In one interpretation of the 1989 census results in Moldova, the majority ofMoldovans were counted as ethnic Romanians as well.[67][68] Romanians also form an ethnic minority in several nearby countries situated in Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe, most notably inHungary,Serbia (includingTimok), andUkraine.
Estimates of the number of Romanian people worldwide vary from 24 to 30 million, in part depending on whether the definition of the term "Romanian" includes natives of both Romania and Moldova, their respective diasporas, and native speakers of both Romanian and otherEastern Romance languages. Other speakers of the latter languages are theAromanians, theMegleno-Romanians, and theIstro-Romanians (native toIstria), all of them unevenly distributed throughout theBalkan Peninsula, which may be considered either Romanian subgroups or separated but related ethnicities.
Map showing the area whereDacian was spoken. The blue area shows the Dacian lands conquered by theRoman Empire. The orange area was inhabited by Free Dacian tribes and others.
The territories of modern-dayRomania andMoldova were inhabited by the ancientGetae andDacian tribes. KingBurebista who reigned from 82/61 BC to 45/44 BC, was the first king who successfully unified the tribes of theDacian kingdom, which comprised the area located between the Danube, Tisza, and Dniester rivers. KingDecebalus who reigned from 87 to 106 AD was the last king of theDacian kingdom before it was conquered by theRoman Empire in 106,[69] aftertwo wars between Decebalus' army andTrajan's army. Prior to the two wars, Decebalusdefeated a Roman invasion during the reign ofDomitian between 86 and 88 AD.[70]
Map showing the area where theLatin language was spoken in pink during the Roman Empire between the 4th and 7th century (including the territory of present-day Romania)
TheDiocese of Dacia (circa 337–602) was adiocese of the laterRoman Empire, in the area of modern-dayBalkans.[73] The Diocese of Dacia was composed of five provinces, the northernmost provinces wereDacia Ripensis (the Danubian portion of Dacia Aureliana, one of the cities of Dacia Ripensis in today Romania isSucidava) andMoesia Prima (today in Serbia, near the border between Romania and Serbia).[74] The territory of the diocese was devastated by theHuns in the middle of 5th century and finally overrun by the Avars andSlavs in late 6th and early 7th century.[75]
During theMiddle Ages Romanians were mostly known asVlachs, a blanket term ultimately ofGermanic origin, from the wordWalha, used by ancient Germanic peoples to refer toRomance-speaking andCeltic neighbours. Besides the separation of some groups (Aromanians,Megleno-Romanians, andIstro-Romanians) during theAge of Migration, many Vlachs could be found all over theBalkans, inTransylvania,[80] acrossCarpathian Mountains[81] as far north as Poland and as far west as the regions ofMoravia (part of the modern Czech Republic), some went as far east asVolhynia of western Ukraine, and the present-day Croatia where theMorlachs gradually disappeared, while the Catholic and Orthodox Vlachs took Croat and Serb national identity.[82]
The first written record about aRomance language spoken in the Middle Ages in the Balkans, near theHaemus Mons is from 587 AD. A Vlach muleteer accompanying the Byzantine army noticed that the load was falling from one of the animals and shouted to a companionTorna, torna, fratre! (meaning "Return, return, brother!").Theophanes the Confessor recorded it as part of a 6th-century military expedition byComentiolus andPriscus against the Avars. HistorianGheorghe I. Brătianu considers that these words "represent an expression from the Romanian language, as it was formed at that time in the Balkan and Danube regions"; "they probably belong to one and the most significant of the substrates on which our (Romanian) language was built".[83]
After theAvar Khaganate collapsed in the 790s, theFirst Bulgarian Empire became the dominant power of the region, occupying lands as far as the riverTisa.[84] TheFirst Bulgarian Empire had a mixed population consisting of the Bulgar conquerors,Slavs and Vlachs (Romanians) but theSlavicisation of the Bulgar elite had already begun in the 9th century. Following the conquest of Southern and CentralTransylvania around 830, people from the Bulgar Empire mined salt from mines inTurda,Ocna Mureș, Sărățeni and Ocnița. They traded and transported salt throughout the Bulgar Empire.[85]
A series ofArab historians from the 10th century are some of the first to mention Vlachs in Eastern/South EasternEurope:Mutahhar al-Maqdisi (c.945-991) writes: "They say that in the Turkic neighborhood there are the Khazars, Russians, Slavs,Waladj (Vlachs), Alans, Greeks and many other peoples".[86]Ibn al-Nadīm (early 932–998) published in 998 the workKitāb al-Fihrist mentioning "Turks, Bulgars and Vlahs" (usingBlagha for Vlachs).[87][88]
The Byzantine chroniclerNiketas Choniates writes that in 1164,Andronikos I Komnenos, the emperorManuel I Komnenos's cousin, tried without success, to usurp the throne. Failing in his attempt, the Byzantine prince sought refuge inHalych butAndronikos I Komnenos was "captured by theVlachs, to whom the rumor of his escape had reached, he was taken back to the emperor".[89][90][91]
The Byzantine chroniclerJohn Kinnamos, presenting the campaign ofManuel I Komnenos against Hungary in 1166, reports that General Leon Vatatzes had under his command "a great multitude of Vlachs, who are said to be ancient colonies of those in Italy", an army that attacked the Hungarian possessions "about the lands near the Pontus called the Euxine", respectively the southeastern regions ofTransylvania, "destroyed everything without sparing and trampled everything it encountered in its passage".[92][93][94][95]
