This "thread" are just people "piggy-backing" eachother, there is no REAL

evidence...except this

Origin and History

Rumanian is picturesquely described either as a barbarized Latin or as a Latinized

barbarian tongue. Undoubtedly, such extremely diverging definitions reflect the
complicated problem to find out a consistent explanation of its emergence and evolution.
The official thesis supported in contemporary Rumania states that Rumanian developed
from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman colonists who settled Dacia (modern Transylvania)
after its conquest by emperor Trajan in 106 AD. Though the Roman legions abandoned
the area in 271 under the pressure of the barbarians, a portion of the Romanized
population could survive, as shepherds and primitive farmers, in the Carpathian
mountains. In the 9th century, when conditions settled, these Romance-speaking people
gradually reoccupied Transylvania. In the late 13th century they moved eastward and
established the principalities of Wallachia (1290) and Moldova (1349).

It is known that after 106 Dacia was colonized by a few settlers from the Roman
provinces in the Near East (mainly Syria) who could use a corrupted version of Latin as a
kind of lingua franca to communicate with the administration and the population in the
adjacent areas. Evidently in 271 these settlers were moved southward of the Danube, as
the Romans established two provinces of the name of Dacia in the territories of the
present North-Eastern Serbia and Western Bulgaria. It is noteworthy that Rumanian does
not contain words of Dacian origin, while it shares some old-Balkan and non-Latin terms
with Albanian. Thus these two languages reflect special historical contacts of early date.

It is not impossible that the ancestors of modern Rumanians were in the late Antiquity
slaves and servants engaged in agriculture and cattle breeding for their masters, the rich
Roman colonists of the fortified Balkan cities. Supposedly, the two groups communicated
in a kind of creolized Latin. In the course of the successive barbarian invasions in the
5th--8th c. the established political and socio-economic order on the Balkans was
reversed. The city-dwellers could survive under the protection of the city-walls, but as the
Eastern Roman (or Byzantine) empire was predominantly a Greek speaking state, they
became subsequently Hellenized, while their former slaves and servants fled to the
mountains, which were suitable for livestock raising, and preserved the Romance tongue
(technically known as Eastern Romance), as evidenced by the fact that the Slavs called
them Vlachs. The self-designation as Rumanians, under the etymological form of
Romni, is attested in the 16th century (the texts of Coresi),

See the graph Derivation of Romance Languages from Latin.

See Wallachians, Walloons, Welschen etc.
See for more details Vlachs.
The Vlachs concentrated in the south-western parts of the Balkans, mainly in the regions
around modern Albania. There they could escape not only the invadors, but also the
effective control of the Byzantine authorities. In the course of the centuries the Vlachs
absorbed a lot of outlaws, mainly of Slavic origin. After the invasions ceased, the Vlachs
began migrating northward. In the 9th-10th centuries they were present in the mountains
of the First Bulgarian empire (681-1018), which dominated the inner continental area of
the Balkan peninsula. Evidently in this period they adopted for their liturgy the Old
Church Slavonic, the official language of medieval Bulgaria. The close and continuous
contacts with the Slavic milieu left a profound impact on the vocabulary and phonology
of their language.
It is possible that the Vlachs were forced by the Bulgarian emperors to move northward
of the Danube and thus to reach Transylvania, which, since the end of the 9th century,
was in Hungarian hands. Settling there, the Vlachs gradually outnumbered the other
nationalities, making the area a homeland of their own. From Transylvania they
penetrated eastward of the Carpathians and established the principalities of Wallachia and
Moldova. In these countries Old Church Slavonic was used as official language till the
18th century.

The migrations had as a result that the unity of the Eastern Romance language was
broken and between 500 and 1000 AD there developped several distinct tongues:

