Minorities which became part of modern-day Hellenism

[Ellinas]

This thread is about ethnic and linguistic groups who discerned from the main mass of the Hellenes as minorities in the past centuries, but contributed to Hellenism and finally got assimilated in the Greek society, by recognizing their identity as Greek. Such groups are the Arvanites, the Vlachs, the Sarakatsani etc.

[Ellinas]

The Arvanites


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Arvanites (Greek: Αρβανίτες, see below for more about names) are a population group in Greece whose linguistic heritage is Arvanitic, a form of Albanian. Arvanites are predominantly Greek Orthodox Christians and identify themselves ethnically and nationally as Greeks. They used to be the predominant population element in several regions in the south of Greece up to the 19th century. Today, their language is under danger of extinction due to language shift towards Greek and due to large-scale migrations into the cities.

Foreign sources sometimes refer to Arvanites as Albanians,[1] as did some older Greek authors.[2] Today, however, Arvanites in Greece typically object to being associated with the Albanian nation or being called an "ethnic minority", since they have a strong feeling of being ethnically Greek (GHM 1995). For the same reason, many also object to the designation of their language as a dialect of Albanian, preferring instead to regard it as a separate language. Many Albanians, on the other hand, prefer to view Arvanites as an Albanian minority group.

History

Arvanites in the south of Greece are believed to be the descendants of Albanian-speaking settlers, who moved south at different times between the 11th century and the 15th century from what is today southern Albania and northwest Greece (Biris 1960, Poulos 1950, Panagiotopulos 1985). Some of this migration happened in the course of settlement programmes invited by the Byzantine and Frankish rulers of the time in order to re-populated deserted areas in the south. Later movements are believed to have been motivated to evade Islamization after the Ottoman conquest.

While most historians regard the ancestors of today's Arvanites as part of the same medieval population groups that are also the ancestors to present-day Albanians,[3] some Greek authors have argued that the settlers were not ethnic Albanians in a true sense. Their hypotheses are that Arvanites were either descendants of originally Greek populations who had only intermediately become Albanized; or that they were descendants of some other Thraco-Illyrian tribes and as such related but not identical to Albanians proper;[citation needed] or that Arvanites are descendants of the original pre-Greek "Pelasgian" population and as such actually autochthonous to southern Greece.[4]

Being Orthodox Christians, Arvanites identified with the Greeks in their conflicts with Muslim during the time of the Ottoman Empire. Many Arvanites are credited with having played an important role fighting as Greeks in the Greek War of Independence of 1821-1830. With the formation of modern nations and nation states in the Balkans, Arvanites have come to be regarded as an integral part of the Greek nation.

Demographics


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Photograph of an Arvanite.

The regions traditionally inhabited by Arvanites in the south of Greece are found across large parts of Attica, Boeotia, the Peloponnese, the south of the island of Euboea and the north of the island of Andros. Within Attica, the capital Athens and its suburbs were partly Arvanitic until the late 19th century. There are also settlements in Fthiotida, Lokrida and several islands of the Saronic Gulf including Salamis.

Other groups of Arvanites live in the north of Greece in areas closer to Albania and the historical centers of contiguous Albanian populations (Banfi 1996). Some of them live in Epirus (Thesprotia and Preveza); in Florina/Konitsa (near the border of the Republic of Macedonia); and in some locations further east in Thrace. These settlements are believed to be of a later date than the southern ones (GHM 1995).

There are no reliable figures about the number of Arvanites in Greece today. The last official census figures available come from 1951. The following is a summary of the widely diverging estimates (Botsi 2003: 97):

1928 census: 18,773 citizens self-identifying as "Albanophone", i.e. Arvanitic-speaking.

1951 census: 22,736 "Albanophones".

Furikis (1934): estimated 70,000 Arvanites only in Attica.

Trudgill/Tzavaras (1976/77): estimated 140,000 only in Attica and Boeotia.

Sasse (1991): estimated 50,000 Arvanitic speakers in total.

Ethnologue, 2000: 150,000 Arvanites, living in 300 villages.

Federal Union of European Nationalities, 1991: 95,000 "Albanians of Greece" (MRG 1991: 189)

According to some estimates: up to 250,000 (quoted in Schukalla 1993: 523) or even 1,600,000 (GHM 1995) people of ultimately Arvanitic descent.

The number of active speakers of the Arvanitic language is believed to be much lower than the number of people who identify culturally as Arvanites owing to family tradition and local loyalties (see "Phara" below).

Like the rest of the Greek population, Arvanites have been emigrating from their villages to the cities and especially to the capital Athens. This has contributed to the loss of the language in the younger generation.

Names

The name Arvanites and its equivalents are today used both in Greek (Αρβανίτες) and in Arvanitic itself (Arbërorë, spelled Αρbε̰ρόρε̰ in the Greek-based Arvanitic alphabet). In Standard Albanian, the name is Arvanitë. Arvanites are thus distinguished from ethnic Albanians, who are called Shqiptarë in Arvanitic and in Standard Albanian, and Alvaní (Αλβανοί) in Greek.