By the 9th and 10th centuries, the nomadicPechenegs conquered much of the steppes ofSoutheast Europe and theCrimean Peninsula.The Pecheneg wars against theKievan Rus' caused some of theSlavs and Vlachs from North of the Danube to gradually migrate north of theDniestr in the 10th and 11th centuries.[96]
TheSecond Bulgarian Empire founded by theAsen dynasty consisting of Bulgarians and Vlachs was founded in 1185 and lasted until 1396. Early rulers from the Asen dynasty (particularlyKaloyan) referred to themselves as "Emperors of Bulgarians and Vlachs". Later rulers, especiallyIvan Asen II, styled themselves "Tsars (Emperors) of Bulgarians and Romans". An alternative name used in connection with the pre-midSecond Bulgarian Empire 13th century period is theEmpire of Vlachs and Bulgarians;[97] variant names include the "Vlach–Bulgarian Empire", the "Bulgarian–Wallachian Empire".[98]
The late 13th-century Hungarian chroniclerSimon of Kéza states that the Vlachs were "shepherds and husbandmen" who "remained in Pannonia".[103][104] An unknown author'sDescription of Eastern Europe from 1308 likewise states that the Vlachs "were once theshepherds of the Romans" who "had over them ten powerful kings in the entireMessia and Pannonia".[105][106]
Eventually the entireBalkan peninsula was annexed by the Ottoman Empire. However, Moldavia and Wallachia (extending to Dobruja and Bulgaria) were not entirely subdued by the Ottomans as both principalities became autonomous (which was not the case of other Ottoman territorial possessions in Europe). Transylvania, a third region inhabited by an important majority of Romanian speakers, was a vassal state of the Ottomans until 1687, when the principality became part of the Habsburg possessions. The three principalities were united for several months in 1600 under the authority of WallachianPrinceMichael the Brave.[107]
Up until 1541, Transylvania was part of theKingdom 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 theHabsburg lands. By the end of the 18th century, theAustrian Empire was awarded by the Ottomans with the region ofBukovina and, in 1812, the Russians occupied the eastern half of Moldavia, known asBessarabia through theTreaty of Bucharest of 1812.[108]
Animated history of Romania's borders (mid 19th century–present)Romanians in the Kingdom of Hungary, according to the 1890 censusMap depicting the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia between 1859 and 1878
On the other hand, the Wallachian revolutions of1821 and1848 as well as theMoldavian Revolution of 1848, which aimed for independence from Ottoman and Russian foreign rulership, represented important impacts in the process of spreading theliberal ideology in the eastern and southern Romanian lands, in spite of the fact that all three eventually failed. Nonetheless, in 1859,Moldavia andWallachia elected the same ruler, namelyAlexander John Cuza (who reigned asDomnitor) and were thus unifiedde facto, resulting in theUnited Romanian Principalities for the period between 1859 and 1881.
Although the relatively newly foundedKingdom of Romania initially allied withAustria-Hungary, Romania refused to enterWorld War I on the side of theCentral Powers, because it was obliged to wage war only if Austria-Hungary was attacked. In 1916, Romania joined the war on the side of theTriple Entente.
As a result, at the end of the war, Transylvania, Bessarabia, and Bukovina were awarded to Romania, through a series of international peace treaties, resulting in an enlarged and far more powerful kingdom under KingFerdinand I. As of 1920, the Romanian people was believed to number over 15 million solely in the region of the Romanian kingdom, a figure larger than the populations ofSweden,Denmark, and theNetherlands combined.[109]
After the end of the war, the Romanian Kingdom managed to regain territories lost westward but was nonetheless not given Bessarabia and northern Bukovina back, the aforementioned regions being forcefully incorporated into theSoviet Union (USSR). Subsequently, the Soviet Union imposed a communist government andKing Michael was forced to abdicate and leave for exile, subsequently settling inSwitzerland, whilePetru Groza remained thehead of the government of theSocialist Republic of Romania (RSR).Nicolae Ceaușescu became the head of theRomanian Communist Party (PCR) in 1965 and his severe rule of the 1980s was ended by theRomanian Revolution of 1989.
In the meantime, Romania's major foreign policy achievements were the alignment withWestern Europe and theUnited States by joining theNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) back in 2004 and theEuropean Union three years later, in 2007. Current national objectives of Romania include adhering to theSchengen Area, theEurozone as well as theOECD (i.e. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).
Neacșu's letter to Johannes Benkner (former Transylvanian Saxon mayor of Kronstadt/Brașov) is the oldest document written in Romanian that can be precisely dated.
During the Middle Ages, Romanian was isolated from the other Romance languages, and borrowed words from the nearbySlavic languages (seeSlavic influence on Romanian). Later on, it borrowed a number of words fromGerman,Hungarian, andTurkish.[110] During the modern era, most neologismswere borrowed fromFrench andItalian, though the language has increasingly begun to adopt English borrowings.
