Basil Chulev

•∘⊕∘•

The Vlachs ("Wallachians" or "Łyachi") – Europe’s forcibly

Latinized population, e.g. Vlachs, Franks, Germans,
Iberians, Lombardians, Romanians, Aromanians, etc.

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Skopje, Macedonia 2016

Introduction - Vlachs, arguably the most numerous "small change" group of people in Macedonian
peninsula and wider European region, extroverted as an artificial "minority" in their very own
homeland due to the centuries of occupation, assimilation and slow latinization. A doctrine of false
appearances and misleading conceptions that were installed during the past centuries by institutions
like the church and western monarchies. The phenomenon of 'Latinization' needs to be understand
in relation with the past and actual reality of the western-fabricated historiography. Its basic concept
is the (world) domination, but the modeº of its implementation is very similar, if not the same, to the
gamble-game practiced by the street cheats, called 'Three Card Monte', only on a much larger scale.
Namely, the Latinization is yet another bogus shift process, meant to swindle as much as possible of
the world population, and to make them believe in something that never existed. This is done with
purpose to confuse the people by erasing their common sense, make them easily manipulative, and
turn them against each other in order to obtain profit and consequently a power to rule them. It is a
long assimilation process, which makes the people (and their cultures) conform to the ruling class
ideas and the thirst for profits of the western world, its monarchies, and the Latin (catholic) church.
This ‘Three Card Monte’ style shifting was implemented by mixing-up the historical chronology
and bringing into disorder different historical realities, thus confusing the way of perception by
introducing different politically-invented ethnic terms. One such a pseudo-term is the word “Vlach”,
highly manipulative and similar to the related artificial categories as “Germanic”, “Hellenic”,
“Byzantine”, “Slavic”, “Celtic”, etc. – all of which are modern pseudo-ethnic fraudulent deceptions.
For example, the term “Byzantine/Byzantium” that tends to describe the Eastern Roman/Romeian
empire, was invented by the German historian Hieronimus Wolf and inserted more then 100 years
after the actual fall of the Romeian capital and holy see of Constantinopolitana Nova Roma (i.e.
Constantinople). Needless to say that the Eastern Romeian empire in its millennium long history
never was in fact “Byzantium”, nor the Romeian people ever called themselves “Byzantines”. This
post-factum term was absolutely unknown in their time, and like the other politically-biased terms it
has no historical background other than the manipulative one.
Likewise, for the “Latin” in the dictionary we can read: “the language of ancient Rome and its
empire, widely used historically as a language of scholarship and administration.” So, a language
of ‘scholarship and administration’, but not of the people, even much less of the Macedonic,
Thracian, and/or Dačian (e.g. Getae) people on the southern slopes of Carpathian mountains (later
designated as “Vlachs”), which were light years away from Rome. Not different is the case of the
Bulgari and Tungri, initially Turkic groups migrated from Asia in 6th century, later designated as
“Slavic Bulgarians” and “Franko-Germans” respectively…
Thus, in medieval Croatian documents written in Latin, the term “Vlach” is translated as ‘Latinus’,
i.e. “Latin.” The people from Poland call Italy “Wollochia” and the people “Wlochy”, because most
of Italy is actually an assembly of Latinized non-Roman regions and populations (thus ‘Vlachs’).
As follows: Venetia (Etruscan-Venetic region)1 and Lombardia (i.e. “The land of the Longobardi”)2
were areas populated by the people of Macedonic descent3; ‘Magna Graecia’ - the ancient “Greek”
cities in southern Italy founded from c. 750 BCE onward by colonists from Euboea, Sparta, and
elsewhere in Peloponnesus; Toscana region was populated by Etruscans, again settlers from
Aegean; Sardinia after genetic research was proved to be populated by people originated from
Macedonian peninsula too… Not to mention the Barbarian2 invasions in 4th-5th century that
brought to the fall of Rome and separation of the Roman empire into many independent kingdoms
and principalities. Those were the fragmented ethnicities of Italy, which were Latinized in the same
way like Romania (ex-Wallachia), France (ex-Gaul), Spain and Portugal (ex-Iberia), etc.
Countries and people that were once aboriginal non-latin lands, during the centuries of slavery and
Roman tyranny were more or less forcibly Latinized. Nevertheless, for confirmation of their non-
Latin past it’s enough to look at the local place names. The same is true for the greater part of the

1
Veneti,Winden, germ. Wenden, lat. Venedi; also "Wendish" (so called Slo-Veneti) in the Alps; another
neo-Latin term denoting non-Italic Illyro-Macedonic population in the regions of Lombardia and
homonymous Veneto/Venetia. First mentioned by Homer as Enetoi from Macedonia.
2
From the late Latin ‘Langobardus’ - ‘the long beards’; english: ‘Lombardian’, comparable to
‘Barbarian’ - ‘barbed-Aryan’, from Italian ‘barba’ - beard.
3
see Eneti/Enetoi and Tyrseni or Tyrsenoi. According to ancient authors the Aegean ancestors of the
Veneti and Etruscans (from Latin: et truscan - ‘a truscan’, corrupted form of Tyrsen/Tersene -
“complicated” in plain Macedonian).
Vlachian "Germania" and "Austria" (i.e. Oste-reich - the ‘east(ern) kingdom’)4, which are also
Latinized-Germanized ex-Venetic and Macedonic lands: ex-Carantania, Great Moravia, Polonia,
Pomerania, Sorabia, Lužička Sorabia, etc.

4
‘out of the hat’ country, “Austria”, meaning ‘eastern-kingdom’ (from German ‘osten-reich’) is another
bogus-term meant to erase the previous original names of the Great Moravia, Carantania, Venetia, etc.
- all of which were originally Macedonic nations before their fall under the Holly Roman Empire,
created by Vatican and Franks (another non-ethnicity term!) of Charles the Great (Charlemagne).
Vlachs (also spelled Vlah; in medieval Latin Blachus5) call themselves Roumanš,
Armãnš and/or Rãmãnš, which can be translated as “the Roman nation”, but without the modern
connotations of “nation”.6 Among them there is also an internal social subdivision, according to
different professions inside of their communities which are preserved even today through their
surnames. Among these the best-known representatives are the Aurari (goldsmiths), the Boyadžiu
(cotton and wool painters), the Kalderaš (coppersmiths), the Lovara (horse traders), the Ursari
(bear leaders), the Linguari (spoon makers), etc.
Beside their most known name the Vlachs are also known by other Macedonic terms: “Tsintsari”,
again a clearly pejorative term related to their way of talking, actually corrupted onomatopoeia of
the phrase “ci faci” – thus ‘cincifaci’ - ‘what are you doing?’ (used as “Hello”); in Aegean
Macedonia they are also known as “Koutso-Vlachs” (‘lame-Vlachs’) and “Megleno-Aromanians”
(because they live mainly in Meglensko region); in Republic of Macedonia as “Vlasi”, “Aromani”,
“Armano-Macedonians” and “Macedo-Aromani”; Turks called them simply “Čobani” (meaning
“pastoralists” in Turkish); in Matia and Dalmatia Venetians called them “Morlaks” (or
“Morlachs/Mavrovlachi” - ‘Black-vlachs’); in Serbia they are also called “Torlaks”; in western parts
of today Bosnia, Croatia and Istria they’re called “Ćići” (a diminutive of Serbo-Croatian “Ćiribiri”,
another pejorative term for Vlachs (comparable to Macedonic “Tsintsari”). It is claimed that terms
Ćići and Čiribiri are not of the same origin. Apparently the name Ćići came from saying 'Chi-Chi',
and Ćiribiri of “Ćiri-biri”, which means 'hold firm'. These were the Morlachs from Mt.Velebit
which by the mid-15th century lead by St. Ivan VII ‘Frankopan’, settled on the island of Krk.
“Vlach” it also occurs in Hungarian as “Olasž”, in Polish as “Łiachi”, in Slovenian as “Laški”, in
Russian as “Volokh”, in Yiddish as “Walach”, in French as “Valaques”, etc.
Estimates of the number of Vlachs and of Aromanian speakers vary widely. The only reliable
official figures for those declaring Vlach ethnic affiliation comes from the Republic of Macedonia
(2002) - 9,695, with 6,884 declaring Vlach their mother tongue. Estimates for Albania (2011) are
8,266 individuals (the real number is much higher, see below “The case of Azem Vlasi”), with
3,848 claiming Aromanian as their mother tongue; in Bulgaria (2011) - 3,684 ethnic Vlachs (again
the real number is highly underestimated); estimates for Romania vary between 30,000 and 100,000
(regardless of the claim of Romanians that the Vlachs are actually Romanians!); and the estimates
for Greece vary even more (due to flagrant refusal of the racist Greek government to recognize
any ethnic minorities on its territory). Worth mentioning is the fact that the only country that fully
recognizes their ethnicity, language and distinctiveness as minority is Republic of Macedonia,

