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Vlachs ("Vlach"/Romanian: Vlahi or Rumâni, Serbian: Власи or Vlasi) are an ethnic group of Serbia, culturally and lingustically cognate to Romanians.

They mostly live in eastern Serbia, mainly in Timočka Krajina region (roughly corresponding to Bor and Zaječar districts), but also in Braničevo and Pomoravlje districts. Some Vlachs also live around Vidin in Bulgaria.

Religion and language

Vlachs are Eastern Orthodox Christians by faith and they speak "Vlach" (Romanian) language. The language spoken by Vlachs is similar to the Oltenian dialect spoken in Romania. The Serbian Vlachs belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church, and share with the Serbs one of the basic features of the tradition, family slava.

Vlachs are divided into four different groups, each speaking their own distinct dialects:

• the Carani (Ţărani)
• the Ungurjani (Ungureani / "Ungureni")
• Ungurjani-Munćani (Ungureani-Munceani / "Ungureni-Munteni")
• Bufani.

Of these, the Ungurjani or 'ungureni' seem to be related to the Romanians of Banat and Transylvania, since 'Ungureni' (compare with the word "Hungarians") is a term used by the Romanians of Wallachia to describe their kin who once lived in provinces formerly part of the Kingdom of Hungary. There is also a group of Vlachophone Roma centered around the village of Lukovo, as well a few Aromanian families who live in Knjaževac but they form a tiny migrant group.

Although the Vlachs of the Timočka Krajina are culturally and linguistically cognate to Romanians, they differ in dialect from Romanians in the Banat who live just north of the river Danube in adjacent parts of Serbia, while their customs and subsequent history rendered them a different identity.

Population

According to 2002 census, there were 40,054 ethnic Vlachs in Serbia, while 54,818 people declared to speak "Vlach language". The Vlachs of Serbia are recognized as an autochtonic separate ethnic group, separate to the Romanians of Serbia, which number 34,576. On the census, the Vlachs declared themselves either as Serbs or Vlachs. Therefore, the real number of Vlach people is much greater than the number of declared Vlachs both due to mixed marriages with Slavs and also Serbian national feeling among some full-blooded Vlachs.

Historical population (according to different censuses)

The following numbers reflect on the possible number of Vlachs in the censa:

• 1921: 142,773 "Vlach"-speakers in Central Serbia
• 1931: 57,000 Romanian/"Vlach"/"Cincar" speakers were recorded in Eastern Serbia (52,635 in the Morava Banovina and the rest in southern parts of Danube Banovina south of the Danube)
• 1953: 198,793 Vlach-speakers in central Serbia (169,670 declared as Serbs, 29,000 as Vlachs)
• 1961: 1,330 Vlachs
• 1981: 135,000 people declared "Vlach" as their mother language (population figure given for the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
• 1991: 71,536 "Vlach"-speakers in Serbia (of those 53,721 Serbs, 16,539 Vlachs, 42 Romanians; out of the 17,807 declared Vlachs, 677 Serbocroat-speakers)
• 2002: 39,953 declared Vlachs, 54,726 people declared Vlach as their mother language (population figures given for Central Serbia)

The Vlach population is concentrated mostly in the region limited by Morava River (west), Danube River (north) and Timok River (south-east). According to the sources from the Vlach community, the Vlachs live in 134 villages (exclusively with Vlach population) and in 20 towns (with mixed population - Zaječar, Negotin, Bor, Kladovo, Majdanpek, Požarevac, Jabukovac, etc).

Vlach identity

Despite their separate recognition, Vlachs are cognate to Romanians in the cultural and linguistic sense. Some Romanians, as well as international linguists and anthropologists, consider Serbia's Vlachs to be a subgroup of Romanians. Additionally, the Movement of Romanians-Vlachs in Serbia, which represents some Vlachs, has called for the recognition of the Vlachs as a Romanian national minority, giving them similar rights to the Romanians of Vojvodina. However most Vlachs of Eastern Serbia opt either for the Vlach, Serb or even Yugoslav identity before the Romanian one.

Romania has given a significant amount of funds to the Vlachs for the preservation of their culture and language, since at present the Vlachs' language is not recognised officially in any localities where they form a majority, there is no education in their mother tongue and there is no media or education funded by the Serbian state. This is in part due to the Vlach's own refusal during the 1950's when such offers were practically pushed on them by the Communist regime.

On the other hand, some Vlachs consider themselves to be simply ethnic Serbs that speak the "Vlach language". In fact ethnic research has found that among the Serb-speaking population of Eastern Serbia, some are Slavicized Vlachs and some "Vlach"-speakers were formerly Slavs (such as in the village of Šljivar) or even Roma (such as in Lukovo). Many Vlachs do not see themselves as ethnic Romanians, because, while culturally and linguistically cognate to Romanians, they have lived in Serbia for generations and hence do not identify with the Romanian nation, but rather see themselves as a distinct Eastern Romance people.

Many of those Vlachs who see themselves as Serbs were during the history a hard-line Serbian nationalists, and many went off to fight as volunteers on the Serbian side in the wars in Krajina and Bosnia, together with Serbs from those regions whom they saw as religious and ethnic brethren. One of the reasons why Vlachs consider Serbs to be their ethnic brethren is because many Serbs have Vlach origin. During the Ottoman rule, a Slavic Serbs migrated from the cities and valleys to the mountains where they mixed with Vlach population, thus present day Serbs have both, Slavic and Vlach blood. Many historical sources mention Serbs under names of Vlachs, Morlachs (Black Vlachs), etc.

It must be noted that Vlach is commonly used a historical umbrella term for all Latin peoples in Southeastern Europe, including Romanians. In more recent usage, it is a synonym for Latin peoples south of the Danube, hence excluding Romanians. This term is a base for the modern Vlach ethnic identity, since Vlachs see themselves as a descendants of those ancient Vlach peoples, and rather see Romanians as a subgroup of the Vlachs than Vlachs as a subgroup of Romanians. From the Vlach point of view, Romanians are those Vlachs who created their state of Romania, and who named themselves after this state.

Famous Vlachs

Possibly the best known Vlach from eastern Serbia is Zoran Lilić, who was the president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between 1993 and 1997.

See also

• Romanians of Serbia
• History of the term Vlach
• Vlachs

External links

• The Vlach (Roumanian) Federation of Serbia
• Romanian Ethnogenesis
• about Vlachs (Serbian language)
• Vlach toponimy of the Timoc valley area
• Maps of Vlachs in north-east Serbia
• The Vlachs in Yugoslavia and their magic
• The Vlach gardens of Eastern Serbia
• Report on the State of Human Rights of Rumanians and Vlachs in Serbia
• Old images of the Vlachs of Timoc, Vidin and Rahova
• Where the Vlachs of Homolie gather, Great forum and galleries

• Ethnic groups in Serbia
• Ethnic groups in Europe
• Vlachs