The name Arvanites and its Albanian/Arvanitic equivalents go back to an old ethnonym that was formerly used by all Albanians to refer to themselves. Albanians adopted the new name of Shqiptarë and the country name Shqipëria since the 15th century, after the Arvanitic populations had split off. The Arvanites kept the old, common name, as did the Albanophone settlers in Italy (Arbëreshë). The word stems of both Arvanites and Albanians, originally arb- (αρβ-) and alb- (αλβ-) have been attested as designations for people in the area of today's Albania since antiquity. (Polybius: Άρβων, Αρβωνίται; Ptolemy: Αλβανόπολις, Αλβανοί; for more details see: Origins of the name Albania). It is a matter of debate whether the two roots are ultimately cognate, or whether two accidentally similar roots were conflated with each other at a later date (Babiniotis 1998). In Byzantine Greek and in medieval Latin authors, reflexes of both roots are used synonymously for the people of today's Albania.[5] This usage continued in Greek until the 19th and early 20th century, with Αλβανοί ("Albanians") being used in formal registers and Αρβανίτες ("Arvanites") used in the more popular speech, but both used indiscriminately for both Muslim and Christian Albanophones.[6] In the course of the formation of the modern nation-state societies, it became customary to use only "Αλβανοί" for the people of Albania, and only "Αρβανίτες" for the Christian Arvanites integrated into Greek society.

Arvanites are distinguished in Greece from Chams (Greek: "Τσάμηδες"), another group of Albanophones in the northwest of Greece. Unlike the Christian Arvanites, the Chams were predominantly Muslims and identified nationally as Albanians. Most Muslim Chams were expelled from Greece shortly before the end of the Second World War, after violent clashes and atrocities committed during and after Axis occupation.

There is some disagreement to what extent the term "Arvanites" legitimately also includes the small remaining Christian Albanophone population groups in Northwest Greece (Epirus). Unlike the southern Arvanites, these speakers are reported to use the name Shqiptarë both for themselves and for Albanian nationals (Banfi 1996). Kollias (1983) reports that some Arvanites of the northwestern Greek region of Epirus traditionally also use the word Shqiptár (Σ̈κ̇ιπτάρ) to identify themselves, without claiming an Albanian national consciousness. The word Shqiptár is used as well in a few villages of Thrace, where Arvanites migrated from the mountains of Pindos during the 19th century. On the other hand, this word is totally unknown among the main body of the Arvanites in southern Greece. Moraitis (2002) reports that some Arvanites of Epirus use the term Shqiptar in Arvanitika and Arvanitis in Greek. Botsi (2003: 21) reports that the term "Arvanites" in its narrow sense includes only the populations of the compact Arvanitic settlement areas in southern Greece, according to the self-identification of those groups. The Ethnologue ([5]) identifies the present-day Albanian/Arvanitic dialects of Northwestern Greece (in Epirus and Lechovo) with those of the Chams. They are therefore classified linguistically together with standard Tosk Albanian, as opposed to "Arvanitika Albanian proper" (i.e. southern Greek Arvanitic). Nevertheless it reports that in Greek the Epirus varieties are also often subsumed under "Arvanitika" in a wider sense. It puts the estimated number of Epirus Albanophones at 10,000. "Arvanitic proper" ([6]) is said to include the outlying dialects spoken in Thrace. Other sources (e.g. GHM 1995) subsume the Epirote Albanophones under the term Arvanites, although they note the different linguistic self-designation. According to the Euromosaic (1996) report, the designation Chams is today rejected by the group.

Language use and language perception

The decline of the Arvanitic language has been brought about by several factors. One is the demographic trend of movement towards the cities, breaking up some of the social ties of village communities. It is also reported that many Arvanites in past decades have maintained a stance of social self-deprecation of the traditional community language, encouraging younger generations to switch to the dominant language, Greek, which was associated with social mobility and modernity.(Tsitsipis 1981, Botsi 2003) Especially earlier in the 20th century, Greek state institutions are reported to have sometimes followed a policy of actively discouraging and repressing the use of the Arvanitic language, most strongly under the nationalist Metaxas regime of 1936-1940 (GHM 1995).

While the Arvanitic language was commonly called Albanian in Greece until the 20th century, the wish of Arvanites to express their ethnic identification as Greeks has led to a stance of rejecting the identification of the language with Albanian as well. Breu (1985: 424) reported that many Arvanites had only very imprecise notions about how related or unrelated their language was to Albanian. Today, many Arvanites prefer to regard Arvanitic as a separate language. As Arvanitic is almost exclusively a spoken language, Arvanites also have no practical affiliation with the Standard Albanian language used in Albania, as they do not use this form in writing or in media. The question of linguistic closeness or distance between Arvanitic and Albanian has come to the forefront especially since the early 1990s, when a large number of immigrants from Albania began to enter Greece and came into contact with local Arvanitic communities (cf. Botsi 2003, Athanassopoulou 2005).

Since the 1980s, there have been some organized efforts to preserve the cultural heritage of Arvanites. Recently, along with Tsakonian, Arvanitic has obtained the status of a "protected" language.

Minority status

For most Arvanites today, their Arvanitic ancestry is not used as an ethnic self-identification but rather as a secondary folkish identity. Many Arvanites take offense at being called Albanians, and many are also reported to be strongly opposed against the idea of obtaining any kind of officially recognized "minority" status. The issue of Arvanites' being described as an ethnic minority has at some times become a political issue between Greece and Albania, for instance during the 1990s, when remarks by Albanian president Sali Berisha provoked a furious reaction among the Arvanitic community in the Greek mass media.

Jacques Levy (2000) describes Arvanites as "Albanian speakers who were integrated into Greek national identity as early as the first half of the nineteenth century and who in no way consider themselves as an ethnic minority".