5
note the B/V transition, because the Cyrillic “B” is pronounced as Latin “V”, for example:
Byzantia is Vyzantia in plain Macedonian. Thus Blachus is actually Vlach(us); see also
Vulgar/Bulgar.
6
Even in English, the adjective ‘Romaic’ (analog to other bogus terms like “Slavic” or “Hellenic”)
has occasionally been used to refer to modern Vlachs and their language. What is important to
note, though, is that the ‘Romaic’ community was not ethnically “Vlach” nor “Roman”, it was not
ethnically based at all. The Romaic proto-nation was associated with a definite territory, that of
the Ottoman empire (but the Orthodox Christians outside the empire were not called “Romans”),
it had a common religion and a common higher culture, and it had common administrative
institutions in the Roman Millet (or Rumelia). Both Ecclesiastic Septuagint and Church
Macedonic were used as sacred languages, and the Septuagint-speaking clergy did not try to
hinder the use of Church Macedonic before the creation of the new nations in 19th century
(Detrez 2008, 160).
where the Vlach minority has schools and TV Emissions in their language, and the Aromanesque-
Vlach community is politically and culturally represented in all the institutions.
By plain definition Vlachs are “Romance-language speakers who live south of the Danube” in what
are now Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, southern Albania, Aegean Macedonia in
northern Greece, Republic of Macedonia, and southwestern Bulgaria. The majority of Vlachs speak
Aromanian, but inhabitants of a few villages on both sides of the border between Greece and
southeastern Macedonia speak Megleno-Aromanian and call themselves Vla’ (plural Vlaš). There is
also a Vlach diaspora in other European countries, especially Romania, as well as in North
America and Australia. Modern Romanian scholars (cf. as a classic: Capidan 1937; Papahagi 1932)
and also the members of the Aromanian diaspora in the Boston area in the USA, Germany and
France, classify the Albanian Aromanians among the Macedo-Aromanian group or “Southern-
Danube Romance” culture. Simply summarized, they search for the basis of their cultural concept in
the linguistic evidence that the Aromanian language is a Romanian dialect.
And, for comparison to these Latinized-submissive groups, there are the portions of Macedonian
and Latinized-Macedonian population (i.e. Vlachs) which later, under the Ottoman Turks
occupation, were further Islamized and renamed into: “Torbeši”, “Babuši”, “Gorani”, “Pomaci”,
“Poturci”, “Shqipetari” or “Shiptari” (today “Albanians”), etc.
In all Macedonic languages the plural word for Vlach is “Vlasi", which is by some scholars
associated with Veles - a shaggy-demonic demiurge pagan deity, god of the woods and the cattle,
corresponding to the Egyptian Ptah and Danaan Hefest (Latin: Hephaestus). The very Macedonic
name of the medieval pagan deity Veles, etymologically ‘V’lesse’, actually means “in the woods”.7
Polish terms “Wollochia/Wlochy” (in old Polish scripts “Łiachi” or “Łechii”; Hungarian-Latin
“Blacus”) as well as “Vlach” actually originated from the vernacular Macedonic “Lyachi” (i.e.
‘Lyahki’ or ‘Leki’ - easy), which generally means ‘incapable’, ‘unable’ or even ‘retarded’, and it is
a disrespectful word for the Latinized Macedonic people, that were converted by force, bribe, or
other means. The root of the word is to be found in the Macedonic adjective word “Lek” or “Lak” –
light, weightless (transitive ‘easy-minded’), denoting their treacherous conversion and submission
to the Romans. As a result of this pejorative connotation, it became a norm (though nowadays more
or less abandoned) to write the initial letter of name “Vlach” in lower-case – vlah instead of Vlah, in
order to emphasize that this community was not based by any means on ethic/national identity, but
on common interest (sheep herding) and a distinctive, nomadic/semi-nomadic and pastoral way of
living. Thus, in Macedonian peninsula and wider central European region the term ‘vlah’ describes
rather a profession and/or a way of life, not ethnicity. The contrived act of transformation of the
Vlachs into “ethnicity” and even nation (Romania) in 19th century, was direct outcome of the
counterfeit politically-biased western historiography.
Furthermore, in the western parts and northwest of the Macedonian peninsula there is the region
where the Morlachs i.e. “Mavrovlachi” (the ‘Black-vlachs’) dwelled. Known as “Stari Vlach” (or
‘Old Wallachia’) it’s in the central Alpine region of Matia (today Albania)8, and the name “Stari
7
see Russian „Les“ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/лес
8
“Mt. Kovač, Mt. Morlachia - the dwelling highlands of the "Morlachs": (koine: MavpoBlaxoi - Mavro-
Vlachs, or ‘Black Vlachs’), an etymology noted by the early Dalmatian chronicler, the Presbyter of
Dioclea (Douklya), who, after identifying them with the descendants of the Roman Provincials,
translates their name into Nigri Latini (‘black latins’).” - from Sir Arthur J. Evans "Antiquarian
Researches in Illyricum – IIV", p. 46.
Vlach” by itself affords sufficient indication that these inaccessible highlands continued to be a
stronghold of the Romanized indigenous Macedonic element, during, and long after the Roman
occupation. These are the western bordering mountain districts of Macedonia, and the ancient
names Matia and Ematia show us their Macedonic origins from the natives that are of Dessaretian
and Lychnid descent (around the lake Ohrid).9

9
Sir Arthur J. Evans “Antiquarian Researches in Illyricum – IIV”, pp. 24, 37, 38.
The Vlachs from Macedonia and Wallachia (today Romania)10 went even further with their herding
migrations. Thus, in Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia even today we have their settlements. In
Bosnia there’s a village Vlaška; in Serbia the village of Vlasi; in Croatia we have Vlaška Ves and
Marina Vlaška on the island of Brač, and even the actual Coat of Arms of Croatian capital city of
Zagreb still has the six-rayed star and crescent from the Wallachian ducats of the reign of Vladislav
II (1447-1456; see the image below); in Slovenia there are places of Laški Rovt, Laško, Laška Seč (a
mountain), etc. The term “Laški” (which in northern Macedonic languages means both
“Vlach/Latin” and/or “Italian”) as an adjective in Slovenia is widely used to describe a myriad of
things from everyday life. There’s a wine “Laški Rizling”11, a type of beans called “Laški fižol”, and
even one kind of local frog is named ‘Laška žaba’ (i.e. “Vlach frog”):

Below: the double-headed eagle, the six-rayed star and crescent, as Vlachian symbols
were actually adopted from the East-Romeian empire of Konstantinopolitana Nova Roma
(Constantinople). As they appear: on the Wallachian ducats (coins) and CoA of Vladislav
II of Wallachia (1447-1456); Wallachian star on the very first Albanian flag (1912); and on
the actual CoA of city of Zagreb, capital of Croatia

Venetian sources sometimes used the term ‘uskok’ as a synonym for the Vlachs: in 1599, Nicola
Dandolo, the Venetian governor of Dalmatia and the commander of the fleet, informed the Senate
of Venice that “almost all uskoks are Turkish subjects of Morlak ethnicity,” neglecting the fact that

10
Walachia, the principality of Moldavia, was founded in 1359 and included Bukovina and
Bessarabia.
11
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welschriesling
these Dalmatian “Morlaks” were not a part of any particular ethnic or national community and were
happy to identify themselves with the pre-national multiethnic Orthodox Christian community.
But, lets go back to the question regarding their origin - who are these people nicknamed
"Lyachs/Vlachs" or “Wallachians”? Who were they before being Latinized and renamed into
“Vlachs” and later nationalized as “Romanians”, “Albanians”, etс.
 Macedonic origin of the Balkan ‘Vlachs’
The issue of the origin and identity of the ‘Vlachs’ still continues to raise controversies in European
different politically-biased historiographies. But, some indubitable traces seem to prove that the
origin of the Vlach people was actually in the southern part of the Macedonian peninsula, from the
indigenous Romanized Macedonic population, living in the highlands of the southern Balkans.
According to many sources from the ancient historiography, it seems without any doubt that
different groups of Macedonian shepherds from the southern parts of Macedonian peninsula
survived the historical troubles of the Roman invasion of Macedonia in the 2nd century BCE. But,
during the Roman occupation many of them were forced or chose voluntarily to serve as soldiers in
Roman army, and, with time, many of them were gradually “Romanized”. Geographically and
culturally of Macedonic origin, in different epochs and under different historical conditions, most of
these people moved over the extensive Macedonian peninsula and toward Lower Danube area.

