Istro-Romanian language
Istro-Romanian is a Romance language used in a few villages in the peninsula of Istria, on the upper northern part of the Adriatic Sea, in Croatia. It is spoken by a population that calls themselves Vlaşi or Rumâni, but are called Ciribiri by the local population and Istrian Vlachs by linguists.
The number of Istro-Romanian speakers is estimated to be only about 500, 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, there is no public education or press in Istro-Romanian and in Croatia its speakers are not even recognised as a minority.
Many villages have Romanian-style names like Jeian, Buzet (lips), Katun (hamlet), Gradinje (Garden), Letaj, Sucodru (forest), Costirceanu (Romanian name).
Language
The language resembles Romanian and traditional Romanian linguists consider it a Romanian dialect, but some other linguistics disagree and are of the opinion that the language is closer to the extinct Dalmatian language than to Romanian.
One peculiarity of Istro-Romanian compared with Romanian dialects is the use of rhotacism (with the intervocalic /n/ becoming /r/, for instance "lumina" (meaning "light" in Romanian) becoming "lumira"). This is one of the reasons that some Romanian linguists think that Istro-Romanian evolved from the language spoken in the Maramures area of Transylvania, which has some similar traits.
Origin
Some linguists (among them Ovid Densusianu) believe that the Istro-Romanians migrated to their present region about 1000 years ago from Transylvania, the other possible origin being from Serbia.
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 (a Romanian name).
Links and References
Referenced By
Dalmatian language | European language | European languages | Istriot | Istriot language | List of Languages | List of endangered languages | RomanceLanguages | Romance language | Romance languages | Romanian alphabet | Romanian language | Rumanian language | Vlach | Vlachs
|