Folk culture

Phara

Phara (φάρα) is a descent model, similar to Scottish clans. Arvanites were organised in phares (φάρες) mostly during the reign of the Ottoman Empire. The apex was a warlord and the phara was named after him (i.e. Botsaris' phara). In an Arvanitic village each phara was responsible to keep genealogical records (see also registry offices), that are preserved until today as historical documents in local libraries. Usually there were more than one phares in an Arvanitic village and sometimes they were organised in phratries that had conflict of interests. Those phratries didn't last long, because each leader of a phara desired to be the leader of the phratry and would not be lead by another.

Arvanitic songs

Although they are almost fully assimilated into Greek society, some distinct Arvanitic cultural characteristics are still identifiable.

There are music CDs featuring Arvanitic songs although the lyrics are often in Greek. There are no mass media in Arvanitic, although some local radio stations have occasionally broadcast Arvanitic songs. During the last decades there have been made some attempts to document Arvanitic songs, the most recent by Thanasis Moraitis.

Arvanitic songs share similarities with Arbëresh, Albanian and Greek Epirote music.

Trivia


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Ouzo bottle from the town of Plomari in Lesvos.

-Arvanitissa is the feminine of Arvanitis in Greek.
-A church in Chios is dedicated to "Panagia Arvanitissa".
-Arvanites refer to their place of origin as Arvanitia (today southern Albania and NW Greece). Sometimes they apply this term to the whole of Albania and/or Epirus.
-Arvanitia is also an alternate name for Akronafplia, Nafplion's Acropolis.
-Arvanites of Epirus named the north wind Arvanitis.
-Ouzo Plomari, Isidoros Arvanitis, 1894 (Ούζο Πλωμαρίου, Ισιδώρου Αρβανίτου, 1894) (note: Plomari is a town of Lesvos).

Studies and books about the Arvanites

Kostas Biris


Biris was a folklorist and an architect. His book "Arvanites, the Dorians of modern Hellenism, history of Arvanites Greeks" (1960) is a thorough study on Arvanites and it is the most referenced work by other scholars who studied Arvanites.

Maria Michael-Dede


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Maria Michael-Dede is an author of literature and an ethnologist. She has written two books about Arvanitic songs (1978) and the book The Greek Arvanites (1997).

Aristeides Kollias

Kollias, a lawyer by profession, performed ethnologist studies on Arvanites. In his book "Arvanites and the origin of the Greeks" (1983), Kollias promotes the Pelasgian theory that identifies the Pelasgians with the Arvanites. Kollias states that Greek people and Albanian people were closer in the past than they are during the last two centuries and that they both descend from the Pelasgians. His rejection of the Indo-European theory and his theory that Arvanitika is very close (if not identical) to the Homeric Greek have been criticized, however his work on Arvanitic culture is generally accepted.

Thanasis Moraitis

Moraitis had worked with Kollias for some time, and he did an extensive search on Arvanitic music. In his book "Arvanitika Songs", he documents about 150 songs, analyzes their musical structure, and also has texts by linguists and historians about Arvanitic history, culture and the Arvanitic language.

Footnotes

↑ E.g. Schukalla (1993).
↑ E.g. Paschidis (1879), Poulos (1950).
↑ See survey of the literature in Botsi (2003: 20-22) and GHM (1995).
↑ The latter view is currently propagated by the largest association of Greek Arvanites (Αρβανιτικός Σύνδεσμος Ελλάδος). It has quoted a self-published study (Stylos, no date, see [1] and [2]) arguing that several archaic ancient Greek inscriptions, among them the famous Dipylon inscription (which all other scholarship agrees to be Greek), are in fact written in Arvanitic. These views have no echo in mainstream scholarship to date. See [3], and [4] for the accepted Greek readings.
↑ Anna Comnena speaks of "Arbanitai" of the city of "Arbanon" in the Alexiad, Book IV; Michael Attaliates mentions both "Albanoi" and "Arbanitai". See also Botsi (2003: 18-20) for more references.
↑ Euromosaic (1996); see also GHM (1995) for references.

Bibliography

Athanassopoulou, Angélique (2005), "'Nos Albanais à nous': Travailleurs émigrés dans une communauté arvanite du Péloponnèse" ["'Our own Albanians': Migrant workers in a Peloponnese Arvanitic community"]. Revue Ethnologie Française 2005/2. Online abstract

Babiniotis, Georgios (1998), Λεξικό της Νέας Ελληνικής Γλώσσας ["Dictionary of Modern Greek"]. Athens: Kentro Lexikologias.

Banfi, Emanuele (1996), "Minoranze linguistiche in Grecia: Problemi storico- e sociolinguistici" ["Linguistic minorities in Greece: Historical and sociolinguistic problems"]. In: C. Vallini (ed.), Minoranze e lingue minoritarie: Convegno internazionale. Naples: Universtario Orientale. 89-115.

Biris, Kostas (1960): Αρβανίτες, οι Δωριείς του νεότερου Ελληνισμού: H ιστορία των Ελλήνων Αρβανιτών. ["Arvanites, the Dorians of modern Greece: History of the Greek Arvanites"]. Athens. (3rd ed. 1998: ISBN 9602040319 )

Botsi, Eleni (2003): Die sprachliche Selbst- und Fremdkonstruktion am Beispiel eines arvanitischen Dorfes Griechenlands: Eine soziolinguistische Studie. ("Linguistic construction of the self and the other in an Arvanitic village in Greece: A sociolinguistic study"). PhD dissertation, University of Konstanz, Germany. Online text

Breu, Walter (1990): "Sprachliche Minderheiten in Italien und Griechenland" ["Linguistic minorities in Italy and Greece"]. In: B. Spillner (ed.), Interkulturelle Kommunikation. Frankfurt: Lang. 169-170.