Arumanian (technically known also as Macedo-Rumanian), spoken in scattered

communities in Albania, Epirus, Thessaly and Macedonia;
Megleno-Rumanian around the city of Meglena in Southern Macedonia (now in Greece);
Dalmatian along the northeastern shore of the Adriatic sea, mainly in Ragusa
(Dubrovnik);
Istro-Rumanian on the Istrian peninsula in the far north-western corner of the Balkan
region;
Daco-Rumanian (or Rumanian proper) in the area to the north of the Danube
(Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldova).
The first known Daco-Rumanian text is a letter written in 1521 to a judge of Braov,
though some manuscript translations of religious texts show Transylvanian dialect
features and may be earlier. The language was written in Cyrillic alphabet and the Vlachs
of this period, being Eastern Orthodox, identified themselves to a great extent with
Slavdom. Italian travellers in eastern Europe noticed that the language of the Vlachs
contained many Latin words also existing in Italian. Knowing that the Roman Empire
once dominated Dacia Traiana, it was supposed that the Vlachs were the descendants of
the Romans, who once subdued the Dacians. Only in the early 19th century, however, the
idea of Romance identity became popular amongst the Vlachs. In 1859 the principalities
of Wallachia and Moldavia formed a unified state, that assumed the name of Rumania.
The Roman (Latin) alphabet was introduced and there were applied remarkable efforts to
Latinize the language, while purging it of Slavisms. The emerging nation turned toward
other Romance countries, especially France, for cultural inspiration.
Dialects and Standard Language

The standard language of Rumania is based on the dialect of Wallachia. It was developed
in the 17th century mainly by religious writers of the Orthodox church and includes
features from a number of dialects, though Bucharest usage now provides the model.
Modern Rumanian is fairly homogeneous but shows greater dialectal diversity in the
Transylvania.
During the period when Eastern Moldova was incorporated in the former Soviet Union as
a federative republic (1939-1991), its language was officially called Moldavian, written
in the Russian variant of the Cyrillic alphabet, and held by Soviet scholars to be an
independent Romance language. In 1989, however, the script of the Moldavian language
was changed again to Latin and thereupon began a heated debate over whether it should
be called Rumanian or Moldovan.

Phonology

Rumanian phonology and grammar have developed in rather different directions from
those of most other Romance languages because of the language's relative isolation from
other Romance languages and its close contact with the Slavic languages and Hungarian.

Modern Rumanian has seven vowels (he vocal system is considered triangular, as that of
Classical Latin and modern Italian and Spanish), and three diphthongs. Stress can occur
on any syllable. Varying the stressed syllable can change meaning. The unstressed vowels
are slightly reduced in the spoken language and under Slavic influence the initial e is
often iotated ([e]=>[je]), though officially this is now considered incorrect except for a
few cases.

Historically, Rumanian continues a Latin distinction between long o and short u, fused in
most other Romance languages, but, like almost all others, it has lost the Latin distinction
between long e and short i.

The sound [] appeared under Slavic influence.

The vocal alternation in the roots is a common phenomenon, cf.:

ea => e
o => oa
e => ea sear evening : seri evenings;
pot (I) can : poate (he) can;
plec (I) go : pleac (he) goes etc.

Consonant clusters occur at the beginning of syllables, which is unusual among Romance
languages.

In consonant clusters there has been a tendency to replace the Latin velar consonants [k]
and [g] with labial consonants, such as [p], [b], or [m], cf.:

CL. octo eight => Rum. opt;

CL. aqua water => Rum. ap;
CL. lingua language => Rum. limb;
CL. cognatum kinsman => Rum. cumnat.
The [l] was often changed to [r], cf.:
CL. sole(m) sun => Rum. soare;
CL. coelum sky => Rum. cer.
The palatalized Latin [k] and [g] are pronounced [t] and [d] in Rumanian; the dentals [t]
and [d] were palatalized before [e] and [i] to [ts] (written ) and [dz] => [z], cf.:
CL. tenere to hold => Rum. ine;
CL. dies day => Rum. zi.

Orthography

Rumanian was initially written in Cyrillic script, untill in 1859 Latin alphabet was
instituted. In the early period of using the new alphabet there was a strong etymological
bias in the writing system, as the grammarians strived to reflect both the Latin and the
Slavic sources. For this reason a lot of diacritical signs were used.

Subsequently, however, orthography was radically simplified and based on mainly

phonological principles (1881). Contemporary Rumanian employs diacritics over the
vowels a and i (, , ) to modify their pronunciation. In addition, a cedilla is used under
the letters s and t (, ) to represent [] and [ts], respectively.
Vocabulary

Vocabulary:

The function words and inflectional patterns are of Latin origin. The Rumanian language
preserved less than 22% of the Pan-Romance word stock (some 107 of a total of 488
words); it is remarkable that the Latin words concerning urban life were entirely absent in
Rumanian. Slavic languages (mainly Old Church Slavonic and the dialects of Northern
Bulgaria) provided for about 46% of the vocabulary, but since the 19th century there was
launched a systematic campaign of introducing Latin and French words, while the Slavic
words were purged or become obsolete. Nevertheless, 17% of modern Rumanian
vocabulary consists of Slavic words and they give the spoken languge a specific
emotional flavor. According to the linguist Alexandru Niculescu "Rumanian is the only
Romance language that has failed to preserve amor, carus, amare, sponsa, etc., replacing
them by [the Slavic words] dragoste love, drag dear, a iubi to love, nevast wife, logodn
betrothal, a logodi to betrothe".