Above: illustration from ‘Cosmographia Scoti, Notitia dignitatum’. Etc. folio no. 090v
Basel,1436
Nevertheless, their basically Macedonic origin is one of the reasons why the people here live in
ethnic symbiosis even if the ethnic image in different parts of this region of Europe is so extremely
diverse and specific.12
Erodot (lat. Herodotus), the “father of historical writing” visited Dačia (today “Romania”) around
480 BCE and he named the people there as “Getae”. According to him and other ancient authors,
the inhabitants of later Roman province of Dacia comprised of four or five tribes and they built
their tribal culture under Macedonic and Gaulic (?) influence. According to different historical
sources the oldest Getae tribes in these regions were the Triballi, the Moesians, the Pikenze,
Trikornenze and Timahi. Nevertheless, the conventional science so far has not been able to prove
which of those supposedly belonged to the Gauls, Dačians, Thracians or Macedonians. But, their
ethnonyms indubitably show their distant Macedonic origin. Namely, “Triballi” (i.e. ‘Three-
polians’)13 and “Trikornenze” (i.e. ‘Three-corners’) derived their names from the ancient
Macedonic term, widespread across all the Macedonian peninsula - Tripole, later adopted and
Latin-modified as ‘Ilirsko Tripole’ (Illyrian Trypole or Tropole)14, denoting the central strategic
position of the Macedonian peninsula as the crossroad between the three neighboring regions - Asia
Minor, Northeastern and Northwestern Europe; also the “Moesians” is yet another derivative from a
Macedonic term - “Mezza” (“Meša” in plain modern Macedonian) meaning “mixing” or “where it
changes” (a ‘melting pot’). Even a Mule, i.e. the offspring of a donkey and a horse in plain
Macedonian is still called “Mazga”. These “Getae” from Dačia lived in strong rock-fortresses,
their society was organized in clans with military-social character, and they practiced agriculture
and animal breeding. They were also experienced miners, and they sold their gold, silver, iron and
salt to neighboring Macedonians, using Macedonic coins in their commercial affairs.
When in AD 107 emperor Trajan annexed this barbarous region to the Roman empire, the country,
exhausted by six years of obstinate warfare, was little more than a desert. Roman legions, full of
bloodthirsty revenge, because of the great loss in human resources on the Roman side too, almost
completely exterminated the entire population of Dacia. The unfortunate country became one
burning bloody slaughter. Trajan’s column in the Roman forum is one of the best historical
evidence of the complete destruction of ancient Dacia. To repopulate it, the emperor transported to
it, as Eutropius (VIII, 6) tells us, multitudes of colonists “ex toto urbe Romano!” from all the
neighboring territories of Rome. The population of this country was even more mixed in the second
century AD than it is today, where all the races of Europe are still bickering and battling with one
another. Besides the remnants (if any) of the ancient Dačians, were found here Macedonians and
12
The Macedonic origin is the most plausible fact and is gaining support among the Vlachs in
Macedonian peninsula. One of the representative scholars on this issue is Branislav Stefanoski,
who states that “Arm'n-Macedonians are direct descendants of the Ancient Macedonians” and
that “their vernacular ancient language is almost completely preserved through Arm'n-
Macedonian (Paionian-Pelasgo-Traco-Illyrian-Macedonic).” See Branislav Stefanovski books:
“Pelasghyi - Limba, Carte, Numa”, “Short Descriptive History About The Origin Of The Arm’n-
Macedonians (from prehistory to the colonization of Dačia”, “Hyperboreii ši Zamolxismul”, etc.
13
Oxford Thesaurus Dictionary gives the following explanation: “ORIGIN Old French : ‘tribu’,
from Latin ‘tribus’ (singular and plural); perhaps related to tri- ‘three’ and referring to the three
divisions of the early people of Rome (?).”
14
see Jovan Dragaševič “Ilirsko Tropolje: Balkansko poluostrvo. Vojno-Politička Studija”
(“Illyrian Tripolye: Balkan Peninsula. Military-Political Study”). Note: “Tripole” in plain
Macedonian means “Three-fields”; also, ‘-pole’ is present in many names of Macedonic places
and cities: Lazaropole, Moskopole, Galipole, Konstantinopole (Constantinople), etc.
Panonians, Gauls, Carians, and Asiatics, people from Edessa and further from Asia Minor, and still
others besides, all of whom continued to practice the languages and religions of their native
countries. That’s one of the reasons why there’s no written records of all these different groups. As
vulgar plebs they were utterly administrated and governed by their Roman rulers.
Until the fall of the western Roman Empire in the 5th century, and following the strategic Roman
retreat from the region on the northern banks of Danube, it was known by the name Dacia Traiana
(part of later Transylvania and Oltenia). After AD 271 (when emperor Aurelianus withdrew his
legions and colonuses (settlers) from those territories), the future “Vlachs” gradually settled in the
abandoned by Romans lands. Groups that migrated from the south towards north arrived first to the
Dobruja region and than to the Munthenian area15. Their pastoral migration toward north lasted for
several decades, or even a century or two, until the first flocks of opposite-migrating people from
Asia appeared from the northeast. Six hundred dark years followed in this era. There are no
buildings or other traces of these “Proto-Vlachs” to be found, nor do we have any documents or
other data proving their early existence. Not only did the ancient Dacia drop out of history in AD
27116, but the region returned to history (and literacy) only with the introduction of the Cyrillic
alphabet. It is certain, however, that Transylvania was subject to the rule of the invading Goths until
the beginning of the 5th century. As we can see, Aurelian let them conquer Dacia in 271.
Then the Huns conquered Transylvania with their devastating attacks, but after the collapse of their
empire the area became the property of the Gepids, and later of the Lombards (i.e. Longobards). In
the second half of the 6th century Dacia was conquered by the Avars. Their empire existed until the
end of the 8th century AD.
An old Romanian anonymous chronicle tells us that the first conquest of the Vlachs came from the
southern part of the Danube through Oltenia under the reign of the Bеsarab Dynasty (Note: the
founder of this dynasty, Besarab, was born at the end of the 13th century). The name of “Vlachs”
actually appears for the first time in 976, in chronicler John Skilitses writings. Also, the name
‘Vlachs’ (or Wallachians) was clearly the name given by other Macedonic people to those latinized
parts of their own population in Southern, Central and Eastern Europe. The origin of the name is
related to Macedonic etymology: same origin leads to the words “Welsh” and “Walloon” in other
parts of Europe for local populations considered Romance17 (ex. Prince Charles of Wales).
In the western dictionaries under “Vlach” we read: “a member of the indigenous population of
Romania and Moldavia, claiming descent from the inhabitants of the Roman province of Dacia."
Further it says: “origin from a Macedonic18 word meaning ‘foreigner’19, (and/or) from a

15
Area between the Carpathian mountain range and thc Lower Danube.
16
As it happens, only one other place in the Roman empire dropped out of history in quite the same
way was Britain. The withdrawal of Roman forces in AD 410 dropped Britain into a void very similar
to that of Dacia.
17
the languages evolved from Latinized group of Indo-European languages, principally: Albanian,
French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan, Occitan, Romansh, Romanian and Aromanian.
18
I use the word 'Macedonic' instead of “Slavic” for good reason, as the word and the concept of the
second is modern invention that was unknown to the ancient populations and is empirically wrong. Its
use perpetuates misleading assumptions, which this paper tries to avoid altogether.
19
Word “Vlach” doesn’t mean 'foreigner' in Macedonian nor in any other language. Its base 'lyach'
[liāh] in plain Macedonic means ‘incapable’ or ‘incompetent’. See also “Lyape.”
Germanic word related to Old English Wælisc (see Welsh20)” for the Gaul/Celtic/Germanic
(sources differ on this) tribe known as “Volcae”. Which is by the way too generic term to be true
and its clueless as explanation, since the “Volk” i.e. ‘Folk’ is simply “people” in plain German (see
Volkswagen - ‘popular-car’).21 The so-called ‘Germanic’ (from Latin “Germanus”22) etymology can
be discarded immediately, as bogus neo-Latin invention itself, and not related in any way to any of
the Central-European peoples or regions whatsoever, and totally foreign to the vocabulary of the
population which tries to describe (comparable to the aboriginal “Indians” of America, which
appeared not to be from India). But, unlike the “Vlachs” or “Romanians” (the supposed
“descendents of the Dačians”23), the so-called “Germans” naturally call themselves “Deutsch”,
same as their closest neighbors further north which are “Dutch” [də-ch], both of which are terms
that clearly resemble their ancestral ethnonym - “Dačian” [də-chi-an]. It appears that the so-called
“Germans” have more in common with the nearby ex-Roman province of ‘Dačia’ (later Wallachia
and today Romania) than the people from today Romania who claim this same descent. And by
cultural and linguistic parameters seem that the “Deutsch” and “Dutch” people are the true
Latinized descendents of the ancient ‘Dačians’. Today modern “Romanians” don’t speak any
‘Dačian’ language, and their official language is “Roumanian”, one of the heavily corrupted
catholic-church Latin idioms or ‘Romance’ languages.24 However, about the presumed “Dačian”
language there’s no proof left, nor any preserved text exists. But, such basic root words as the
Macedonic ‘Da’ (reflected too in the German-corrupted ‘Yā’) - yes, leave no doubt about the distant
past, but, true origin of today Latinized “Romanians” and “Germans”.25

20
“Welsh”, from Old Germanic “Valš ” (pronounced ‘falš’); from Latin “falsum” - false, incorrect,
not according with truth or fact.
21
http://www.orbilat.com/General_Survey/Terms--Wallachians_Walloons_Welschen_etc.html
22
Adjective, archaic [postpositive] (of a sibling) having the same parents : my brothers-german;
Origin: Middle English : from Old French germain, from Latin germanus - ‘genuine,’ of the same
parents’; also “Herman” - ‘brother’ in modern Spanish. Also ‘neighbor’; compare to Old
Macedonic and Old Irish ‘gair’ - neighbor. Places: villages German in Aegean Macedonia and
Republic of Macedonia; also personal names: German, Gerro, Gari, etc. The true name of the
“Germanic” tribes was Tungri and/or Turcilingi, as reported by different sources: Gaius Cornelius
Tacitus, Paulus Diaconus, Lipsius, etc.
23
Dačia [dutcha], an ancient country in southeastern Europe, more precisely in northwestern part of
what was ‘Wallachia’ (i.e. “The land of Vlachs”) until 18th century, today known as Romania.
Because of its rich gold mines it was invaded and pillaged by Trajan in AD 106, after what it
became province of the Roman empire.
24
Romance - the group of Indo-European languages descended from Latin, principally: Albanian,
French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan, Occitan, Aromanian, Romanian and Romansh.
25
Needles to say that the region of Dačia was never conquered by Macedonians, so, the Macedonic
words in today Romanian are not imported nor imposed (like Latin) by force. They are just natural
remains from the original Macedonic idiom spoken by these people in the most ancient times.
 Above: a map that shows the separation of the church (the great schism of 1054) and the
distributions of Vlachs (Valaques) across the Macedonian peninsula in the 11th century

