Vlachs (also called Wlachs, Wallachs, Olahs) is a blanket term covering several distinct modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Groups that have historically been called Vlachs include modern-day Romanians, Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians and Istro-Romanians, but since the creation of the Romanian state, the term has mostly been used for those living south of the Danube river (i.e. excluding Romanians).
Although most linguists agree that their languages share a common origin, the origins of the Vlachs themselves are disputed, as is the notion that all Vlach groups have the same ethnic origins. According to the dominant theory, they are descended from the Roman colonists and/or the Romanised Dacian, Thracian and Illyrian local populations (see Origin of Romanians for more about the dispute about the origin). Some scholars also include the Greeks among their possible ancestors, especially in regards to the Aromanians.
Through history, the term "Vlach" was oftenly used for groups which were not ethnically Vlachs, often pejoratively - for example for any shepherding community, or for Christians by Muslims.
The word Vlach is of Germanic origin, sharing this origin with the words "Welsh" and "Walloons" in other parts of Europe. Slavic peoples initially used the name Vlachs when referring to Romanic peoples in general. Later on, the meaning got narrower or just different. For example Italy is called Włochy in Polish, and Olaszország in Hungarian. The term was originally an Exonym, as the Vlachs used various words derived from romanus to refer to themselves (români, rumâni, rumâri, aromâni, arumâni etc). Only the Megleno-Romanians adopted the term Vlashi to describe themselves.
In many of those areas, although with time their descendants lost the language, but their legacy can still be found today in the cultural influences: in the customs, folklore and the way of living of the mountain people, as well as in the placenames of Romanian or Aromanian origins that are spread all across the region.
Another part of the Vlachs, especially those in the northern parts, in Romania and Moldova, were traditional farmers growing cereals. Linguists believe that the large vocabulary of Latin words related to Agriculture shows that there has always been a farming Vlach population, unlike the Albanians, who have many of these words borrowed from Slavic.
Just like the language, the cultural links between the Northern Vlachs (Romanians) and Southern Vlachs (Aromanians) were broken by the 10th century, and since then, there were different cultural influences: