|
The linguistic similarity is the reason for the inclusion of the term, which I failed to redirect in the first edit. However, the term "massacre" implies POV and so is properly handled (which should serve as a useful model in cases such as this article but of course this asks too much from the romanticists). --[[User:TJive|TJive]] 22:20, 24 May 2005 (UTC)
{{language
:I am reverting the scare quotes (as you term them, too) and changing the link to the name of the page.[[User:DJ Silverfish|DJ Silverfish]] 14:43, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
|familycolor=Indo-European
::Changed my mind. '''Shootings''' doesn't look right. Massacre is the more common term for killing unarmed people. [[User:DJ Silverfish|DJ Silverfish]] 14:48, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
|name=Romanian
|nativename=română
|states=[[Romania]], [[Moldova]], [[Vojvodina]], [[Russia]], [[Ukraine]], [[Israel]], [[Serbia]], [[Hungary]], the [[Balkans]], [[Canada]], [[USA]].
|region=[[Southeastern Europe]]
|speakers=26 million
|rank=36
|fam2=[[Italic languages|Italic]]
|fam3=[[Romance languages|Romance]]
|fam4=[[Eastern Romance languages|East Romance]]
|nation=[[Romania]], [[Moldova]] [[#Note|<sup>(1)</sup>]], [[Serbia and Montenegro]], [[Transnistria]]
|agency=[[Romanian Academy|Academia Română]]
|iso1=ro|iso2b=rum|iso2t=ron
|lc1=ron|ld1=(Daco-)Romanian|ll1=none
|lc2=ruo|ld2=Istro-Romanian|ll2=Istro-Romanian language
|lc3=rup|ld3=Macedo-Romanian|ll3=Aromanian language
|lc4=ruq|ld4=Megleno-Romanian|ll4=Megleno-Romanian language
}}
'''Romanian''' (''limba română'' [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] {{IPA|/'limba ro'mɨnə/}}), the official language of [[Romania]], is an Eastern [[Romance languages|Romance language]]. It is spoken natively by about 24 to 26 million people, most of them in [[Romania]], [[Moldova]] and [[Vojvodina]]. The official form of the [[Moldovan language]] in the [[Republic of Moldova]] is nearly identical to the official form of Romanian.
:::I was being ironic. And it doesn't matter what you think "looks right". If it doesn't conform to NPOV (much less the actual name of the link) it needs changed. --[[User:TJive|TJive]] 21:40, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
== History ==
::::Your irony was not "very obvious". Anyway, the link is fine as it is. [[User:DJ Silverfish|DJ Silverfish]] 19:45, 26 May 2005 (UTC)
[[Image:Romance languages and Romanian.png|thumb|440px|The place of Romanian within the Romance language family]]
I don't recall saying my irony was "very obvious".
The Romanian territory was inhabited in ancient times by the [[Dacia]]ns, an Indo-European people. They were defeated by the [[Roman Empire]] in [[106]] and part of Dacia ([[Oltenia]], [[Banat]] and [[Transylvania]]) became a Roman province. For the next 165 years, there is evidence of considerable Roman colonization in the area, the region being in close communication with the rest of the Roman empire. [[Vulgar Latin]] became the language of the administration and commerce.
Anyway glad we agree. --[[User:TJive|TJive]] 23:52, 26 May 2005 (UTC)
Under the pressure of the [[Free Dacians]] and of the [[Goths]], the Roman administration and legions were withdrawn from Dacia between [[271]]-[[275]]. Whether the Romanians are the descendants of these people that abandoned the area and settled south of Danube or of the people that remained in Dacia is a matter of debate. ''For further discussion, see [[Origin of Romanians]]''.
:Can't bear the slightest possibility of equivocation, eh? --[[User:TJive|TJive]] 05:59, Jun 4, 2005 (UTC)
Due to its geographical isolation, Romanian was probably the first language that split and until the modern age was not influenced by other Romance languages, which can explain why it is one of the most uniform languages in Europe. It is more conservative than other Romance languages in [[Romanian nouns|nominal]] morphology. Romanian has preserved [[declension]], but whereas Latin had six cases, Romanian has three, the [[nominative]]/[[accusative]], the [[genitive]]/[[dative]], and the [[vocative]], and retains the neuter [[Grammatical gender|gender]] as well. However, the [[verb]]al morphology of Romanian has shown the same move towards a compound [[perfect tense|perfect]] and [[future tense]] as the other Romance languages.
[[Image:Map-balkans-vlachs.png|frame|Map of Balkans with regions inhabited by Romanians/Vlachs highlighted]]
All the dialects of Romanian are believed to have been unified in a [[Common Romanian]] language until sometime between the [[7th century|7th]] and the [[10th century]] when the area was influenced by the Byzantine Empire and Romanian became influenced by the [[Slavonic languages]]. [[Aromanian language]] has very few Slavonic words. Also, the variations in the [[Daco-Romanian]] dialect (spoken throughout Romania and Moldova) are very small, which is quite remarkable. The use of this uniform Daco-Romanian dialect extends well beyond the borders of the Romanian state: a Romanian-speaker from Moldova speaks the same language as a Romanian-speaker from the Serbian [[Banat]], indicating a relatively recent migration to the northern territories.
