Implications for the development

Beala de Sus 
/ Gorna Belica / Гopнa Бeлицa
: The main occupation of the locals, Aromanians 
mbăló
ţ (in the 
past): merchandising (
p
ă
rm
ăt
ichia
); there were also many sheep owners (
domni
, masters). Some 
of the locals were made up of craftsmen (
zănăcí
): 
ráfţâ
‘tailors’, 
gunusári
‘tinsmith’, 
tinichigiá
etc. 
The families of 
fărşeróţ
, recently established in the locality, deal with shepherding, being 
picurári 
(shepherds) and with agrotourism. “The pastoral way of practice presupposed transhumance and 
nomadism, each with its own characteristics”
8
. 
Beala de Jos / Dolna Belica / Дoлнa Бeлицa
: For 
members of the research team, forming a unitary group, the information given for the packaged 
Aromanians from Beala de Sus is also valid for those from Beala de Jos. But, “A peculiarity is the 
fact that in Beala de Jos there is an important community of Muslim Albanians. Several Aroma-
nian families have converted to the Muslim religion without leaving their mother tongue, which 
they keep very well. 
Beala de Jos is the only locality among those we visited in the Balkan countries 
where we met Aromanians of Muslim religion
(our emphasis). The adoption of the new religion 
does not seem to be very old. The transition to Mohammedanism is a delicate subject, which the 
locals, embarrassed, avoid discussing. The explanation given by those in question is that they 
are, originally, Albanian Muslims who have mastered the language spoken by the Aromanians”
9
.
About another famous Aromanian locality in North Macedonia – 
Cruşova / Kruševo / 
Кpушeвo
–, founded by the Aromanians at the end of the 18
th
century, after the destruction by 
the Muslims of the two flourishing centers of the Aromanians, Moscopole and Gramoste (those 
in the first city were engaged in trade, crafts; flocks of sheep, grazing), the authors reveal that 
“The Moscopolians were, at the beginning, a heterogeneous group, illustrating the situation in 
the metropolis of Moscopole, with a population of Farsherots, Grabovians, Pindens, etc. Instead, 
the grammarians formed a unitary linguistic group. The results of this mixture can be seen to this 
day”
10
– and the authors extensively exemplify the situation of the Aromanian dialect in Cruşova.
Nistor Bardu, 
La (a)românii de azi din Albania
[At Today’s (A)Romanians in Albania], Edi-
tura Etnologică (Colecţia de 
Lingvistică
), Bucureşti, 2020, 348 p.; ill.
11
A completely recent volume of a well-known Romanian Balkanologist today (b. 1950; Asso-
ciate Professor, PhD, retired, at the Faculty of Letters of the “Ovidius” University of Constanţa) 
– specializing in Philology –, is the result of studies library, but also of repeated trips (to one of 
them I had the opportunity to accompany him) to our Aromanian brothers (the strains of the 
Moscopolians & Farserots) from Albania, contains rich and profound observations about the re-
8
Nicolae Saramandu, Manuela Nevaci, Emil Țîrcomnicu, Cătălin Alexa, 
„Lecturi vizuale” etnolingvis-
tice la aromânii din Republica Macedonia – Ohrida, Struga, Crușova. Memorie, tradiție, grai, 
patrimo-
niu (Societatea de Cultură Macedo-Română), București: Editura Universității din București, 2018, p. 
109.
9
Ibidem, p. 123.
10
Ibidem, pp. 152-153. 
11
In addition to the narrative text itself, the paper also includes short summaries – in Aromanian 
(Ndauă zboari pi grailu a nostru: p. 313-315), Albanian (Permbledhje: Tek aromunët e soteëm të 
Shqiperisë: 316-326), and English (Among the Aromanians in Albania: p. 327-338), Bibliography (p. 
339-340), and Photos (p. 341-348).