Dede, Maria (1987): Οι Έλληνες Αρβανίτες. ["The Greek Arvanites"]. Ioannina: Idryma Voreioipirotikon Erevnon.

Ducellier, Alain (1994): Οι Αλβανοί στην Ελλάδα (13-15 αι.): Η μετανάστευση μίας κοινότητας. ["The Albanians in Greece (13th-15th cent.): A community's migration"]. Athens: Idhrima Gulandri Horn.

Euromosaic (1996): "L'arvanite / albanais en Grèce". Report published by the Institut de Sociolingüística Catalana. Online version

Furikis, Petros (1931): "Πόθεν το εθνικόν Αρβανίτης;" ["Whence the ethnonym Arvanites?"] Αθήνα 43: 3-37.

Furikis, Petros (1934): "Η εν Αττική ελληνοαλβανική διάλεκτος". ["The Greek-Albanian dialect in Attica"] Αθήνα 45: 49-181.

Gkikas, Yannis: "Arvanites and arvanitic song in Greece"

Grapsitis, Vasilis (1989): Οι Αρβανίτες ["The Arvanites"]. Athens.

GHM (=Greek Helsinki Monitor) (1995): "Report: The Arvanites". Online report

Haebler, Claus (1965): Grammatik der albanischen Mundarten von Salamis ["The grammar of the Albanian dialects of Salamis"]. Wiesbaden: Harassowitz.

Jochalas, Titos P. (1971): Über die Einwanderung der Albaner in Griechenland: Eine zusammenfassene Betrachtung ["On the immigration of Albanians to Greece: A summary"]. München: Trofenik.

Kollias, Aristidis (1985): Αρβανίτες και η καταγωγή των Ελλήνων. ["Arvanites and the descent of the Greeks"]. Athens.

Levy, Jacques (2000): From Geopolitics to Global Politics: A French Connection (ISBN 0714651079)

Moraitis, Thanassis (2002): Anthology of Arvanitika songs of Greece. Athens. (ISBN 9608597676)

MRG (=Minority Rights Group) (1991): Greece and its minorities. London: Minority Rights Publications.

Panagiotopulos, Vasilis (1985): Πληθυσμός και οικισμοί της Πελοποννήσου, 13ος-18ος αιώνας. ["Population and settlements in the Peloponnese, 13th-18th centuries"]. Athens: Istoriko Archeio, Emporiki Trapeza tis Elladas.

Paschidis, Athanasios (1879): Οι Αλβανοί και το μέλλον αυτών εν τω Ελληνισμώ ["The Albanians and their future in the Greek nation"]. Athens.

Poulos, Ioannis (1950): "Η εποίκησις των Αλβανών εις Κορινθίαν" ["The settlement of the Albanians in Corinthia"]. Επετηρίς μεσαιωνικού αρχείου, Athens. 31-96.

Sasse, Hans-Jürgen (1985): "Sprachkontakt und Sprachwandel: Die Gräzisierung der albanischen Mundarten Griechenlands" ["Language contact and language change: The Hellenization of the Albanian dialects of Greece"]. Papiere zur Linguistik 32(1). 37-95.

Sasse, Hans-Jürgen (1991): Arvanitika: Die albanischen Sprachreste in Griechenland ["Arvanitic: The Albanian language relics in Greece"]. Wiesbaden.

Schukalla, Karl-Josef (1993): "Nationale Minderheiten in Albanien und Albaner im Ausland." ["National minorities in Albania and Albanians abroad"]. In: K.-D. Grothusen (ed.), Südosteuropa-Handbuch: Albanien. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. 505-528.

Sella-Mazi, Eleni (1997): "Διγλωσσία και ολιγώτερο ομιλούμενες γλώσσες στην Ελλάδα" ["Diglossia and lesser-spoken languages in Greece"]. In: K. Tsitselikis, D. Christopoulos (eds.), Το μειονοτικό φαινόμενο στην Ελλάδα ["The minority phenomenon in Greece"]. Athens: Ekdoseis Kritiki. 349-413.

Stylos, N. (2003): Στοιχεία προϊστορίας σε πανάρχαια αρβανίτικα κείμενα. ["Prohistorical evidence in ancient Arvanitic texts"]. Ekdoseis Gerou

Trudgill, Peter (1976/77): "Creolization in reverse: Reduction and simplification in the Albanian dialects of Greece." Transactions of the Philological Society (Vol?), 32-50.

Trudgill, Peter (1986): Dialects in contact. Oxford: Blackwell.

Trudgill, Peter (2004): "Glocalisation [sic] and the Ausbau sociolinguistics of modern Europe". In: A. Duszak, U. Okulska (eds.), Speaking from the margin: Global English from a European perspective. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. Online article

Trudgill, Peter, George A. Tzavaras (1977): "Why Albanian-Greeks are not Albanians: Language shift in Attika and Biotia." In: H. Giles (ed.), Language, ethnicity and intergroup relations. London: Academic Press. 171-184.

Tsigos, Athanasios (1991): Κείμενα για τους Αρβανίτες. ["Texts about Arvanites"]. Athens.

Tsitsipis, Lukas (1981): Language change and language death in Albanian speech communities in Greece: A sociolinguistic study. PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Tsitsipis, Lukas (1983): "Language shift among the Albanian speakers of Greece." Anthropological Linguisitcs 25(3): 288-308.

