Armãnj, Vlachs, Vlasi. Episode 1, Etymology and Origins. With MK subtitles (prevod)

Date: Thu Jan 28 2021 ; Tags: Romania »»»» Romanians »»»» Aromanians

Did the Romanians in Romania originate in that land, or did they migrate into that land? This video claims that the Armãnj are the original culture of peoples who spoke a Latin-like language and specialized in shepherding. This is the first in a series telling the story of the people most know as Aromanian, or Vlachs, and which are presented in this video as the Armãnj.

The name Aromanian was invented in the 1800's seemingly to pigeon-hole these people as Romanians who traveled southward into the Balkans. Instead the video claims Armãnj is the correct name for these people, and that this name is derived from the word raman which means to remain. Therefore the name Armãnj means Those who stayed and who did not assimilate into other cultures.

This is a distinction from the Armãnj who traveled elsewhere, assimilating into other cultures. It isn't clearly said, but one gathers that this presenter claims the Romanians of Romania are Armãnj who assimilated into people living north of the Danube River.

The name Vlach is described here as an exonym, in other words a name that others use.

An exonym is a common, external name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, or a language/dialect, that is used only outside that particular place, group, or linguistic community. Exonyms not only exist for historico-geographical reasons, but also in consideration of difficulties when pronouncing foreign words.

In other words, the word Vlach was invented by other tribes to describe a certain set of people. They did not care that those people called themselves Armãnj, they instead used the name Vlach. That name stuck, and even transmogrified into the name Walllachia which is the name for a region of Romania.