Istro-Romanian language

Istro-Romanian is an Eastern Romance language that is spoken in a few hamlets and two villages in the peninsula of Istria, on the northern part of the Adriatic Sea, in what is now Croatia. Formerly it was spoken in a substantially broader part of northeastern Istria surrounding the Ciceria (now Ćićarija) mountain range (ancient Mons Carusadius), after which was named after this people by surrounding Slavs. Its remaining speakers call themselves Vlahi, Rumeni, Rumêri or Rumâri, but are nowadays also referred after related mountain as Ćići and Ćiribiri (Kiribirul), the latter being a nickname that in the past disparagingly referred to the language, not to the people). The Istro-Romanians themselves are split into two groups: the Ćići around Žejane (denoting the people on the north side of Mt. Ucka) and the Vlahi around Šušnjevica (denoting the people on the south side of Mt. Ucka). And yet, despite distinctions and interjection of other languages which vary from village to village, their language is otherwise linguistically identical.

The number of Istro-Romanian speakers is very loosely estimated less than 1000, the "smallest ethnic group in Europe" and listed among languages that are "seriously endangered" in the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages. Due to its very small number of speakers living in about eight minor hamlets and two considerable villages notably Žejane and Šušnjevica, there is no public education or news media in their native Istro-Romanian language. Its speakers are not even recognized as an official minority in Croatia - perhaps a double-edged testimony to the fact that the greater number of Istro-Romanian speakers were forced to leave Istria and nearby cities and towns after World War II when the Paris Peace Treaty with Italy that signed on February 10, 1947 took Istria away from Italy (which had gained Istria after World War I) and awarded it to Yugoslavia, the parent country to present-day Croatia and Slovenia who split Istria in two parts amongst themselves, while Italy retained the small portion near Trieste.

Recent history

The number of Istro-Romanian speakers was further reduced due to assimilation into the respective nationalism of Istria's new rulers: in the 1921 Italian census, there were 1,644 declared Istro-Romanian speakers in the area and in 1926 Romanian scholar Sextil Puşcariu estimated their number to be closer to 3,000, but in the 1991 census of Yugoslavia, only 811 Romanians were registered and in the 2001 Croatian census only 137 inhabitants of the region declared Romanian as their mother tongue, no doubt due in great part to perpetual Slavic pressures for assimilation. The detailed professional studies in Istria by romanist A. Kovačec in 1998 really detected its 170 active speakers only, most of them bilingual except 27 childrens.

In 1922, the Italian regime of Benito Mussolini designated the willage of Susnieviza - which they renamed to Valdarsa and which today is again called Sušnjevica - to be the center for the Istro-Romanians, with a designated school in the Istro-Romanian language, achieved through the efforts of Andrea Glavina (Italianized from Glavich), one of their native sons who had been university educated in Romania. The town of Sušnjevica (with adjacent villages) reached a population of 3,000 in 1942 [this figure needs a formal source], but its language then was considerably italianized, now presenting a hybrid Romance of Romanian/Italian. The population of Sušnjevica alone was subsequently reduced to 200 [source of this date is unknown] and returned to its name prior to Italian rule after World War I.

On the other hand, the major northern village Žejane and nearby hamlets at Slovenian border is less italianized and more original in its Balkanic Romance, but recently it assimilated a number of local Slavic words. Of course, today in both areas it is spelled with Croatian characters rather than Roman ones. Many villages in area had Romanian-style names such as Jeian, Buzet ("lips"), Katun ("hamlet"), Gradinje ("garden"), Letaj, Sucodru ("under a forest"), Costirceanu (a Romanian name). Some of these names are official (recognized by Croatia as their only names), while some are used only by Istro-Romanian speakers. Note: Katun and Gradinje are so far frequent Vlach toponyms along eastern Adriatic conserved from Istria up to Montenegro, and name Buzetus at northern Adriatic was noted yet by ancient Romans.

Actual fate of Istro-Rumanian is very uncertain, because in Istria about 350 persons only now can partly understand it; its active bilingual speakers are less than 200, and less than 30 childrens know it now. So far its speakers were mostly passive and suspicious toward external 'support' that often included recent political interests instead of real help, especially from Italy and Yugoslavia. Also the visiting Rumanians there intended mostly to impose a modern Romanian than to conserve and regenerate original local language, and the nearest Croats and Slovenians also offered any support expecting now passively its soon extinction in Slavic surrounding. Therefore without an urgent, effective and active international support, this peculiar Istro-Romanian would be probably extinct soon in 21st century.