Tsitsipis, Lukas (1995): "The coding of linguistic ideology in Arvanitika (Albanian): Language shift, congruent and contradictory discourse." Anthropological Linguistics 37: 541-577.

Tsitsipis, Lukas (1998): Αρβανίτικα και Ελληνικά: Ζητήματα πολυγλωσσικών και πολυπολιτισμικών κοινοτήτων. ["Arvanitic and Greek: Issues of multilingual and multicultural communities"]. Vol. 1. Livadeia.

[Ellinas]

Famous Arvanites

Greek War of Independence

Andreas Miaoulis, admiral and later politician
Markos Botsaris, leader of Souliotes, defender of Messolonghi
Laskarina Bouboulina, the only female member of Filiki Etaireia
Nikolaos Krieziotis, leader of the Greek Revolution in Evoia
Xadziyiannis Mexis, leader of Spetses

Presidents of Greece

Pavlos Kountouriotis, admiral and later politician
Theodoros Pangalos, general and briefly military dictator

Prime Ministers of Greece

Kitsos Tzavelas
Georgios Kountouriotis
Antonios Kriezis, served in Greek navy during the revolution, later politician
Dimitrios Voulgaris
Athanasios Miaoulis
Diomidis Kiriakos
Theodoros Pangalos, general and later politician
Alexandros Korizis
Petros Voulgaris
Alexandros Diomidis

Arts

Nikos Engonopoulos, painter
Polychronis Lembesis, painter
Eleni Boukoura Altamoura, painter
Ioannis Altamouras, painter
Nikolaos Vokos, painter
Alkis Ginis, painter
Stamatis Lazarou, painter
Andreas Kriezis, painter
Nikos Chatzikyriakos Gikas, painter
Thanasis Tsigos, architect and painter

Popular Arvanitic surnames

-Arvanitis
-Arvanitakis
-Arvanitopoulos
-Arvanitidis
-Arvanitoglou
-Skourtis
-Trimis
-Manesis
-Kriezis
-Ginis
-Gliatis
-Alvanos
-Koukis
-Bardis
-Dorizas
-Chaikalis
-Chelmis
-Koryzis
-Pinis
-Gikas
-Giokas
-Gekas
-Toskas
-Pangalos
-Bouas
-Spatas
-Liosis
-Liapis
-Tzavaras
-Dokos
-Botsaris
-Bistis
-Tsamis
-Mathis
-Vakas
-Kemos
-Kollias
-Tsetas
-Gouras
-Drimeris
-Drimas
-Priftis
-Brakatsis
-Goutis
-Schizas
-Daras
-Katsepas
-Boras
-Bolokas
-Katsiapis
-Katsoulas
-Bouloutsos
-Vergos
-Biris

Links about the Arvanites

Arvanitic League of Greece:
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[Megale]

Arvanites were found to be of Mediterean descent

[Ellinas]

Originally Posted by Megale
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Arvanites were found to be of Mediterean descent

Yes they are, you can see this from their physiognomy. Take the first picture as an example.

The Arvanites are actually Tosk Albanians who moved to Greece in the Middle Ages. The Tosk Albanians come from Hellenic Epirot tribes which were Albanized. The Tosk Albanians are Mediterranean while the Gheg Albanians are Dinaric (with possible influence from Caucasus tribes).

[Megale]

Originally Posted by Ellinas
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Yes they are, you can see this from their physiognomy. Take the first picture as an example.

The Arvanites are actually Tosk Albanians who moved to Greece in the Middle Ages. The Tosk Albanians come from Hellenic Epirot tribes which were Albanized. The Tosk Albanians are Mediterranean while the Gheg Albanians are Dinaric (with possible influence from Caucasus tribes).

It seems the Arvanites were Greeks that were finally coming back home. Apparently there are big differences between the Tosks and Ghegs. The Ghegs are much more violent and more prone to criminal activites. Many Ghegs settled in Kosovo and we know how they behave there.

[Ellinas]

Originally Posted by Megale
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It seems the Arvanites were Greeks that were finally coming back home. Apparently there are big differences between the Tosks and Ghegs. The Ghegs are much more violent and more prone to criminal activites. Many Ghegs settled in Kosovo and we know how they behave there.

It can be said that they were Greeks that were repatriated, but Albanian-speaking.

It is a fact that they are ethnic differences between Tosks and Ghegs, besides the lingual difference. From the Albanians I see here in Greece many of them look like Greeks but many others have diffrent head shape and facial characteristics - they can be easily discerned when you see them between crowd in the road. I can guess these are the Ghegs.

[Megale]

Originally Posted by Ellinas
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It can be said that they were Greeks that were repatriated, but Albanian-speaking.

It is a fact that they are ethnic differences between Tosks and Ghegs, besides the lingual difference. From the Albanians I see here in Greece many of them look like Greeks but many others have diffrent head shape and facial characteristics - they can be easily discerned when you see them between crowd in the road. I can guess these are the Ghegs.

An intersting statistic, but i doubt it exists and thats the number of Tosks and Ghegs in Greece and a correlation to their crime rates.

[Ellinas]

Originally Posted by Megale
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An intersting statistic, but i doubt it exists and thats the number of Tosks and Ghegs in Greece and a correlation to their crime rates.

I did not mention anything about crime rates, crime tedencies are a matter of mentality not a matter of ethnicity. I am talking is about the ethnic classification of Albanians having their appearance as a basis.

