Learn if Romanian is similar to Italian
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| Michael: Is Romanian similar to Italian? |
| Larisa: What other languages is it close to? |
| Michael: At RomanianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following scenario: in a restaurant, Ben Lee overhears some people speaking what sounds like Romanian. He is confused, though, because he doesn't fully understand them. So, he asks a friend, Mara Moldoveanu, |
| "Is this Romanian?" |
| Ben Lee: Aceasta este română? |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: Aceasta este română? |
| Mara Moldoveanu: Nu, este italiană. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: Aceasta este română? |
| Michael: "Is this Romanian?" |
| Mara Moldoveanu: Nu, este italiană. |
| Michael: "No, it's Italian." |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: As a student of Romanian, there is a chance you will hear spoken language that sounds familiar, yet you cannot quite grasp. Sometimes this will be because you are hearing a different dialect of Romanian, but it’s not unheard of to hear Italian spoken there too. In fact, the two languages share a common root. In this lesson, we will talk about the similarities between Romanian |
| Larisa: Română |
| Michael: and Italian |
| Larisa: Italiană. |
| Michael: Romanian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Romania, Moldova, and Transnistria. It is a member of the Balkan-Romance or Eastern Romance branch of the Romance languages. The modern-day language started to develop when the Roman Emperor Trajan conquered Dacia in the first century AD. The Roman rule lasted until 271 AD, leaving a Latin legacy. Both Romanian and Italian can trace their roots back to the colloquial Latin that was used throughout the Roman empire - which was known as |
| Larisa: latină vulgară |
| Michael: or "Vulgar Latin." |
| In addition, the territory of today's Romania has been part of the Italians' trade routes on the Danube |
| Larisa: Dunărea |
| Michael: since at least the 13th century. It’s not surprising, then, that many Italian families settled here over the years. Today, there are close to 40 000 Italians living in Romania. |
| The term ‘Vulgar Latin’ was a blanket term to cover all the different dialects spoken in the vast Roman empire, and, out of that, Italian, Romanian and all the other Romance languages emerged. Romanian, however, drifted off further from its Western counterparts like the French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese: |
| Larisa: Limba franceză, italiană, spaniolă, portugheză. |
| Michael: These languages developed closer to each other, but Romanian was influenced by the Slavic countries surrounding it. In fact, around 15% of modern Romanian words are of Slavic origin. You will also notice some Greek, Hungarian, Turkish, and German influences! |
| Larisa: Limba greacă, maghiară, turcă, germană. |
| Michael: You might think that Italian would then be quite different to Romanian, right? Well, this is true! But if you are an Italian native, you will be surprised at how much you can understand. Of all the Romance languages, Romanian is most closely related to Italian. On the other hand, Italian is most closely related to French. This means that Romanian speakers find it easier to understand Italian rather than the other way around. Yes—that is possible! It is known as asymmetric intelligibility. |
| In fact, Italian and Romanian have around 77% lexical similarity. Generally, Romanian speakers can understand about 65% of spoken and 85% of written Italian. |
| So, what are some of these similarities? And what are some of the differences? Let us learn a few! We can start with some basic greetings. The Italian "good evening" is similar to the Romanian |
| Larisa: [NORMAL] bună seara [SLOWLY] bună seara |
| [PAUSE 3 SEC] |
| Michael: The terms for "Good morning" are quite different to each other, though. Romanians say |
| Larisa: [NORMAL] bună dimineața [SLOWLY] bună dimineața |
| [PAUSE 3 SEC] |
| Michael: Our next phrase indicates another similarity: |
| Larisa: [NORMAL] Cântă în mașină [SLOWLY] Cântă în mașină |
| Michael: And it means "He sings in the car." |
| Now, here is a phrase everybody wants to know: "I love you!" Romanians say something quite different: |
| Larisa: [NORMAL] Te iubesc! [SLOWLY] Te iubesc! |
| [PAUSE 3 SEC] |
| Michael: Let us try a question. To ask "What is your name?" in Romanian, they say |
| Larisa: [NORMAL] Care e numele tău? [SLOWLY] Care e numele tău? |
| [PAUSE 4 SEC] |
| Michael: Did that sound similar to you? Well, depending on the word choice of the speaker, it can get closer. For example, if you speak Romanian and you hear this phrase: |
| Larisa: [NORMAL] Îmi place marea. [SLOWLY] îmi place marea. |
| [PAUSE 4 SEC] |
| Michael: you will probably guess that it means: "I like the sea." |
| Michael: As you can hear, although they are clearly different languages, there are individual words in Romanian and Italian that are near-identical. Listeners, don’t forget to check the Italian counterparts of the sentences we mentioned above in the Lesson Notes! |
| By now, you must be wondering how close Romanian is to other Romance languages. Well, there are definitely many similarities, but Romanian has some unique qualities that can cause it to appear unlike other Latin-derived languages. To illustrate this, consider the Italian word for "to speak." |
| In all of the other Romance languages—even lesser-known ones like Catalan—this word has the same Latin root and they all sound similar. But the Romanian version is |
| Larisa: [NORMAL] a vorbi [SLOWLY] a vorbi |
| [PAUSE 3 SEC] |
| Michael: which is Slavic-derived. In a Romanian sentence, the word "speak" would sound like this: |
| Larisa: Te rog să vorbești mai rar, draga mea. |
| Michael: Did you get that? It means "Please speak slower, my dear." |
| I don’t know about you, but I did not hear much ‘Italian’ in that Romanian sentence! Despite its many unique aspects, though, Romanian is still a Romance language at its core. With French, it shares 75% lexical similarity, with Sardinian 74%, Catalan 73%, Portuguese 72%, and Spanish 71%. That is a lot of words that are really close! At a practical level, though, you will not find them mutually intelligible—even with the grammatical and lexical similarities. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: It is interesting to note that there are many other languages spoken in Romania. The biggest of these are English and French. Another widely-spoken language is Hungarian, which is not surprising, since they make up at least 6.7% of the population! |
| One last thought. The nomadic Romani people are a separate ethnic group making up about 3% of the Romanian population, and their language has dramatically different roots to Romanian. So what language do the Romani people speak? It is similar to Hindi and other Indian languages, but with a Greek influence as well. Some Romanians can understand a little Romani, but most cannot speak it. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Larisa: La revedere. |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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