(Redirected from Rumanians)
The 'Romanians' (''români'' in present-day
Romanian and ''rumâni'' in historical contexts) are an
ethnic group; they are the majority inhabitants of
Romania. The country also has other significant
ethnic minorities, and the Romanians constitute an ethnic minority in several nearby countries.
The Romanian people are a
nation in the meaning ''an
ethnos'' (in Romanian: ''popor),'' defined more by a sense of sharing a common
Romanian culture and having a Romanian
mother tongue, than by
citizenship or by being subjects to any particular country. The Romanian citizenship Law
[4] legislated in March 1991 even establishes the rights of second and third generation descendants of Romanian citizens to obtain a Romanian citizenship, if they speak fluent Romanian and are able to demonstrate sufficient knowledge in Romanian history and culture. In the world today, ''24 million'' have Romanian as their mother tongue.
[5] If a distinction is made between ''Romanians'' and ''Ethnic Romanians,'' the latter are distinguished by living outside of the Romania and not holding Romanian
citizenship.
The concept of who is a ''Romanian'' has varied in time. In historical contexts, the Romanians are generally referred with the
exonym '
Vlachs', a term shared by other Romance populations of the
Balkan Peninsula. These populations also shared, and share, a common
autonym, with dialectical variants ''rumân'', ''armân'', ''rumâr'', etc. These populations, regarded separately today, had generally been regarded as a single people with a cohesive self-identity, possessing a common language divided into the main dialects:
Daco-Romanian, the dominant language of modern Romania and Moldova;
Aromanian (also known as Macedo-Romanian), spoken today by about 300,000 people in the several countries south of the
Danube;
Megleno-Romanian, spoken today by about 10,000 people in
Greece and the
Republic of Macedonia; and
Istro-Romanian spoken today by fewer than 1,000 people in a few villages on the peninsula of
Istria in
Croatia. However, a modern separation and interpretation, although would group the modern Romanians along with the
Macedo-Romanians,
Megleno-Romanians and
Istro-Romanians, would nevertheless conclude and have as final result the perception of these populations as separate, distinguished
ethnic groups.
Ascribing the concept to the territory which nowadays encompasses Romania, than it can be inferred that until the 19th century, the term ''Romanian'' denoted the speakers of the Daco-Romanian dialect of the Romanian language, thus being a much more distinct concept than that of ''Romania, the country of the Romanians''. Prior to
1867, the (Daco-)Romanians were part of different statal entities: with the
Moldavians and the
Wallachians being split off and having shaped separate political identities, possessing states of their own, and with the rest of Romanians being part of other states. However, like the rest of the Vlachs, they all retained their Romanian cultural and ethnic identity.
Population
Most Romanians live in
Romania, where they constitute a majority; Romanians also constitute a minority in the countries that neighbour them. Romanians can also be found in many countries as immigrants, notably in the
United States,
Spain,
Italy,
Canada,
France and
Germany. It is also a matter of the ongoing dispute whether the population of the
Republic of Moldova (i.e.,
Moldovans) are Romanians.
The contemporary total population of ethnic Romanians cannot be stated with any degree of certainty. A disparity can be observed between official sources (such as
census counts) where they exist, and estimates which come from non-official sources and interested groups. Several inhibiting factors (not unique to this particular case) contribute towards this uncertainty, which may include:
★ A degree of overlap may exist or be shared between Romanian and other ethnic identities in certain situations, and census or survey respondents may elect to identify with one particular ancestry but not another, or instead identify with multiple ancestries;
★ Counts and estimates may inconsistently distinguish between Romanian nationality and Romanian ethnicity (i.e. not all Romanian nationals identify with Romanian ethnicity, and vice versa);
★ The measurements and methodologies employed by governments to enumerate and describe the ethnicity and ancestry of their citizens vary from country to country. Thus the census definition of "Romanian" might variously mean Romanian-born, of Romanian parentage, or also include other ethnic identities as Romanian which otherwise are identified separately in other contexts;
★ The number of ethnic Romanians who live and work abroad is not precisely known, particularly so where their presence in the host country may be considered "illegal". In addition, where estimates for these populations have been made there is some risk of likely "double counting"— that is, Romanian persons abroad who have retained (or have not formally relinquished) their original citizenship may possibly figure in the counts or estimates of both the "home" and "host" countries.
For example, the decennial
U.S. Census of 2000 calculated (based on a
statistical sampling of household data) that there were 367,310 respondents indicating Romanian ancestry (roughly 0.1% of the total population).