[Ellinas]

The Vlachs


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In Greece, Aromanians (Vlachs) are not regarded as an ethnic minority, but are considered "Latin-speaking Greeks" (i.e. Greeks that speak a Romance language), as cognate with Slav minorities which are called "Slavophone Greeks" (i.e. Greeks that speak a Slavic language, or the Arvanites which have been called "Albanophone Greeks" (i.e. Albanian-speaking Greeks), since none of them express a non-Greek national identity. Generally, the use of the minority languages has been discouraged,[8] although recently, there have been efforts from the Greek presidency to preserve endangered languages (including Aromanian).

It is difficult to estimate the exact number of Aromanians, as no Greek census has recorded mother tongue statistics since 1951. Estimates on the number of Aromanians in Greece range between 200,000 to 700,000.

The majority of the Aromanian population lives in northern Greece, in scattered rural communities. The main areas inhabited by these populations are the Pindus Mountains, around Lake Prespa, and around the mountains of Olympus and Vermion.

The Aromanians today have a representative in the European Bureau for Lesser Spoken Languages in Greece.

The Vlachs of Greece and their Misunderstood History

Abstract:
The Vlachs speak a language that evolved from Latin. It was transmitted by Romans to many peoples and was used as an international language for centuries. Most Vlach populations live in and around the borders of modern Greece. The word ‘Vlachs’ appears in the Byzantine documents at about the 10th century, but few details are connected with it and it is unclear it means for various authors. It has been variously hypothesized that Vlachs are descendants of Roman soldiers, Thracians, diaspora Romanians, or Latinized Greeks. However, the ethnic makeup of the empires that ruled the Balkans and the use of the language as a lingua franca suggest that the Vlachs do not have one single origin. DNA studies might clarify relationships, but these have not yet been done. In the 19th century Vlach was spoken by shepherds in Albania who had practically no relationship with Hellenism as well as by urban Macedonians who had Greek education dating back to at least the 17th century and who considered themselves Greek. The latter gave rise to many politicians, literary figures, and national benefactors in Greece. Because of the language, various religious and political special interests tried to attract the Vlachs in the 19th and early 20th centuries. At the same time, the Greek church and government were hostile to their language. The disputes of the era culminated in emigrations, alienation of thousands of people, and near-disappearance of the language. Nevertheless, due to assimilation and marriages with Greek speakers, a significant segment of the Greek population in Macedonia and elsewhere descends from Vlachs.

The Paradoxes of Vlachology

The students who enter the Metsovion Polytechnic Institute in Athens would not normally imagine that the benefactors of an engineering school would be Vlachs. This word brings to the mind of many Greeks the image of an uneducated shepherd with a glitsa and tsarouhia on some mountaintop, and of women with long embroidered skirts and kerchiefs carrying buckets of dairy products (e.g. the brand of condensed milk, ‘Gala Vlachas’ and the song ‘in your embroidered apron you Vlach woman’) In the 21st century most Greeks may not remember the Vlachs as anything distinct. By the 12th century the name already had a general meaning of a transhumant or shepherd.6 Many Greeks think that "Vlachika" is the ‘northern dialect’ of Greek, which pronounces e as i, o as u, and s as sh.7 One reason is that nothing sets the Vlachs apart as a race or a distinct minority. They have the same religion, appearance, the same pronunciation in Greek, and about the same names. (Many Vlach surnames are meaningless in Greek but so are Albanian and Turkish surnames.) The only difference is that they or their grandparents knew a language which belongs to the Balkan Latin family.

In Romania it is easier to tell who is a Vlach. Many are recognized by their Greek surnames (e.g. Papadima, Papacostea, Caranika) and first names, which sometimes are still written with the Greek diminutives (e.g Athena, Perikles, Zoitsa, Steliu, Nacu, Lambrache, Tache). The faces that go with the names often look like those that one sees in Greece.

Some Romanians ask why the Vlachs are not recognized as a minority in Greece. However, historically the members of this ‘minority’ have acted as the backbone of Hellenism: fighters against Ottoman occupation, like Rigas Feraios, Giorgakis Olympios, and possibly Theodoros Kolokotronis;8 leaders of leftist resistance against the Germans (EAM), such as Alexandros Svolos and Andreas Tzimas. Distinguished writers like Kostas Krystallis and Christos Zalokostas were Vlach, as were contemporary composers like Apostolos Kaldaras, Kostas Virvos, Babis Bakalis, and Mitropanos. Many became rich Balkan merchants during the 18th and 19th centuries and many Greek national benefactors were Vlachs, such as Nikolaos Stournaris, Georgios Arsakis, Michael and Georgios Tositsas, Georgios Sinas.9 Simon Sinas financed the construction of the Academy of Athens, while Georgios Averoff contributed to the first Olympic games.10 There was at least one Vlach prime minister, Ioannis Kolettis (1773-1847), ministers (like Evangelos Averoff), and countless senators. Without the majority realizing it, the government of Greece was many times under the control of this ‘minority’.

How are the contradictions reconciled? The topic is extremely politicized, and the publications of the last 100 years reflect that. Some authors analyze Byzantine documents and travelogues of foreigners, songs and traditions for differences or similarities. Specific events are generalized, and the historical hiatus is filled and interpreted according to the political ideology of each writer.11 In general, the Greek publications leave no doubt about the Greek origin of the Vlachs, while others leave no doubt about their particular identity and non-Greek origin.