Origin

There are former linguists who believe that the Istro-Romanians migrated to their present region of Istria and all the way to Trieste about 1,000 years ago from Transylvania,, while Serbian extremists would place their origins in present-day Serbia. The first historical record of Balkanic Vlachs in the Istrian region, however, 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 (that could be a Romanian name). There have been recent findings by lay people--and if they're not experts, why should their accounts be trusted--to suggest that the Istro-Romanian people (more probably Vlachs in general) were already present in certain regions of nearby Friuli going back to the 1200s.

Another extremist theory is that they came from somewhere in present-day Serbia, but that is not the consensus among linguists. Some loan words suggest that before coming to Istria, Istro-Romanians lived for a longer period of time in Dalmatian mainland at Cetina river, where from medieval times are noted some related names terminating by -ul. In any case, it is quite clear that the Istro-Romanian dialect (or language) split from the widely spoken Daco-Romanian, an Eastern Romance language, later than the other Romanian dialects ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian), and may be today the closest dialect to Daco-Romanian, the official language of Romania. However, the recently tested Istro-Romanian speakers of Žejane very hardly understood original Romanian guests, and so must converse with them almost in German or SerboCroat; that indicated it may be probably better to consider actual Istro-Romanian as a separate micro-language of Balkanic Romance affine to Romanian.

The first historical record of Istro-Romanians (not necessarily recent "Ćići") dates back to 1329, when Serbian chronicles mention that a Vlach population was living in the area, although there was an earlier mention (from a 12th century venetian monastery) of a leader in Istria called Radul (that could be a Romanian name). Pavle Ivić, a Serbian linguist, cited the hypothesis that a sizeable Roman population inhabited the Balkans from west to east across the former Yugoslavia before the X century. These populations, reduced by epidemies and wars, mixed with the first Istro-Romanians who moved to Istria.

The Italian writer and historian Giuseppe Lazzarini believes that there are more than 5000 Istro-Romanian descendants in Istria today, but most of them identify themselves (census 1991: only 811 Istro-Romanians) with other ethnic groups in the revolving door rule of other nations of this region. He believes that the Istro-Romanians are the descendants of the "melting pot" of the Roman legionaries (moved by Augustus to eastern Istria to colonize the borders of Italy) and the Aromanian shepherds, escaped from the Ottoman invasions to settle in a plague depopulated Istria in the XIV century.

Istro-Romanians areas: green line in 1800, dashed lines in 1900.

There are also other romanists (A. Kovačec 1998) who prefer that the Istro-Romanians migrated to their present region about 600 years ago from Transylvania, after the Bubonic plague depopulated Istria, and that tradition is up to nowadays well conserved in their northern village Žejane. Another comparative support to this are also the medieval chronicles of Frangipani princes, indicating in 15th century they accepted the migrating Romance Vlachs from nearby mainland also in northern Krk island, and settled them in islander villages Poljica and Dubašnica at actual port Malinska. Their language was mostly subequal to actual Istro-Romanian, including a noted Romance Paternoster (Cace nostru). These Romance islanders persisted at Malinska up to mid 19th century and then they were gradually assimilated there. Their last islander speaker at Malinska was Mate Bajčić-Gašparović; till now persisted at Malinska some their toponyms and plant names only (Tekavčić 1959, Kovačec 1998).

The Transylvanian connection is emphasized by linguists, but more importantly, is alive in the memory and folk songs of some of the Rumêri themselves. They break themselves into two distinct groups - the northern upland ćići (It. cicci) of surrounding Mune and Žejane area speaking now the original distinct Istro-Rumanian (Balkanic Romance), and the southern lowland vlahi of the Šušnjevica region that are now more italianized speaking a hybrid Italian/Rumanian. Interestingly enough, Iosif Popovici entitled his book Dialectele române din Istria (Halle, 1909) - that is, "The Dialects..." not "The Dialect..." - so indirectly he admitted there were (and still are) several types of Istro-Romanian dialects in Istria. Their linguistic differences, however, can be easily explained by how a language can evolved differently when there is a separation of two like groups by a natural border between them - in this case, the Ciceria mountain range, and the major historical impact of Italians southwards.