The actual total recorded number of foreign-born Romanians was only 136,000
Migration Information Source However, some non-specialist organisations have produced estimates which are considerably higher: a 2002 study by the Romanian-American Network Inc. mentions an estimated figure of 1,200,000
[6] for the number of
Romanian-Americans. This estimate notes however that "...other immigrants of Romanian national minority groups have been included such as: Armenians, Germans, Gypsies, Hungarians, Jews, and Ukrainians". It also includes an unspecified allowance for second- and third-generation Romanians, and an indeterminate number living in Canada. An error range for the estimate is not provided. For the
United States 2000 Census figures, almost 20% of the total population did not classify or report an ancestry, and the census is also subject to undercounting, an incomplete (67%) response rate, and sampling error in general.
History
White = Daco-Romanians
Green = Istro-Romanians
Yellow = Aromanians
Orange = Megleno-Romanians
Ancient times
Main articles: Origin of Romanians
Inhabited by the ancient
Dacians, today's territory of
Romania was conquered by the
Roman Empire in
106, when
Trajan's army defeated the army of
Decebalus (''see
Dacian Wars''). The
Roman administration withdrew two centuries later, under the pressure of the
Goths and
Carpi.
Middle ages
The tribal migrations that followed - such as the ones of
Slavs,
Bulgars (later
Bulgarians),
Hungarians, and
Tatars - did not allow Romanians to develop any large centralized state, which was only achieved in the 13th century and especially in the 14th century, when the
Danubian Principalities of
Moldavia and
Wallachia emerged to fight the
Ottoman Empire.
The entire
Balkan peninsula was annexed by the
Ottoman Empire, but Moldavia, Wallachia, and
Transylvania remained autonomous under Ottoman
suzerainty. The three principalities were united in 1600 under the authority of Wallachian
Prince Michael the Brave.
Up until 1541, Transylvania was part of the
Kingdom of Hungary, later (due to the conquest of Hungary by the Ottoman Empire) was a self-governed Principality governed by the Hungarian nobility. In 1699 it became a part of the
Habsburg lands. By the 19th century, the
Austrian Empire was awarded the by the Ottomans the region of
Bukovina and, in 1812, the Russians occupied the eastern half of Moldavia, known as
Bessarabia.
Modern age
In 1821 and 1848, two rebellions occurred, and both failed; but they had an important role in the spreading of the
liberal ideology. In 1859,
Moldavia and
Wallachia elected the same ruler -
Alexander John Cuza (who reigned as ''
Domnitor'') and were thus unified ''de facto''.
Newly-founded
Kingdom of Romania, led by the
Hohenzollern prince
Carol I fought the
War of Independence against the Ottomans, which was recognized in 1878. At the beginning of
World War I, although allied with
Austria-Hungary, Romania refused to go to war on the side of the
Central Powers, because Romania was obliged to go to war only if
Austria-Hungary was attacked. In 1916, Romania joined
World War I on the side of the
Triple Entente. As a result, at the end of the war, Transylvania, Bessarabia and Bukovina were awarded to Romania, resulting in ''
Greater Romania''.
During World War II,
Romania lost territory in both east and west, as
Northern Transylvania became part of
Hungary through the
Second Vienna Award, while Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina were taken by the Soviets and included in the
Moldavian SSR and
Ukrainian SSR respectively. The eastern territory losses were facilitated by the
Molotov-Ribbentrop German-Soviet non-aggression pact.
The Soviet Union imposed a Communist government and
King Michael was forced to abdicate and leave for exile.
CeauÅŸescu became the head of the
Romanian Communist Party in 1965 and his draconian rule of the 1980s was stopped by a
Revolution in 1989.
The Romanian revolution brought to power the dissident and former communist
Ion Iliescu. He remained in power until 1996, and then once more between 2000 and 2004.
Emil Constantinescu was
president from 1996 to 2000, and
Traian Băsescu started his mandate in 2004.
Romania joined
NATO in 2004 and the
European Union in 2007.
Culture
Main articles: Culture of Romania
Contributions to humanity
Main articles: List of Romanians
Romanians have played an important role in the
arts,
sciences and
engineering.
In the history of flight,
Traian Vuia built the first self-propelling heavier-than-air aircraft, while
Henri Coandă built the first aircraft powered by a
jet engine.
Victor BabeÅŸ discovered more than 50 germs and a cure for a disease named after him,
babesiosis; biologist
Nicolae Paulescu discovered
insulin. Another biologist,
Emil Palade, received the Nobel Prize for his contributions to
cell biology. Mathematician
Åžtefan Odobleja is considered to be the ideological father behind
cybernetics.
In the arts and culture, important figures were
George Enescu (music composer),
Constantin Brâncusi (sculptor),
Eugène Ionesco (playwright),
Mircea Eliade (historian of religion and novelist),
Emil Cioran (essayist) and
Angela Gheorghiu (soprano).