There also are long debates about the name of the Vlachs. In Vlach they call themselves Armân or Arumân.12 "Hii Armân?" Are you a Vlach?13 As with the Greek word ‘Romios’, it derives from Romanus and denotes a citizen of the Roman or Byzantine empire, which was called Romania. In the Byzantine literature usually the term ‘Vlach’ is used. Similar to this word are the ancient German ‘Valah’ (Volcae in Latin), which refers to a Latinized Celtic tribe that settled in the Roman Empire. The Germans called some Latin-speaking people Valah or Wallach.14 The term Vlach may be German or Slavic, but is used as Blachi in medieval Latin as well. The word is related to others that refer to Latin or Celtic speakers, like the Walloons of Belgium, Welsh in English, Wloch in Polish, Olasz in Hungarian, Volokh in Russian.15 This article uses the word "Vlachs."


Distinct Figures in the High Mountains:

Nu-ñi ti arâde feată ñica sh-nu γinu la noi
Don’t deceive yourself, young girl, and don’t come to us
La noi are munts-analtsi sh-nu va s-potsî sa tretsî
We have high mountains and you will not be able to pass16
Pitruniclle va-ñi mi facu sh-eu la voi va γinu
I will become a quail and I will come to you
La noi are balta mare sh-nu va s-potsî sa tretsî
We have a large river and you will not be able to pass
Pescu mare va-ñi mi facu sh-eu la voi va γinu
I will become a big fish and I will come to you
La noi are soacră arauă sh-nu va s-potsî sa tretsî
We have a bad mother-in-law and you will not be able to pass
Soacră arauă nveastă bună duaăle va tritsemu
Bad mother-in-law, good daughter in law, both of us will pass
Si eu la voi va γinu17
And I will come to you.

Traditionally, Vlachs lived in the southern Balkans. Areas with considerable Vlach population exist in central and southern Albania (e.g. the destroyed Moschopolis) and the area that was earlier called Pelagonia and is now in FYROM, with cities such as Krusovo and Monastir (Vitolia). However, most Vlach habitations appear to be in Greece . The mountain villages form a line from Rome to Instanbul. At the sides of Pindus, from Grammosta to Pertouli there are about 80 mountain villages, despite the extensive demographic changes of the 20th century. Traditional groups in the plains still exist from Xanthi to Corfu and from the mouth of the river Acheloos to the mouth of Sperchios,18 and also in Evoia.


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At the end of the 19th century, there were about 150,000 Vlachs in the southern Balkans,19 and about half the Greek population of Thessaloniki in fact consisted of Vlachs.20 After 1912-13 about 100,000 (2/3 of them) became Greek citizens.21 Since then, they have been much reduced due to emigration and assimilation. The 1951 census, the last time that minorities were counted in Greece, recorded 39,385 Vlachs. Around 2003, there may be 20,000 people in Greece who consider themselves Vlach.22

Traditionally, there was a broad spectrum of living conditions and thought among Vlachs. They ranged from isolated and illiterate mountain dwellers of Albania to cosmopolitan merchants and directors of Greek schools. However, the groups that attracted the most attention were the transhumant shepherds. Many foreign visitors were impressed by the picturesque nomads and semi-nomads they saw in Macedonia, with their dresses, occupations, languages, and ability to manage in difficult conditions.23

Most interesting were three shepherd groups: The Arvanito-Vlachs (Farsarotes), Vlachs, and Sarakatsani. Despite the unclear meaning of their name,24 the Sarakatsani spoke Greek in the 19th century, so their Greekness was not disputed. The Arvanito-Vlachs, whose women often wore long hats, had Albanian names that indicated long cohabitation with Albanians.25 Travelers also wrote a lot about the ‘generic’ Vlachs. The northern type was considered light colored and with features different from neighboring groups, while the southern types were shorter and darker.26 (Geographically, however, northern and southern dialects are mixed.27) They lived free on the mountaintops, were considered hard-working and smart, and many chelniks (goat-herding chiefs) had considerable flocks and wealth. The women who set up households in different places every day when the flocks moved, had more social freedoms than Greek women. These mountaineers were something different and enviable as is shown in the song ‘Nu-ñi ti arâde feată ñica’, where a girl wants to marry a mountain Vlach.

The plains Vlachs may have been more numerous than the shepherds. Among them were the Meglenites around the Pangaio mountain, who were farmers, spoke a separate language, and had extensive relations with Bulgarians. Others settled in urban or rural areas and had occupations similar to those of non-Vlachs.

Much has been written about the educated urban elites of Moschopolis and Pelagonia, who were often Vlach traders traveling as far as Hungary, Romania, and India.28 At least as far back as the 17th century, urban Vlachs cultivated the Greek language and literature during the darkest periods of the Ottoman empire with translations and printing presses.29 Records show that they considered themselves Greek, usually had Greek names,30 and several became national benefactors. Evidence includes 24 letters of Moschopolis merchants, the printing press of Moschopolis, and the records of commercial fraternities of Transylvania.31 Examples of Greek scholars were Rigas Velestinlis (Feraios) and Konstantinos Mertzios. The latter was a rich merchant of the 18th century, who discovered and rescued the Greek archive of Venice and later became a Greek Academy member.32 The archive of the Greek high school in Monastir during the 19th and 20th century shows that almost all the students and teachers were Vlachs, often from poor families.33 Several people maintained the Greek conscience in modern FYROM, despite the passage of 90 years since Pelagonia became Serbian.34 These families maintained a simultaneous use of Greek and Vlach languages for centuries.

