Romanian Language Guide

Official language in
Romania, Moldova
Script
Latin

Where it's spoken

In Romania, the Constitution states that the official language is Romanian. In Moldova, Article 13 of the Constitution states that the state language is the Moldovan language and that its writing is based on the Latin alphabet. The same article states that the State acknowledges and protects the right to preserve, develop, and use the Russian language and other languages spoken within the territory of the State. A Constitutional Court judgment concluded that the provision in the Declaration of Independence naming Romanian as the state language prevails over the Constitution's provision on the Moldovan language. A later law changed the terms "Moldovan language," "state language," "official language," and "mother language" to "Romanian language" in all normative acts adopted by Parliament, including the Constitution. ConstitutionNet's commentary names as the pivotal issue concerning that law whether its effect of amending the text of the Constitution accords with the constitutional requirements for amendments.

Sources

Script & pronunciation

Modern Romanian is written with the Latin alphabet. DOOM 3, the normative orthographic dictionary of Romanian, gives the alphabet 31 letters, five of which (ă, â, î, ș, and ț) are a base letter with a diacritic. The breve distinguishes ă from a, and the circumflex distinguishes â and î from a and i; DOOM 3 illustrates this with the pairs apă and apa (apa being the form with the article) and mână and mană. This app's card for "Hand" is written "Mână." DOOM 3 lists â and î as writing the same sound, with â listed for use inside words and î for use at the beginning and end of words, among other cases. This app's card for "I don't understand" reads "Nu înțeleg," where "înțeleg" begins with î.

The letters ș and ț carry a comma below. DOOM 3 states, citing the Romanian Academy, that in current Romanian writing this mark is different from the cedilla with which these letters were written in the past. The Unicode Standard says that, in modern usage, the preferred representation of Romanian text uses s with a comma below (ș), and it notes that, because of the prevalence of legacy implementations, a large amount of Romanian data contains the cedilla form (ş). This app's card for "Where is the emergency exit?" says in its note that ș and ț use a comma below and are distinct from the cedilla forms ş and ţ. DOOM 3 states that diacritics are increasingly, and wrongly, omitted when writing on electronic devices, which causes confusion between words or forms, and that in electronic communication "sh" and "ts" are frequently used in place of ș and ț, which it also calls erroneous.

In Romanian, stress is free, meaning its position varies, and it can distinguish words that are otherwise written the same. DOOM 3 adds that there are no precise criteria for predicting the position of stress in all words and forms, and that the circumflex does not mark stress in Romanian. In this app's romanization line, the stressed syllable is written in capitals and syllables are separated by hyphens; in the card "Good day / Hello," "Bună ziua" is romanized "BU-nuh ZI-ua," with ă as "uh"; in the card "Thank you," "Mulțumesc" is romanized "mul-tsu-MESK," with ț as "ts"; and in the card "Where is the emergency exit?", "ieșirea" is romanized "ye-SHEE-rya," with ș as "sh."

Sources

Grammar essentials

Romanian has an enclitic definite article, which Cornilescu argues is best viewed as a suffix that merges already attached to the noun. Her lecture states that the enclitic article occurs only on nouns and adjectives and that it always occurs on the first such element of the phrase, as in regele bun ("king.the good") and bunul rege ("good.the king"). This app's card "Good day / Hello" ("Bună ziua") notes that "zi" (day) plus "-ua" gives "ziua" (the day), and the card for "Where is the emergency exit?" notes that "ieșire" (exit) takes the definite article as "ieșirea."

Țicul's article gives "Ion nu a luat cartea" as an example in which nu, standing in front of the verb "a luat," negates the idea expressed by the whole sentence through its predicate. This app's cards for "I don't understand" ("Nu înțeleg") and "I don't have a reservation" ("Nu am rezervare") likewise place Nu in front of the verb, and the card for "I understand" is the same verb without Nu ("Înțeleg").

Sources

Politeness & etiquette

Butu's survey of 30 informants, who were students and graduates of philology, found the formal pronoun of address to be dumneavoastră, mentioned by all of them and used for one addressee or for several. The informal pronoun is tu for one person and voi for several. Butu notes that dumneavoastră requires a verb in the plural, while the other formal pronouns Butu lists, such as dumneata, are used only with a singular verb and for one addressee.

This app's card for "You (polite)" ("Dumneavoastră") describes it as the polite pronoun for the other person, to be used with strangers, staff, and officials, and notes that "tu" is for people you know well. This app's card for "Do you speak English?" ("Vorbiți engleză?") notes that "Vorbiți" is the formal second-person form and gives "Vorbești engleză?" as the informal version. This app's card for "Please" ("Vă rog") gives its literal meaning as "I ask you (formal)" and notes "Te rog" as the informal form.

According to the survey's informants, the address term for strangers is generally the formal one, except when people are the same age, when the addressee is younger, or when the speaker considers the informal form appropriate, a decision Butu describes as rather an emotional one. In rather official and neutral situations, such as between people and administration officials or between clerks and customers, the formal form is used, although in the latter case the informal form can also be accepted, depending on age and sex. Butu's abstract describes a quick shift from the formal to the informal address pronoun, often based on emotional decisions rather than specific rules. DOOM 3 lists domnia-ta and domnia-voastră among address forms for the second person that have extended in use alongside dumneavoastră and have become new politeness pronouns.

Sources

Browse all TravelPhrases languages