Since 2013, theRomanian Language Day is officially celebrated on31 August in Romania.[111] In Moldova, it is officially celebrated on the same day since 2023.[112]
As of 2017, anEthnologue estimation puts the (worldwide) number of Romanian speakers at approximately 24.15 million.[113] The 24.15 million, however, represent only speakers ofRomanian, not all of whom are necessarily ethnic Romanians. Also, this number does not include ethnic-Romanians who no longer speak the Romanian language.
Names for Romanians
In English, Romanians are usually called Romanians and very rarely Rumanians or Roumanians, except in some historical texts, where they are called Roumans orVlachs.[citation needed]
Romanian revolutionaries of 1848 waving the tricolor flag
The nameRomanian is derived fromLatinromanus, meaning "Roman".[114] Under regular phonetical changes that are typical to the Romanian language, the nameromanus over the centuries transformed intorumân[ruˈmɨn]. An older form ofromân was still in use in some regions. Socio-linguistic evolutions in the late 18th century led to a gradual preponderance of theromân spelling form, which was then generalised during the National awakening of Romania of early 19th century.[115]Several historical sources show the use of the term "Romanian" among the medieval or early modern Romanian population. One of the earliest examples comes from theNibelungenlied, a Germanepic poem from before 1200 in which a "Duke Ramunc from the land of Vlachs (Wallachia)" is mentioned. "Vlach" was an exonym used almost exclusively for the Romanians during the Middle Ages. It has been argued by some Romanian researchers that "Ramunc" was not the name of the duke, but a name that highlighted his ethnicity. Other old documents, especially Byzantine or Hungarian ones, make a correlation between the old Romanians as Romans or their descendants.[116] Several other documents, notably from Italian travelers into Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania, speak of the self-identification, language and culture of the Romanians, showing that they designated themselves as "Romans" or related to them in up to 30 works.[117] One example is Tranquillo Andronico's 1534 writing that states that the Vlachs "now call themselves Romans".[118] Another one is Francesco della Valle's 1532 manuscripts that state that the Romanians from Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania preserved the name "Roman" and cites the sentence "Sti Rominest?" (știi românește?, "do you speak Romanian?").[119] Authors that travelled to modern Romania who wrote about it in 1574,[120] 1575[121] and 1666 also noted the use of the term "Romanian".[122] From the Middle Ages, Romanians bore two names, theexonym (one given to them by foreigners)Wallachians orVlachs, under its various forms (vlah,valah,valach,voloh,blac,olăh,vlas,ilac,ulah, etc.), and theendonym (the name they used for themselves)Romanians (Rumâni/Români).[123] The first mentions by Romanians of the endonym are contemporary with the earliest writings in Romanian from the sixteenth century.[124]
According toTomasz Kamusella, at the time of the rise of Romanian nationalism during the early 19th century, the political leaders of Wallachia and Moldavia were aware that the nameRomânia was identical toRomania, a name that had been used for the former Byzantine Empire by its inhabitants. Kamusella continues by stating that they preferred this ethnonym in order to stress their presumed link withAncient Rome and that it became more popular as a nationalistic form of referring to all Romanian-language speakers as a distinct and separate nation during the 1820s.[125]Raymond Detrez asserts thatromân, derived from the LatinRomanus, acquired at a certain point the same meaning of the GreekRomaios; that of Orthodox Christian.[126]Wolfgang Dahmen claims that the meaning ofromanus (Roman) as "Christian", as opposed to "pagan", which used to mean "non-Roman", may have contributed to the preservation of this word as an ethonym of the Romanian people, under the meaning of "Christian".[127]
Daco-Romanian
To distinguish Romanians from the other Romanic peoples of the Balkans (Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, and Istro-Romanians), the termDaco-Romanian is sometimes used to refer to those who speak the standardRomanian language and live in the former territory of ancientDacia (today comprising mostly Romania and Moldova) and its surroundings (such as Dobruja or theTimok Valley, the latter region part of the former Roman province ofDacia Ripensis).[128][129]
Etymology of the term Vlach
The name of "Vlachs" is anexonym 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 theRoman name Volcae, which was originally aCeltic tribe. From the Slavs, it was passed on to other peoples, such as theHungarians (Oláh) andGreeks (Vlachoi) (see the Etymology section of Vlachs).Wallachia, the Southern region of Romania, takes its name from the same source.
Countries with a significant Romanian population and descendants from Romanians:
Romania
+1,000,000
+100,000
+10,000
+1,000
Charts depicting share of Romanians living abroad within other states of the European Union
Most Romanians live in Romania, where they constitute a majority; Romanians also constitute a minority in the countries that neighbour Romania. Romanians can also be found in many countries, notably in the other EU countries, particularly in Italy, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom and France; in North America in the United States and Canada; in Israel; as well as in Brazil, Australia,Argentina, and New Zealand among many other countries. Italy and Spain have been popular emigration destinations, due to a relatively lowlanguage barrier, and both are each now home to about a million Romanians. With respect to geopolitical identity, many individuals of Romanian ethnicity in Moldova prefer to identify themselves asMoldovans.[67][68]
The contemporary total population of ethnic Romanians cannot be stated with any degree of certainty. A disparity can be observed between official sources (such ascensus 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;[130]
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);[130]
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.[130]
For example, the decennialUS Census of 2000 calculated (based on astatistical sampling of household data) that there were 367,310 respondents indicating Romanian ancestry (roughly 0.1% of the total population).[131]
The actual total recorded number of foreign-born Romanians was only 136,000.[132] 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[46] for the number ofRomanian Americans. Which makes the United States home to the largest Romanian community outside Romania.
