AThe notion ´Illyrian´ is, from the very beginning, quite vague...@ (quoted by Russu)

The most glorious period of the Illyrian army units was the 3rd century. Numerous emperors originated from this military frontier area. (Jire…ek)

AThe change of language was essentially completed at the end of the 3rd century@. (Stadtmüller)

AIn the 5th and 6th centuries, the Latin-speaking inhabitants of the Danube area were often on the side of the Roman Church against the Emperor of Constantinople, particularly against Anastas and Justinian.@ (Jire…ek)

All these constructions for defence had little success. There was a shortage of people for defence. The troops along the limes had financial difficulties and consequently degenerated, and the mobile army, which according to Agathias numbered 150,000 men, was dispersed in garrisons from southern Spain to Armenia and upper Egypt. The degenerated population of the towns were more interested in religious problems than in the defence of the country. (Jire…ek)

In this area, Roman life was possible as late as in the 6th century, in which in the east, the storms of the Peoples´ Migration blew more intensely, because this area was mountainous and the barbarians attacked mainly Constantinople. The Roman population was STRENGTHENED by migrations from the north. Dardania was, as the country of origin, certainly particularly loved by the great emperors Constantine (originating from Naissus B Niš) and Justinian (from the area of Scupi B Skopje, in Turkish earlier Üsküb). Thus, after having been destroyed, this last-mentioned town was re-built not far from the destroyed one and made in 535 AD the seat of the Metropolitan Bishop Catellianus. This became the centre of the entire united Diocese (Dacia Ripensis and Mediterranea, Moesia Superior, Praevalis and Macedonia secunda, as well as the eastern part of Pannonia Inferior). (Friedwagner)

AThis theory is entirely unacceptable and leaves many things unexplained.@ (Sandfeld)

When this happened at the same time as the occupation of the country, the old name of the town was preserved with some small changes. This explains why earlier Roman towns reappear as the centre of their province when dioceses are organized. The ancient names were changed either according to certain phonetic rules, or with a Slavic word of a similar sound pattern. In those cases in which the towns of Roman origin received a totally new name in the Slavic period, for example the Awhite castle@ Beograd (Singidunum) or the castle of the Adefender@ (brani…) Brani…evo (Viminacium), a longer period of time had elapsed between the perishing of the ancient town and its re-population. (Jire…ek)

AGod has decided to give back the Bulgarians and the Vlachs their freedom and to relieve them from the yoke [under which they had lived] in many years...@ (Slatarski)

M. Malecki, About the Balkan Linguistic Union, Proceedings of the 3rd International Congress of Linguists, Firenze, 1935, p. 75. ASuch is the case in all the regions of Serbia, along the Morava, around Valjevo and along the Drina. Eighty to one hundred percent of the inhabitants there are immigrants who came mainly in the last three centuries... The documents of the archives... give no idea about the great significance of the migrations.@ (Quoted by Rosetti)

Originally, both were situated near each other, e.g. in the document from đi…a (around 1220) the summer grazing place on the mountain Kotlenik, the winter grazing place in the nearby valley of the Ibar. (Jire…ek)

In Rhaetia, the diphthongues ie, uo seem to have appeared, and spread through Friuli and Istria along the Dalmatian coasts, even in the case of entrave (Istrian mierlo, kuorno, puorta, Vegliote fiasta, puarta). In the Balkan peninsula proper, where only „ comes into question, (for  , see ' 153), diphthongation occurred also before the Latin entrave: there is not only Rum. ier/ (hri) but also piept (pctus). (Bourciez)

It would be difficult to admit that hora became the synonym of vices in Rumanian independently from Venetian. This is a too subtle change, too surprising for its occurance in two languages with no contact with each other. This is why we don´t hesitate to see in this a vestige of the period of time when Rumanian was not yet isolated from Italian. There is another circumstance which gives special significance to the word in question. This is that hora appears with the same sense also in the Albanian here, which also means ´time´. Albanian here, Rumanian oar| and Venetian ora form thus a common family and throw some light on one of the most obscure chapters of the history of Balkan Latin. (Densusianu)

