VLingS

Vulnerable Languages and Linguistic Varieties in Serbia

Megleno-Romanians in Gudurica

After World War II, a few Megleno-Romanian families from the village Huma (today in the Republic of North Macedonia) settled in Gudurica, a Vojvodina village which is today host to more than 15 ethnicities. Invisible in the official statistics, the first generation of Megleno-Romanians preserved their language, a Balkan Romance variety which has less than 5,000 of speakers in the entire Europe. However, today Megleno-Romanian in Serbia is almost extinct, as the very few speakers left have only passive knowledge of the language. Annemarie Sorescu-Marinković has visited Gudurica repeteadely starting with 2014, and recorded more interviews in Megleno-Romanian with older inhabitants. In August 2022, her interlocutors could only remember a few words in Megleno-Romanian.