==Critisism==
Romanian developed in isolation with regard to the other Romance languages. Therefore, it was influenced by Slavonic (due to migration/assimilation, and feudal/ecclesiastical relations), Greek (Byzantine, then [[Phanariotes|Phanariote]]), Turkish, and Hungarian, while the other Romance languages adopted words and features of [[Germanic]].
Moved here from page - needs references, better writing, etc.
== Classification and related languages ==
''Jack Bass needed to ask some of the people that were involved in the massacre. Even though I haven't read his book.I think that the book is a some what false account of what happened that night. My teacher told us that there was a platform in front of a building and that an Orangeburg police officer went onto the platform and took out his revolver and shot at the building. To make it seem like the students at SCSU shot back at them. Shortly after,the building was torn down. The goverment didn't want anyone to do a forensic test and see that the angle the shots came from that it couldn't have came from the campus.'' [[User:Pollinator|Pollinator]] 00:00, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
:Seems like pure speculation that can't really be validated in my opinion. - [[User:Derondantzler|Deron Dantzler]] 03:35, 16 March 2006 (UTC)
Romanian is a [[Romance language]], belonging to the [[Italic languages|Italic branch]] of the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European language family]], having much in common with languages such as [[French language|French]], [[Italian language|Italian]] and [[Spanish language|Spanish]].
== All college students? ==
However, the languages closest to Romanian are the other [[Eastern Romance languages]], spoken south of Danube: [[Aromanian language|Aromanian/Macedo-Romanian]], [[Megleno-Romanian language|Megleno-Romanian]] and [[Istro-Romanian language|Istro-Romanian]], which are sometimes classified as dialects of Romanian. An alternate name for Romanian used by linguists to disambiguate with the other Eastern Romance languages is "Daco-Romanian", referring to the area where it is spoken (which corresponds roughly to the onetime [[Roman Empire|Roman]] province of [[Dacia]]).
The article says the three students killed were college students, but wasn't one of those killed a high school student? [[User:Badagnani|Badagnani]] 00:05, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
The Romanian variety spoken in Moldova has been named [[Moldovan language]] by the Soviet and later Moldovan authorities, but linguists do not recognize it as a different language.
:You are correct, Delano Middleton was a 17 year old high school student. [http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/54/Students_killed_in_segregation_protest__] and [http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/03-3NRfall/8-11V57N3.pdf] Thanks. --[[User:Knulclunk|Knulclunk]] 16:45, 23 May 2007 (UTC)
== Contacts with other languages ==
=== Dacian language ===
The [[Dacian language]] was an Indo-European language spoken by the ancient Dacians. It may have been the first language to influence the Latin spoken in Dacia, but there is very little knowledge about it. About 300 words found only in Romanian (in all dialects) or with a cognate in the [[Albanian language]] may be inherited from Dacian, many of them being related to pastoral life (for example: ''balaur''=dragon; ''brânză''=cheese; ''mal''=shore; see: ''[[Eastern Romance substratum]]''). Some linguists have asserted that Albanians are Dacians who were not Romanized, and migrated south.
A different view is that these non-Latin words (many with Albanian cognates) are not necessarily Dacian, but rather were brought into the territory that is modern Romania by Romance-speaking shepherds migrating north from Albania, Serbia, and northern Greece who became the Romanian people. However, the Eastern Romance substratum appears to have been a [[satem]] language, while the Paleo-Balkan languages spoken in Northern Greece ([[Ancient Macedonian language]]) and Albania ([[Illyrian language]]) were most likely [[centum]] languages.
The general view is that Dacian was a [[satem]] language, as was [[Thracian language|Thracian]]. Dacian was either close to the neighboring Albanian or Balto-Slavic branches of Indo-European, or a member of a distinct branch.
=== [[Balkan linguistic union]] ===
While most parts of the Romanian grammar and morphology are based on [[Vulgar Latin]], there are however some features that are shared only with other languages of the Balkans and cannot be found in other Romance languages.
The languages of this [[sprachbund]] belong to distinct branches of the Indo-European languages: Bulgarian and Albanian, and in some cases [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Serbian language|Serbian]].
Among the shared features, there are the postponed [[definite article]], the syncretism of genitive and dative cases, the formation of the future and perfect tenses, as well as the avoidance of infinitive.