This estimate notes however that "...other immigrants of Romanian national minority groups have been included such as:Armenians,Germans,Gypsies,Hungarians,Jews, andUkrainians". 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 theUnited 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.
According to the 2022 census, 91.5% of ethnic Romanians in Romania identified themselves as Romanian Orthodox (in comparison to 73.6% of Romania's total population, including other ethnic groups), followed by 3.6% as Protestants and 2.5% as Catholics.[137] However, the actual rate of church attendance is significantly lower and many Romanians are only nominally believers. For example, according to a 2006Eurobarometer poll, only 23% of Romanians attend church once a week or more.[138] A 2006 poll conducted by theOpen Society Foundations found that only 33% of Romanians attended church once amonth or more.[139]
Romanian Catholics are present inTransylvania,Banat,Bukovina,Bucharest, and parts ofMoldavia, belonging to both theRoman Catholic Church (297,246 members) and theRomanian Greek Catholic Church (124,563 members). According to the2011 Romanian census, 2.5% of ethnic Romanians in Romania identified themselves as Catholic (in comparison to 5% of Romania's total population, including other ethnic groups). Around 1.6% of ethnic Romanians in Romania identify themselves asPentecostal, with the population numbering 276,678 members. Smaller percentages are Protestant, Jews, Muslims, agnostic, atheist, or practice a traditional religion.
There are no official dates for the adoption of religions by the Romanians. Based on linguistic and archaeological findings, historians suggest that the Romanians' ancestors acquired polytheistic religions in the Roman era, later adopting Christianity, most likely by the 4th century AD when decreed by EmperorConstantine the Great as the official religion of the Roman Empire.[140] Like in all other Romance languages, the basic Romanian words related to Christianity are inherited from Latin, such asGod (Dumnezeu <Domine Deus),church (biserică <basilica),cross (cruce <crux, -cis),angel (înger <angelus),saint (regional:sfân(t) <sanctus),Christmas (Crăciun <creatio, -onis),Christian (creștin <christianus),Easter (paște <paschae),sin (păcat <peccatum),to baptise (a boteza <batizare),priest (preot <presbiterum),to pray (a ruga <rogare),faith (credință <credentia), and so on.
Traditional Romanian peasant costumes to the left, followed from left to right by Hungarian, Slavic, and German ones
Romanian peasant costume from Bukovina, early 20th century
Romanians from Bukovina, early 20th century postcard
Painting of a young Wallachian shepherd in the early 20th century byIpolit Strâmbu
Romanian immigrants inNew York City, late 19th century
Relationship to other ethnic groups
The closest ethnic groups to the Romanians are the other Romanic peoples of Southeastern Europe: theAromanians (Macedo-Romanians), theMegleno-Romanians, and theIstro-Romanians. The Istro-Romanians are the closest ethnic group to the Romanians, and it is believed they leftMaramureș,Transylvania about a thousand years ago and settled inIstria, Croatia.[141] Numbering about 500 people still living in the original villages of Istria while the majority left for other countries after World War II (mainly to Italy, United States, Canada, Spain, Germany, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, and Australia), they speak theIstro-Romanian language, the closest living relative of Romanian. On the other hand, the Aromanians and the Megleno-Romanians are Romance peoples who live south of the Danube, mainly in Greece, Albania, North Macedonia and Bulgaria 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 theAromanian language andMegleno-Romanian language, both of which are Eastern Romance languages, like Romanian, and are sometimes considered by traditional Romanian linguists to be dialects of Romanian.