Count Dracula is a worldwide icon of Romania. However, the idea of Dracula as a vampire is not genuinely Romanian. It was created by the Irishman
Bram Stoker from
Balkan folklore and the historic Romanian figure of
Vlad Ţepeş.
In sports, Romanians have excelled in a variety of fields, such as soccer (
Gheorghe Hagi), gymnastics (
Nadia Comaneci,
Lavinia Milosovici etc.), tennis (
Ilie Nastase,
Ion Ţiriac), canoe racing (
Ivan Patzaichin) and handball (four times men's World Cup winners).
Language
Main articles: Romanian language
The origins of
Romanian language, a
Romance language, can be traced back to the Roman colonization of
Dacia. The basic vocabulary is of Latin origin, although there are some
substratum Dacian words. Of all the Romance languages, it could be said that Romanian is the most archaic one, having retained, for example, the inflected structure of Latin grammar.
During the Middle Ages, Romanian was isolated from the other Romance languages, and borrowed words from the nearby
Slavic languages. The
Turkish occupation enriched the language with a picturesque Turkic vocabulary by now thoroughly integrated into everyday speech. During the modern era, most neologisms were borrowed from
French and
Italian, though increasingly the language is falling under the sway of English borrowings.
The
Moldovan language, in its official form, is practically identical to Romanian, although there are some differences in colloquial speech. In the de-facto independent (but internationally unrecognised) region of
Transnistria, the official script used to write Moldovan is Cyrillic.
A 2005
Ethnologue estimation puts the (world-wide) number of Romanian speakers at approximately 23.5 million.
[7] The 23.5 million , however, represent only speakers of
Romanian, not all of whom are necessarily ethnic Romanians. Also, this number does not include ethnic-Romanians who no longer speak the Romanian language.
Surnames
Many Romanian names have the
surname suffix -escu, which used to be a
patronymic. (for example, "Petrescu" used to be the son of "Petre") Many Romanians in France changed the ending of their surnames to -esco, because the way it is pronounced "-cu" in French. Other suffixes are "-eanu" (or "-an"), which indicates the geographical origin and "-aru", which indicates the occupation.
The most common surnames are Ionescu ("son of John") and Popescu ("son of the priest").
Religion
The majority of Romanians are
Eastern Orthodox Christians, belonging to the
Romanian Orthodox Church. According to the 2002 census, 94.0% of ethnic Romanians in
Romania identified themselves as Romanian Orthodox (in comparison to 86.8% of Romania's total population, including other ethnic groups). However, it must be noted that the actual rate of church attendance is significantly lower, and that many Romanians are only nominally believers. For example, according to a 2006
Eurobarometer poll, only 23% of Romanians attend church once a week or more.
[8] A 2006 poll conducted by the
Open Society Foundation found that only 33% of Romanians attended church once a ''month'' or more.
[9]
Romanian Catholics are present in
Transylvania,
Bucharest, and parts of
Moldavia, belonging to both the
Romanian Greek-Catholic Catholic Church and the
Roman Catholic Church. A small percentage of Romanians are
Protestant, neo-
Protestant (2.8%), or
agnostic (0,15%).
There is no official date for the adoption of Christianity by the Romanians. Based on linguistic and archaeological findings, historians suggest that the Romanians' ancestors acquired their religion in the Roman era. Many basic words related to Christianity, such as church ("biserică" < basilica),
God ("
Dumnezeu" < Domine Deus), Easter ("PaÅŸte" < Paschae), etc., are inherited from Latin.
After the
Great Schism, there existed a Catholic Bishopric of
Cumania (later, separate bishoprics in both
Wallachia and
Moldavia). However, this seems to be the exception, rather than the rule, as in both
Wallachia and
Moldavia the state religion (the one use for crowning, and other ceremonies) was orthodox. Until the 17th century, the official language of the liturgy was
Old Church Slavonic. Then, it gradually changed to Romanian.
Symbols
Romanian flag
Moldovan flag
Coat of Arms of Romania
The colours of blue, yellow and red, which are now used on the both the
flag of Romania and the
flag of Moldova were used by the nationalist movement of the
1820s.
In addition to these colours, each historical province of Romania has its own characteristic animal symbol:
★
Oltenia:
Lion and
Banat:
Trajan's bridge
★
Dobrogea:
Dolphin
★
Moldavia:
Aurochs/
Wisent
★
Transylvania:
Black eagle
★
Wallachia:
Eagle
The
Coat of Arms of Romania combines these together.
