Article by Oana Iosifidis
You probably had some contact with the Romanian language, from friends or maybe while traveling to beautiful Romania.
Maybe you even started learning, and you are reading this article while taking a break from studying grammar.
Do you like to know more about a language and the people that use it? It helps you connect with it and gives you more motivation to study?
If so, let me tell you some interesting facts about the Romanian language.
1. About 24 million people speak it as a native language, and 4 million people speak it as a second language
According to most estimates, Romanian is spoken by 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova. Some data from 2005 show that 1% of Bulgarians and Cypriots, and 3% of Hungarians, are able to have a conversation in Romanian.
Romanian is studied in other countries as well, like Serbia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Ukraine. This is because there are significant Romanian communities. The Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) is supporting this by organizing summer schools for the Romanian teachers in these countries.
2. Romanian is a Romance language
The Romance languages are a group of related languages. They have derived from Vulgar Latin within historical times. The major languages of the family include French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and, of course, Romanian.
Romania is the only country in the eastern part of Europe, that speaks a Romance language.
See also: https://romanianonline.com/is-romania-a-latin-country/
3. Spoken in both Romania and the Republic of Moldova
Romanian is the official state language in Romania, but also in Moldova. In Moldova, it is the native language for 82,2% of the population. For a period, they used the name “Moldovan” or “Moldavian” for the language.
So, here’s a bonus, when you learn Romanian. If you travel to Moldova or have business with this country, you have one less thing to worry about.
4. You can understand Romanian if you’ve studied other Romance languages
You might hear Romanian songs or hear somebody speak, and realize that you actually understand most of it.
You will learn faster if you come from Spain, Portugal, France or Italy. Also, if you have studied any of these languages in the past, you will find many similarities.
Here are some words, very similar to French or Italian (English translation included):
Problemă (RO) – problem (FR) – problema (IT) – problem (EN)
Meniu (RO) – menu (FR) – menu (IT) – menu (EN)
Adresă (RO) – adresse (FR) – address (EN)
5. The Romanian language is 1700 years old
Romanian started forming at the beginning of the second century when the Romans conquered the territory of Dacia, located in the territory that would become Romania.
However, there have been many influences during time, that have led to the current form of the Romanian language.
6. Romanian has 5 special letters
There are 5 special letters in Romanian, called diacritics. They might seem difficult at first or a bit weird, but they are not hard at all.
- ă – pronounced very similar to the definite article in English „a”, or in the word „about”
- î – it is used at the beginning of the word and pronounced the same as â. The pronunciation is similar to the vowel in the last syllable of the English word “modern”.
- â– used in the middle of the word and pronounced the same as î
- ș – pronounced „sh”
- ț – pronounced „ts”
7. Romanian is a phonetic language
Romanian is easy to read or pronounce, since it is a phonetic language. The words are pronounced exactly as they are spelled. So, once you learn the vocabulary, you will find it very easy to read or to spell what you hear.
Romanian is a language where words are rarely difficult to pronounce or to hear because the vast majority of Romanian words end in vowels. Proper pronunciation in the Romanian language is important for a number of reasons. You want to be able to sound like a native speaker, and you want others to be able to understand your words.
8. There are four dialects of Romanian spoken in the Balkanic countries
From a mix of Latin and Balkan languages, there are 4 Romanian dialects that have developed and are spoken in countries like Serbia, Albania, Greece, Kosovo, Bulgaria and Croatia.
Those are:
- Dacoromanian, the basis of the standard language, spoken in Romania and Moldova in several regional variants;
- Aromanian (also called Macedoromanian), spoken in scattered communities in Greece, the Republic of North Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, and Serbia;
- Meglenoromanian, a nearly extinct dialect of northern Greece and southeastern North Macedonia;
- Istroromanian, also nearly extinct, spoken in Istria, a peninsula that is part of Croatia and Slovenia.
Mutual intelligibility between the major dialects is difficult; the Meglenoromanian, Istroromanian, and Aromanian are sometimes classed as languages distinct from Romanian, or Dacoromanian, which has many slightly varying dialects of its own. Moldovan, the national language of Moldova, is a form of Dacoromanian. It is written in the Latin alphabet.
If you want to learn Romanian
More than 100,000 foreigners live in Romania, and studying the language is increasingly encouraged and promoted. You may want to give it a try, too.
Romanian people are very open to foreign languages, and they are known for the fact that they speak fluently at least one foreign language. Most often, English.
This will make your job easier when you start speaking Romanian, because, whenever you can’t remember one word, you can be sure the English translation will be understood.
Also, is very common to hear Romanians say, words like cash, business, job, office, staff, target, used instead of the Romanian words with the same meaning.
If you found this useful, feel free to navigate our site for more resources. You will find words and phrases for specific situations and interesting information about this beautiful country, its places and traditions.
Also, leave us a comment below, telling us what information you would find useful, about Romania or the Romanian language.