Çoban is a
Turkish name meaning
shepherd.
Albanians use their own nicknames to refer to the
Aromanians, such as
Vllah/
Vlleh; also used is
choban (derived from the Albanian word
Çobenj; Çoban meaning pastoral mountain folk and shepherd).
The main theory about Vlahs is that they originate to the area of Vlahia in southern Romania and north of Bulgaria.
The
origin of the Romanians has been for centuries subject to scholarly debate, often driven by political bias. Two basic theories can be differentiated; one theory posits Daco-Romanian continuity and the other is an immigrationist theory, but interim views also exist. Scholars of the first school argue that the Romanians are mainly descended from the
Daco-Romans, a people emerging through the cohabitation of the native
Dacians and the
Latin-speaking Roman colonists in the
Roman province of
Dacia north of the river
Danube. Accordingly, they suggest that a significant part of the territory of modern Romania has continuously been inhabited by the Romanians' ancestors. Followers of the opposite view argue that the Romanians' ethnogenesis commenced in
Moesia and other provinces south of the Danube. Consequently, they propose a northward migration of the Romanians across the river.
The name "România" as common homeland of the Romanians is documented in the early 19th century.
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