Customs
Main articles: Romanian folklore
Name
In English, Romanians are usually called Romanians, Rumanians, or Roumanians except in some historical texts, where they are called Roumans or
Vlachs.
Romanian
Main articles: Etymology of Romania
The name "Romanian" is derived from Latin "Romanus". Under regular phonetical changes that are typical to the Romanian languages, the name was transformed in "rumân" (''ru'mɨn''). An older form of "român" was still in use in some regions. Socio-linguistic evolutions in the late 18th century led to a gradual preponderance of the "român" spelling form, which was then generalised during the
National awakening of Romania of early 19th century.
Vlach
The name of "
Vlachs" is an
exonym that was used by Slavs to refer to all Romanized natives of the Balkans. It holds its origin from ancient Germanic - being a cognate to "Welsh" and "Walloon" -, and perhaps even further back in time, from the
Roman name Volcae, which was originally a
Celtic tribe. From the Slavs, it was passed on to other peoples, such as the
Hungarians (''Oláh'') and
Greeks (''Vlachoi''). (see:
Etymology of Vlach) Vlach was also used for all Orthodox Christians.
Wallachia, a region in Romania, takes its name from the same source.
Nowadays, the term Vlach is more often used to refer to the Romanized populations of the Balkans who speak
Daco-Romanian,
Aromanian,
Istro-Romanian and
Megleno-Romanian. Aromanian, Istro-Romanian and Megleno-Romanian are the closest related languages to the Romanian language.
Daco-Romanian
To distinguish Romanians from the other Romanic peoples of the Balkans (Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians and Istro-Romanians), the term
Daco-Romanian is sometimes used to refer to those who speak the standard
Romanian language and live in the territory of ancient
Dacia (today comprising mostly Romania and Moldova), although some Daco-Romanians can be found in
Serbia (which was part of ancient
Moesia).
Toponyms
In the Middle Ages, Romanian shepherds migrated with their flocks in search of better
pastures and reached Southern
Poland,
Croatia,
Serbia,
Greece, and
Eastern Thrace (now in
Bulgaria and
Greece).
Anthroponyms
These are family names that have been derived from either ''Vlach'' or ''Romanian''. Most of these names have been given when a Romanian settled in a non-Romanian region.
★ Oláh (37,147 Hungarians have this name)
★ Vlach
★ Vlahuta
★ Vlasa
★ VlaÅ¡ic
★ Vlasceanu
★ Vlachopoulos
Subgroups and related ethnic groups
The closest ethnic groups to the Romanians are the other Romanic peoples of Southeastern Europe: the
Istro-Romanians, the
Aromanians (Macedo-Romanians) and the
Megleno-Romanians. The Istro-Romanians are the closest ethnic group to the Romanians, and it is believed they left
MaramureÅŸ,
Transylvania about a thousand years ago and settled in
Istria,
Croatia. Numbering about 500 people, they speak the
Istro-Romanian language, the closest living relative of Romanian. Other related ethnic groups include the Italians, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and the other Romance languages speaking people.
The Aromanians and the Megleno-Romanians are Romanic peoples who live south of the Danube, mainly in
Greece,
Albania and the
Republic of Macedonia, although some of them migrated to Romania in the 20th century. It is believed that they diverged from the Romanians in the 7th to 9th century, and currently speak the
Aromanian language and
Megleno-Romanian language, both of which are
Eastern Romance languages, like Romanian, and are sometimes considered by traditional Romanian linguists to be dialects of standard (Daco-)Romanian.
See also
★
Brodnici
★
Romanians of Serbia
★
Moravian Wallachia
★
Romanian diaspora
★
Culture of Romania
★
Romanian cuisine
★
Music of Romania
Notes and references
1. The lower estimate is the sum of the countrywise estimates listed
2. [1] Investment Climate and Market Structure in the Energy Sector Paper of the Energy Charter Secretariat puts the number of Romanians outside Romania at 8.2 million]
3. [www.usaid.gov/locations/europe_eurasia/pdfs/romaniaictpub.pdf] Romane IED Assessment puts the number of Romanians outside the country at 8 million
4. Romanian Citizenship Law (translated to English)
5. [8] Data according to the Latin Union
6. Romanian Communities Allocation in United States: Study of Romanian-American population (2002), Romanian-American Network, Inc. Retrieved 14 October 2005. Their figure of 1.2 million includes "200,000-225,000 Romanian Jews", 50,000-60,000 Germans from Romania, etc.
7. Romanian language on Ethnologue.
8. European Commission, Eurobarometer National Report: Romania - Autumn 2006, p. 25
9. Barometrul de Opinie Publică - Mai 2006, p. 112, Open Society Foundation
External links
★
The Romanian nation in the beginning of the 20th century
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