Insofar as Romanian linguists are concerned, the opinions are divided: Prof. Dr. Iosif Popovici (1876-1928), who had travelled extensively in Istria, endorsed the theory that the Istro-Romanians were natives of Ţara Moţilor (Western Transylvania) who emigrated sometime during the Middle Ages into Istria. ("Dialectele române din Istria", I, Halle a.d.S., 1914, p. 122 and following). This opinion was shared by Ovid Densuşianu (1873-1938), a Romanian folklorist, philologist, and poet who introduced trends of European modernism into Romanian literature, who did not hold to the belief that Istro-Romanians are native to Istria, where we find them today (or he was still finding them in the 1930s when he researched for his book Histoire de la langue roumaine, I, p. 337): "Un premier fait que nous devons mettre en evidence, c'est que l'istro-roumain n'a pu se développer à l'origine là où nous le trouvons aujourd'hui" (The primary issue is that the Istro-Romanian dialect, because of its close similarity to other dialects spoken in isolated areas of present-day Romania, simply could not have originally developed where it is found today).

There is also the common error made of confusing the "ćići" and "vlahi" with the "morlacchi" (Slavic: Murlaki) who are an entirely different ethnic and linguistic group of Dalmatian mainland and Herzegovina.

Language

The Istro-Romanian language bears a good deal of resemblance to Daco-Romanian, and most Romanian linguists consider it to be a Romanian dialect (although its actual speakers can hardly understand and communicate with visiting Romanians). The other view that Istro-Romanian is more closely related to the extinct Dalmatian language is not generally accepted. This northern Istro-Romanian is sometimes confused with Istriot, another local language in southern Istria that is considered either a modern descendant of one of the Dalmatian dialects or a closely-related language. In any case, it seems to be more closely related to modern Italian than Romanian dialects.

One peculiarity of Istro-Romanian (IR) compared with Romanian dialects is the use of rhotacism (with the intervocalic /n/ becoming /r/, for instance lumină (meaning "light" in Romanian) becoming lumira). This is one of the reasons that some Romanian linguists think that Istro-Romanian evolved from the Romanian language spoken in the Apuseni or Maramureş area of Transylvania, which has some similar traits. According to Popovici this characteristic is very old as it is found in very few words of Slavic origin which entered into Daco-Romanian (DR) before the 12th century. Other Slavic elements in Istro-Romanian, i.e. Croatian and Slovenian as well as Italian ones, especially from the Venetian dialect, do not show signs of rhotacism, except its partial presence in Chakavian dialect of nearby Adriatic islanders.

Other characteristics of Istro-Romanian include:

• Prosthetic a- as in Aromanian (AR) aruşine < DR ruşine does not exist, however by false analogy an organic a- may disappear e.g. (a)prope, (a)ratå, (a)ve;
• stressed á may become å /ɔ/ which can also be found in the Banat region of Romania;
• ă-á becomes a-å, e.g. DR măritá > IR maritå (to marry), DR arătá > IR (a)ratå (to show);
• au becomes åv, a similar change appears in Aromanian, e.g. DR aud > AR avdu, IR åvdu (I hear); likewise DR preot > AR/IR preftu (priest);
• -e preceded by labials remains unaltered, whereas in DR it becomes -ă, e.g. IR per < DR păr (hair/pear tree), IR pemint < DR pămînt (ground);
• stressed DR -eá- becomes stressed -é-, e.g. DR leac > IR lec (remedy), DR leagăn > IR legăr (cradle/swing), DR fată > IR fetĕ (girl);
• The consonant groups cľ and gľ are only found in IR, AR and Megleno-Romanian (MR). These groups show that the Romanian dialects in Istria separated from DR before the 13th century, when cľ and gľ tended towards k' and g', e.g. Latin inclūdēre > IR cľide, MR ancľide > DR închide (to close), Latin glacia > IR gľåţĕ, AR/MR gľeţ > DR gheaţă (ice);