=== Slavic languages ===
The Slavic influence was first due to the migration of Slavic tribes, which traversed the territory of today's Romania during the formation of the language. It is interesting to note that Slavs were assimilated north of Danube, whereas they almost completely assimilated the Romanized population (Vlachs) living south of Danube. An important part of this population was still Vlach in the 10th century, only to fade away along with Vlach political power. For more information about this, see [[Aromanian]] and [[Megleno-Romanian]].
Slavic influence continued during the Middle Ages, mainly due to the fact that [[Church Slavonic]] was the main liturgical language until the [[18th century]]. The other surrounding languages (all Slavic, with the exception of Hungarian) also influenced Romanian.
Up to 20% of the vocabulary is of Slavic origin, including words such as: ''a iubi''=to love; ''glas''=voice; ''nevoie''=need; ''prieten''=friend; However, many Slavic words are [[archaism]]s and it is estimated that only 10% of the words in modern Romanian are Slavic [2].
There are some Slavonic influences, both on the phonetic level and on the lexical level—for example Romanian took the Slavonic ''da'' for ''yes''.
=== Other influences ===
Even before the 19th century, Romanian came in contact with several other languages. Notable among these are:
* [[Greek language|Greek]] (for example: ''folos'' < ''ófelos'' = use; ''buzunar'' < ''buzunára'' = pocket; ''proaspăt'' < ''prósfatos'' = fresh)
* [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] (for example: ''oraş'' < ''város'' = town; ''a cheltui'' < ''költeni'' = to spend; ''a făgădui'' < ''fogadni'' = to promise)
* [[Turkish language|Turkish]] (for example: ''cafea'' < ''kahve'' = coffee; ''cutie'' < ''kutu'' =box; ''papuc'' < ''papuç'' = slipper)
* [[German language|German]] (for example: ''cartof'' < ''Kartoffel'' = potato; ''bere'' < ''Bier'' = beer; ''şurub'' < ''Schraube'' = screw)
=== International words ===
Since the [[19th century]], many modern words were borrowed from the other Romance languages, especially from [[French language|French]] and [[Italian language|Italian]] (for example: ''birou'' < ''bureau'' = desk, office; ''avion'' = airplane; ''exploata'' = exploit, etc). It was estimated that about 38% of the number of words in Romanian are of French or Italian origin and adding this to the words that were inherited from Latin, it makes about 75-85% of the Romanian words that can be traced to Latin.
Some Latin words have entered Romanian twice, first as part of its core or ''popular'' vocabulary and a second time as a more literary international borrowing. Typically, the ''popular'' word is a noun and the borrowed word an adjective:
*brother: frate / fratern
*finger: deget / digital
*water: apă / acvatic
*cold: frig / frigid
*eye: ochi / ocular
Recently, an increasing number of English words have been borrowed (such as: ''gem'' < jam; ''interviu'' < interview; ''meci'' < match; ''manager'' < manager). These words are assigned grammatical gender in Romanian and handled according to Romanian rules; thus "the manager" is ''managerul''.
{| border=1 align=right cellpadding=0 cellspacing=2 width=345 style="margin: 0 0 1em 1em; border: 1px #dddddd solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%;"
|+<big><big>'''Romanian language countries and territories'''</big></big>
|-
!bgcolor=#DDDDDD| '''Country'''
!bgcolor=#DDDDDD|Speakers </br> (%)
!bgcolor=#DDDDDD|Speakers </br>(native)
!bgcolor=#DDDDDD|Population </br> ([[2005]])
|-
!colspan="4" bgcolor=#f9f9f9|[[Asia]]
|-
|colspan="4"|<small>not official:</small>
|-
|[[Israel]]
| align="right" | 3.7%
| align="right" | 250,000
| align="right" | 6,800,000
|-
|[[Kazakhstan]] <sup>1</sup>
| align="right" | 0.1%
| align="right" | 20,054
| align="right" | 14,953,126
|-
|[[Russia]] <sup>1</sup>
| align="right" | 0.12%
| align="right" | 178,000
| align="right" | 145,537,200
|-
!colspan="4" bgcolor=#f9f9f9|[[Europe]]
|-
|[[Romania]]
| align="right" | 91%
| align="right" | 19,736,517
| align="right" | 21,698,181
|-
|[[Moldova]] <sup>2</sup>
| align="right" | 78.2%
| align="right" | 2,649,477
| align="right" | 3,388,071
|-
|[[Transnistria]] <sup>3</sup>
| align="right" | 31.9%
| align="right" | 177,050
| align="right" | 555,500
|-
|[[Vojvodina]] ([[Serbia]])
| align="right" | 1.5%
| align="right" | 29,512
| align="right" | 2,031,992
|-
|colspan="4"|<small>not official:</small>
|-
|[[Timocka Krajina]] ([[Serbia]]) <sup>4</sup>
| align="right" | 5.9%
| align="right" | 42,075
| align="right" | 712,050
|-
|[[Ukraine]] <sup>5</sup>
| align="right" | 0.8%
| align="right" | 327,703
| align="right" | 48,457,000
|-
|[[Hungary]]
| align="right" | 0.08%
| align="right" | 8,482
| align="right" | 10,198,315
|-
!colspan="4" bgcolor=#f9f9f9|[[The Americas]]
