Introduction

Romanian (or limba română in the language itself) is a Latin-derived language related closely to languages such as Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. It has the distinction of being the only Romance language still spoken in eastern Europe, with official status in Romania, Moldova, and parts of Serbia and Greece; it is also recognised in Hungary as a minority language and spoken in Ukraine, Albania, and Macedonia. Despite its approximately 24 million speakers (according to Ethnologue), however, Romanian is very often left out of Romance language degree programmes entirely—eclipsed by its more well-known counterparts of French and Spanish in particular. There has recently been somewhat of a movement among organisers of Romance language degree programmes and university administrators in general to give Romanian the recognition it deserves as a language that is both relevant and fascinating. The Ohio State University, Duke University, and University College London are three well-known institutions that have decided to offer a Romanian minor; Romanian courses as part of a Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies; and a Bachelor’s Degree in Romanian and East European Studies respectively. But what exactly makes it so unique? And why should it be considered important?

The Romance-language speaking world, with Romanian-speaking areas highlighted in red (Source)

Differences between Romanian and other Romance languages

Romanian is unlike any of its linguistic relatives in that it has evolved in an area in southeastern Europe that is predominated by Slavic—rather than other Romance—languages. The three most prominent European-language families are the Romance, Slavic, and Germanic families—all of which also belong to the much larger Indo-European language family. Some well-known Slavic languages include Russian, Polish, Czech, and Bulgarian; and as a result of these languages’ influence on Romanian, it looks and sounds unique in many ways. Romanian is also a member of what is referred to as the Balkan Sprachbund—a group of mutually influential languages that will be discussed later in more detail—and has been influenced due to geographic proximity by Hungarian (a Uralic language). It is so different from the other members of its Romance language family to such an extent that Friedrich Diez (the first Romance philologist) declared in 1836 that it was “only a semi-Romance language”. And while that statement is considered by most modern linguists to be untrue, the reasoning behind it makes perfect sense: Romanian has many unique qualities that can indeed cause it to appear unlike any other Latin-derived language. To illustrate this point, the following example compares the verb “to speak” in Romanian to five Romance languages of western Europe:

Romanian – a vorbi

Spanish – hablar

French – parler

Italian – parlare

Portuguese – falar

Catalan – parlar

In this example, both hablar and falar come from the Latin fabulare—meaning ‘to talk’ or ‘to speak’. The initial “f” became an “h” in Spanish, as is common in that language, but the origin of both words remains the same. On the other hand, parler, parlare, and parlar all come from another Latin verb, parabolare, which carries basically the same meaning. The English words “parable” and “fable” were derived from these same two Latin forms. The Romanian a vorbi, however, has somewhat uncertain origins but has been suggested to have come from the Slavic word dvorĭba—meaning “court”, as in “court of law”.

The vocabulary of Romanian is often found to be one of its more difficult aspects by learners, especially those who are used to the vocabularies and lexicons of other Romance languages. To further illustrate this point, a few more examples:

Words for “without”

Romanian – fără

Spanish – sin

French – sans

Italian – senza

Portuguese – sem

Catalan – sense

Latin – sine

Words for “man”

Romanian – bărbat

Spanish – hombre

French – homme

Italian – uomo

Portuguese – homem

Catalan – home

Latin – homo

Words for “friend”

Romanian – prieten

Spanish – amigo

French – ami

Italian – amico

Portuguese – amigo

Catalan – amic

Latin – amicus

In addition to these superficial differences in basic vocabulary, Romanian also differs from other Romance languages in terms of grammar. For example, Romanian definite articles are placed after nouns (a construction that would read as “book the” as opposed to “the book” in English). This is due to the influence of languages such as Macedonian, Bulgarian, Albanian, and Serbian that are spoken in neighbouring countries. Interestingly, it has maintained a pared down version of the case system used in Latin —a feature that has long since died out in all other Romance languages. In a grammatical case system, endings or forms of words are changed in order to reflect their role in a sentence as a subject, direct object, indirect object, etc. In the Latin sentence, “Puella puerum amat,” meaning, ‘The girl loves the boy,’ for example, the world puella is in the nominative (subject) case, whereas the word puerum is in the accusative (direct object) case. In the sentence, “Puer puellam amat,” meaning, ‘The boy loves the girl,’ however, the roles are reversed and the meaning is changed completely. Romanian has also maintained use of a third gender—neuter—for its nouns, as in Latin, but this is no longer the case in any of Romanian’s modern relatives—all of which have only the masculine and feminine genders for nouns.

