# Romanian: Latin with a Slavic accent? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 10, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551 "2012-05-10T21:26:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rusalka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecd19e/32.png) [@Rusalka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rusalka)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/1 "2012-05-10T21:26:02Z")
I’m wondering how Romanian survived for so many years, surrounded by Slavic speaking peoples, whereas other former Roman territories have lost their Latin speakers. What was different about Romania? Whenever I encounter a Romanian speaking English, I think the accent sounds Slavic rather than Romanian’s closest geographic relative, Italian. I could be imagining things though. Does anyone else want to offer an opinion? Did Romanian arise from Latin adopted by a previously Slavic speaking population? Do Romanians pronounce words similarly to a person speaking a Slavic language? ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2012, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/2 "2012-05-10T23:45:15Z")
I think Romanian was influenced by the Slavic languages during the Middle Ages, when the Slav tribes migrated to the Balkans (I don’t really know why that was). I know there are no early records of written Romanian until about the 16th century, so perhaps that somehow gave Slavic influence an advantage? Also, I think the language of the Eastern Orthodox church was Slavonic, and that must’ve made a huge a difference. I speak a bit of Romanian as well as several other Romance languages, and I would say that it sounds similar to Slavic languages to me, but then I don’t speak any Slavic languages. It just sounds more Slavic than any other Romance language I know well. There are definitely many, many words that have Slavic origins (about 1/5 of the vocabulary), I usually recognise them because I can’t relate them to any word I know in other Romance languages. Sorry, answer is a bit useless. Surely some more knowledgeable Doper will be along soon to sort out my mess 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/3 "2012-05-11T00:08:57Z")
The primary [substrate of Romanian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Romance_substratum) was probably a little-known long extinct language called [Dacian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacian_language). Exactly ow Dacian was related to the Slavic languages is uncertain. ---
**Author:** ![polar\_bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@polar\_bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/polar_bear)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/4 "2012-05-11T10:00:33Z")
It might sound a bit slavic, but it is a Romance language (with a fair share of slavic words). I speak a slavic language (and come into contact with others often enough) and usually I can understand quite a few words, or even more if it is in written form. Not with Romanian. I would venture it is exactly because they have so many ‘loan words’ from slavic languages that make it sound so different from Italian, French and Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/5 "2012-05-11T10:42:53Z")
I’ve always thought Portuguese sounded more Slavic than its related Romance languages - I think it’s the fricatives? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/6 "2012-05-11T11:07:58Z")
Portuguese to me always sounds like Russians speaking Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/7 "2012-05-11T12:05:44Z")
Historically there have been other varieties of Romanian scattered all over the Balkan region between Italy and Romania. Minority languages Aromanian, Istro-Romanian, Megleno-Romanian. Dacian was an Indo-European language, though so little known that its classification within IE is uncertain. It was apparently related to Thracian, another obscure ancient IE Balkan language. While somehow related to Slavic languages by virtue of belonging to IE, they probably have no more particular relationship to Slavic than do other non-Slavic languages in the region like Greek, Illyrian, and Albanian, or Romanian for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![KayLovesPurple](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylovespurple/32/6114_2.png) [@KayLovesPurple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KayLovesPurple)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/8 "2012-05-11T12:11:57Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > I speak a bit of Romanian as well as several other Romance languages, and I would say that it sounds similar to Slavic languages to me, but then I don’t speak any Slavic languages. It just sounds more Slavic than any other Romance language I know well. I am Romanian and a native Romanian speaker. I speak (or used to speak) many Romance languages (Italian, French, Spanish), and I have had little to no contact with Slavic languages. I too think that Romanian sounds more Slavic than the rest of the languages I know, but this is an opinion mostly based on the little Russian I saw in American movies (why yes, I do realize how that sounds 🙂 ), so I am not 100% sure of its veracity. Out of the Romance languages, the one that Romanian sounds closest to is definitely Italian. As for Latin… while I am of course aware of its etymological connection to Romanian and the rest of the Romance languages, all I can say is that I have studied it for a few years in school (it’s mandatory here) and I didn’t find it to be closer related to Romanian than any of the rest. However, let it be known that my studies lean more towards maths & the likes, not linguistics, so any and all theories of mine regarding languages may be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/9 "2012-05-11T12:37:55Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Portuguese to me always sounds like Russians speaking Spanish. Exactly! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/10 "2012-05-11T14:58:30Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Exactly! I don’t think Portuguese sounds that much like Russian, but when Portuguese speak English, they sound a lot like Russians speaking English. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/11 "2012-05-11T15:25:50Z")
