Aromanian language in the context of "Smolikas"

The Aromanians in North Macedonia (Aromanian: Armãnji; Macedonian: Аромани, romanized: Aromani), also known as the Vlachs (Aromanian: Vlãhi; Macedonian: Власи, romanized: Vlasi), are an officially recognised minority group of North Macedonia numbering some 8,714 people according to the 2021 census. They are concentrated in Kruševo, Štip, Bitola and Skopje.

Kruševo (Macedonian: Крушево [ˈkruʃɛvɔ] ; Aromanian: Crushuva) is a town in North Macedonia. In Macedonian the name means the 'place of pear trees'. It is the highest town in North Macedonia and one of the highest in the Balkans, situated at an altitude of over 1350 m (4429 feet) above sea level. The town of Kruševo is the seat of Kruševo Municipality. It is located in the western part of the country, overlooking the region of Pelagonia, 33 and 53 km from the nearby cities of Prilep and Bitola, respectively.

Irakleia (Greek: Ηράκλεια, before 1926: Τζουμαγιά - Tzoumagia) is a municipality in the Serres regional unit, Central Macedonia, Greece. Population 21,145 (2011). The seat of the municipality is the town of Irakleia, which was formerly known as "Lower Jumaya" (in Turkish: Barakli Cuma or Cuma-i Zir ("Lower Juma" in Ottoman Turkish); in Bulgarian: Долна Джумая, Dolna Dzhumaya; and in Aromanian: Giumaia di-Nghios). "Upper Dzhumaya" is modern Blagoevgrad, located in Bulgaria. In the Serres area, Aromanians settled in modern Irakleia during Ottoman times. Some Aromanians still live in the city today, with Bulgarian researcher Vasil Kanchov even saying that, as of when he visited the town, the 1250 Aromanians in Irakleia "were the wealthiest of all inhabitants".

Romanian (obsolete spelling: Roumanian; endonym: limba română [ˈlimba roˈmɨnə] , or românește [romɨˈneʃte], lit. 'in Romanian') is the official and main language of Romania and Moldova. Romanian is part of the Eastern Romance sub-branch of Romance languages, a linguistic group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin which separated from the Western Romance languages in the course of the period from the 5th to the 8th centuries. To distinguish it within the Eastern Romance languages, in comparative linguistics it is called Daco-Romanian as opposed to its closest relatives, Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian, and Istro-Romanian. It is also spoken as a minority language by stable communities in the countries surrounding Romania (Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Ukraine), and by the large Romanian diaspora. In total, it is spoken by 25 million people as a first language.

Romanian was also known as Moldovan in Moldova, although the Constitutional Court of Moldova ruled in 2013 that "the official language of Moldova is Romanian". On 16 March 2023, the Moldovan Parliament approved a law on referring to the national language as Romanian in all legislative texts and the constitution. On 22 March, the president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, promulgated the law.

The Aromanians (Aromanian: Armãnji, Rrãmãnji) are an ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgaria, northern and central Greece, and North Macedonia, and can currently be found in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgaria, south-western and eastern North Macedonia, northern and central Greece, southern Serbia, and south-eastern Romania (Northern Dobruja). An Aromanian diaspora living outside these places also exists. The Aromanians are known by several other names, such as "Vlachs" or "Macedo-Romanians" (sometimes used to also refer to the Megleno-Romanians).

The term "Vlachs" is used in Greece and in other countries to refer to the Aromanians, with this term having been more widespread in the past to refer to all Romance-speaking peoples of the Balkan Peninsula and Carpathian Mountains region (Southeast Europe).

Veria (Greek: Βέροια or Βέρροια, romanized: Véroia or Vérroia; Aromanian: Veria), officially transliterated Veroia, historically also spelled Beroea or Berea, is a city in Central Macedonia, in the geographic region of Macedonia, northern Greece, capital of the regional unit of Imathia. It is located 511 kilometres (318 miles) north-northwest of the capital Athens and 73 km (45 mi) west-southwest of Thessaloniki.

Even by the standards of Greece, Veria is an old city; first mentioned in the writings of Thucydides in 432 BC, there is evidence that it was populated as early as 1000 BC. Veria was an important possession for Philip II of Macedon (father of Alexander the Great) and later for the Romans. Apostle Paul famously preached in the city, and its inhabitants were among the first Christians in the Empire. Later, under the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, Veria was a center of Greek culture and learning. Today Veria is a commercial center of Central Macedonia, the capital of the regional unit of Imathia and the seat of a Church of Greece Metropolitan bishop in the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as well as a Latin Catholic titular see.

Languages of Yugoslavia are all languages spoken in former Yugoslavia. They are mainly Indo-European languages and dialects, namely dominant South Slavic varieties (Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, and Slovene) as well as Albanian, Aromanian, Bulgarian, Czech, German, Italian, Venetian, Balkan Romani, Romanian, Pannonian Rusyn, Slovak and Ukrainian languages. There are also pockets where varieties of non-Indo-European languages, such as those of Hungarian and Turkish, are spoken.

Gramos (Greek: Γράμος or Γράμμος; Albanian: Gramoz, Mali i Gramozit; Aromanian: Gramosta, Gramusta, Yramos or Yramustea) is a mountain chain situated on the border of Albania and Greece. Part of the larger northern Pindus mountain range, its highest peak, Maja e Çukapeçit, rises at an elevation of 2,523 m (8,278 ft).