Similarities to other Romance languages

Despite its many unique aspects, Romanian is still a Romance language at its core. Although borrowings from Hungarian and Slavic languages are relatively common in its lexicon (for example, the Romanian word da meaning “yes”, the verb a iubi meaning “to love”, the noun dragoste meaning “love”, and the noun nevastă meaning “wife”), the majority of its vocabulary is still Latin-derived. Many basic vocabulary items and phrases such as bine (“well”), bun (“good”), cu plăcere (“you’re welcome”—literally, “with pleasure”), nu (“no”), încântat (“pleased to meet you”—literally, “enchanted”, as in the Spanish encantado and the French enchanté), and pardon (“excuse me”) fit in very well with their counterparts in the other Romance languages. Pronouns, numbers, verb tenses, and verb conjugations are also very clearly Latin-derived.

The Balkan Sprachbund

Romanian, as was briefly mentioned earlier, is a member of what linguists refer to as the Balkan Sprachbund (a German word literally meaning ‘language league’). This is a group of languages that includes Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian (Slavic), Greek (Hellenic), Albanian (an Indo-European language which occupies the Albanian sub-family by itself), and Romani (Indo-Aryan)—which share certain notable similarities simply due to the geographic proximity of the countries where they are spoken. Over time, they have influenced one another despite belonging to separate language families, specifically, the Romance, Slavic, and Hellenic families (and despite not belonging to the Balkan Sprachbund, Hungarian—a member of the Uralic language family—has also influenced Romanian). Thus, it may look and sound very different at first from its western European linguistic relatives, but a closer look reveals that the majority of its structure, grammar, and lexicon do come from Latin. It is very much a Romance language, albeit a heavily-influenced one.

Romanian in popular culture

It is a well-known fact that the popular literary character of Dracula—the inspiration for countless films and novels—has its origins in Romanian folk legends dating back hundreds of years. In addition, several Romanian films have achieved critical acclaim in recent years, receiving high ratings and winning awards at the Cannes Film Festival. For example, “4 Luni, 3 Saptamâni si 2 Zile” (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days – directed by Cristian Mungiu, 2007) and “A Fost Sau N-a Fost” (12:08 East of Bucharest – directed by Corneliu Porumboiu, 2006).

And finally, YouTube sensation in 2014 saw a man waving his arms to what is commonly known as the “numa numa” or “mai ya hee” song. The song, “Dragostea din tei”, is actually a song sung in Romanian by the Moldovan band, O-Zone. Most people are unaware of this, but both the band and the song achieved worldwide recognition because of the language in which it was sung—and less so because of the strange video! One of the most enjoyable aspects of learning this language for me has been the ability to watch the “numa numa” video and actually understand what is being said!

What makes Romanian important

It is often said that Romanian is not a practical language to learn, due largely to its relatively small number of speakers. Furthermore, many who are unfamiliar with the language assume that it must be Slavic in nature—a dialect of Russian, perhaps. Both of these assumptions, however, are misunderstandings. Romanian is considered a “critical language” by the United States government, meaning that while there is significant demand for Romanian speakers and those who are knowledgeable about the language, they come in short supply. The term is also used to designate a language that has been deemed important to American diplomacy, with the reasoning that knowledge of certain languages and cultures can be beneficial to fostering relationships with the countries to which they are spoken. In addition, Romania is a beautiful country and one that is worth visiting in order to experience its welcoming people, pristine landscapes, and rich cultural and historical heritage. From a purely linguistic standpoint, Romanian is a fascinating language; it has been said many times before that a solid foundation in Romanian would make learning Spanish, French, and the other more well-known Romance languages far easier. There are many reasons, thus, to focus on learning Romanian; and perhaps in the future this beautiful and often misunderstood language will stand more prominently among its more commonly-spoken counterparts.