|-
|colspan="4"|<small>not official:</small>
|-
|[[Canada]]
| align="right" | 0.2%
| align="right" | 60,520
| align="right" | 32,207,113
|-
|[[United States]] <sup>6</sup>
| align="right" | 0.11%
| align="right" | 300,000
| align="right" | 281,421,906
|-
!colspan="4" bgcolor=#f9f9f9 align="left" | <small>
<sup>1</sup> Many are Moldovans who were deported<br>
<sup>2</sup> Data only for the districts on the right bank of Dniester (without Transnistria and the city of Tighina)<br>In Moldova, it is called "[[Moldovan language]]"<br>
<sup>3</sup> Transnistria's independence is not internationally recognized<br>Here it is called "[[Moldovan language]]" and it is written in [[Moldovan alphabet|Cyrillic]]<br>
<sup>4</sup> Officially divided into Vlachs and Romanians<br>
<sup>5</sup> Most in Northern Bukovina and Southern Bessarabia; according to a ''Moldova Noastra'' study (based on the latest Ukrainian census); the study also says that there are 409,000 ethnic Romanians in Ukraine. <!--Actual citation for that study would be good --><br>
<sup>6</sup> See [[Romanian-American]]
|}
== Geographic distribution ==
Romanian is spoken mostly in [[Romania]], [[Moldova]], [[Ukraine]], [[Hungary]], [[Serbia and Montenegro]], [[Bulgaria]], but there are also Romanian language speakers in countries like [[Canada]], [[United States]], [[Germany]], [[Israel]], [[Australia]] and [[New Zealand]], mainly due to immigration after World War II.
===Official status===
Romanian is the official language of [[Romania]]. In [[Vojvodina]] it is established as equal in rights to the official languages, but in fact its status is inferior to that of [[Serbian language|Serbian]].
The official language in [[Moldova]] is officially called [[Moldovan language|Moldovan]], but the official form of this language is identical to Romanian, with some minor differences in spelling.
In other parts of Serbia and in [[Ukraine]], Romanian communities have very few rights regarding the use and preservation of their language in schools, press, administration and institutions.
Romanian is one of the five languages in which religious services are performed in the autonomous monastic state of [[Mount Athos]], spoken in the ''sketae'' of Prodromos and Lacu (a ''sketa'' being a community of monks; ''sketae'' is plural).
=== Dialects and regional varieties ===
:''Main article: [[Varieties of Romanian language]]''
The term "Romanian" in a general sense envelops four hardly mutually intelligible speech varieties commonly regarded as independent languages. For more on these, please see the article "[[Eastern Romance languages]]".
It is thought that the Romanian language appeared north and south of the Danube. All the four dialects are offsprings of the [[Romance languages|Romance language]] spoken both in the North and South Danube, before the settlement of the [[Slavic peoples|Slavonian]] tribes south of the river - Daco-Romanian in the North, and the other three dialects in the south.
However, this article deals primarily with [[Daco-Romanian]], and thus the regional variations of that will be discussed here instead. The differences between these variaties are usually very small, usually consisting in a few dozen regional words and some phonetic changes.
Like all other languages, Romanian can be regarded as a [[dialect continuum]]. However, such a formulation tends to obscure the high homogeneity and uniformity of the language. The Romanian language cannot be neatly divided into separate dialects and Romanians themselves speak of the differences as accents or "speeches" (in Romanian: "accent" or "grai"). This correctly conveys the linguistics notion of [[accent_(linguistics)|accent]], as language variants that only feature slight pronounciation differences (Romanian accents are fully mutually intelligible). Several accents are usually distinguished:
* Muntenian accent (Graiul muntenesc), spoken mainly in [[Wallachia]] and southern parts of Dobruja.
* Moldavian accent (Graiul moldovenesc), spoken mainly in [[Moldavia]], northern parts of [[Dobruja]] and the [[Republic of Moldova]]. Written <nowiki><p></nowiki> is realised as /k/; written <nowiki><c></nowiki> before front vowels is realised as /ʃ/. Written <nowiki><ă></nowiki>, in final position, is palatalized.
* Maramureşian accent (Graiul maramureşean), spoken mainly in [[Maramureş]].
* Transylvanian accent (Graiul ardealean), spoken mainly in [[Ardeal]].
* Banatian accent (Graiul bănăţean), spoken mainly in [[Banat]]. Written <nowiki><t></nowiki> before front vowels is realised as /ʧ/.
* Oltenian accent (Graiul oltenesc), spoken mainly in [[Oltenia]] and by the Romanian minority in [[Timok]] region of Serbia. Notable feature of this dialect is the usage of the Simple perfect tense rather than the Complex perfect which is used in other dialects.
