Romanian is spoken by about 28 million people in the world, 10 percent of which is the population of Moldova. It’s official in Romania, Moldova and the region of Vojvodina in Serbia. Linguistically, Romanian belongs to a branch of the Eastern Romance family, in fact forming it after the extinction of the other languages of the branch, such as Dalmatian. In these terms, Romanian is closest to French, Italian and Spanish, though it suffered the influence of surrounding Slavic languages.
Origins
Romanian derived from Latin, belonging to the family of Romance languages. It’s thus maybe the most direct relative of Latin, considering the relative isolation of Romania for long years after the adoption of Latin. Romanian forms the Eastern branch of the Romance languages, along with Aromanian. The Dalmatian language also belonged to the family before its extinction. Romanian was formed mainly under the influence of the Slavic languages, as Slavic tribes became its geographical neighbors in the 7th-10th Centuries, and also by the Greek language.
Official Language
Romanian is the official language in Romania. It has the status of official (and in fact the only official, though its name is debatable) in Moldova, and at a regional level in Serbia, in the region of Vojvodina. Since the accession of Romania to the EU in 2007, Romanian has become one of the EU’s official languages, thus consolidating the Romance linguistic family with all of its major representatives in the Union.
Varieties
Romanian has several major varieties, the most considerable of which are believed to be Muntenian, Moldavian, Maramureşian, Transylvanian, Banatian and Oltenian, based on their geographical distribution. It’s believed that East Romance was spoken to the North and South of Danube. Today, its varieties form a dialect continuum of linguistic varieties, which are mutually intelligible.
Brief History
Romanian’s history can be traced back to the 2nd Century, when the approximate territory of today’s Romania was inhabited by the Dacians. The settlements of the tribes were invaded by the Roman Empire, and the population adopted Latin as the official language. For centuries afterwards, Romania had quite isolated development. It was one of the first provinces to split from the Empire. As a result, Romanian safeguarded most of the original features of Latin. It developed as a closer relative to Latin then many of the so-called Romance languages.
The Slavonic influence started around the 7th Century, when Slavonic tribes invaded the Balkan Peninsula and firmly settled there. Influence was also exercised by Greek through neighboring territories and on a religious and political basis.
Today, Romanian is spoken by about 28 million people worldwide, 10% of which live in Moldova.
Did you know?
Romanian’s history is dated back to the year 106, when the Roman Empire subordinated the Dacian tribes and they adopted Latin. Though influenced by the Slavic languages, Romanian is closer to Latin, to some extent even closer than French or Portuguese, for instance.
Romanian is the official language of Romania, Moldova and the region of Vojvodina in Serbia.
Romanian uses the Latin alphabet. It added 12 new letters to it, 5 of which have survived until today’s modern Romanian.