Vlach people

Vlach people

The Vlach or Aromanian people are speakers of an eastern branch Latin language, like Romanian. They live in the southern Balkans, most especially in northern Greece or Epirus.

Their name comes from the Slavic rendition of a common name used to label Romanised peoples by Germanic peoples. It shares its origins with nouns such as Wallachia, Walloon or Welsh.

Although Latin speakers, the Vlachs in Greece have assumed a total Greek identity and even themselves are quite opposed to teaching their language at school. They regard themselves as Latinised Greeks.

The village in the picture is Metsovo, between Ioannina and Meteora in northern Greece.