🇷🇴🇵🇱 Polish Highlanders also known as "Gorals" and their connection with Romanians
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Between the 13th and 15th centuries Romanian shepherds from Transylvania started migrating and settling around Central Europe following the Carpathian Mountain range
Some of those Romanian shepherds finally settled on Polish lands, specifically in a region called Podhale, where they started living and intermingling with the native Polish population
Due to something known as the Vlach (exonym for Romanian) or Romanian Law, the Romanian shepherds which would start being known as "Gorals" enjoyed certain privileges like
- The right to travel and carry weapons
- Freedom from serfdom
- Higher levels of autonomy
With time the Gorals became a separate ethnic group from Romanians and were assimilated into the Polish nation, however, they preserved characteristics in their lifestyle that to this day resemble many aspects of Romanian culture
A traditional Goral wooden house next to a traditional Romanian house from Transylvania
The architectural style draws on local architecture of the Carpathians, and is widespread in the Podhale region
Polish Goral man next to Romanian man from Transylvania
We can clearly see the common origins of both traditional attires wether it's the leather belt, blouse or the traditional hat
The Gorals even had their version of the Romanian Haiduc (a robin hood type figure that would steal from the rich and give to the poor)
They called them "zbójnicy" which seems to be related to the Romanian word Ră(zboinici), "warriors"
Romanian haiduc next to a zbójnicy
Dobroslowski, a polish sociologist, asserted that the Podhale dialect of the Gorals had loan-words from Romanian
Sadly there ain't much information about it online and my Podhale is not the best
Here some examples of the Polish spoken by the Gorals
There are many villages in Poland with names derived from the word Wallachian, which is how outsiders called Romanians in the past
- Wolosate
- Tyrawa Woloska
- Woloszyn
- Wolosaty
The ending sate/saty is also curious, it reminds me of the Romanian word sat, which means village
Even the traditional dances are unbelievably similar
If you didn't tell me these are Polish Gorals, I would have said this is the Romanian dance called "Căluș"
Just for reference, this is the Căluș dance from Romania
The Gorals also use a wooden horn they call trembita or trombita to announce deaths, funerals and weddings
The one used in Romania is called trâmbiță
Even some instruments are similar, like this bagpipe made out of goat skin, in Romania it's called cimpoi, the Gorals call it duda
It's fascinating how two groups that have been separated for so long still retain so many similarities
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