Gacovic Od romanskog stanovnistva do Rumuna Timocana (VII-XVI vek) knjiga III (1)

312 Slavoljub Gacović
used poor, simple grammar, which resembles the Latin (quae vulgari
communique gentis suae more dicunt, rusticam male grammaticam
redoleant latinitatem).
In the part where we talk about Vlach onomastics, we cited many
authors and their discussions on the names of Vlachs in medieval charters.
We point out the dual names of the Vlachs, and the Vlach, or Roman-Vlach,
Serb-Vlach, calendar and Slavic and Serbian groups of names that we
encounter in Vlach medieval pastures. If we take into account the correlation
of the mentioned groups, and of course all the instability of the modes of
classification and distribution of names, we can say that the thesis which can
be met in Serbian historiography on the “overwhelming” majority and the
prevalence of Slavic names, is not supported in Serbian medieval charters,
since the calendar and Roman-Vlach groups of names, and the Serb-Vlach,
make a great percentage, which reduces the share of Slavic (Serbian) group
to only one fourth of anthroponyms.
Naturally, these pieces of information show how intense the Slavic-
Vlach connections were at that time, which reflected on the onomastics of
the time. The analysis of anthroponyms of the third (Serb-Vlach) group of
names is quite interesting when it comes to the evaluation of the ethnic
origin of the representatives of the feudal class, among whom were Vlach
feudal lords. We hypothesized that among these Vlach feudal lords was not
only prefect Maljusat from the fourteenth century, but also the mentioned
prefect Dragos in the late thirteenth century, and many others.
Plenty of onomastic material that was used among the Vlachs we then
compared with the names of Vlachs in north-western Serbia stored in
Turkish census defters of Smederevo district, in order to finally compare
those names with the names of Vlachs in the Turkish census defters of the
fifteenth century from the area of Braničevo and Vidin district, to indicate
the continuity of anthroponyms among the Vlachs. The result was more than
obvious: that many identical names of all groups that the Vlachs in the
thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries used were preserved in the south, as
well as in western and eastern Serbia until the fifteenth century, but there
were also new Roman-Vlach, Serb-Vlach and calendar names that we met
only in Braničevo and Vidin district, formed by the same cliché. Using the
'Vlach names, we indicated the possibility of their migration from south to
north, and vice versa, as well as their Roman entity and continuity in the
southeast, southern, southwestern »i northwestern Serbia, which continues
with the anthroponymy of the Vlachs in northeastern Serbia.
In the part of this work dealing with the population of Timok area, in
the light of toponymy, we first pointed out the names of castles, pointing to
the names of certain Thracian, Illyrian, Celtic, Sarmatian and other tribes,
then we pointed out those names that have been kept since ancient times
Romanizacija i romansko stanovnistvo Timocke zone (I-XVI vek) 313
in today’s toponyms, as well as those mentioned in the Turkish census defters
from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, whose roots are basically of the
Thracian, Celtic, Illyrian-Celtic, Mediterranean and other origins.
We etymologically treated the names of settlements of the Timok area
recorded in ancient and early Byzantine sources of the prehistoric tradition, as
well as those built during the Roman rule, which have the Latin nomenclature
and whose names have always been pointing to the ethnic structure, but,
unfortunately, are not recorded in the Turkish census defters. We also processed
the names of settlements recorded in Roman, Late Antique and early Byzantine
sources, with Latin nomenclature, which are, with slightly altered spelling,
found in the Turkish census defters from the fifteenth and the sixteenth
centuries, which have not been preserved, as well as those that are preserved
in the names of today's settlements. Such terms are certainly evidence of the
continuity of Roman population by the end of the sixteenth century.
Then, we listed and etymologically analyzed many toponyms from the
Timok area, and the oikonyms from the Turkish census defters from the
fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries, indicating the great age of the Vulgar Latin
and Romanian base, which is also an argument in favour of the continuity of
Roman citizens. It has been also pointed out to a number of Romanian names of
settlements recorded in the charters of Serbian rulers, which were transferred
with migration to the area of Vidin Principality during the late fourteenth and
the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries and are listed in the Turkish census defters that
are preserved in oikonymy, toponymy, hydronymy and oronymy of the Timok
area. We also gave a significant number of microtoponyms of Romanian origin
in the area of Prizren-Timok dialect.
When talking about the Romanization of central Balkan tribes in today’s
Timok area i.e. the Romanized population as well as their continuity, a general
conclusion remains that it has remained until today in this region and that over
its long history it had its ups and downs. The Romanized population, despite the
onslaught of the Germans, Huns, Avars, Slavic immigrants, Serbs and
Bulgarians, stayed under the authority of Romania until the early seventh
century, when this space fell under Avar Khanate, and then on several occasions
it becomes part of the Bulgarian Khanate and Empire and the Kingdom of
Hungary, Serbia and in Branievo area, and Romania/Byzantium (Kratos
Romeion). With time, the Roman population of this region in the sources, and
elsewhere in the Balkans, becomes known by the name Vlachs, which is
certainly not a social, class category, but a Roman entity with its own customs,
laws, culture and language, which can especially be traced in the fragmentary
data from the Greek, Latin, Venetian, Armenian, Arabic, Old Slavic and other
written sources.
Translated by Igor Petrović MA