Turkish, Greek, Hungarian and Albanian had also provided a lot of words to Rumanian.

Copyright; This page is part of Orbis Latinus

(c) Zdravko Batzarov

EXAMPLES of Old/mid/new Rumanian

Latin text

Pater noster, qui est in coelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum, fiat
voluntas tua sicut in coelo et in terra. Panem nostrum cottidianum da nobis hodie et
dimitte nobis dedita nostra, sicut nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in
temptationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

Arumanian

Tat a nostru care eti n eru, s-aiseasc nuam a Ta, s-vin amiraliea a Ta, s-fac vrerea a
Ta, ai cumu n eru, ai i pisti locu. Pnea a noastr aea di tute dzlele d-n o nau adz
i n li iart amrtilili noastre ai cumu li iartmu i noi unu a altui. i nu n du pri noi la
crtire, ma n aveagli di aelu aru. C a Ta easte amiraliea i puterea a Tatlui i Hiliului
i a Spiritului Sntu, tora, totana i tu eta etelor. Amin.

Rumanian (Banat)

Tatl nostru careli eci n ceruri, sfnasc-s numele Teu, vin mpria Ta, fie voia Ta,
prcum n cer aa pr pmnt. Pnia nuastr a d toace dzlile d ni-o noau astdz
ne iart noau pcacile noatre prcum noi iertm pctolor notri nu ne duce pr
noi n cercare, ci ne mntuiece d cel ru. C a Ta iest mpria pucerea mrirea,
a Tatlui, a Fiului a Sfntului Duc. Amin.
Rumanian
(1850)

Rumanian

(1874) Printele nostru, carele esc n cerur, snsc-se numele te; Via mpria ta; Fie
voa ta, precum n ceri, i pe pmnt; Pnea nstr cea de tte ilele d-ni-o ast-. i ni ert
dtoriele nstre, precum i noertm dtornicilor nostri; i nu ne duce n ispit; ci ne scap
de cel r; C a ta este mpria i puterea i marirea n etern.
Amin.

Rumanian (modern)

Printele nostru, carele esci n ceriuri, sneasc-se numele tu; Via mpria ta; Fie voia
ta, precum n ceri, i pe pmnt; Pnea noastr cea de toate zilele d-ni-o astz. i ni ert
detoriele noastre, precum i no ertm detornicilor nostri; i nu ne duce n ispit; ci ne
scap de cel ru; C a ta este mpria i puterea i marirea n etern. Amin.

Rumani(another version)

Tatal nostru care esti n ceruri sfinteasca-se numele Tau; Vie imparaia Ta; Faca-se voia
Ta precum in cer asa i pre Pamnt; Painea noastra cea de toate zilele d-ne-o noua astzi.
i ne iarta noua grealele noastre precum i noi iertam greitilor nostri i nu ne duce pre
noi n ispita ci ne izbavete de cel ru; Ca a Ta este imparaia, slava i puterea. In numele
Tatalui, al Fiului, al Sfantului Duh. Amin.
Dalmatian

(Vegliot) Tuota nuester, che te sante intel sil: sait santificuot el naun to. Vigna el raigno
to. Sait fuot la voluntuot toa, coisa in in sil, coisa in tiara. Duota costa dai el pun nuester
cotidiun. E remetiaj le nustre debete, coisa nojiltri remetiaime a i nuestri debetuar. E naun
ne menur in tentatiaun, mui deliberiajne dal mal. Amen.

English

translation Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive
us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us
from evil. Amen.

------------>>>>

It looks to me, romanian couldn't make up it's mind. Therefore confused and portraying
the real neo-latin tongues.

Sardinian is the most conversative.

Italian second.

Spanish third.

Rumanian fourth.

and so on; I would MUCH rather go with french in the 'syntax' sense then rumanian, as
mentioned it's barbaric-latin.