Main Y-DNA haplogroups for average Romanian population and per historical regions.[142]
A Bulgarian study from 2013 shows genetic similarity betweenThracians (8-6 century BC), medieval Bulgarians (8–10 century AD), and modern Bulgarians, highlighting highest resemblance between them and Romanians, Northern Italians and Northern Greeks.[143] A genetic study published inScientific Reports in 2019 examined themtDNA of 25 Thracian remains inBulgaria from the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. They were found to harbor a mixture of ancestry fromWestern Steppe Herders (WSHs) andEarly European Farmers (EEFs), supporting the idea that Southeast Europe was the link between Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.[144]
The prevailing Y-chromosome inWallachia (Ploiești,Dolj),Moldavia (Piatra Neamț,Buhuși),Dobruja (Constanța), and northern Republic of Moldova is recorded to beHaplogroup I.[145][146] SubcladesI1 andI2 can be found in most present-day European populations, with peaks in someNorthern European andSoutheastern European countries. Haplogroup I occurs at 32% in Romanians.[147] The frequency of I2a1 (I-P37) in the Balkans according to older researches was considered to be the result of "pre-Slavic"paleolithic settlement. Peričićet al. (2005) for instance placed its expansion to have occurred "not earlier than theYD toHolocene transition and not later than the earlyNeolithic".[148][149] However, the prehistoricautochthonous origin of the haplogroup I2 in the Balkans is now considered as outdated, as already Battagliaet al. (2009) observed highest variance of the haplogroup inUkraine, and Zupanet al. (2013) noted that it suggests it arrived withSlavic migration from the homeland which was in present-day Ukraine.[150] Although it is dominant among the modern Slavic peoples on the territory of the former Balkan provinces of theRoman Empire, until now it was not found among the samples from the Roman period and is almost absent in contemporary population ofItaly.[151] According to Pamjavet al. (2019) and Fóthiet al. (2020), the distribution of such ancestral subclades among contemporary carriers indicates a rapid expansion from SoutheasternPoland, and is mainly related to the Slavs and their medieval migration, which led to the largest demographic explosion that occurred in the Balkans.[151][152] According to a 2023 archaeogenetic study, I2a-L621 is absent in the antiquity and appears only since the Early Middle Ages "always associated with Eastern European related ancestry in the autosomal genome, which supports that these lineages were introduced in the Balkans by Eastern European migrants during the Early Medieval period."[153]
A similar result was cited in a study investigating the genetic pool of people from Republic of Moldova, concluded about the representative samples taken for comparison from Romanians from the towns of Piatra-Neamț and Buhuși that "the most common Y haplogroup in this population was I-M423 (40.7%). This is the highest frequency of the I-M423 haplogroup reported so far outside of the northwest Balkans. The next most frequent among Romanian males was haplogroup R-M17* (16.7%), followed by R-M405 (7.4%), E-v13 and R-M412* (both 5.6%)."[154] The I-M423 haplogroup is a subclade of I2a, a haplogroup prosperous in theStarcevo culture and its possible offshootCucuteni–Trypillia culture (4800-3000 BCE). The high concentration of I2a1b-L621, the main subclade, is attributed to Bronze Age and Early Iron Age migrations (Dacians, Thracians, Illyrians) and the medieval Slavic migrations.[155]
Procrustes-transformed PCA plot of genetic variation of European populations. (A) Geographic coordinates of 37 populations. (B) Procrustes-transformed PCA plot of genetic variation. The Procrustes analysis is based on the unprojected latitude-longitude coordinates and PC1-PC2 coordinates of 1378 individuals.[156]
According to a Y-chromosome analysis of 335 sampled Romanians, 15% of them belong to R1a.[157]Haplogroup R1a, is ahuman Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup which is distributed in a large region inEurasia, extending fromScandinavia andCentral Europe to southernSiberia andSouth Asia.[158][159] Haplogroup R1a among Romanians is entirely from the Eastern European variety Z282 and may be a result of Baltic, Thracian or Slavic descent. 12% of the Romanians belong toHaplogroup R1b, the Alpino-Italic branch of R1b is at 2% a lower frequency recorded than other Balkan peoples.[160] The eastern branches of R1b represent 7%, they prevail in parts ofEastern and Central Europe as a result of AncientGreek colonisation – in parts of Sicily as well.[160][161] Other studies analyzing the haplogroup frequency among Romanians came to similar results.[146]
Delving into the regional differences ofMitochondrial DNA of Romanians, a 2014 study emphasised the different position of North and South Romanian populations (i.e. inside and outside of the Carpathian range) in terms of mitochondrial haplotype variability. The population within the Carpathian range was found to havehaplogroup H at 59.7% frequency, U at 11.3%, K and HV at 3.23% each, and M, X and A at 1.61% each. The South Romanian population also showed the highest frequency inhaplogroup H at 47% (lower than in the sample from the North of Romania),haplogroup U showed a noticeable frequency at 17% (higher than in the sample from North Romania), haplogroups HV and K at 10.61% and 7.58%, respectively, while haplogroups M, X and A were absent. Comparing the results to European and international samples, the study proposes a weak differentiated distribution of mitochondrial haplogroups between inner and outer Carpathian population (rather than north–south boundary) based on higher frequency for thehaplogroup J andhaplogroup K2a in the Southern Romanian sample - considered as markers of the Neolithic expansion in Europe from the Near East, the absence of K2a and the presence ofhaplogroup M in Northern Romanian sample - with higher frequency in Western and Southern Asia, and the inclusion of both Romanian populations within the range of the European mitochondrial variability, rather than being closer to the Near Eastern populations. The North Romanian sample was also found to be slightly separated from the other samples included in the study.[162]
