Thede Kahl - Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena & Österr. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien Of the four living varieties of Balkan or Southeast European Romance –Daco-Romanian, Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian and Istro-Romanian– only Daco-Romanian has been able to form a national language. Despite a written tradition dating back to the 18th century, most Aromanians today do not write their language. Due to the smaller number of speakers, the situation of Megleno-Romanian and Istro-Romanian is even more difficult. According to UNESCO (1999), (Daco-)Romanian is classified as not endangered, Aromanian as endangered and Istro- and Megleno-Romanian as seriously endangered. The paper analyzes the impact of the following factors on Aromanian preservation: lifestyle and patterns of settlement, intensity of the contact, religion, linguistic prestige, code function of minority languages, and economic dependencies. ΛΕΞΕΙΣ-ΚΛΕΙΔΙΑ: αρμανική, διάλεκτος, γλωσσικός θάνατος, μειονοτική γλώσσα