Western-Roman and Eastern-Romeian, Bulgar, Macedonic and other historical sources mention
various ‘Vlach’ elements which surfaced from the chaotic medieval situation in Macedonia.
Following the Roman, Gaul, Anti/Eneti/Veneti, Geti/Gothi, Hun, and Avar/Magyar/Bulgar
invasions and migrations, and their more or less temporary settlements, the bulk of the Proto-Vlach
ancient Macedonic shepherds interacted with the different foreign elements and gradually shaped
into separate social group. This prevalently social group of originally Macedonic people began to
be marked as “ethnicity” by the conventional historiography only in the 12-13 centuries, and
became yet another post-factum genealogical construct with relativized historical background. For
example, when the second “Bulgar” kingdom broke away from Wallachia in 1186 - it wasn’t
“Bulgar” kingdom at all - the revolt was led by the Asen brothers, who were Vlachs themselves.
John Asen I styled himself, in Latin: “imperator omnium Bulgarorum et Blacorum,” translated in
modern English: ‘emperor omnifarious Vulgar and Vlachian’. Nevertheless, even though Latinized,
they did not reveal any recognizable characteristics that were so typical for the legionaries and
citizens of Rome, and did not seem to have any substantial connection to the ancient and
disintegrated Roman empire. On contrary - they fought the Romans on every occasion.
In regard to this question it must be mentioned that the medieval East Roman Empire wasn’t an
ethnically based state, and the Romeian emperors likewise weren't properly Roman. Nonetheless,
the Macedonian dynasty of Eastern Romeian empire did recover back nearly half of the old West-
Roman empire from the Vandals and Goths. What Justinian I the Great26 was by nationality is a
large but little noted part of the story of “Vlachs”. He is a descent from a Macedonian family in
Tauresium (today village of Taor) near Skopje, the modern capital of Macedonia. His birthplace
was part of the province of Macedonia Secunda, which together with Dacia Mediteranea, Epirus
Vetae, Epirus Nova, Moesia and Prevalitana were part of Diocese Macedonia.27 Following his
destiny among other things he learned to speak fluent Latin, and while serving in the Romeian army
at Konstantinopolitana Nova Roma (Anglicized: Constantinople), through military career he rose to
an emperor. What Justinian I the Great was and what he did contain important elements of how the
mediaeval world was becoming different from the ancient, and how the later Eastern-Romeian
empire was thoroughly different from the old Western-Roman empire. His deeds also contain
conclusive elements of how and when the “Vlachs” finally emerged from the original Macedonic
and neighboring populations.
Namely, it is well known that the emperor Justinian I the Great raised the Episcopacy of his
birthplace, Tauresium, (today village of Taor, in vicinity of today capital of Macedonia, Skopje) to
the Archbishopric rank with the name Justiniana Prima. What is not so well known is the fact that
the Archbishopric of Justiniana Prima was the first place where intentionally a Latin form of
Christianity was introduced (later renamed into “Catholicism”). Justinian did this in order to project
his influence from Konstantinopolitana Nova Roma through Skopje episcopacy toward northwest,
i.e. the heavily Romanized western parts of Macedonian peninsula, and as far as the very Apenninic
peninsula with old Rome, which he just reconquisted from the barbarians. Thus, with the creation of
a powerful holy center in Upper Macedonia (ex Roman province of Macedonia Seconda) he
intended to undermine the growing influence of the remote church in Rome, the only powerful
institution left from the old Roman empire, and possibly to frame it under his rule and under
jurisdiction of the holy see in Konstantinopolitana Nova Roma. In line with his policy he built
many important religious centers on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, as Diokleia, Ravena,
Salona, Sirmium, and even as far as Tharros in Sardinia. With the old Macedonic stratagem already
mentioned above, through this new Latin-preached form of Christianity, Justinian was aiming at the
religious assimilation of Italic-speaking and Latinized populations in western parts of his empire,
yet this time not from Rome but from Konstantinopolitana Nova Roma (Constantinople).
But, Rome remained distant as ever from Konstantinopolitana Nova Roma, and the means of
communication and transportation in those times represented unsurmountable obstacle even for the
powerful emperor as Justinian I. His presumptuous act didn’t turn out to bring the desired results,
because it lacked the most persuasive means of conversion, i.e. the sword and fire, which were
implied against other schismatic churches on the other side of Mediterranean Sea, during the
Romeian conquest in North Africa. Nevertheless, Justiniana Prima exercised decisive influence on
the life of the Romanized Latin-speaking portions of Macedonian population in the 6th century

26
‘Peter the Just’ (lat. Petro Iustinian) - Petruš Vaistinition in plain Macedonian.
27
With the Adict of Milan by Constantine I the Great Christianity became a state religion in the
4th century, and beside by provinces the Roman empire was also divided by Dioceses.
Macedonian peninsula. The Archbishopry elevated status and privileges where definitely confirmed
on the Fifth Universal Synod of the Church, where in AD 553 the instauration of the holy see of
Justiniana Prima in Episcopal city of Skopje was institutionally proclaimed and affirmed by the
highest church instances. This gave the new impetus to these Latinized portions of indigenous
Macedonic lands, and further to other Romanized populations across Europe. These Latin-speaking
people in, lets say Macedonia - would much later became known as “Vlach” people, whose
language would eventually evolve into Romance language called “Vlachian” or “Aromanian” south
of the Danube, and much later into “Romanian” north of the Danube. Accordingly, in Spain
“Vlach”-Latinized would become the local people, whose Latinized Iberian language would
eventually evolve into Romance “Spanish”; in Gaul into “French”; in Cisalpine Gaul into
“Romansh”; in Epirus and Matia into Romance “Albanian”; etc. In short, Justinian I the Great and
all these Latinized groups of people across the Macedonian peninsula by origin were still ethnic
Macedonians, whether in the modern or the ancient sense, regardless of the fact that they learned
the administrative Latin idiom and became Western Roman or Eastern Romeian subjects.
The use of “Latin as Esperanto” Christianization idea of Justinian I the Great instead of bringing
closer the distant parts of his empire in long term provoked the opposite effect. Macedonic peoples
where utterly segregated by the Latin rite, which was not accepted by the majority of the
Macedonians. That’s also one of the reasons why different communities around Macedonian
peninsula resisted so long the official Christianization. Further, the Eclesiastical division between
the Macedonic population formed groups of Latin rite on one side: Croats, Czechs, Slovaks,
Slovenians and Polacks on one side, and Orthodox rite on the other: Macedonians, Serbs, Bulgars,
Moldavians, Romanians, Russians, etc. This more political than religious segregation finally
became a real physical frontier with the great church schism in 1054, and is clearly observable even
today. The feud that broke between the two churches (of Rome and Constantinople) reflected on the
Macedonic population too. People were so disappointed and tormented by this religious conflict
that in the 10th century in Macedonia appeared even a new Christian movement, the Bogomilism,
an early precursor of the Protestantism.
However, the things for Eastern-Romeian empire began to degrade rapidly, and the tide of decline
ensued. While Romeian power could’ve still be well projected into Italy in AD 663 and Pope Martin
I (649-654) could still be arrested, brought to Constantinople, and exiled to the Crimea, none of this
could be done any longer as the 8th century progressed. Constantinople first lost Ravenna in 733,
than it was recaptured, and finally was lost forever in 751. This was the end of Ravenna as a center
of Eastern Romeian power. Further, the pope Gregory III (731-741) from Rome took the next step
into dividing the west from east, by appealing for assistance to the Franks. But, in both 739 and 740
Frankish king Charles Martel declined to intervene. The next pope, Stephen III (752-757), however,
traveled directly to the court of Charles' son, Pepin the Short (753-754), and pleading for help
brought him a “golden letter sent by God himself...(!)”.
Meanwhile, the East-Romeian empire was losing territories and possessions in Asia Minor and on
the sea too. The first of the Balearic islands fell to Islamic invaders in 798, Crete was taken in 823,
and Sicily was invaded in 827. The old Roman unity, maintained by East-Romeian empire, and in
theory even by the distant Franks28, cracked, and then shattered. Islamic seafarers permanently

28
French kings (Charles IX, Henri II, Louis XIII, Louis XIV) for centuries were sworn in by
putting their hand on this holy book, known under the name 'Texte du Sacre' or 'L Evangile
de Reims'.
severed Konstantinopolitana Nova Roma (Constantinople) from any chance of projecting real
power to the west or south. This new age of terror is sometimes called “The Second Dark Age”.
On religious plan the decline ensued too, with the church schisms that provoked alienation and
deviation from the original credo. Church became an institution that cared only for the self-
fulfillment, people were meant just as a stock for financial and political exploitation and warring
purposes. The privileged status of Justiniana Prima was about to change too, following the
Mongolian, Hun and others invasions from north. Their impact on this important Archbishopric was
disastrous, and the Roman-Rite swept away with Latin-preaching church ceasing without a mark. In
AD 602 the holy see of Justiniana Prima retreated from Skopje to Ohrid, where it became known as
Ohrid Archiepiscopacy. The Archbishopric's role in Skopje was taken over by an orthodox
Metropolite, subaltern of the Patriarch who was residing in Ohrid. In 7th-8th century the Latin was
replaced with Septuagint Koine and later in 9th century by Church Macedonic liturgical language
(much later renamed by the conventional politically-biased modern historiography into “Old
Church Slavonic.”) 29
In that precarious situation is when the religious movement of Bogomils, the early precursor of
Protestantism, appeared in Macedonia.

