Istror-Romanian language

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Istror-Romanian language

Spoken in

Croatia
speaker 500-1,500
Linguistic
classification
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

-

ISO 639 -2

roa

ISO 639-3

ruo

The Istrian Romanian is a Romance (small) language or a Romanian dialect spoken by the Istrian Romanians in some villages in the mountainous region in the northeast of the Istrian peninsula in Croatia .

classification

The Istrian area is shown in a light yellow color

The Istrorumänische can be just like the (Dako) Romanian , Aromanian and Meglenorumänische the Urrumänische or proto Romanian attributed, in turn, from the Vulgar Latin had arisen Southeast Europe. Together with these three varieties it forms in the Romance languages , the Romanian language group within the Balkan Romance languages .

Whether (Daco) Romanian , Aromanian and Megleno- Romanian and Istrian- Romanian are to be regarded as dialects of a single language or as four independent languages, different views are represented in Romance linguistics. In older Romance studies, the four varieties that emerged from Ur-Romanian were regarded as dialects of a single Romanian language due to their common origin and linguistic structural similarity. In parts of the more recent Romance studies, these four forms of language are classified as separate languages, mainly because of their long-standing sociolinguistic independence.

history

The ancestors of the Istrian Romanians probably immigrated to their current settlement area from the central or northern Balkans during the Middle Ages .

In sources from the 17th century a self-designation is Rumeri (presumably Rumar , plural Rumari ) handed the Istro-Romanians, just like the self-designations of the Romanians and Vlachs on Romanus back. However, this was replaced by Wallachians , originally the Slavic foreign name for the Istrian Romanians.

In the past (e.g. in the standard work of that time “The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in Words and Images”) this ethnic group was also referred to as “Tschitschen” or “Cićen” (after the region “Ćićarija”).

Sociolinguistic status

The Istrian Romanians are all bilingual and speak Croatian as well as their own language . The use of Istrian Romanian is limited to oral use among the locals. In censuses, too, the Istrian Romanians usually declare themselves as Croatians.

Due to the long-term multilingualism (formerly between the Istrian-Romanian and the local Croatian dialect, today including the standard Croatian language), the vocabulary, and in some cases the grammar of Istror-Romanian, are strongly influenced by Croatian. That is why there is, among other things - and unique for the Romance languages ​​- a fully developed system of aspects as in Slavic.

Istror-Romanian is generally written according to the spelling rules of the Romanian language and has 3 additional special characters compared to these.

Dialects

The Istrian-Romanian language area 100 years ago

The Istrian Romanian language has 2 dialects:

  • The northern dialect, spoken in Žejane ( istrorum . Žejân ), where around 140 Istrian Romanians still live today.
  • The southern dialect, 15 km south of Žejane, with a larger number of speakers, is spoken in the villages along the Boljunčica River and on the southern slope of the Učka Mountains in the Kršan municipality : Šušnjevica ( Șușnjevicę ), Brdo ( Bârdo ) Nova Vas ( Noselo ), Jesenovik ( Sukodru ) and a few other places where some Istrian families still live scattered.

Web links