Text of the Krashovani traditional wedding in the light of Romano-Slavic contact in the Balkans
The Krashovani people are one of the few remaining groups that could have represented a symbiotic Slavic-non-Slavic community in the past. They are mostly Slavic-speaking Catholics, who presumably came to the territory of Banat during several waves of migrations. In one of the Krashovani villages - Iabalcea - we observe a rather atypical situation: members of a small community who self-identify as Croats (or Krashovani) and have the Catholic culture (with elements of the Orthodox folk tradition), use the Romanian language in everyday communication. The lexical subsystem of traditional wedding rituals, as well as the terminology of kinship in Carașova and Iabalcea seem to be a single cultural code, represented in two separate but closely related linguistic manifestations. Such diffusion is possible in the areas where major migration flows happen, and a special type of state and church power is implemented. Communication in families is proposed to be considered a very important level at which it is necessary to consider symbiotic language communities.
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