Above: Vlachian (Mavrovlach or Morlach) soldiers from regions of Matia and Dalmatia

29
“Old Church Slavonic, the liturgical language of the Eastern Orthodox Church, is based on
Old Macedonian” - from “Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture” by J. P. Mallory and
Douglas Q. Adams, p. 301.
 The Romanian wannabe-Roman attempt
The 19th century newborn state of Romania added to the historic, politic and diplomatic controversy
of the “Vlachs”. The facts of the ancient historical migration and evolution of the Vlachs coming
from the south was suddenly opposed in the 20th century by the modem Romanian political
aspirations. Politically-biased nationalists presented a theory which tries to connect the descendants
of the Wallachians directly to the ancient Romans, especially to the Roman conquest in ancient
Dacia. This national-romantic imagination became a myth, and gradually became a political
propaganda. Influenced by this new theory, historians (even those who previously adopted the
documented migration of the south-Macedonic Vlachs) became influenced by this new claim of the
modern Romanian-national agenda. Having from now on yet another imposed theory of
Vlach/Wallachian origin most of the historians faced this problem as one more of the “unsolved
questions of European history.” The Romanian politicians as everybody else simply followed the
overall 19-20th centuries event of the new nations upheaval, when young nationalists desperately
needed historic national myths, and if a young nation does not have such myth one should’ve been
created. In 1913, with the publication of the famous book "Prehistoric Dačia" by Nicholas
Densusianu, springing from the nationally vigorous imagination of the author, the claim was laid on
Dačians as people who had developed an advanced prehistoric civilization of Dačia (?), then after
mixed with Romans, thus posing today Romania as cradle of the entire European civilization…
Therefore, even without any real historical evidence, Romanian neonationalist-wannabes used the
myth of “Dako-Roman-continuity” as a great incentive tor the “reconquest” of those territories which
were “lost by their Dacian and Roman forefathers.”
If the statements of the Romanian historians were true, and the people of Dačia were converted to
Christianity in the 4th and 5th centuries, than they remained Christian throughout the time of the
people migrations and they have continued to live in Transylvania without interruption since that
time - then their churches, monasteries, chapels, abbeys and cemeteries should attest to their
presence. Many authors has painstakingly examined the existence of cultic places and the dates of
their foundation. They looked for those buildings whose existence is questionable but in vain; they
found none. It is a well-known fact that, since man has existed, he has built cultic places in his place
of settlement. Archeological research has not found any cultic places built by the Christianized
Dacians from the 4th and 5th centuries. Nor can it be proven that, in the two centuries following the
Magyar homecoming, from the 10th to the 12th century, the Romanians built Macedonic Orthodox
churches in Transylvania. The first trace of Romanian cultic places cannot be found until the 13th
and 14th centuries, when the Vlachs migrated through the passes of the Carpathian Mountains from
the central and southern Macedonian peninsula into Transylvania.
Around 870, Dacia Traiana and a part of Transylvania were placed under the authority of Bulgars.
If ‘Daco-Romans’ (Rumanians) had lived there, they would have had to yield to the brutal Bulgar
force used against them and convert to Orthodox Christianity. However, we cannot find any
contemporary traces of any Vlach church architecture, either in the wider Macedonian peninsula or
in Transylvania. The historical sources do not mention the “Romanized Dacians“ or the
“Vlachs/Romanians in Dacia” until the 12th century, although numerous sources talk about the
Vlach people in the Macedonian peninsula since the 10th century (976). Then all of a sudden in the
annals of Macedonian peninsula history Wallachia appeared at the end of the 13th century, north of
the Lower Danube. Accordingly, the first trace of Vlacho-Romanian cultic places cannot be found
until the 13-14th centuries. First it was a semi-independent, later as an independent principality,
then it was united with Moldavia in 1859, and with the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian
monarchy after the World War I an opportunity occurred for the Wallachians (then already called
“Romanians”) to claim Hungarian Transylvania as a former “Roman province”.30
What can be deduced by this absence, until 13th century of Christian cult places in Wallachia, is the
continuity of Pagan worship among the remote pastoral communities of Vlachs, preserved until
nowadays in isolated regions, as the Reka Region in western Macedonia. People in these remote
villages still celebrate the woods spirits, animals and primordial gods, through strange rites and
animistic rituals, of which the original meaning is lost long ago.
According to the genetic, linguistic and other evidences the conclusion is the following: Macedonic-
speaking "Lyachs/Vlachs" are the minor Latinized remnants of the Ancient Macedonians,
“Tribalians/Dacians” (or “Getae”), “Germans”, “Pannonians”, etc. For example,
genealogical research showed that in the middle of the 15th century until the early 17th century, for
five generations, ancestors of Rhedey Claudine, Countess of Transylvania, and of Prince Charles
were Wallachian nobles, princes, and high dignitaries of the Bessarabian family.

Above: images from the LIFE magazine article about the minorities in Romania, of January 9,
193931
Later, the word was somewhat corrupted, being changed by different users. For example, as already
mentioned above, Italians in Polish are called “Wlochy”, and in modern Hungarian-Magyar
language Italians are “Olasž” and “Oláh” are Romanians, the Latinized Gaul and Germanic tribes of

30
On the other hand, the Hungarians, who ruled Transylvania (the same plateau) all the way from the
founding of their own state, except for the Turkish occupation, to 1918, like to claim that they were
actually there first, and that the Romanians came in later. These competing political claims, which often
have overtones of self-interested ethnic myth-making, make it very difficult for outsiders to evaluate the
arguments -- anyone might be reasonably suspicious of what any of the Daco-Romanian or Hungarian
sources say.
31
see the front page at the end of this article.
Tungri became “Franks” and “Alemani”, or Latinized Gaul/Illyrians (other corrupted terms)32,
namely wider Veneti-Etruscan population that were previously swallowed by the Roman empire.
But even under Roman occupation all these different “Vlachs” retained their special status, because
it was not possible to assimilate them completely, nor to defeat them entirely. Furthermore, in the
9th century, because unable to subjugate them by other means, the holy see in Vatican even allowed
to these Macedonic populations their own National Liturgy (so-called Illyrian Missal is still
preserved) in their own language, and even accepted and blessed the holy books in Glagolic/Cyrillic
script.33
So called Megleno-Aromanians designate themselves with the Macedonian form Vla’ (plural ‘Vlaš’)
in their own language in modern Vlach orthography used in the Republic of Macedonia, the only
country where Vlach language has official status (it is one of the officially recognized minority
languages). There’s also the term Kutsovlach (i.e. “lame Vlach”) which is sometimes used, but
many find it utterly offensive.
This problem of derogatory identity-shift between the late antiquity and early medieval identities
remains unsolved, and its importance is amplified by the fact that it still directly or indirectly
impacting upon the self-perception and construction of modern pseudo-ethnic identities in the
Macedonic and other regions of Europe. Somewhere deep inside these “Lyachs/Vlachs” are well
aware of this incredibly false situation, but they pragmatically accept their dogmatic duality as
virtue. In false hope to become “Romans” themselves, unwillingly but tacitly, they literally
resurrected as “Roman” drones, cynically accepting the dictatorship and phony identity provided by
the ruling empires. This ‘ethnic mimicry’ transformed their lives into endless theatre, total carnival,
because they’re in the circumstances where the factual origin is ignored and banned long ago, and
mere survival, deception and lie are in force. They despise themselves, unaware and blinded people,
which without any limit accept the official version of the state they are in. They’re called with
disgust "treacherous latins" or "lyachmans", "lyachi" and "tsintsari", which are all disrespectful
terms given to them by the still unaffected portion of the original population.
Ottoman Turks conquest of the Macedonian peninsula caused ulterior demographic turmoil and
triggered violent population movements. Migrations of the Vlachs turned some of once sedentary
regions into semi-nomadic ones, while agriculture was substituted with animal husbandry. The
change however, did not happen only in deserted regions where the Vlachs replaced previous
peasant populations; in some regions, peasants themselves turned to animal husbandry and semi-
nomadic ways of life, and revived patriarchal, clan, and tribal structures. It seems that this
development was not limited only to Macedonians of the Balkans but influenced also other groups as
well. It is important to note that this pattern does not contain any ethnic, but only cultural