A 2017 paper concentrated on theMitochondrial DNA of Romanians, showed how Romania has been "a major crossroads between Asia and Europe" and thus "experienced continuous migration and invasion episodes"; while stating that previous studies show Romanians "exhibit genetic similarity with other Europeans". The paper also mentions how "signals of Asian maternal lineages were observed in all Romanian historical provinces, indicating gene flow along the migration routes throughEast Asia and Europe, during different time periods, namely, the Upper Paleolithic period and/or, with a likely greater preponderance, the Middle Ages", at low frequency (2.24%). The study analysed 714 samples, representative to the 41 counties of Romania, and grouped them in 4 categories corresponding to historical Romanian provinces:Wallachia,Moldavia,Transylvania, andDobruja. The majority was classified within 9 Eurasian mitochondrial haplogroups (H, U, K, T, J, HV, V, W, and X), while also finding sequences that belonged to the most frequent Asian haplogroups (haplogroups A, C, D, I - at 2.24% overall frequency, and M and N) and African haplogroup L (two samples in Wallachia and one in Dobruja). The H, V, and X haplogroups were detected at higher frequencies in Transylvania, while the frequency of U and N was lower, with M being absent, interpreted as an indicator of genetic proximity of Transylvania to Central European populations, in contrast to the other three provinces, which showed resemblance to Balkan populations. The Dobrujan samples showed a larger contribution of genes from Southwestern Asia which the authors attributed to a larger Asian influence historically and/or its smaller sample size compared to that of the other populations included.[163]
A 2023archaeogenetic study published inCell, argued that the spread of Slavic language in Southeastern Europe was because of large movements of people with specific Eastern European ancestry, and that more than half of the ancestry of most peoples in the Balkans today originates from the medieval Slavic migrations, with around 67% in Croats, 58% in Serbs, 55% in Romanians, 51% in Bulgarians, 40% inGreek Macedonians, 31% in Albanians, 30% inPeloponnesian Greeks, and 4–20% in Greeks from theAegean Islands.[164][165]
Three theories account for the ethnogenesis of the Romanian people. One, known as the Daco-Roman continuity theory, posits that they are descendants of Romans and Romanized indigenous peoples (Dacians) living in theRoman Province ofDacia, while the other posits that the Romanians are descendants of Romans and Romanized indigenous populations of the former Roman provinces ofIllyricum,Moesia,Thracia, andMacedonia, and the ancestors of Romanians later migrated from these Roman provinces south of theDanube into the area which they inhabit today.The third theory also known as the admigration theory, proposed byDimitrie Onciul (1856–1923), posits that the formation of the Romanian people occurred in the former "Dacia Traiana" province, and in the central regions of the Balkan Peninsula.[166][167][168] However, the Balkan Vlachs' northward migration ensured that these centers remained in close contact for centuries.[166][169] This theory is a compromise between the immigrationist and the continuity theories.[166]
^Ambasada României în Polonia."Comunitatea românească din Polonia".Ambasada României în Republica Polonă (in Romanian).Archived from the original on 24 March 2019. Retrieved24 March 2019.
^Ambasada României în Regatul Danemarcei (9 March 2019)."Comunitatea româneacă din Islanda".Ambasada României în Regatul Danemarcei (in Romanian).Archived from the original on 23 October 2018. Retrieved9 March 2019.
^Pop, Ioan-Aurel (1996).Romanians and Hungarians from the 9th to the 14th century.Romanian Cultural Foundation.ISBN0-88033-440-1.Archived from the original on 27 September 2023. Retrieved3 September 2019.We could say that contemporary Europe is made up of three large groups of peoples, divided on the criteria of their origin and linguistic affiliation. They are the following: the Romanic or neo-Latin peoples (Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, French, Romanians, etc.), the Germanic peoples (Germans proper, English, Dutch, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Icelanders, etc.), and the Slavic peoples (Russians, Ukrainians, Belorussians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenians, etc.)
^*"Vlach - History, Language & Culture".britannica.com.Encyclopædia Britannica.Archived from the original on 23 April 2023. Retrieved21 September 2023.Although the origin of Aromanian and Meglenoromanian (and Romanian) from Balkan Latin is beyond question, it is unclear to what extent contemporary Balkan Romance speakers are descended from Roman colonists or from indigenous pre-Roman Balkan populations who shifted to Latin. [...] Nationalist historians deploy one or the other scenario to justify modern territorial claims or claims to indigeneity. Thus, Hungarian (Magyar) claims to Transylvania assume a complete Roman exodus from Dacia, while Romanian claims assume that Romance continued to be spoken by Romanized Dacians. Most scholars who are not nationally affiliated assume the second scenario.
"Dacia, summary".britannica.com.Encyclopædia Britannica.Archived from the original on 20 February 2023. Retrieved1 March 2024.Dacia, Ancient country, central Europe. Roughly equivalent to modern Romania
^abEthnic Groups Worldwide: A Ready Reference Handbook ByDavid Levinson, Published 1998 – Greenwood Publishing Group.
^abAt the time of the 1989 census, Moldova's total population was 4,335,400. The largest nationality in the republic, ethnic Romanians, numbered 2,795,000 persons, accounting for 64.5 percent of the population. Source :U.S. Library of CongressArchived 21 September 2011 at theWayback Machine: "however it is one interpretation of census data results. The subject of Moldovan vs Romanian ethnicity touches upon the sensitive topic of"Moldova's national identity, page 108 sqq.Archived 6 October 2006 at theWayback Machine
^Brian W. Jones,The Emperor Domitian, (London: Routledge, 1992), p. 150
^Hind 1984, p. 191: "The emperor Aurelian formed two provinces of Moesia Superior and Inferior. In fact, Dacia Ripensis was formed out of a stretch of the Danube between Moesia Superior and Inferior, while Dacia Mediterranea was the old inland Balkan region of Dardania."
^Jones 1988, p. 231: "When founded as a colony by Trajan, Ratiaria was within Moesia Superior: when Aurelian withdrew from the old Dacia north of the Danube and established a new province of the same name on the south (Dacia Ripensis), Ratiaria became the capital. As such it was the seat of the military governor (dux), and the base of the legion XIII Gemina. It flourished in the fourth and fifth centuries, and according to the historian Priscus wasμεγίστη καί πολυάνθρωπος ("very great and with numerous inhabitants") when it was captured by the Huns in the early 440s. It appears to have recovered from this sack, but was finally destroyed by the Avars in 586, though the name survives in the modern Arcar."
