Romanian

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A language of Romania

ISO 639-3
ron
Alternate Names
Daco-Rumanian, Moldavian, Rumanian
Population

19,900,000 in Romania (ELDIA 2012). Population total all countries: 23,782,990.

Location

Widespread. Moldavian dialect: Moldova northeast; Muntenian dialect: Muntenia or Wallachia southeast; other dialects north and west, including Transylvania.

Language Maps
Language Status

1 (National). Statutory national language (2003, Constitution, Article 13).

Classification
Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Eastern
Dialects

Banat, Bayash, Moldavian, Muntenian (Walachian), Transylvanian. Little dialect variation. Bayash are Gypsies whose dialect is based on Banat, but influenced by Balkan Romani [rmn] and Hungarian [hun]. Lexical similarity: 77% with Italian [ita], 75% with French [fra], 74% with Sardinian [sdn], 73% with Catalan [cat], 72% with Portuguese [por] and Rheto-Romance [roh], 71% with Spanish [spa].

Typology

SVO.

Language Use

5,974,000 also use English [eng]. 4,944,000 also use French [fra].

Language Development
Fully developed. Bible: 1688–1989.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Romanian
Writing

Braille script [Brai]. Cyrillic script [Cyrl], official usage in Moldova until 1991. Latin script [Latn], primary usage.

Other Comments

Christian.

Also spoken in:

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