WI: Vlach Byzantine Empire

[DominusNovus]

This discussion would require lots of handwaving around, but I hope we can indulge ourselves.

It is generally assumed that, had the Bulgarians ever conquered Constantinople, that so long as they were Orthodox Christians and embraced Greek culture, they would have been seen as a legitimate dynasty.

Suppose, however, that a Vlach group were to do the same thing. Of course, Wallachia as an independent state was not founded until much later in the Middle Ages, so lets just say that one of the Bulgarian Empires gets on the bad side of an Eastern-Romance speaking population who rises up and establishes their own state, which then goes on to conquer Constantinople. That is obviously a lot of moving parts, but lets grant it.

So what does that look like, when the (Greek-speaking) Empire of the Romans is conquered by a group who, with plenty of legitimacy even in the eyes of the Romans living in the Empire, call themselves Romans and speak (bad) Latin? On the plus side, they’re already Orthodox Christians and have been as long as the people living inside the borders of the Empire. But they have a language that, if not as polished and prestigious and common as the Greek of the Empire, is quite a step above Bulgarian, in those regards.

Would they maintain their own unique identity as Romans, or would they assimilate into the Greek identity of Romans?

 

[Otto Kretschmer]

75% chances they would assimilate but who knows?

By Byzanine times Greek has been the lingua franca of Anatolia for close to 1000 years, hard to replace it. Nearly all people in Greece and at least Western Anatolia spoke Greek and the language of intellectual elite was Greek. Even the Romans did not make a dent in Greek even though they assimilated virtually everyone else whom they conquered... more so, there are several times more Greek words in Latin than there are Latin words in Greek and you could probably pass as an educated Roman speaking only Greek but not if you knew only Latin

It could help greatly if Vlachs had their own branch of Christianity with Romanian as the church language. This is what helped Turkish spread in Anatolia

 

[DominusNovus]

75% chances they would assimilate but who knows?

By Byzanine times Greek has been the lingua franca of Anatolia for close to 1000 years, hard to replace it. Nearly all people in Greece and at least Western Anatolia spoke Greek and the language of intellectual elite was Greek. Even the Romans did not make a dent in Greek even though they assimilated virtually everyone else whom they conquered... more so, there are several times more Greek words in Latin than there are Latin words in Greek and you could probably pass as an educated Roman speaking only Greek but not if you knew only Latin

It could help greatly if Vlachs had their own branch of Christianity with Romanian as the church language. This is what helped Turkish spread in Anatolia

Never said anything about them assimilating the Greeks.

 

[Otto Kretschmer]

Hmm... maybe @John7755 يوحنا ?

 

[X Oristos]

Would they maintain their own unique identity as Romans, or would they assimilate into the Greek identity of Romans?

Let's split the difference.

The Vlach dynasty will adopt the greek language. However, there is no reason for Vlachs in general to adopt greek in a pre-nationalism era. Most of them are away from the greek-speaking centers and slavic speakers are in the middle. The Vlach elite could become bilingual, to maintain both their language and use the official language of the imperial administration.

 

[The Professor]

Let's split the difference.

The Vlach dynasty will adopt the greek language. However, there is no reason for Vlachs in general to adopt greek in a pre-nationalism era. Most of them are away from the greek-speaking centers and slavic speakers are in the middle. The Vlach elite could become bilingual, to maintain both their language and use the official language of the imperial administration.

I do see a possible route though.
A Vlach dynasty raises the prestige of the Vlachs in general allowing more of them access to merchant and government positions which require knowledge of Greek to prosper, their kids will tend to drop their Vlach dialects as most 2nd to 3rd generation groups do. So you get a slow trickle of reduction in solely Vlach populations which could cause small groups to assimilate more quickly.
Of course on the flip side being bilingual could be advantageous which then increases the number of Vlach speakers. Aramaic spread throughout the Middle East by such a method when its original population was dispersed by the Akkadians (?) in order to eliminate them as a threat.