^abcKazhdan, Alexander (1991). "Scythia Minor". In Kazhdan, Alexander (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-504652-8.
^Rizos, Efthymios (2018). "Scythia Minor". In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-866277-8.
^Bóna, István (2001). "Southern Transylvania under Bulgar Rule". In Köpeczi, Béla; Barta, Gábor; Bóna, István; Makkai, László; Szász, Zoltán; Borus, Judit (eds.).History of Transylvania. Akadémiai Kiadó.ISBN0-88033-479-7.Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved13 April 2023.
^A. Decei, V. Ciocîltan, "La mention des Roumains (Walah) chez Al-Maqdisi", in Romano-arabica I, Bucharest, 1974, pp. 49–54
^Ibn al Nadim, al-Fihrist. English translation: The Fihrist of al-Nadim. Editor și traducător: B. Dodge, New York, Columbia University Press, 1970, p. 37 with n.82
^V. Mărculeț, The Vlachs in the military actions during the Comnen, in Revista de Istorie Militară, 2(60), 2000, p. 46-47 (hereinafter: The Vlachs during the Comnen).
^Kristó, Gyula (2003). Háborúk és hadviselés az Árpádok korában [Wars and Tactics under the Árpáds] (in Hungarian). Szukits Könyvkiadó.ISBN963-9441-87-2.
^V. Klyuchevsky, The course of the Russian history. v.1: "Myslʹ.1987,ISBN5-244-00072-1
^Vladimír Baar, Daniel Jakubek, (2017) Divided National Identity in Moldova, Journal of Nationalism, Memory & Language Politics, Volume 11: Issue 1,doi:10.1515/jnmlp-2017-0004.
^Ioan-Aurel Pop, Italian Authors and the Romanian Identity in the 16th Century, Revue Roumaine d'Histoire, XXXIX, 1-4, p. 39-49, Bucarest, 2000
^"Connubia iunxit cum provincialibus, ut hoc vinculo unam gentem ex duabus faceret, brevi quasi in unum corpus coaluerunt etnunc se Romanos vocant, sed nihil Romani habent praeter linguam et ipsam quidem vehementer depravatam et aliquot barbaricis idiomatibus permixtam." inMagyar Történelmi Tár – 4. sorozat 4. kötet – 1903. - REAL-JArchived 24 February 2021 at theWayback Machine; also see Endre Veress,Fontes rerum transylvanicarum: Erdélyi történelmi források, Történettudományi Intézet, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, Budapest, 1914, Vol. IV, S. 204 and also Maria Holban, Călători străini în Țările Române, Editura Științifică, București, 1968, Vol. 1, p. 247 and also in Gábor Almási, I Valacchi visti dagli Italiani e il concetto di Barbaro nel Rinascimento, Storia della Storiografia, 52 (2007): 049-066
^"...si dimandano in lingua loro Romei...se alcuno dimanda se sano parlare in la lingua valacca, dicono a questo in questo modo:Sti Rominest ? Che vol dire: Sai tu Romano,..." and further "però al presente si dimandon Romei, e questo è quanto da essi monacci potessimo esser instruiti" in Claudio Isopescu, Notizie intorno ai Romeni nella letteratura geografica italiana del Cinquecento, in "Bulletin de la Section Historique de l'Académie Roumaine", XIV, 1929, p. 1- 90 and also in Maria Holban, Călători străini în Țările Române, Editura Științifică, București, 1968, Vol. 1, p. 322-323 For the original text also seeMagyar Történelmi Tár, 1855, p. 22-23Archived 19 March 2022 at theWayback Machine
^"Tout ce pays la Wallachie et Moldavie et la plus part de la Transivanie a esté peuplé des colonie romaines du temps de Traian l'empereur...Ceux du pays se disent vrais successeurs des Romains et nomment leur parlerromanechte, c'est-à-dire romain ... " cited from "Voyage fait par moy, Pierre Lescalopier l'an 1574 de Venise a Constantinople", fol 48 in Paul Cernovodeanu, Studii si materiale de istorie medievala, IV, 1960, p. 444
^T. Kamusella, The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe, Springer, 2008,ISBN978-0-230-58347-4, p. 208; 452.
^In Romanian the ethnonym român, derived from Latin Romanus, had acquired the same meaning as Greek Romaios (in the sense of Orthodox Christian)... Obviously, the Latin Romanus and Greek Romaios shared the same semantic development from an ethnic, or rather, political community to religious denomination. Raymond Detrez on p. 41 in Pre-National Identities in the Balkans in: Entangled Histories of the Balkans - Volume One, pp. 13–65,doi:10.1163/9789004250765_003
^Wolfgang Dahmen, who has questioned the continuity betweenromanus andromân as an ethnic denomination, notes: One might also suppose that the early identification of ROMANUS with "Christian" (as opposed to PAGANUS, which then acquired also the meaning of "non-Roman"), has contributed to the preservation of the former meaning. Dahmen, Wolfgang, "Pro- und antiwestliche Strömungen im rumänischen literarischen Diskurs – ein Überblick," in Gabriella Schubert and Holm Sundhaussen (eds.): Prowestliche und antiwestliche Diskurse in den Balkanländern / Südosteuropa. 43. Internationale Hochschulwoche der Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft in Tutzing 4. - 8.10.2004, München 2008, 59-75. as cited byRaymond Detrez on p. 41 inPre-National Identities in the Balkans in: Entangled Histories of the BalkansArchived 2 August 2023 at theWayback Machine - Volume One, pp. 13–65,doi:10.1163/9789004250765_003
^abcIn an ever more globalized world the incredibly diverse and widespread phenomenon of migration has played a significant role in the ways in which notions such as "home," "membership" or "national belonging" have constantly been disputed and negotiated in both sending and receiving societies. –Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and Nationhood (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994).
