20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

The first Aromanian writersand their relationship with the Greek languageNistor Bardu“Ovidiu” University – Constanţa1. Aromanians, descendants of Balkan Romanity, detached fromthe Protoromanian common base, have kept their native Romanic idiomuntil these days, but throughout the Middle Ages, for the Greek language,they had the respect and admiration which had been imposed on theirconscience by the Greek Church, to which they depended almost always.Studying this issue, Neagu Djuvara highlighted that Aromanians whorose “above their condition of shepherd or illiterate peasant were surelybilingual – Aromanian – Greek: as maternal language, the Aromaniandialect remained, while Greek became their educated language, theircommunication language.” (Djuvara, 1996: 110)In the VII th and XVIII th centuries, Aromanians received local autonomyfrom the Turkish authorities, privileges and a considerably freedomof movement, which they have inherited from Byzantine emperors.Consequently, at the beginning of the Modern Era, the Aromanians whohad overcame their shepherd condition became the carriers, guides andowners of the most important roads of the region. At crossroads and inother convenient locations, they founded real burgs as Cǎlǎriţi, Siracu,Gramostea, Meţova, Clisura, Moscopole. (Pouqueville, 826: 172-176;apud Brezeanu and Zbuchea, 1997: 146-147; and Papacostea, 1983: 365-366) Until 1700, these burgs had a client status towards trading system ofVenice and France. After 1700, cities as Meţova and Mescopole manageto develop own economic actions, having available for this purposegenuine hinterlands. Among them, Moscopole, exclusively inhabited by