Over the last century, however, regional accents have been weakened due to mass communications and greater mobility.
==== Moldovan language ====
{{mainarticle|Moldovan language}}
The [[Moldovan language]] is the official language of the [[Republic of Moldova]], as defined by its constitution.
However, as stated by Vasile Stati (a linguist and hard-line supporter of the Moldovan identity), the literary forms of Moldovan and Romanian are identical. The official form of the Moldovan is identical to Romanian, in its form from before the 1991 reform (minor changes in the form of one letter and in spelling). There is no documented linguistic division at the [[Prut River]] that divides the two countries.
More significant differences compared to Romania occur in the colloquial speech of highly-russified areas of the [[Republic of Moldova]], such as [[Chişinau]] and [[Transnistria]]. The spoken language of these areas features Russian loanwords and expressions, not present in Romania-born speakers (who tend to use English and French loanwords). Speakers who use such loanwords are aware of doing so and can easily express themselves without using them.
Of all Moldovans claiming either "Romanian" or "Moldovan" as their mother tongue, 45.2% declared their native language to be "Moldovan", while 54.8% declared their native language to be "Romanian".
== Grammar ==
{{mainarticle|Romanian grammar}}
Romanian nouns are inflected by gender (feminine, masculine and neuter), number (singular and plural) and case (nominative/accusative, dative/genitive and vocative). The articles, as well as most adjectives and pronouns, [[agreement (linguistics)|agree]] in gender with the noun they reference.
Romanian is the only Romance language where [[definite article]]s are ''[[enclitic]]'': that is, attached to the end of the noun (as in [[North Germanic languages]]), instead of in front (''proclitic''). They were formed, as in other Romance languages, from the Latin demonstrative pronouns.
Romanian has four verbal [[conjugation]]s which further split into several conjugation patterns. Verbs can be put in five [[mood (linguistics)|moods]] that are inflected according to the person ([[indicative mood|indicative]], [[conditional]]/[[optative mood|optative]], [[imperative mood|imperative]], [[subjunctive mood|subjunctive]], and [[presumptive mood|presumptive]]) and four impersonal moods ([[infinitive]], [[gerund]], [[supine]], and [[participle]]).
== Sounds ==
''Main article: [[Romanian phonology]]''
Romanian has seven vowels: {{IPA|/a/}}, {{IPA|/e/}}, {{IPA|/i/}}, {{IPA|/o/}}, {{IPA|/u/}}, {{IPA|/ə/}}, and {{IPA|/ɨ/}}. Additionally, vowel {{IPA|/ø/}} may appear in some words.
In final positions after consonants (rarely inside words) a short non-syllabic {{IPA|/i/}} can occur, which is marked in [[IPA]] by {{IPA|/ʲ/}} and is produced as a [[palatalization]] of the preceding consonant. A similar sound, the voiceless ending ''u'', existed in old Romanian but has disappeared from the standard language.
There are also four semivowels and twenty consonants.
===Diphthongs===
Descending diphthongs: ai, au, ei, eu, ii, iu, oi, ou, ui, ăi, ău, îi, îu.
Ascending diphthongs: ea, eo, ia, ie, io, iu, oa, ua, uă.
===Triphthongs===
Pattern S-V-S (main vowel between two semivowels): eai, eau, iai, iau, iei, ieu, ioi, iou, oai.
Pattern S-S-V (two-semivowel glide before the main vowel): eoa, ioa.
===Phonetic changes===
Due to its isolation from the other Romance languages, the phonetic evolution of Romanian was quite different, but does share a few changes with Italian, such as [kl] > [kj] (Lat. '''cl'''arus > Rom. '''chi'''ar, Ital. '''chi'''aro) and also a few with [[Dalmatian language|Dalmatian]], such as [gn] > [mn] (Lat. co'''gn'''atus > Rom. cu'''mn'''at, Dalm. co'''mn'''ut).
Among the notable phonetic changes are:
* diphthongization of e, i, o
*: Lat. c'''e'''ra > Rom. c'''ea'''ră (wax)
*: Lat. s'''o'''le > Rom. s'''oa'''re (sun)
* iotacism [e] → [i]
*: Lat. h'''e'''rba > Rom. '''i'''arbă (grass, herb)
* velar [k], [g] → labial [p], [b], [m]
*: Lat. o'''ct'''o > Rom. o'''pt''' (eight)
*: Lat. li'''ng'''ua > Rom. li'''mb'''ă (tongue, language)
*: Lat. si'''gn'''um > Rom. se'''mn''' (sign)
*: Lat. co'''x'''a > Rom. coa'''ps'''ă (thigh)
* rotacism [l] → [r]
*: Lat. cae'''l'''um > Rom. ce'''r''' (sky)
* Alveolars [d] and [t] palatalized to [dz]/[z] and [ts] when before [e] or [i]
*: Lat. '''d'''eus > Rom. '''z'''eu (god)
*: Lat. '''t'''enem > Rom. '''ţ'''ine (hold)
Romanian is the only widely-spoken contemporary Romance language that retains the original phoneme {{IPA|/h/}}. (The [[Norman language]] also retains phoneme {{IPA|/h/}}. In many dialects of Spanish, particularly in the Americas, <j> is pronounced as {{IPA|[h]}}, but this appears not to be a matter of "retention": the original Castilian phoneme is {{IPA|/x/}}. In some dialects of Portuguese, depending on the surrounding phonemes, <r> is pronounced as {{IPA|[h]}}, but likewise, the original phoneme appears to have been <r>. In these dialects, <r> arguably corresponds to two phonemes, one for [r], and one for [h].)
