Pyli, Florina

The toponym Винени, Vineni is composed of the suffix -eni and the Slavic word for wine, vino.[3] In Albanian, the village is called Vinan.[4]

Until 1860, the village had a Slavonic population and a church of Sveti Ǵorǵi (Saint George).[5] The village became inhabited by Muslim Albanians, numbering some 155 in 1900 and the expelled Slavonic population went to live in Medovo[5] (modern Mileonas). At the time, Vineni was moved to a higher location due to bad climatic conditions.[5]

The Greek census (1920) recorded 202 people in the village and in 1923 there were 202 inhabitants (or 36 families) who were Muslim.[6] The Albanian village population was present until 1926 and were replaced with prosfiges (Greek refugees),[5] due to the Greek-Turkish population exchange. In 1926 within Vineni there were 18 refugee families from Asia Minor and 4 refugee families from an unidentified location.[6] The Greek census (1928) recorded 173 village inhabitants.[6] There were 24 refugee families (97 people) in 1928.[6] During the Greek Civil War, the Greek refugee population fled to nearby Orovnik (modern Karyes) and later other prosfiges (Greek refugees) were brought to repopulate the village.[5]

By the 1950s, the Greek government assisted a group of nomadic transhumant Aromanians (known as the Arvanitovlachs) originating from Thessaly, to settle in depopulated villages of the Prespa region like Pyli.[7][8] Aromanians are the only inhabitants of the village.[7]

Pyli had 137 inhabitants in 1981.[9] In fieldwork done by Riki Van Boeschoten in late 1993, Pyli was populated by Aromanians.[9] The Aromanian language was spoken in the village by people over 30 in public and private settings.[9] Children understood the language, but mostly did not use it.[9]

• Prespes website