ОN THE FORMER AND PRESENT STATUS OF THE AROMANIAN LANGUAGE IN THE BALKAN PENINSULA AND IN EUROPE

Abstract

This paper gives a brief historical overview of linguistic surveys (Romance and Romanian linguistics) of the status of Aromanian within Romance language linguistics and Balkan linguistic area. Until quite recently, relevant linguists considered this language to be merely a dialect of Daco-Romanian, while today it is generally seen as an autonomous Balkan Romance language. The fact that this language, apart from having a considerably large number of native speakers, especially in their homelands, is little known to general public in the Balkans and in Europe.