Apparently, during the 18th century a large number of Ottoman subjects spoke Vlach at home, but its use gradually diminished. Linguist Gustaf Weigand who studied the Vlachs extensively around 1980 mentions that "a large number of the ‘pure Greeks’ of Thebes, Serres, and Thessaloniki’ are pure Vlachs.35 There were Vlach speakers from the south of Karditsa to the west, Agrafa mountains and Eurytania province who lost their language in the 19th and 20th centuries.36 In Peloponese, where Vlachs had emigrated from northern points, the Vlachs also were assimilated in the local population. (Sometimes Vlach place names remind us of the earlier language.)37 Some Meglenites were converted to Islam in the 18th century and went to Turkey, while others identified with Bulgarians and went to Bulgaria. The people who still spoke Vlach in the 20th century were mainly isolated mountaineers who married among themselves.

Historical Data About the Vlachs

The defenders of various positions base their arguments on some historical data. Below are the basics.

The Balkan Latin languages developed from a Latin (or a proto-Balkan version) that was a lingua franca (language of communication for different peoples) during the Roman empire. (Similarly in the west, Latin evolved into Italian, Spanish, French, etc.) The Balkan Latin languages share many grammatical and lexical features but differ enough among them to be considered separate languages. In the beginning of the 21st century there are four: Aromanian of the south Balkans, Megleno-aromanian, that are spoken only by 2000-3000 people around Gevgeli, Daco-Romanian of Romania, and Istro-Romanian. The latter is spoken by only about 500 people at the Croatian part of the Istria peninsula.38 Further south in Croatia and along the Dalmatian coast the Morlachs or Black Vlachs also spoke Balkan Latin, but their language disappeared around 1890.39 The languages have local dialects.

Ancient Greece was conquered by the Romans in 146 BC and became a Roman province.40 In the 3rd century AD, the capital of the eastern Roman empire was moved to Constantinople. During the German invasions of the 4th century, Rome was sacked, and the Roman empire continued as "Romania", known later as Byzantine empire. It is unknown who spoke Latin at various times. Many nationalities lived in the Byzantine Empire (e.g. Armenians and Goths) and at least some Byzantines spoke a Latin-derived language during the 6th century AD.41 Ioannis Lydos, a contemporary of the Latin-speaking emperor Justinian (527-565 AD) mentions that Latin was used extensively among Greek-speaking people, particularly for official reasons.42 Ultimately, Greek predominated and became the official language of the empire about 618 AD. From the 6th to the 10th century, the Byzantine Empire lost control of its western provinces to Slavs and other invaders, and the knowledge of Latin was reduced.

The name ‘Vlachs’ is mentioned for the first time by the Byzantine Georgios Kedrinos, who wrote that the brother of the subsequently Bulgarian emperor Samuel was killed in 976 by ‘odites Vlachous’ between Kastoria and Prespa lakes.43 Documents from Athos show that there were Vlachs in Chalikidi peninsula around 1000.44 The Armenian historian Kekavmenos, who wrote a treatise called ‘Stratigikon’ described warlike Vlachs around Trikala and Larissa, who in his opinion were "Dacias and Vesi" who had had been expelled from the regions around the Savos and Danube rivers because they were bandits.45 Anna Komnini, historian and daughter of the Byzantine emperor Alexios Komninos, repeatedly mentions the Vlachs of Thessaly, whose chief named Pudilos rushed during the night to notify Alexios Komninos that the Koumani had crossed the Danube.46 Beniamin of Tudela, a 12th century Jewish rabbi, visited in Thessaly in 1173 and mentioned that the Vlachs descended from the mountains like deer, committed robberies, were invincible, and did not keep their word.47

In 1183, the Vlachs of Thessaly rebelled against the heavy taxation imposed by the emperor Isaakios Angelos for the wedding of his daughter and created the Bulgarian-Vlach empire of the Asenids.48 Ioannis Asan declared himself "Imperator omnium Bulgarorum et Blacorum’. (Emperor of all Bulgarians and Vlachs). When Frederico Barbarosa passed by that place, Ioannis Asan was mentioned as ‘Emperor of Vlachs and most Bulgarians’, ‘Emperor of Vlachs and Koumani’, or ‘Emperor of Vlachs and Greeks.’49 Military expeditions against the Asenids were mostly unsuccessful. Byzantine armies were defeated in Veroia and Serres around 1190-1195. Finally around 1318, this empire was divided between the Byzantine Empire and the Catalonian duchy of Athens.50


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After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the Ottomans considered the Greeks and Vlachs one nation (milet) until 1905, although some early references differentiate among them. The villages of Pindus date from the 17th century51 and were possibly founded for safety from persecutions. From that time there is some evidence regarding the relations between Greeks52 and Vlachs. During the 18th century, Greeks and Vlachs coexisted abroad; documents and references of associations in Hungary, Vienna, or Romania do not differentiate between the two. But there were disputes in 1790-1810 in Hungary regarding the language in church. The negative reaction to the request that the mass be chanted in Vlach as well as in Greek split the community of Pesti (Hungary) in 1809.53 In 1905, when disputes in Macedonia increased, the Ottoman Empire declared the Vlachs a separate nation, partly to divide the Christians.54

Older writings in the Vlach language are very few. The earliest texts date only from the 18th century and are brief verses: on an icon of Virgin Mary, above a church doorway, and on a jug. (See pictures.) A Greek-Vlach gospel was printed in 1822 and a sanctification ceremony in 1816.55 Secular texts were meant to teach Greek to Vlachs, like gramma