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Vlachs (also called Wlachs, Wallachs, Olahs) are the Romanized population in Central and Eastern
Europe, including Romanians, Aromanians, Istro-Romanians and Megleno-Romanians, but since the creation of the Romanian state,
this term was mostly used for the Vlachs living south of Danube.
They are the descendants of the Roman colonists or of the Romanized
Dacian, Thracian and Illyrian local population (see Origin of Romanians for more about the dispute about the origin).
The origin of the name is Germanic: the same origin led to
the words Welsh and Walloons in other parts
of Europe. Slavic peoples initially used the name Vlachs when referring
to Romanic peoples in
general. Later on, the meaning got narrower or just different. For example Italy in
Polish is called Włochy. In English, Wallachia is the name given to a
part of their original territory.
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| Map of Balkans with regions inhabited by Romanians/Vlachs highlighted |
Romanians (also known as Daco-Romanians, speaking
Romanian language) are living in
and as a minority in
Aromanians (speaking Macedoromanian language) are living as a minority in:
- Northern Greece - between 700,000 and 1,200,000; mainly in the Pindus Mountains
- Note: the Greek government does not recognise any ethnic divisions, so there are no exact statistics.
See Demographics of Greece.
Megleno-Romanians (speaking Megleno-Romanian language) are living in the Greek province of Meglen, with a population of 12,000.
Istro-Romanians (speaking Istro-Romanian language) are living in Croatia, with a population of less than 1,000.
Religion
The religion of the Vlachs is predominantly Eastern Orthodox
Christianity, but there are some regions where they are Catholics and Protestants (in Transylvania) and
a few are even Muslims (in some regions of Greece and in the European part of Turkey).
See also:
- List of Romanians - Vlachs of Romanian
ethnicity
- List of Vlachs - Vlachs of Aromanian ethnicity
- History of Romania - Vlachs from north of
Danube
- History of Vlachs - Vlachs from south of Danube
External links
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