Istro-Romanian language

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{{language |name=Istro-Romanian |nativename=Vlăşeşte/Rumâreşte |familycolor=Indo-European |states=Croatia |region=Istria |speakers=approx. 500–1000 |fam2=Italic |fam3=Romance |fam4=East Romance |iso2=roa|iso3=ruo |map=Image:Istroromanian-map.png}}

Istro-Romanian is a Romance language used in a few villages in the peninsula of Istria, on the northern part of the Adriatic Sea, in Croatia. It is spoken by people who call themselves Vlaşi or Rumâni / Rumâri, but are called Ćiribiri / Ćići by the local population and Istrian Vlachs by linguists.

The number of Istro-Romanian speakers is estimated to be only around 500 to 1000, causing the language to be listed as "seriously endangered" in the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages. Due to its very small number of speakers, living in about eight villages, most notably Žejane and Šušnjevica, there is no public education or press in Istro-Romanian, and its speakers are not even recognised as an official minority in Croatia - perhaps a double-edged testimony to the fact that the greater number of Istro-Romanian speakers were forced to leave Istria and nearby cities soon after the takeover of Istria after World War II by Yugoslavia, the parent country to present-day Croatia.

Their number was reduced over time due to assimilation: in the 1921 Italian census there were 1,644 Istro-Romanian speakers in the area and in 1926 Romanian scholar Sextil Puşcariu estimated their number to about 3,000.

Many villages have Romanian-style names like Jeian, Buzet (lips), Katun (hamlet), Gradinje (garden), Letaj, Sucodru (forest), Costirceanu (a Romanian name). Some of these names are official, while some are used only by Istro-Romanian speakers.

1 Language
2 Origin
3 Literature
4 External links
5 References

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Language

The language resembles standard Romanian, and traditional Romanian linguists consider it to be a Romanian dialect. Another view, that the language is closer to the extinct Dalmatian language than to Romanian, is disregarded by most linguists as the language shows some features that make it clearly Romanian.

One peculiarity of Istro-Romanian compared with Romanian dialects is the use of rhotacism (with the intervocalic /n/ becoming /r/, for instance "lumină" (meaning "light" in Romanian) becoming "lumira"). This is one of the reasons that some Romanian linguists think that Istro-Romanian evolved from the Romanian language spoken in the Apuseni or Maramureş area of Transylvania, which has some similar traits.

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Origin

Some linguists believe that the Istro-Romanians migrated to their present region about 1000 years ago from Transylvania, another theory - and by no means the only other one - is that they came from Serbia. Some loan words suggest that before coming to Istria, Istro-Romanians lived for a longer period of time in Northern Dalmatia. However, it is quite clear that Istro-Romanian split from Daco-Romanian later than the other Romanian dialects (Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian).

The Transylvanian connection is emphasized by linguists, but more importantly, is alive in the memory of some of the Rumeri themselves who break themselves into two distinct groups - the "cicci" or "cici" of surrounding Mune and Žejane area and the "vlahi" of the Šušnjevica region. Interestingly enough, Iosif Popovici entitled his book Dialectele Romåne din Istria (Halle, 1909) - that is, "The Dialects..." not "The Dialect..." - so indirectly he admitted there were (and still are?) several types of Istro-Romanian dialects in Istria.

Insofar as Romanian linguists themselves are concerned, the opinions are divided: Ovid Densusianu, does not admit that Istro-Romanians are native to Istria, where we find them today (or he still was finding them in the 30's when he researched for his book Histoire de la langue roumaine, I, p. 337): "Un premier fait que nous devons mettre en evidence, c'est que l'istro-roumain n'a pu se developper a l'origine la ou nous le trouvons aujourd'hui". He is confirmed in his suppositions by Prof. Dr. Iosif Popovici (1876-1928), who travelled extensively in Istria and who endorses the theory the Istro-Romanians were natives of Tara Motilor (Western Transylvania) who "descended" sometimes during the Middle Ages into Istria. ("Dialectele romane din Istria", I, Halle a.d.S., 1914, p. 122 urm.)

The first historical record of Istro-Romanians dates back to 1329, when Serbian chronicles mention that a Vlach population was living in the area, although there was an earlier mention from the 12th century of a leader in Istria called Radul (that could be a Romanian name).

Pavle Ivić cited the hypothesis that a sizeable Roman population inhabited the Balkans from west to east across the former Yugoslavia.

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Literature

There is no literary tradition; however, in 1905 Andrea Glavina, an Istro-Romanian who was educated in Romania, wrote Calendaru lu rumeri din Istrie ("The Calendar of the Romanians of Istria") was published, and also collections of folk tales and poems have been published since.

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