More than 19 million people permanently reside in Romania, one of the countries of Southeast Europe, where several thousand Russian tourists travel annually. Medieval castles and mysterious legends about Count Dracula, Black Sea beaches and picturesque vineyards, excellent cuisine and decent wines can compete with many tourist destinations in the Old World. It is not necessary to know the official language of Romania for a comfortable trip. Firstly, in tourist places, many locals speak English well, and secondly, for a complete experience, you can use the services of Russian-speaking guides.
Some statistics and facts
- Romanian is the only state language in Romania legally enshrined in the Constitution.
- About 90% of Romanians consider him to be their home. A total of 28 million people speak Romanian around the world. The largest Romanian communities are in Montreal, Canada and Chicago, USA.
- The second most common language in Romania is Hungarian. Up to 6, 8% of the country's inhabitants prefer to communicate on it.
- In Romania, gypsies and Ukrainians, Russians and Gagauzians, Moldovans and Turks live and speak their own dialects.
- The official language of Romania is one of the five most common of the Romance group, along with Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian.
- Romanian is also the official language in the Republic of Moldova.
Originally from Wallachia
Linguists understand Romanian as the ancient Wallachian language, which received its literary form at the end of the 16th century. It was formed on the basis of the colloquial dialects and Latin brought to the Balkans by the Roman colonists. From there came the self-name of the Romanians - consonant with the word "Romans".
The first written monuments of Romanian date back to the beginning of the 16th century. Since then, letters, business papers and translations of religious texts into Romanian have been preserved. The most ancient and famous is the letter from Nyakshu from the town of Campulunga to the mayor of Brasov about the invasion of the Ottoman troops. Artistic works appeared two centuries later and were published in Cyrillic. The Latin alphabet was adopted in Romanian only in 1860.
Throughout its existence, Romanian has been significantly influenced by the languages and dialects of neighboring countries and peoples. It contains many borrowings from Hungarian and Gypsy, Bulgarian and Serbian, Ukrainian and Russian.
