Moravian Wallachia

Moravian Wallachia (Czech: Moravské Valašsko or simply Valašsko; Romanian: Valahia Moravă) is a mountainous ethnoregion in the easternmost part of the Czech Republic. It is located in the historical land of Moravia, near the Slovak border, roughly centered on the towns of Vsetín, Valašské Meziříčí and Rožnov pod Radhoštěm. The name Wallachia used to be applied to all the highlands of Moravia and the neighbouring Silesia, although in the 19th century a smaller area came to be defined as ethno-cultural Moravian Wallachia. The traditional dialect represents a mixture of elements from the Czech and Slovak languages, and has a distinct lexicon of Romanian origin relating to the pastoral economy of the highlands. The name originated from the term "Vlach", the exonym of Romanians.

Geography and anthropology

Moravian Wallachia is a mountainous region located in the easternmost part of Moravia in the Czech Republic, near the Slovak border, roughly centered on the cities Vsetín, Valašské Meziříčí and Rožnov pod Radhoštěm. It is part of the Western Carpathians.

It is bordered to the west with Lachia (Czech: Lašsko) along the Štramberk–Příbor–Frýdek line (according to Šembera) or according to dialectology (according to František Bartoš).

Culture

The population is traditionally pastoralist. Although animal husbandry was long associated with agriculture practiced in the lowlands adjacent to the Western Carpathians, the Vlach methods and associated rituals of sheep and goat tending were unique and newly introduced by them, as were the introduction of grazing in the highlands and the emphasis upon the production of milk and cheese (bryndza), with other specific words like košár or kotár - sheep enclosure, čutora - water bottle, fujara - shepherd’s flute with a specific melancholic sound, koliba - cottage for shepherds, and bača - head shepherd entering the local language.