Megleno-Romanian language

Megleno-Romanian(known asvlăheșteby its speakers, and Megleno-Romanian orMegleniticand sometimesMogleniticorMegliniticby linguists) is anEastern Romance language, similar toAromanian.It is spoken by theMegleno-Romaniansin a few villages in theMoglenaregion that spans the border between theGreekregion ofMacedoniaandNorth Macedonia. It is also spoken by emigrants from these villages and their descendants inRomania, inTurkeyby a smallMuslimgroup, and inSerbia. It is considered anendangered language.
Megleno-Romanian is a member of the family of Romance languages. More specifically, it is anEastern Romance language, a language formed after the retreat of theRoman Empirefrom the Balkans. Due to the fact that it is spoken by very few people and because of its similarities with theAromanian, modernRomanianandIstro-Romanianlanguages, some linguists consider it to be an intermediary betweenRomanianandAromanian, often being considered either a dialect of Romanian, a dialect of Aromanian, or an independent language. It is closer to standard Romanian than the Aromanian language, suggesting that it split fromCommon Romanianlater than Aromanian. Megleno-Romanian has been strongly influenced by the neighbouringSouth Slavicvarieties.
The termMegleno-Romanianhas been used by linguists (mainly Romanians), who noticed the similarity to theRomanian language. The Megleno-Romanians identify themselves asvlaș("Vlach") or by local endonyms such asliumnicean("fromLiumnița") orumineț("fromUma").
Megleno-Romanian is spoken in several villages in thePellaandKilkisregional units ofMacedonia,Greece, as well as in a handful of villages across the border inNorth Macedonia. In the village ofHuma, the language was spoken by most inhabitants before they and other Megleno-Romanians from the region moved in the cities ofGevgelijaandSkopjewhere some have preserved their native language.AfterWorld War I, some Megleno-Romanians moved toRomania, inSouthern Dobruja, but were moved to the village ofCernainTulcea County(Northern Dobruja) after thepopulation exchange between Bulgaria and Romania. In Cerna, about 1,200 people continue to speak Megleno-Romanian. In 1940, about 30 families moved from Cerna to theBanatregion ofRomaniain the villages of Variaș, Biled and Jimbolia. Some speakers who identified asMuslim, from the village ofNânti(Nótia), were moved to Turkey from Greece as part of thepopulation exchangebetween them of the 1920s.Some also live inSerbia, specially in the village ofGudurica.
Megleno-Romanian is not a standardised language and there are phonological differences across idioms.
Some particular phonetic characteristics of the Megleno-Romanian vowel system compared to otherEastern Romance languagesare:
Much of the vocabulary is ofLatinorigin, and much of its phonetics and semantics are shared with Aromanian and Romanian: (n.b.: MR=Megleno-Romanian, DR=Daco-Romanian, i.e. Romanian)
Megleno-Romanian also contains some words that have cognates withAlbanian. These words are present inDaco-Romaniantoo:
There are also some words which are of Slavic origin and which can be found in all the Eastern Romance languages:
There are a number ofByzantineandModern Greekwords, several dozens of which are also found inDaco-Romanian(Romanian language) and Aromanian and about 80 words that were borrowed viaMacedonianandBulgarianlanguages and other languages of theBalkans. Prior to the creation of the modern state of Greece, Megleno-Romanian borrowed very few words directly from Greek.
The most important influence on Megleno-Romanian was theEast South Slavic languages, this influence being more profound than that exerted by Greek on Aromanian. Most Slavic terms are ofMacedonianandBulgarianorigins. The linguistTheodor Capidanargued that the words borrowed show some phonetic features of the Bulgarian language dialect spoken in theRhodope Mountains. There are many instances where basic words of Latin origin that can still be found in Daco-Romanian and Aromanian were replaced by Slavic words. In some cases, standard Romanian also independently borrowed the same word.