AThe history of the Rumanian language shows that the Rumanian [definite] article evolved in a similar way as did the Romance article, the change from the sense of pronoun of ille to that of article presented approximately the same phases in the entire Romania.@ (Coteanu)

AThus, the definitive restriction and specialization of the sense occurred late and gradually.@ (Löfstedt)

AThe conclusion to which we have arrived here is simialr to that stated for thirty or so years ago by Gaston Paris in the article published first in the first volume of Romania, 11: ´Rumanian ... was in contact with the rest of the Roman territory until the Slavic invasion and was therefore exposed in the 5th and even in the 6th century to the influences which affected the rest of this territory´.@

It leaves the Adriatic Sea at Lissus, stretches across the mountains of the Miredites and the Dibra to northern Macedonia between Scupi and Stobi, proceeds then south of Naissus and Remesiana with their Latin inhabitants, while Pautalia (Küstendil) and Serdica (Sofia) and the region of Pirot belong to the Greek territory; and finally, the frontier continues along the northern slopes of the Haemus mountains to the coast of the Black Sea. (Jire…ek)

In linguistics to replace the notion of origin with that of Aaffinity,@ as one wants to do now, means to attribute to phonetics and vocabulary and to syntax more importance than to morphology, and consequently, to substitute the superficial for the essential. (Graur)

AIf nevast|, ´young woman, wife´, is of Slavic origin, it was most probably borrowed by the Rumanians in a period in which they started to marry Slavic women. Thus, the sense of mi-am luat o nevast| [I have taken a nevast|] was initially not ´I have taken [married] a woman´ but ´I have married ... a Slavic woman.´@ (Popoviƒ)

On the other hand, the borrowing of Slavic words pertaining to the intellectual and the moral aspects of life shows how intimate the mixing of the populations has been. Besides Latin tempus (Rum. timp), one has Old Slavic vrem„ (Rum. vreme), and here are some other loans: Rum. slov| Old Slavic slovo ´writing´, r|zboiu = razboj ´war´, ran| = rana ´wound´, ciud| = ciudo ´miracle´, groaz| = groza ´horror´, n|dejde = nadeńda ´hope´, noroc = naroku ´luck´, etc. The same is the case with the words pertaining to social life: (Rum. jupîn = Old Slavic ńupanu ´lord´, slug| = sluga ´servant´), and with a large number of frequently used adjectives: Rum. drag = Old Slavic dragß ´dear, beloved´, bogat = bogatß ´rich´, mîndru = madrß ´proud´, gol = golß ´naked´. Lastly, many verbs were borrowed, such as Old Slavic saditi ´to plant´, izbaviti ´to save´, (Rum. s|di, izb|vi), darovati (Rum. d|rui), along Latin dare, and it is characteristic to see a word such as amare disappear for Old Slavic ljubiti (Rum. iubi). The impersonal word which expresses necessity, Rum. trebuie ´to be necessary, to need´, originates also from Old Slavic trbovati. (Bourciez)

A... in a list of 5764 words, 1165 are of Latin origin while the number of words of Slavic origin is as high as 2361 (the rest are of Turkish, New-Greek, Hungarian, and Thrtacian origin), thus, 2/5 of the words are Slavic...@ [...] ARegarding the lexical elements, Rumanian is not a Romance but a Slavic language...@ (Popoviƒ)

(ABasic elements@, Aif only the basic words are taken into consideration, from which the derivaitons are formed@). (I.I. Russu

Ait is not yet proved that Rumanian is a Romance language.@ (Schuchardt)

AIt is evident that such a fatal outcome for the Roman character of the Rumanians could only occur in a firmly established SlavicBRumanian symbiosis.@ (Popoviƒ)