32
"Illyrians" is in fact another pseudo-ethnic construction pulled-out-of-the-context which relies on a
generalization and deception. It is compared to similar convenient models of "Indo-European",
"Germanic", "Slavic", "Celtic" and other pseudo-ethnic inventions of the conventional historiography.
33
Macedonian saints Cyril and Methodius alphabetization mission in Great Moravia and Rome. In the
9th century was officially recognized by the Roman Curia, and finally proclaimed by the Pontifical
legate in AD 863 on the Great Moravia court in Velegrad, with the bull* “Industriae tuae”, which
appointed (St.) Methodius from Macedonia as archbishop of Great Moravia and allowed him to serve
the mass in Macedonic (i.e. ‘Old Church Slavonic’) language; moreover, French kings (Charles IX,
Henri II, Louis XIII, Louis XIV) for centuries were sworn in by putting their hand on the bible written
in Glagolic/Cyrilic script. This holy book known by the name 'Texte du Sacre' or 'L Evangile de Reims'
is still preserved in the City Library of Reims, France.
components - Macedonic and other groups of herdsmen had more common features among
themselves, than with agriculturalists of the same ethnic origin, transforming them into “Vlachs by
occupation.” Hence, a number of smaller groups with a social status similar to or same as that of the
Vlachs were soon absorbed under the Vlach name.
As far as the today ethnic identity of the Vlachs is concerned, nowadays Vlachs are classified in the
group of peoples with a so-called ‘double identity’, where one can distinguish three levels: ethnic
instinct, ethnic consciousness and national consciousness. Thus, according to the ethnic instinct they
declare themselves Macedonians, by ethnic consciousness they are Vlachs, but according to the
national consciousness they are divided along by the regional frontiers. Modern politically-biased
scholarship generally remains content with this forged assessment of their identity. Throughout the
centuries, Vlachs proved to be like chameleons, les caméléons des Balkans (I. Nicolau, 1993). In this
way the ruling neoimperialists, monarchies and new nations can maintain the status-quo and
continue their false premises, and the divided portions of once compact and cosmopolitan
Macedonic population cannot claim back their historic rights, glory and ravaged imperial heredity.
 From Latinization to Islamization - “Vlachs” becoming
“Albanians” following the Ottoman invasion
(the case of ‘Azem Vlasi ’ )

In relation to the previously mentioned ‘Albanians’, the fact of their multiple identity shifting, from
their previous Latinization through more recent Islamization, it is as plain evident as the nose on
one’s face. The same Latinized and other most poor strata of the Macedonic society, that were so
easy assimilated by Romans, looking for privileges and exemption from the taxes turned toward
their new masters, the muslim Turks, this time by accepting the new religion. The blatant example is
represented by the very name of the senior Kosovo ‘Albanian’ politician (an ex-terrorist sponsored
by Clinton-American administration during the 1999 war in Kosovo and 2001 conflict in
Macedonia) - Azem Vlasi (i.e. ‘Azem the Vlach’). His surname clearly discovers his previous Vlach
background, thus, previously Latinized autochthonous person, whose ancestors in the past during the
centuries of Roman occupation already switched their identity once - from the original Macedonic to
the imposed Roman/Romeian identity. And then after they once again changed their second identity
(and religion) into third one, when during the Ottoman Turks occupation the next strong identity-
shift occurred.
Following the Ottoman conquest of the Macedonian peninsula, these now ex-Vlachs, still a largely
nomadic and semi-nomadic population, made special arrangements with the Turkish conquerors.

Above: Vlach (Wallachian) Macedonic star on the Coat of Arms of George

“Skanderbeg” Castriot, the prince of Matia (today northern Albania) and Debar. As
recorded by Angelo Maria da Bologni in 1715

Poverty and hunger forced them to go even further, to accept the muslim religion. And again, same
as for the previous Roman conquerors, they served on the side of the foreign invader as a colonising
force within their own land and people. Manning auxiliary military units such as voyniks, martoloses
or janičari, like the famous George “Skanderbeg” Kastriot (who later rebelled against his Turk
masters) and irregular bashibozuks, in newly conquered areas they served under the Turks. In
exchange, the Ottomans granted to these ex-Vlachs wide exemptions from the taxes and autonomies
that made them significantly different from the ordinary subject population – râyâ (Turkish for
‘plebs’). In many cases, a decisive factor to determine who the “Vlachs” were, was the payment of
the filuri tax. Population subjected to the payment of the harâč tax sometimes resorted to adoption of
the Vlach identity in order to reduce the amount of ordinary râyâ taxes to the level of privileged
Vlach dues – rüsûm-i Eflakiye (as was established in the canon of the Vlachs of Herzegovina of
1482-1485). The same was applied for those Vlachs and other Macedonic groups who became
Muslims by religion, thus becoming (depending on the region) renamed into: “Albanians”,
“Bosnians”, “Torbeši”, “Babuši”, “Gorani”, “Pomaci”, “Poturci”, “Shiptars”, etc.
During the course of time, with centralization and changes to state structure, the economic system
and military organization occurring, many of the services that Vlachs used to provide for the Turks
became superfluous. As a result, the 1520’s saw the beginning of Vlach renewed sedentarisation and
a reduction of their privileges. By the end of the 16th century, these privileges resulted in the
majority of Vlachs’ social standing being equalled to that of the filuricis, and later with ordinary
râyâ peasants. The Vlach response to the lost privileges and pressure of the state was threefold: (1)
rebellions; (2) migration to Turk-enemies territory; (3) acceptance of new realities and the loss of
Vlach quality through further assimilation with the “ruling people” by means of islamization. That’s
how the Vlachs became “Albanians” (e.g. Azem Vlasi). Thus, these new vlachs, i.e. “Albanians”,
also became a “nation” in the 19th century upheaval of the new nations across the Macedonian
peninsula.34
Nevertheless, it seems that the greatest part of the Vlachs in the Macedonian peninsula remained
Orthodox christian. Despite the relativization of the true ethnic origin, or the administrative
definition of the Vlach status, their general significance should not be overlooked. Neither the
importance of muslim Vlachs, or other, non-Macedonic elements should be underestimated.

34
Accordingly, European “Albania” as a country was created by the western powers in 1912. Not to
confuse with the original Caucasian Albania.
 Vlach/Romance languages: Albanian, Aromanian, Catalan,
Church-Latin, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Romansh,
Spanish, Sardinian, etc.

From a strictly linguistic and genealogic point of view, the Vlach cannot be called a language of its
own, as it does not represent, at any level, an autonomous linguistic unity – in all its forms it is an
archaic, dialectal, but still living Latinized variant of the Macedonic or other languages.
Nevertheless, this perspective might change in respect to the definition of language, for it must not
be forgotten that language is not (entirely) a linguistic phenomenon, but also a social and political
one. The recent split of yet another branch of Macedonic languages, the Serbo-Croatian, in four
“different” (?) languages – Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin – even if the same
Macedonic ‘Shtokavian’ subdialect is the base for all of them, is a good example in this respect. And
even if they are all mutually intelligible and by a purely linguistic criterion constitute a single
language, they are, however, and for political reasons, recognized as distinct national standard
languages. Since the original ‘standard language’ can act as a symbol of ‘independence’ (always
assisted by foreign intervention for manipulative divisions), many groups are paradoxically keen to
keep “their language” separate from others who speak the very same language by changing it on
dialectical basis, despite the fact of being practically identical.
But, lets turn back to the very origin of the problem. If the Vlach idioms are Latinized variants and
corrupted alteration of the Macedonic languages, then the following question arises: if, as we know,
the Latin was only the administrative medium of the old Roman empire, and if there was nowhere
any original “Latin-speaking” population to be found, then by whom and for what purpose was
Latin invented and introduced in the first place? Especially if we know that it became a medium of
communication among educated people long after the decline of the Roman empire, and remained as
the liturgical language of the Roman Catholic church until the reforms of the Second Vatican
Council (1962-1965).
The only plausible solution to this puzzle is that the Romans, like so many other Macedonic
stratagems, copied the Filip II of Macedon’ and Alexander the Great invention of the Esperanto
“Koine” language [‘Коi ne?’ i.e. ‘Who doesn’t (speak it?)’; from plain Macedonian: “koi”- who, and
“ne”- not].35 Filip invented this trick, i.e. the ‘Koine’ language, in the 4th century BCE for practical
reasons, in order to facilitate his rule over the Danaans (“Greex”), Persians, Thracians, Thessalians,
etc., by improving the mutual communication. ‘Koine’ (renamed by the 18-19th century romanticist
philhellenes into “Greek Koine”) was the ‘lingua franca’ of the old Mediterranean world, a
simplified administrative idiom, meant to facilitate the communication between different-speaking
groups of populations across the Macedonian empire. Romans simply adopted and utterly implied
this old Macedonic stratagem in their benefit. They copied the existing Koine Macedonic script and
letters, and added or graphically changed a few (like the D, F, L, etc.). But, on difference from the
Macedonian empire, where Koine was voluntary choice of communication, Romans enforced their

