Medieval Vlachs and Vlachias or South-East Romanity as seen by Others: 2. Albanian Lexicon As a Case in Point: Vllah, Rëmër and Çoban

This second part of the article about “the South-East European Romanity as seen by Others” focuses on the Nomen Barbaricum of the Medieval Romanity in the lexical stratiphication of the Albanian language and its relationship with the Romanian and Aromanian lexicon. Actually, even more than the Rumanian lexicon, the Albanian one offers a precious key to investigate these matters. The semantic stratification of Rëmër, Çoban and Vllah, the three Albanian terms traditionally used to designate the Vlachs, shed light on the vexed relationship between their ethnic and socio-professional meaning.