== Writing system ==
[[Image:Scrisoarea lui Neacsu.jpg|thumb|200px|Neacşu's letter is the oldest surviving document written in Romanian]]
[[Image:Romanian-kirilitza-tatal-nostru.jpg|thumb|300px|A sample of the Romanian, written in the [[Romanian Cyrillic alphabet]], which was still in use in the early 19th century]]
The first written record of a Romanic language spoken in the Middle Ages in the Balkans was written by the Byzantine chronicler [[Theophanes Confessor]] in the [[6th century]] about a military expedition against the [[Eurasian Avars|Avars]] from [[587]], when a Vlach muleteer accompanying the Byzantine army noticed that the load was falling from one of the animals and shouted to a companion "Torna, torna fratre" (meaning "Return, return brother!").
The oldest written text in Romanian is a letter from 1521, in which Neacşu of [[Campulung|Câmpulung]] wrote to the mayor of [[Brasov|Braşov]] about an imminent attack of the Turks. It was written using the [[Cyrillic alphabet]], like most early Romanian writings. The earliest writing in Latin script was a late [[16th century]] [[Transylvania]]n text which was written with the [[Hungarian alphabet]] conventions.
In the late 1700s, [[Transylvania]]n scholars noted the Latin origin of Romanian and adapted the [[Latin alphabet]] to the Romanian language, using some rules from [[Italian_language|Italian]], recognized as Romanian's closest relative. The Cyrillic alphabet remained in (gradually decreasing) use until 1860, when Romanian writing was first officially regulated.
In the [[Moldavian SSR|Soviet Republic of Moldova]], a special version of the Cyrillic alphabet derived from the Russian version was used, until [[1989]], when it returned to the Romanian Latin alphabet.
=== Romanian alphabet ===
''Main article: [[Romanian alphabet]]''
The [[Romanian alphabet]] is as follows:
A, a (a); Ă, ă (ă); Â, â (â din a); B, b (be), C, c (ce); D, d (de), E, e (e); F, f (fe / ef); G, g (ghe / ge); H, h (ha / haş); I, i (i); Î, î (î din i); J, j (je), K, k (ka de la kilogram), L, l (le / el); M, m (me / em); N, n (ne / en); O, o (o); P, p (pe); R, r, (re / er); S, s (se / es); {{polytonic|Ș}} {{polytonic|ș}} ({{polytonic|ș}}e); T, t (te); {{polytonic|Ț}} {{polytonic|ț}} ({{polytonic|ț}}e); U, u (u); V, v (ve); X, x (ics); Z, z (ze / zet).
The Romanian alphabet is based on the [[Latin alphabet]], and has five additional letters (these are not diacriticals, but letters in their own right). Initially, there were as many as 12 additional letters, but some of them disappeared in subsequent reforms. Also, until the early 20th century, a short vowel marker was used.
Today, the Romanian alphabet is largely phonetic. However, the "â" (used inside the words) and "î" (used at the beginning or the end) both represent the same [[close central unrounded vowel]] {{IPA|/ɨ/}}, which is a slack sound somewhere between "i" in English "bit" and "oo" in English "food". Until 1904 there were four letters representing this sound: ''â'', ''ê'', ''î'' and ''û''. During [[Communist]] rule in Romania (more precisely between [[1953]] and [[1993]]) only the letter ''î'' was used to transcribe this sound (with a few accepted exceptions). According to the current usage accepted by the [[Romanian Academy]], {{IPA|/ɨ/}} is transcribed as either ''î'' when used as the first or last letter of words, or ''â'' when it occurs in the middle of the word. In practice, either usage is acceptable and some publications still retain the Communist-era orthography.
Another exception from a completely phonetic writing system is the fact that [[vowel]]s and their respective [[semivowel]]s are not distinguished in writing. In dictionaries the distinction is marked by separating the entry word into [[syllable]]s for the words containing a hiatus that might be mispronounced as a [[diphthong]] or a [[triphthong]].