^Rootsi, Siiri (2004). Human Y-chromosomal variation in European populations (PhD Thesis). Tartu University Press.hdl:10062/1252
^Marjanovic D, Fornarino S, Montagna S, Primorac D, Hadziselimovic R, Vidovic S, et al. (November 2005). "The peopling of modern Bosnia-Herzegovina: Y-chromosome haplogroups in the three main ethnic groups".Annals of Human Genetics.69 (Pt 6):757–763.doi:10.1111/j.1529-8817.2005.00190.x.PMID16266413.S2CID36632274.
^Zupan A, Vrabec K, Glavač D (2013). "The paternal perspective of the Slovenian population and its relationship with other populations".Annals of Human Biology.40 (6):515–526.doi:10.3109/03014460.2013.813584.PMID23879710.S2CID34621779.
^abCite error: The named referenceFóthi was invoked but never defined (see thehelp page).
^Pamjav H, Fehér T, Németh E, Koppány Csáji L (2019).Genetika és őstörténet (in Hungarian). Napkút Kiadó. p. 58.ISBN978-963-263-855-3.Az I2-CTS10228 (köznevén "dinári-kárpáti") alcsoport legkorábbi közös őse 2200 évvel ezelőttre tehető, így esetében nem arról van szó, hogy a mezolit népesség Kelet-Európában ilyen mértékben fennmaradt volna, hanem arról, hogy egy, a mezolit csoportoktól származó szűk család az európai vaskorban sikeresen integrálódott egy olyan társadalomba, amely hamarosan erőteljes demográfiai expanzióba kezdett. Ez is mutatja, hogy nem feltétlenül népek, mintsem családok sikerével, nemzetségek elterjedésével is számolnunk kell, és ezt a jelenlegi etnikai identitással összefüggésbe hozni lehetetlen. A csoport elterjedése alapján valószínűsíthető, hogy a szláv népek migrációjában vett részt, így válva az R1a-t követően a második legdominánsabb csoporttá a mai Kelet-Európában. Nyugat-Európából viszont teljes mértékben hiányzik, kivéve a kora középkorban szláv nyelvet beszélő keletnémet területeket.
Boia, Lucian (2001).History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness (Translated by James Christian Brown). CEU Press.ISBN978-963-9116-96-2.
Bóna, István (1994). "From Dacia to Transylvania: The Period of the Great Migrations (271–895); The Hungarian–Slav Period (895–1172)". In Köpeczi, Béla; Barta, Gábor; Bóna, István; Makkai, László; Szász, Zoltán; Borus, Judit (eds.).History of Transylvania. Akadémiai Kiadó. pp. 62–177.ISBN963-05-6703-2.
Georgescu, Vlad (1991).The Romanians: a history. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.ISBN978-0-8142-0511-2.
Gyóni, Mátyás (1944). Elekes, Lajos (ed.)."A legrégibb vélemény a román nép eredetéről" [The oldest opinion about the origin of the Romanian people](PDF).Századok (in Hungarian).78.Budapest.Archived(PDF) from the original on 16 March 2023. Retrieved29 June 2023.
Jones, C. P. (1988). "An Epigram from Ratiaria".The American Journal of Philology.109 (2). Johns Hopkins University Press:231–38.doi:10.2307/294583.JSTOR294583.
Madgearu, Alexandru (2005).The Romanians in the Anonymous "Gesta Hungarorum": truth and fiction. Cluj-Napoca: Center for Transylvanian Studies, Romanian Cultural Institute.ISBN973-7784-01-4.
Pană Dindelegan, Gabriela (2013). "Introduction: Romanian – a brief presentation". In Pană Dindelegan, Gabriela (ed.).The Grammar of Romanian. Oxford University Press. pp. 1–7.ISBN978-0-19-964492-6.
Schramm, Gottfried (1997).Ein Damm bricht. Die römische Donaugrenze und die Invasionen des 5-7. Jahrhunderts in Lichte der Namen und Wörter[=A Dam Breaks: The Roman Danube frontier and the Invasions of the 5th-7th Centuries in the Light of Names and Words] (in German). R. Oldenbourg Verlag.ISBN978-3-486-56262-0.
Soulis, George C. (1963). "Thessalian Vlachia".Zbornik Radova Vizantološkog Instituta.8 (1):271–273.
Spinei, Victor (2009).The Romanians and the Turkic nomads north of the Danube Delta from the tenth to the mid-thirteenth century. Leiden: Brill.ISBN978-90-04-17536-5.
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