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 (European Commission 2012). Total users in all countries: 23,664,640.

Location

Widespread. Muntenian dialect: Muntenia or Wallachia; 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

Moldavian, Muntenian (Walachian), Transylvanian, Banat, Bayash. 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; prepositions; noun head initial; gender (masculine/feminine/ambigeneric); indefinite article and definite article suffix; case-marking (2 cases); verb affixes mark person, number; passives; tense; 22 consonants, 7 vowels, 3 diphthongs; non-tonal; free stress.

Language Use

Some also use English [eng] (European Commission 2006), French [fra] (European Commission 2006).

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.

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