Stressed vowels also are not marked in writing, except very rarely in cases where by misplacing the stress a word might change its meaning. For example "trei copíi" means ''three children'' while "trei cópii" means ''three copies''.
Q, W and Y are not part of the core Romanian alphabet; they are used mainly to write imported words, such as '''quasar''', '''watt''', and '''yoga'''.
Writing the letters Ș ({{IPA|/ʃ/}}) and Ț ({{IPA|/ʦ/}}) with a cedilla instead of a comma (i.e., Ş, Ţ) is incorrect but rather widespread, especially in computer environments.
===Reading rules===
Reading Romanian involves learning a few rules, quite similar to reading [[Italian language|Italian]].
*The letters ''c'' and ''g'' represent the affricates {{IPA|/ʧ/}} and {{IPA|/ʤ/}} before ''i'' and ''e'', and {{IPA|/k/}} and {{IPA|/g/}} before ''a'', ''o'', ''u'', ''ă'', and ''â''/''î''. The digraphs ''ch'' and ''gh'' before front vowels represent slightly palatalized {{IPA|/k/}} and {{IPA|/g/}}.
*''h'' represents {{IPA|/h/}}
*''j'' represents {{IPA|/ʒ/}}
*The letter with comma below, {{polytonic|Ș}} and {{polytonic|Ț}} represent {{IPA|/ʃ/}} and {{IPA|/ʦ/}}, though the allographs with cedilla, ''ş'' and ''ţ'' became widespread when pre-[[Unicode]] and early Unicode [[character sets]] did not include the standard form.
*A final orthographical ''i'' after a consonant represents palatalization of the consonant (e. g. ''lup'' {{IPA|/lup/}} "wolf" vs. ''lupi'' {{IPA|/lupʲ/}} "wolves").
*''ă'' represents the [[schwa]], {{IPA|/ə/}}.
=== Group of letters ===
Letters '''c''' and '''g''' have special pronunciation when used in these groups of characters, which are the same as in [[Italian language|Italian]]
{| style="background-color: #eeeeee; text-align: center;"
!Group
!Sound
!Examples
|-
|ce, ci
||{{IPA|/tʃ/}}
| ''ch'' in '''chest''', '''cheek'''
|-
|che, chi
||/k/
| ''k'' in '''kettle''', '''kiss'''
|-
|ge, gi
||{{IPA|/dʒ/}}
| ''j'' in '''jelly''', '''jigsaw'''
|-
|ghe, ghi
||/g/
| ''g'' in '''get''', '''give'''
|}
===Punctuation and Capitalization===
The only particularities Romanian has relative to other languages using the Latin alphabet are:
* The quotation marks use the [[Quotation mark#Quotation marks in Germany and Austria|German format]];
* Dialogues are identified with [[Quotation mark#Quotation dash|quotation dashes]];
* Proper quotations which span multiple paragraphs don't start each paragraph with the quotation marks; one single pair of quotation marks is always used, regardless of how many paragraphs are quoted;
* The [[Oxford comma]] before "and" is considered incorrect ("red, yellow and blue" is the proper format);
* Punctuation signs which follow a text in parentheses always follow the final bracket;
* In titles, only the first letter of the first word is capitalized, the rest of the title using sentence capitalization (with all its rules: proper names are capitalized as usual, etc.).
====Exceptions and trends====
Dialogues are identified with quotation dashes in everyday use, although the specific character is typically replaced with an ordinary dash ("-") in informal electronic communication.
Usage of German quotation marks has decreased considerably in favor of the much more convenient English-language format, at least in informal messages. Even in writing, because of the awkwardness of properly drawing German dashes (reversing the direction of writing upwards for the final quotation symbol), the proper format is rarely used, typically using the [[Quotation mark#Quotation marks in Polish|Polish format]] instead, if any attempt at proper formatting is done. In practice, only the most formal documents, such as literary works or very formal letters, use what are formally considered the proper form of quotation marks.
==Language sample==
English text:
: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
::''([[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]])''
Contemporary Romanian - highlighted words are French or Italian [[loanword]]s:
: Toate fiinţele '''umane''' se nasc '''libere''' şi '''egale''' în '''demnitate''' şi în drepturi. Ele sunt înzestrate cu '''raţiune''' şi '''conştiinţă''' şi trebuie să se '''comporte''' unele faţă de altele în '''spiritul''' '''fraternităţii'''.
Romanian, excluding French or Italian loanwords - highlighted words are Slavic loanwords:
: Toate fiinţele omeneşti se nasc '''slobode''' şi '''deopotrivă''' în '''destoinicie''' şi în drepturi. Ele sunt înzestrate cu cuget şi înţelegere şi '''trebuie''' să se poarte unele faţă de altele după firea frăţiei.
Romanian, excluding loanwords:
: Toate fiinţele omeneşti se nasc nesupuse şi asemenea în preţuire şi în drepturi. Ele sunt înzestrate cu cuget şi înţelegere şi se cuvine să se poarte unele faţă de altele după firea frăţiei.