Only a people for whom shepherding has played an essential role may say: m| paŐte un gînd lit. ´a thought grazes me´; on the basis of this expression, there is the image of a flock of sheep which grazes eveything to the last stalk of grass, until nothing is left. (PuŐcariu)

The meaning and the value of this opinion consists in its political aim, which is to serve as a theoretical basis for concrete activity in order to re-unite the ARomanoBMoldoBVlachs@ from Moldavia, Valachia and Transylvania in one uniform Rumanian state. (Armbruster)

The Slavic toponymy of Rumania, particularly in the Banat, in Transylvania, in Oltenia and Muntenia, shows the same phonetic features as the Slavic elements in the Rumanian vocabulary. Consequently, the original homeland of the Rumanian language must be sought north of the peaks of the Haemus mountains, and in territories to which Romanization expanded B thus [also] IN DACIA, and east of the present day frontier between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria.

During the early Middle Ages (approximately in the 7thB9th centuries, thus after the coming of the Bulgarians), Roman shepherds wandered from these DanubianBMoesian territories not only to the south, southwest and west, (the ancestors of the present day Arumanians, Megleno-Rumanians, and, on the Istrian peninsula, of the Istro-Rumanians), but also to the north, to mountainous Dacia (C. Daicoviciu)

[the evacuation of Dacia] Awas not complete... The masses of peasants did not move... In this way is the tenacious persistence of the Latin race and language in the territory conquered by Trajan explained.@ (Besnier, quoted by Rosetti)

pp. 155B156:

...if we consider the map of ancient Dacia Traiana ... we find that the region in which the Roman establishments were more dense, and consequently, Romanization more intense, coincide with the region in which the words of Latin origin are best preserved. (PuŐcariu)

Now, if sklab(ß) is said here instead of general Rumanian slab, in this pro- nunciation, the ancient Latin sound system breaks through with the same strength as in the 5th century in the territory of southern France or northern Italy. (Gamillscheg)

...@however, the loanwords cannot be used in this case, because the problem of the so called original Rumanian homeland (south or north of the Danube) is not yet decided (see Chapter II, ' 22) and we cannot know whether a loanword reached the Rumanian language north or souht of the Danube...@ (Popoviƒ)

... make out a common goods which both have inherited from the ancient Indo- European linguistic material (Thracian, respectively ThracoBIllyrian), indigenous in the CarpathoBBalcanic space.

The case of the river BistriŰa is instructive. Its name is of Slavic origin and it means ´fast´, in Rumanian, ´repede´. But Repede is today the name of one of the tributaries of this river, in the mountainous region of its course, and this name was translated by the Slavs who settled along its shores by corresponding Bistryca. In this way, something has occurred which one may observe quite often in our country as well as in other countries: the ancient population accepts the new, official name given by the conquerors. (PuŐcariu.)

Similarly, the name of a village in Dobrogea, Camena, is a Slavic translation, handed down to the language of the Rumanians, of ancient Petra, which appears in a Latin inscription found there (C.T. Sauciuc: A Latin inscription in ´Annals of Dobrogea´, XV (1934), pp. 93B112). (PuŐcariu.)

Generally, however, one must maintain the idea of A UNITARY AND COHERENT LIVING SPACE also because of compelling linguistical grounds (pp. 713B714).

Linguists no longer doubt that the CENTRE of the ancient Rumanian people (centrul vieŰii române) [ = the centre of Rumanian life] was once situated in the region of the Danube, and south of the river (p. 713).

(I. Popoviƒ: History of the Serbo-Croatian Language.)

The first Slavic elements were transferred to Rumanian in the Aancient Rumanian@ period, i.e., in the era when the Rumanian language [...] yet constituted a geographical and linguistic unity (somewhere in the centre of the Balkans) (p. 200.)

