Vlachs

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term denoting Romance-speaking ethnic groups primarily found in Eastern Europe; historically refers to pastoral communities with cultural and linguistic ties to Latin heritage; also used to describe inhabitants of regions associated with Vlach populations
2. An ethnolinguistic designation for peoples speaking Eastern Romance languages mainly in the Balkans; historically associated with shepherding and transhumant lifestyles; alternatively, used to identify communities residing in Southeastern European mountainous areas
3. Refers to a group of people with origins in Latin-based language traditions living across various Eastern European territories; traditionally linked to rural, nomadic herding societies; sometimes signifies the inhabitants of certain Balkan or Carpathian regions known for these cultural features

Etymology: The people's name comes from a word that was originally a insult, not an ethnonym. Proto-Germanic "walhaz" meant "non-Germanic foreigner" and was used by Germanic speakers for Celts and later for Romans, so the same root that gave English "Wales" and "Welsh" was applied far to the east. Slavic speakers borrowed it, probably around the 7th century, and it came to name the Romance-speaking herders and farmers they met in the Balkans. The earliest surviving record is from 11th-century Medieval Greek. The word is a doublet of "Gaul" and "wealh", meaning that English has these as separate, related words descended from the same Germanic source. "Walloon" shares the same root, so the Belgian region of Wallonia and the Balkan Vlachs are linguistic cousins despite lying far apart. In English, "Vlach" was used as a synonym for "Wallachian", the name of the region north of the Danube, from the 19th century.

Synonyms: romanians, wallachians, balkan peoples, latin peoples, romance speakers