How many people speak Romanian as a first language?
Romanian is spoken by 22 million people as a first language. Romanian speakers account for 0.5% of the world's population and 4% of the Romance-speaking population.
Questions about Romanian language
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What is the oldest surviving written text in the Romanian language?
The oldest precisely dated Romanian document is Neacșu's letter from late June 1521, written by Neacșu of Câmpulung to the mayor of Brașov warning of an imminent Turkish attack. The Hurmuzaki Psalter, dated by watermarks to between 1491 and 1504, is considered the oldest Romanian writing overall.
Why was Romanian written in Cyrillic script for so long?
Romanian was written in Cyrillic because Old Church Slavonic, which used a Cyrillic-based alphabet, served as the official written language of Wallachia and Moldavia from the 14th to the 18th century, playing the same prestige role that Medieval Latin played in Western Europe. Romanian Cyrillic remained in use until 1860, when the Latin alphabet was officially adopted.
Is Romanian the same language as Moldovan?
Scholars agree that Moldovan and Romanian are the same language. In 2013, the Constitutional Court of Moldova ruled that the official language should be called Romanian, and in March 2023 the Moldovan Parliament passed a law adopting that name in all legislative texts.
How is Romanian classified among the Romance languages?
Romanian belongs to the Eastern Romance sub-branch of the Romance languages, descended from Vulgar Latin spoken in Roman provinces of Southeastern Europe. Its closest relative among Romance languages is Italian, with a lexical similarity estimated at 77%.
What are the main foreign influences on the Romanian language vocabulary?
A 1988 study by Marius Sala found that roughly 22% of core Romanian vocabulary comes from French, 9% from Old Church Slavonic, and about 4% each from Italian and words formed within Romanian itself. Slavic words overall make up 10-15% of the modern lexicon, while about 75-85% of Romanian words can ultimately be traced to Latin when French and Italian loans are included.