Regarding Transylvania, it is probable that the Bulgarians were there first, followed by the Hungarians and later the Rumanians. After the Linguistic Atlas by PuŐcariu and research by Ernst Gamillscheg and Günter Reichenkron, however, one has to consider the possibility of small groups of provincial Romans remaining in Transylvania also after the Romans abandoned the province Dacia Traiana (271), and that they were, after the l2th century, strengthened by a massive immigration of Rumanians from the central parts of the Balkans. Such an immigration has doubtless taken place: it has been shown convincingly by non-Rumanian as well as Rumanian scholars on the basis of documents and records (p. 91)

On the basis of this linguistic and historical consideration, it is assumed that the Roman population retired after the abandonment of Dacia south of the Danube, and that the Rumanian language was formed there, in the Balkan peninsula. However, since almost the entire Daco-Rumanian territory is situated north of the Danube, it is assumed that the Rumanians wandered during the Middle Ages from the Balkan peninsula to the left shore of the Danube and colonized again present day Rumania (pp. 360B361).

On the frontiers of the empire, along the Danube, as well as on the Persian frontier and on the edge of the deserts in Africa, circulation was strictly supervised and permitted only on certain days and in certain localities, under the control of the army. Exports of weapons, iron, gold, cereals and salt were not allowed. (Jire…ek GS 1911,p. 43)

AIn the 4th and 6th centuries, the Roman-Byzantine domination north of the Danube was of relatively short duration and affected only a restricted area of former Dacia.@ (Popescu)

One cannot find any evidence of the continuation of linguistic contact between Dacia and the Romanized territories south of the Danube from 271 and the end of the 6th century; the assumption of H. Mih|escu on this topic is thus not based upon objective facts. Lastly, regarding the contact between the Balkans and western Romania by the mediation of Byzantium and Christianity (contact with which, moreover, Dacia seems to have been excluded), only the influence of the language of the state or the Church is possible, and this is something quite different from direct contact with everyday western Latin which the Balkan territories have had earlier, before their separation from the Roman empire. Under these circumstances, and contrary to what Rosetti believes (The History of the Rumanian Language, vol. I, 3rd edition, 1960, pp. 49B50), there is no reason to alter the opinion of Bourciez (Éléments, ' 50, 4) nor our opinion (RLR, 71, p. 276, and RLiR, 20, p. 253 and 258; see also Väänenen, op. cit., p. 27) about the linguistic isolation of the eastern provinces following their abandonment by the Romans. Nothing in the work of H. Mih|escu seems to invalidate the theory that after 271, i.e., from the time when no more colonists came to Dacia, the linguistic changes of the West no longer spread to the Romance idiom of this ancient province, which therefore after the last quarter of the 3rd century, no longer participated in the linguistic evolution of the other parts of Romania and started to develop an independent language. (Straka)

The funeral rite of cremation and the use of the urn, which is found among the Dacians under Roman rule as well as among the free Dacians, cannot be used to distinguish these two populations of the ancient Roman province B the newly immigrated Dacians and those who stayed in their places. The archaeological material lacks details and accuracy. (Protase)

ACertainly, in contrast to what is often affirmed, such a shepherd economy would not have made possible for the Daco-Roman population to persist north of the Danube, because our shepherds would have been in security only during the summer, in the mountains, while under their long wanderings through the plains, they would gave to face greater perils than the peasants living in faraway regions, in the protection of the hills and the forests.@ (Donat)

AThis idea belongs to the last century, when no archaeological proofs were yet available...@ (Eugenia Zaharia)

AThe maps of the Linguistic Atlas make for us poassible to study the expansion of the Rumanians from Transylvania to all directions.@ (PuŐcariu)

However, the massive migration of the Rumanian people to the primeval forests of the Carpathians, which in that epoch were not yet populated, did not depart from the sedentary Romans of Paristrion, but from the AVlach@ wandering shepherds of the mountainous areas of the central parts of the Balkans. Their leaders north of the Danube have largely Cuman names. Thus, the Cumans seem to have taken a considerable part in this great Vlach migration towards the north. (Stadtmüller)

THE ORIGINS OF THE RUMANIANS