From: Mate Kapovic
Message: 28893
Date: 2003-12-29
----- Original Message -----
From: "g" <george.st@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, December 29, 2003 1:10 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: etyma for CrALciun,RomanianforChristmas
> On Monday, December 29, 2003, at 12:34 PM, Mate Kapovic wrote:
>
> > Assimilated from the very beginning it seems. Romance was kept only in
> > the
> > coast and islands (Ragusian, Dalmatian/Vegliote, Istriot/Istroromance)
> > from
> > which it is now alive only in Istria.
>
> I was referring to a distinct South Romanian linguistic
> group. Not to the Vegliots (extinct in the 19th c.),
> and not to the Istro-Romanians (very few today). But
> to another group, that seem to have been closer to
> the Aromanian (Macedo-Romanian) branch.
>
> Anyway, I put the question to you only because earlier
> this year I watched a Romanian TV report on such
> people somewhere near the Dalmatian coast, but some
> where (I forgot where) which is farther South. People
> from among 3 families, gathered in a location, were
> interviewed, and they could understand very simple
> Romanian sentences, as well as utter themselves
> some simple sentences in a "primitive", weird kind
> of Romanian. They were aware of belonging to that
> "morlak" group of Romanians, but they were otherwise
> assimilated: their everyday's language is Croatian;
> their surnames too.
>
> Experts (both local and from Romania) who also
> talked in that TV documentation said people from
> this linguistic group moved closer to the Adriatic
> coast several centuries ago, coming from the interior
> of the peninsula, presumably from areas densely
> populated with Aromanians or even... Romanians
> (of East Croatia and Serbia).
>
> Well, I can't tell you more, because I was sitting
> twiddling thumbs, and not jotting down information. :-))
I know what you're talking about but you got the location wrong. The
language is Istro-Romanian and it is spoken in 3 villages in Istria (not in
Dalmatia and not farther south). They came from the interior of the Balkans
indeed to Istria via Lika (an inland part of Croatia between Istria and
Dalmatia but inland). Their language is well-known and described but they
are known as very reluctant in speaking it in front of strangers. And they
are indeed Romanians.
Mate