and Calabria the heel and toe respectively of the Italian Peninsula, official Greek policy in many ways because of the history of the greater region has been not to acknowledge minorities of any non-Greek speaking population and force them through political means to hellenize. The Griko people of southern Italy were only officially recognized by the Italian state as an ethnic and linguistic minority in 1999.

Sotiris Bletsas was later acquitted after an extensive appeals process which involved international intervention.

He was excited about the Aromanian language from an early age after this experience (excerpt from his book Forbidden Mother Tongue: The Case of Aromanian in Contemporary Greece):

This could lead us into a discussion of another Romanish group, the Romansh of east Switzerland. Switzerland is a diverse place, with 4 official national languages, French, Swiss German, Italian, and Romansh. Their German dialect never underwent the German Romanticism movement, which sought to purge the German language of loanwords from other languages, and so Swiss German has preserved a number of Latin loanwords which were recognizable to the young Latin-Greek Sotiris Bletsas.

Probably the most well known person of Aromanian descent is Michael Dukakis, the former governor of Massachusetts and Democratic party nominee for President in 1988. He lost the popular vote by about 7 million count to George H.W. Bush, otherwise he would likely have been U.S. President when the Soviet Union collapsed. Michael Dukakis’ mother was born to Aromanian parents from Vrysochori, 23 miles north and east of Ioannina, Greece. Of course, this fact was not well known because Dukakis emphasized his vaguely Greek heritage, and the Aromanians had already been exceedingly hellenized by 1988.

The alternative to hellenization, was effectively "Romanianization", specifically after 1860 until WWII. The immense aid given by Britain, France and others to Greece to sustain the Greek Revolution against the Ottoman Empire came with the ignorant opinion that the "Roman" identity was a thing of the past, and no recognition of a Latin speaking population was deemed important. Greece was to be "restored" to its ancient, pre-Christian boundaries, and the Roman identity put to rest (Greek speaking people called themselves the word in their language for "Roman citizen", "Romaioi", up until WWI. This is because the capital of the Roman empire was transferred to Constantinople, what is now Istanbul in Turkey, by Constantine the Great in 330 CE). So a population in Greece that still called themselves Romans, even phonetically the same word, who spoke the Latin language, were ignored in the best interests of the creation of the modern Greek nation-state. If they had been recognized internationally, most of what is now mainland Greece, specifically the northwest corner, would be called the Aromanish Republic, Great Vlachia, Arumania, or something similar. The Greek state could not have this happen. So there was a campaign to convince the Aromanians that they in fact were nothing more than Latin speaking Greeks, and since Greek writers from antiquity have called the Latin language a dialect of Greek, convincing these people they were Greeks was an obvious "solution" that would mean significantly more territory for the young Hellenic Republic (the official international term for what in English is known as "Greece").

Those who did not want to become "Greek" (hellenization), either ignored the situation, or left for Romania, since Romania since the early 1860's had funded campaigns to convince the Aromanians that they were in fact, Romanians who had wandered south from the territory of Romania, into the Gramos, Pindus, and Olympus mountains. This was to counteract the claims from Hungarian nationalists that Romanians in fact, were actually Aromanians themselves, who had wandered north of the Danube from their homeland in the Gramos, Pindus, and Olympus mountains. Romania also wanted to stock some of its territories that were not majority Romanian-speaking with Romanian speakers, and so teaching the Aromanians the Romanian language and convincing them to move to Romania and identify with the Romanian nation-state was a political move. Aromanians had been moving northwards for better economic opportunity and to escape the Ottoman empire for centuries anyway, often to Vienna, Austria, or Odessa, Ukraine, or in fact, Romania.

Romanian schools were set up in Aromanian territory in the 1860's as Thede Kahl (foremost outside researcher on the Aromanians) outlines.

This leads us to the next group of Romanish people to cover, what are known in English as Romanians. 

Christos Zafiris was born in Krania, Elassona, Thessaly, and has written numerous books about Thessaloniki, and "Greek" merchants, typically Aromanians, who moved north. There is a series about the phenomenon, produced by Zafiris that can be seen on YouTube here (albeit in Greek): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNCkZ2gaYVI&list=PLQxdr3j0l2Ld_z5KlqvqgbJSFHf4cgXpj&index=1. 

Excerpt from journalist and linguist Tim Salmon's book The Unwritten Places (writing about his Aromanian guide Karayiannis):

"His white hair stuck in sparse spikes from his scalp. His face was creased and his shoulders were a little bent, but still, at sixty-two, his legs devoured that slope with the steady regularity of pistons. His was a very Vlach build, short and square-shouldered, strong without being heavy, with a broad brow and fine bony nose set very square to the eyes. Hard to describe exactly, but there is very definitely a Vlach physique, and character too, in a general sense, whose most marked feature by contrast with the Greeks is a certain reserve."

Some examples of Aromanian identity:

Visual:

Dhiava: The Autumn Journey (1998), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJfom155v_o

Merchants of SE Europe (Βαλκάνιος πραματευτής), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNCkZ2gaYVI&list=PLQxdr3j0l2Ld_z5KlqvqgbJSFHf4cgXpj&index=1 

Auditory:

[Language] Spiro Poçi, Two Brothers, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW3O2W3qagM 

[Music] Stergios Dardakoulis, Vlahika ke pogonisia (1986), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Z6lriBqL4&list=OLAK5uy_kycKlSubWplgoQM-dTsalhpwfziYk8qXQ&index=1 

[Music] “Stelios” Dardakoulis, Vlahohoria mou agapimena (1979), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mca9lLeSeMQ&list=OLAK5uy_mn0mz3IZFwxA6Vm88Q3PAdM1SYDmmWj9M&index=1 

[Live Music Performance] Petros Halkias, The Soul of Epirus, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S96Ohfkj1vs 

Gustatory, Olfactory:

Baklava

Spanakopita

Mediterranean-seasoned Lamb[chop]

Tsipouro (or similar “clear grape pomace brandy” sans anise, such as Georgian Chacha)

Feta

Kefalotyri

Saganaki