35
A kind of artificial common language, coined from Macedonian phrase that describes a thing that
“Belongs to everyone” - ‘(Na) koi ne (e)?’ i.e. “Whose’ not! / To whom doesn’t (belongs)!” meaning
“Who doesn’t (speak it)?” - an exclamation through question, ‘out of question’, because everybody
(thus ‘Koi ne!’ - Who don’t!) understand/speak it. See /Koi/ on Macedonian online dictionary:
http://recnik.off.net.mk/recnik/makedonski-angliski/*%D0%BA%D0%BE%D1%98
Latinization with fire and sword. Occupied territories and subjugated, depredated and enslaved
populations experienced unprecedented predatory cruelty of Romans. Nothing alike the Macedonian
cosmopolitanism, Romans built their empire on most repugnant slavery and ruthless military force,
and the oppressed populations under their tyranny were regarded only as a raw material without any
or with very limited human rights. Lets not forget - in this primitive slavery society the “national”
sport of Romans was throwing alive people to the lions…
This violent Roman formula of centenial assimilation transformed numerous parts of indigenous
Venetic-Gaul-Illyric-Dacian-Macedonic populations into modern day Vlachs: “Albanians”,
“Aromanians”, “Germans”, “Franks”, “Spaniards”, “Romanians”, etc. A myriad of Latin-nick-
named ethnic chameleons were created by double shift politics: more than being ‘Latinized’ by
direct Roman oppression – they were also forced to use/speak this corrupted administrative Latin
language or Latin-crippled Macedonic languages, i.e. Romance languages, which accordingly later
became known as “Albanian”, “French”, “Portuguese”, “Romanian” and/or “Aromanian”,
“Romansh”, “Spanish”, etc.36
Linguistics is a descriptive discipline, and in order to avoid any biases we shall refer to the Vlach
vernaculars not as the “Vlach languages” nor as “Latin language derivatives”, but simply as
“Vlachian” or “Latinized variety of the Macedonic languages”. Some scholars call it “Balkan
Romance”, “Ladino”, etc. Daniel of Moschopolis (1802) called Albanian, Bulgarian, and Wallachian
(Aromanian) “Barbaric” languages. Long before him Macedonian was also considered a “Barbarian”
language. The modern Vlach variety of these Latinized Macedonic languages can be considered
‘heritage language’, following the widely accepted definition by Valdes (2000) that a heritage
language is a language which is acquired by individuals raised in homes where the dominant (in this
case the imposed Latin) language of the region is not spoken or not exclusively spoken. A heritage
language is normally acquired before the imposed dominant language, but, it is not completely
acquired because of the individual’s switch to that dominant language (Polinsky/Kagan 2007).
The Vlach variety generally lacks a substantial record of previous documentation. Since we do not
previously hear about ‘Romance’ or ‘Vlach’ speakers anywhere in the Macedonian peninsula, nor in
any known mediaeval history, and ‘Vlachian’ as a written language at that point was completely
inexistent, these people seem to just pop-up out of nowhere. Much the same is true of the Romance
speakers north of the Danube, which had largely been terra incognita for the previous thousand
years. Thus, anyone would wonder what had happened. Romance speech means Roman
colonization, but, there’s lack of proofs of that too. What we know from Roman sources is that the
province of Dacia, conquered and colonized by Trajan in AD 106, was abandoned around AD 271.
This was, as we have seen, a very bad period for the Romans, and Dacia was a salient into territory
mostly surrounded by increasingly active enemies. With the Roman withdrawal, the area drops out
of recorded history for many centuries, and notice of Romance speakers there doesn't occur until
something like the 14th century. Texts in the Vlacho-Romanian language don't occur until the 16th
century. Across the void of the Transylvanian plateau and Carpathian mountains, mediaeval

36
Take for example the French language – ‘Franks’ are latinized ‘Germanic’ tribes which adopted this
corrupted Church-Latin administrative ‘language’ (even their name “Franks” is a Latin term, it comes
from the Latin nickname for the battle axe these tribes used to fight with – the dreaded “Franziska” or
“Franca” - a Latin for ‘sincere’).
So, they are triple-tricked: first they were renamed by the Romans into ‘Germanic’ tribes, then they
were renamed again and divided from the rest of ‘Germanic’ nation as ‘Franks’, and at the end they
were Latinized by adopting the corrupted Church-latin ‘language’.
historians only notice the passage of nomads - Germans (Goths and Gepids), Huns, Avars, Bulgars,
Magyars, Petchenegs, Cumans, and, last but not least, the Mongols. In some sense, being out of the
reach of the armies of Roman and Romeian empires, Wallachia played the role of a “Pirate island”,
from where various brigands launched their raids throughout the Macedonian peninsula. The
locations of Wallachia and Moldavia seem like virtual nomadic hideout-land during much of the
Middle Ages, with no literate culture and no civil organization or political authority whatsoever,
apart from the nomadic invasions.
The “no men’s land” status of the ex-Roman province of Dačia changed slowly with the
Christianization. The early “Vlacho-Romanians” of Wallachia did not convert en masse or in any
organized way to Christianity, or we would have heard about their bishops at the Ecumenical
Councils. Nor did the “Vlacho-Romanians” acquired the religion from the Hungarians, for that
would have been allied to the Church of Rome, not of Constantinople. Instead, the Romanian Church
goes back to the conversion into Orthodox church rite, utterly confirming their linguistic and cultural
relations with the southern regions of Macedonian peninsula. The appearance of “Roumanian”,
written in Cyrillic alphabet, as well as the influence of the Old Church Macedonic (the liturgical
language of the first Vulgaro-Wallachian Church) are all evidence of that. The instauration of
official Vulgaro-Wallachian church, made by the emergent Vlach dynasty of Asens within the
Episcopacy of Trnovo, also meant the rise of the regional episcopacy into Patriarchate. “The Primate
of all Vulgaria and Vlakhia” (lat. ‘totius Bulgariae et Blachiae Primas’) is what the newly appointed
Patriarch of Trnovo called himself. The seat in Trnovo became the third independent Orthodox
church, right after the Macedonic church (Ohrid Archiepiscopacy) and that of Russia, authorized
from Constantinople. As Vulgaro-Wallachian kingdom declined and Serbia arose, another
independent Patriarchate was established in 1346 at Peč (in Kosovo), for the coronation of Stefan
Dušan as “Macedonian Tsar of the: Bulgars, Serbs, Wallachians, Romeians, etc.” In 1349 the Legal
Code (“Zakonik”) of king Stefan Dušan was issued.37
In regard and as comparison to the appearance of “Roumanian” - even more mysterious is the
appearance of the “Albanian” language. It is another Out of place language (a language by
development), and 90 percent of the lexical fund of the Albanian language is comprised by the loan
words taken from other languages. It is simply an admixture of many different sources: out of 5140
studied words Romance (Latin) element is the most present, found in some 1420 borrowed words;
Turkic in 1180 words; “Koine” within 840 words, and the rest 540 words are also of the Macedonic
provenance (together the sum of “Koine” Macedonic and Macedonic words is 1380); and finally
some 400 words are even found to be of African origin. Nonetheless, Macedonic language remained
an important connection between Vlachian (i.e. Roumanian) and Albanian, as it has been explained
by Noel Malcolm in the second chapter of his “History of Kosovo”: “Linguists have long been
aware that Albanian and Romanian have many features in common, in matters of structure,
vocabulary and idiom, and that these must have arisen in two ways. First, the ‘substratum’ of
Romanian (that is, the language spoken by the proto-Vlachs before their original language became

37
The “Zakonik” (Law) of king Dušan is mentioned here because in Paragraph 77 explicitly
sentences fights between villages with 50 “Perper” (golden coin), and fights between groups of
Vlachs or Albanians with 100 “Perpers”, thus clearly distinguishing them as nomads from
settlements of villagers. It also prevents the meadows from overgrazing by allowing just one
group of Vlach or Albanian shepherds at the most in a village.
Latinized) must have been similar to Macedonian; and secondly, there must have been close contact
between the early Vlach-speakers and today modern Albanians over a long period, involving a
shared pastoral life (some key elements of the pastoral vocabulary in Albanian and Romanian
originate from Macedonian). The substratum elements include both structural matters, such as the
positioning of the definite article as a suffix on the end of the noun, and various elements of primitive
Macedonic pre-Latin vocabulary, such as ‘copil’ or ‘kopil’ (i.e. ‘Kopile’ - a “bastard” in plain
Macedonian38).” Accordingly, the vallidation of the above and the overall Macedonic origin of these
Latinized idioms in Macedonian peninsula came again from the recent linguistic study of Jouko
Lindstedt, where in Summary he concludes:
”The most Balkanized verb system … of this type can be considered to be somewhere around or
south of the lake Ohrid (the very core of the Macedonian nation from most ancient times till today!),
where the local Albanian, Romance and Macedonic dialects share all these features.”39
For many centuries Vlachian was only a spoken and not a written language. When it was committed
to writing, as late as the 9th century - the Cyrillic alphabet was used, in line with the original
Orthodox faith of the people. Later western imperialism managed to insert a new national
consciousness in the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, where the language came to be
called “Romanian.” The name was at first itself influenced by Turkish pronunciation,
as Rumanian or Roumanian, but along with the adoption of the Latin alphabet and an attempt to
Latinize the language more, the name also was more Latinized. Several scattered enclaves of Vlach
speakers survive in Albania, Grease, Macedonia and Serbia, though the use of the word "Vlach" for
these is dying out, a process that is already concluded in Croatia and Dalmatia. The two greatest
enclaves of Vlach-speakers in Albania and Grease are now said to speak Aromanian, while another
enclave of speakers in Aegean Macedonia are said to speak Megleno-Romanian. And there is, of
course, the pockets of Istro-Romanian, which is all the way to the northwest in Istrian peninsula,
north of Dalmatia, a region previously heavily Vlachian.
Today Vlachs belong to four dialectal groups: Ţăranii, Ungurenii, Ungurenii-Munteni and Bufanii.
In spite of the lack of wider documentation about the Vlach variety, the standardization of the Vlach
language (called Rumîńašće) is currently taking place, a process accompanied by intense debates,
partly due to the fragmentation of the Vlach community, and partly to the delicate international
political context. Thus, the Association “Gergina” from Negotin, in northern Serbia, issued a
document titled ‘Proposal 2011’ in which we read the folloving definition: “despite the fact that the
language of the Vlachs is an idiom (dialect) which resulted from the Balkan Latinity, partly from
Romanian and partly with influences from non-Romance languages, it is specific enough to be
considered the mother tongue of the Vlachs.” Also, two systems of writing were adopted: the
Cyrillic and the Latin one, both based on phonetic principles. The Cyrillic-Vlach script comprises 34
letters and one syllable, dz. The Latin-Vlach script comprises 31 letters and four syllables: dž, lj, nj
and dz; the additional vowels, apart from the universal ones (a, e, i, o, u - from the old Macedonic
secret letter-prayer of the Bogomils), for both dialectal areas, are the long a - ă and long i - î.