• The labials p, b, f, v and m show the following evolutions in the Eastern Romance languages:

Istro-Romanian	Aromanian	Megleno-Romanian	Romanian	English
pićor	cicior	picior	picior	leg
kľeptu	cheptu	kľeptu	piept	chest
bire	ghine	bini	bine	well, good
bľerå	azghirari	zber	zbiera	to roar
fiľu	hilj	iľu	fiu	son
fiľa	hilje	iľe	fiică	daughter
ficåt	hicat		ficat	liver
fi	hire	ire	fi	to be
fľer	heru	ieru	fier	iron
viţelu	yitsãl	viţål	viţel	calf
(g)ľerm	iermu	ghiarmi	vierme	worm
viu	yiu	ghiu	viu	alive
vipt	yiptu		vipt	food, grain
mľe(lu)	njel	m'iel	miel	lamb
mľåre	njare	m'ari	miere	honey

The results of these changes in IR can be outlined in the following:

p > p, kľ, ć
b > b, bľ
f > f, fľ
v > v, ľ, gľ
m > mľ

• Words only found in Istro-Romanian and the Daco-Romanian dialects of the Banat:

Istro-Romanian	Banat	Daco-Romanian	English
amănåt	amînat	târziu	late
(a)stårĕ	astară	astăseară	tonight
bericåtĕ	beregată	laringe	throat
lomi	lomui	a frânge	to break
prigodĕ	prigoadă	afacere	business
zgodi	zgođi	a se întîmpla	to happen

However, the similar words zgoda (happening) and prigoda (business) are widespread in SerboCroat, and may be also Slavic loanwords; also above Istro-Romanian mľelu is similar to Chakavian mjelić (lamb) of some Adriatic islanders.

Grammar

Main article: Istro-Romanian grammar

Literature

There is no local literary tradition; however, Andrea Glavina, an Istro-Romanian who was educated in Romania, wrote in 1905 Calendaru lu rumeri din Istrie ("The Calendar of the Romanians of Istria"). In this book he wrote many folkloristic tales of his people. A series of actual Istro-Romanian tales and original folk songs recently is noted also by A. Kovačec (1998).

When Andrea Glavina created the first Istro-Rumanian school in Valdarsa (where he was the first mayor) in 1922, he composed the following "Imnul Istro-romanilor" (it was partly influenced by recent Romanian language):

Imnul Istro-romanilor	Inno Istrorumeno
Roma, Roma i mama noastra noi Romani ramanem Romania i sara noastra tot un sang-avem nu suntem siguri pe lume si'nea avem frati Italiani cu mare lume mana cu noi dati ca sa fim frate si frate cum a dat Dumnezeu sa traim pana la moarte eu si tu si tu si au	Roma, Roma e' la nostra madre noi rimaniamo Romani la Romania e' la nostra sorella abbiamo tutti un sangue non siamo soli al mondo se abbiamo fratelli Italiani dal nome illustre ci hanno dato una mano siamo fratelli e sorelle come l'ha stabilito il Signore cosi' lo sosterremo fino alla morte io con te e tu con me

See also

• Istria
• Istro-Romanians
• Istro-Romanian grammar

External links

• The IstroRomanians in Croatia
• Decebal
• UNESCO Red Book on Endangered Languages - entry for Istro-Romanian
• Istria on the Internet
• Ethnologue report for Istro-Romanian
• Some details and lists on Rumêri kuvinta see in the new Adriatic-chakavian Wiki: chak.volgota.com (accessible only by leaving out Wikipedia).

References

• Wolfgang Dahmen: Istrorumänisch. Lexicon der Romanistische Linguistik. III, Tübingen, 1989, pp. 448-460
• Nerina Feresini: Il Comune istro-romeno di Valdarsa. Edizioni Italo Svevo. Trieste: 1996
• August Kovačec: Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik s gramatikom i tekstovima (Glosar Istroroman-Croat cu gramatica si texte). Verba moritura vol. I, 378 p. Mediteran, Pula 1998
• Josif Popovici: Dialectele romîne din Istria, Halle, 1909
• Pavao Tekavčić: Due voci romene in un dialetto serbo-croato dell'Isola di Veglia (Krk). Studia Romanica 7: 35-38, Zagreb 1959