---

Patrimoniul cultural de ieri: implicații în dezvoltarea societății durabile de mâine
~ 464 ~
ality of these Balkan Romanians today. The interest of the philologist
12
in the Aromanian dialect 
– himself a native Aromanian, with a family originally from Greava, settled in interwar Romania 
– focused mainly on settlements where Aromanians are still native speakers and retain their eth-
nic specificity. On the other hand, he observes that the younger generations leave the language 
in which they were born, thus entering into an irreversible process of assimilation. Among the 
aspects that give originality to the work in question, we mention the combination of scientific 
elements regarding the Aromanian words heard and recorded largely in the tape recorder or in 
specialized notebooks, people’s occupations, habits and daily life, with those of an emotional na-
ture, the author being a “son” of the world he describes and a leader of emotions. Thus, reading 
this book becomes pleasant, not only very interesting – both for linguists and for those interested 
in knowing the actual state of the settlements in which the Aromanians live in Albania. “But 
beyond the actual scientific interest, I had other reasons to vibrate when it came to Albania! ... 
My parents were born, raised, reached the peak of their age and married there, in Albania, in a 
mountain village, 
Greáva
(Grabova, in the official name), populated only by the rest. They came 
to Romania for a wedding, in 1933, together with other families from their native village, all 
convinced that Romania is their country, the Mother-country. We, their children, all born in the 
new homeland, grew up telling us, in the moments of respite, stories from the life lived in their 
country of origin, recalling figures of their parents, brothers and sisters who no longer they had 
managed to come to Romania, and their concerns there. They told us about the high mountains, 
especially the 
Válea Máre
mountain (alb. 
Valamare
), at the foot of which, not far away, is 
Greáva
, 
about
 
șc
ắ
mbile (the huge cliffs) that guarded the old entrance to the village, about The fields 
(fields) they worked in the summer, about the pastures on the alpine heights, where the sheep 
of the village grazed, but also of the nomadic or semi-nomadic Aromanians, called by them 
caceaúń
, who arrived and remained there with their flocks from spring to autumn, about their 
hard and almost continuous work, throughout the year ... We, the children, listened to them in 
shudders. Due to the distance in space and time, it seemed to us that the world evoked by them 
was a world of fairy tales and legends, and the stories told were assimilated to fabulous stories. In 
our children’s minds, those places became dream realms. From what I knew, I knew that I had a 
lot of first cousins in Albania, and from my mother, who had left a sister and three brothers there, 
and from my father, whose three sisters had married and stayed in the country where they were 
born. How much we wanted then to get to see, not only with the eyes of the mind, but also live, 
that wonderful world of our imagination, or at least to talk to people who have just come from 
there! The study of Capidan and Burileanu’s book, read and observed during my studies, as well 
as the undergraduate work I did the following year on the Aromanian speech in Albania spoken 
by the people from 
Greáva
who came to Romania, among others, further stimulated curiosity 
and the desire to see this country again and again”
13
. 
12
He is the author of several volumes – Limba scrierilor aromânești de la sfârsitul secolului al XVI-
II-lea (Cavalioti, Daniil, Ucuta). Partea I. Aspecte ale grafiei. Fonetica, Ovidius University Press, 
Constanţa, 2005 /224 pp./; 
Aрoмaнцитe вo вaлкaнcки кoнтeкcт. Cтуди и прилoзу
. Издaниeщo 
вo 
ѝ
рирeъи: Димo Н. Димчeв (Unia di Culturã-a Armãnjlor dit Machidunii. Biblioteca Natsionalã 
Armãneascã “Constantin Belemace”. Colectsiea “Moscopoli” 19), Скопjе-Scopia, 2009, 184 p.; 
Stiluri 
și limbaje în limba română actuală
, Constanţa: Ovidius University Press, 2011, 256 p.
13
Nistor Bardu, 
La (a)românii de azi din Albania [At Today’s (A)Romanians in Albania]
, Bucureşti: 
Editura Etnologică (Coll. Lingvistică), 2020 p. 10.

---

Conferință științifică internațională, Chișinău, 22-23 septembrie 2020, ediția a II-a