''See also: [[Lord's Prayer#Romanian|Lord's Prayer in Romanian]]''
== Common words and phrases ==
<table>
<tr><th>English<th>Romanian<th>Phonetical transcription
<tr><td>Romanian (person)<td> '''Român''' <td>{{IPA|/ro'mɨn/}}
<tr><td>Hello!<td> '''Salut!''' <td>{{IPA|/sa'lut/}}
<tr><td>What's your name?<td> '''Cum te cheamă?'''<td>{{IPA|/'kum.te.kěa.mə↘/}}
<tr><td>How are you?<td> '''Ce mai faci?'''<td>{{IPA|/'ʧe.maǐ.faʧʲ↘/}}
<tr><td>Goodbye!<td> '''La revedere!'''<td>{{IPA|/la.re.ve'de.re/}}
<tr><td>Bye! <td> '''Pa!''' <td>{{IPA|/pa/}}
<tr><td>Please. <td> '''Vă rog.''' <td> {{IPA|/və'rog/}}
<tr><td>Sorry. <td> '''Îmi pare rău.''' <td>{{IPA|/ɨmʲ.pa.re'rəǔ↘/}}
<tr><td>Thank you. <td> '''Mulţumesc.''' <td> {{IPA|/mul.ʦu'mesk/}}
<tr><td>Yes. <td> '''Da.''' <td> {{IPA|/da/}}
<tr><td>No. <td> '''Nu.'''<td> {{IPA|/nu/}}
<tr><td>I don't understand. <td> '''Nu înţeleg.'''<td> {{IPA|/'nu.ɨn.ʦe.leg↘/}}
<tr><td>Where's the bathroom?<td> '''Unde e toaleta?'''<td> {{IPA|/'un.de.ǐe.to.a.le.ta↘/}}
<tr><td>Do you speak English?<td> '''Vorbiţi engleza?'''<td> {{IPA|/vor'biʦʲ.eŋ'gle.za↗/}}
</table>
== Note ==
<sup>(1)</sup> The [[constitution]] of the Republic of [[Moldova]] refers to the country's language as ''Moldovan'' rather than ''Romanian'', though in practice it is often called "Romanian". Between 1989 and 1994 it was officially recognized [[Romanian]] as the official language of Moldova. For more information, please see [[Moldovan language]].
== See also ==
*[[Romanian proverbs]]
== References ==
¹ Rosetti, Alexandru, ''Istoria limbii române'', 2 vols., Bucharest, 1965-1969.<br>
² Uwe, Hinrichs, ''Handbuch der Südosteuropa-Linguistik''
== External links ==
{{InterWiki|code=ro}}
{{Wikibookspar||Romanian}}
===Learning Romanian===
*[http://www.EasyRomanian.com/ Learn the Romanian language at EasyRomanian.com]
*[http://www.geocities.com/romanianlessons/ Romanian Lessons]
*[http://rolessons.bizhat.com/ More Romanian Lessons]
*[http://www.verbix.com/languages/romanian.shtml Verbix - Romanian verbs conjugation]
*[http://www.geocities.com/email_theguy/rromanian.htm Romanian grammar]
*[http://www.seelrc.org:8080/grammar/pdf/stand_alone_romanian.pdf Detailed Romanian grammar - 183 pages - 4.6 MB - pdf]
*[http://www.geocities.com/language_directory/languages/romanian.htm List of online Romanian-related resources]
===Phrasebooks===
*[http://www.wikitravel.org/en/article/Romanian_phrasebook WikiTravel Romanian Phrasebook]
*[http://www.unilang.org/resources/vocab/basicwords.ro.html Romanian Basic Words]
===Dictionaries===
*[http://ro.wiktionary.org Wiktionary in Romanian]
*[http://dictionar.allnet.ro/dictionar.php A complete Romanian-English dictionary]
*[http://www.dictionare.com/dictionaries/dictionary.htm Online Romanian-English dictionary]
*[http://dexonline.ro DEX Online - Romanian explicative dictionary]
*[http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Romanian-english/ Romanian - English Dictionary from Webster's Rosetta Edition]
*[http://www.free-soft.ro/index-en.html Free downloadable dictionary]
===Miscellaneous===
*[http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/sampa/rom-uni.htm SAMPA for Romanian]
*[http://www.cimec.ro/Istorie/neacsu/eng/default.htm The Letter of Neacşu from Câmpulung - The oldest written document in Romanian (English translation)]
*[http://www.unusus.com/bib/editor/0002.htm The Letter of Neacşu from Câmpulung - Transliteration in Romanian from the Cyrillic alphabet]
*[http://diacritics.typo.cz Diacritics Project - All you need to design a font with correct accents]
*[http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ron Ethnologue report for Romanian]
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