38
constructed from the diminutive of Macedonic “Kako” - alike, and “pile” - a chick, small bird.
39
Jouko Lindstedt “Is there a Balkan verb system?” page 10, 2002
Below: some common words and phrases that retained their original Macedonic root,
etymology and meaning from the original Macedonian word; or where indicated (in
parentesis) their Latin transliteration as Romance languages in Aromanian/Romanian,
Albanian and English respectively:

Romance languages
Macedonian English
(Latin-transliterated) Aromanian/Romanian Albanian

Da Da Po (?) Yes
Zid Zid Mur (Latin) Wall
Yas gotvam. Eu gătesc. Une gautaj. I cook.
Se hrani. Se hrăni. Ha. Eats.
Hrana Hrană Ushqim (?) Food
Ѕоk od morkovi. Suc de morcovi. Lëng e flokëkuq.(?) Juice of carrots.
Vozdouh Aer, i.e. ‘Aether’ Ajror Air
(from yet another
Macedonic word:
‘Veter’-wind)
Miris Miros Nuhas Smell
(from yet another
Macedonic word:
‘Nyuh’- ‘smell’)
Zborish Angliski? Zburats Anglicheašce? A flisni Anglisht? Do you speak English?
Yas čitam. Am čitešć Unë lexoj. (Latin) I read.
Niva kopa plug. Niveluri săpa plug. Niveli gërmoj plugoj. Field digged (by)
plow.
Guska Gâskă Patë (erratic, from yet Goose
another Macedonic
word: ‘Patka’ - a
duck)
Pile Pui Pulë Chicken
Kopile Copil Copil Bastard (a child)
Таto Tata Atë Father
Маgare Magar Magar or Gomar Donkey
(Tosk dialect)
Mačka, Mače (diminutive) Mâţă Mače Cat
Vrapče Vrabie Trumčak (?) Sparrow
Sokol Soim Gjeraqinë (?) Hawk
Buf Bufniţă Buf Owl
Som Somn Mustak (Turkish) Cat fish
Pastrmka Păstrăv Troftë (Latin) Trout fish
Krap Crap Krap Carp fish
Pod Podea Kat Floor
 (from Macedonian
for 'floor, etage')
Tavan Tavan Tavan Ceiling
Ambar Hambar Hangar Barn
Koš Coš Kosh Basket
Sekira Secure Sëpatë (from Ax
Macedonic „Tseppa“
- splits)
Drvo Lemn Dru Tree
(from older Macedonic
form 'Les', mening
'Wood')40
List Listă List, List (or leaf)
(has two meanings: 'a leaf' or Prej lisi ('Oak' in
'page' in plain Macedonian) Albanian, „of leafs“)
Reka Curent (Latin) Rëke River
Struga Curent Struga Curent
Breg Țărm (?) Breg Coast
Barka, Brod (modern, from Barcă Barkë Boat
the old verb „Brodi“ –
'crossing over the water')
Vlasi Vlahii Vllehë Vlachs

40
see Russian „Les“ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/лес
 Vlach traditions and customs

Archaic elements have been largely preserved in customs throughout the year; the people strove by
magic rituals to secure a good yield of crop, a lot of cattle and health for the family. Vlach
communities also kept vividly their beliefs into genies, forest spirits, fairies, etc. In spring the most
important customs-date start with “Mladentsi” on March 22, when Vlachs make 40 “mladentsi”
breads (which is a small ritual bread). During the carnival days customs ringers wear on themselves
white trousers, Šuba (shuba, a roan) and Šubara (a roan hat), Klopotartsi (bells), ‘Kumaraks’
decorated with colorful wraps hanging down to the ground. In addition to the bouncing their bells
ring and drive away the winter.
Apart from all agrarian-magical customs performed throughout the year, there is also the cult of
ancestors, which is related to the fertility cult. The cult of ancestors holds a prominent position in
Vlach annual customs. With the departure of the deceased, the family did not sever its ties with him,
but maintained them in various ways instead. It was thought that the deceased needed food and
drink, heating, lights, clothes and other material goods in the world beyond, but also immaterial
things such as songs and dancing, music and the like. The family would deliver these things in
regular periods of time.
People thought of this world as transient, and of the other world as the eternal one. The mystical fear
of death, the insufficiently comprehended and explicable phenomenon of life and death, as well as
the respect of the dead, preserved customs and beliefs in the afterlife in a somewhat reduced and
altered form.
Blood brotherhood is a kind of artificial kinship that used to be made in the past in order to resist
spells, restore health or deliver somebody from evil.
Vlachs do not perform any work on certain religious holidays, so as to prevent thunder, hail and
storms from causing damage; all holidays are celebrated with feasts and rejoicing.
Above: the cover page of LIFE magazine from Januray 9, 1939
Below are some excerpts in Polish language from the ‘History of Russia’ (‘Historya Państwa
Rossyskuego’) from M. Karamzina, where the ‘Łiachi’ (Vlachs) are explicitly mentioned:

“O Izasłanie mowi Nestor poyde s Łiachi; Wsewołod ze poyde protiwu emu. Jeżeliby
sam Król powtornie przychodził z Izasławem, w ten czas Kronikarz zapewne, iak i
pierwey, wspomniałby o nim.”

“Daley w Kronike: sniaszasia wsi (Xiążeta Rossyiscy) u Czernsku (Czersku nad Wisłą?) i
woiewasze woroliszasia, tole wzemsze mirnych Łiachow, neze ratnych.”

“Kio Kron: Posłasza. posly k Izasławu Dawidowiczu, Jarosław Halicki Izbihniewa

Swiatosław Olhowicz, Zirosława Iwankowie za. Rostisław Mstisławicz i Mstisław
Izasławicz, Zirosława IEa- si He wic z; Jarosław Izasławicż Onujna, Wołodimer
Andreiewicz, Hawriła Wasilewicza, Swiatosław Wsewolodowicz Kiianina, Korol
(Węgierski) muża swoeho, iot Liachow muż swoy.... ”
References:

1. Sir Arthur John Evans “Antiquarian Researches in Illyricum -VII”

2. M. Karamzina “Historya Państwa Rossyskuego”
3. H.R. Wilkinson “Maps and Politics. A Review of the Ethnographic Cartography of Macedonia”
4. Domagoj Nikolić “O Vlajima i Vlasima” (“About Flavians and Vlachs”)
5. Vjeran Kursar “Being an Ottoman Vlach: On Vlach identities, role and status in western
parts of the Ottoman Balkans (15th-18th centuries)
6. http://recnik.off.net.mk/
7. http://www.makedonski.info/
8. Endre Haraszti “Origin of the Romanians (Vlach Origin, Migration and Infiltration to
Transylvania.)”
9. Giuseppe Motta “The fight for Balkan Latinity”
10. Árpad Kosztin “The Daco-Roman legend”
11. Jouko Lindstedt “Is there a Balkan verb system?”
12. Jouko Lindstedt “When in the Balkans, Do as the Romans Do - Or why the Present is the
Wrong Key to the Past”
13. Svetlana Simonovska “Macedonian language - Origin of Language, Root of Words”
14. Mirčevska Mirjana “The Villages in Upper Reka”
15. LIFE magazine from January 9, 1939
16. David Schmid “The Vlachs In Mediaeval Macedonia: Restless Medieval Neighbors?”
17. Clemente Grubissichio (Kliment Grubišić) “In Originem Et Historiam Alphabeti
Sclavonici Glagolitici Vulgo Hyeronimiani, Disquisitio”
18. Alexander Petrov, Lilia Dergačeva (Norge, Moldova) “The Hoard of Medieval Coins from
Stizhok village, new data to the Wallachian coins typology”