If anyone doubts Romanian’s bona fides as a Romance Language, here’s the first two paragraphs from the wikipedia article on Romanian in Romanian: "Limba română este o limbă indo-europeană, din grupul italic și din subgrupul oriental al limbilor romanice. Printre limbile romanice, româna este a cincea după numărul de vorbitori, în urma spaniolei, portughezei, francezei și italienei. Din motive de diferențiere tipologică limba română mai este numită în lingvistica comparată limba dacoromână sau dialectul dacoromân. Uneori, din motive politice sau din dezinformare, o parte a populației Republicii Moldova folosește denumirea de limbă moldovenească. Limba română este vorbită în toată lumea de 23,4 până la 28 de milioane de persoane. Dintre acestea, circa 20 de milioane se află în România, unde româna (dialectul dacoromân) este limbă oficială și, conform recensământului populației din 2002, este limbă maternă pentru peste 90% din populație)." ---
**Author:** ![gracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/12 "2012-05-11T16:06:46Z")
Huh, I’m fluent in Portuguese, lived in Brazil for years and I don’t think it sounds anything like Russian! It sounds like a soft, smooth version of Spanish to me. European Portuguese is much harsher (and they spit!), but still nothing like Slavic languages. **KayLovesPurple** , can you tell in your own language which words are Slavic in origin and which are from Latin? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/13 "2012-05-11T16:08:41Z")
It helps if you know of the unusual consonant shift /ŋgw/\>/mb/. Romanian \*limba \*‘tongue, language’ \< Latin _lingua_. ---
**Author:** ![KayLovesPurple](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylovespurple/32/6114_2.png) [@KayLovesPurple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KayLovesPurple)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/14 "2012-05-11T16:24:53Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > **KayLovesPurple** , can you tell in your own language which words are Slavic in origin and which are from Latin? Not all of them, of course. Especially as some words have been through several ‘mutations’ between their ‘original’ form and their current one, plus, as I said, I know zero Slavic words (actually, I do know one: the word for “yes” in Russian is “da”, same as in Romanian). The same goes for English I guess; I remember that as I was learning the language I was amazed to discover that some English words have Latin roots too. But I don’t believe a random person can always tell which word comes from where, unless they are very familiar with the original language, perhaps not even then. And as my Latin is rusty to say the least, and my Russian is close to non-existant… ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/15 "2012-05-11T17:56:41Z")
> [@gracer](#): > > Huh, I’m fluent in Portuguese, lived in Brazil for years and I don’t think it sounds anything like Russian! It sounds like a soft, smooth version of Spanish to me. European Portuguese is much harsher (and they spit!), but still nothing like Slavic languages. To me\*, Portuguese sounds like Spanish spoken with a French accent. \*Native English speaker with a decent command of Spanish and some elementary French, but no formal training in Portuguese. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/16 "2012-05-11T18:01:55Z")
> [@KayLovesPurple](#): > > The same goes for English I guess; I remember that as I was learning the language I was amazed to discover that some English words have Latin roots too. But I don’t believe a random person can always tell which word comes from where, unless they are very familiar with the original language, perhaps not even then. And as my Latin is rusty to say the least, and my Russian is close to non-existant… Regular, everyday English has a few Latin roots, mainly related to religion. This, since Christianity was introduced in Britain by Latin speakers. There are many words in English that were made up from Latin roots (like television), but can’t really be considered Latin words. And, of course, there are many technical terms and medical terms that derive from Latin. However, there are thousands and thousands of English words that derive from French, and those ultimately derive from Latin. So, depending on how you look at it, there could be a few hundred or tens of thousands of English words derived from Latin. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/17 "2012-05-11T18:40:33Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Regular, everyday English has a few Latin roots, mainly related to religion. This, since Christianity was introduced in Britain by Latin speakers. There are many words in English that were made up from Latin roots (like television), but can’t really be considered Latin words. And, of course, there are many technical terms and medical terms that derive from Latin. > > However, there are thousands and thousands of English words that derive from French, and those ultimately derive from Latin. > > So, depending on how you look at it, there could be a few hundred or tens of thousands of English words derived from Latin. Regular, everyday English includes words such as:\* really very please people fine remember place nice family money real problem minute exactly probably excuse second cause use move person married point reason damn case party important promise close easy question doctor trouble different hospital story stupid office\* (et cetera) And those are just picked from the top 500 [most frequent words](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Frequency_lists/TV/2006/1-1000) in English. The corpus for this list being derived from TV, which is one of the most demotic media for language. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/18 "2012-05-11T19:45:47Z")
You threw “et cetera” and “corpus” in there deliberately, didn’t you? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/19 "2012-05-11T19:50:10Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > If anyone doubts Romanian’s bona fides as a Romance Language, here’s the first two paragraphs from the wikipedia article on Romanian in Romanian: That’s a whole lot easier to read if I do it aloud with Church Latin pronunciations. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2012, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551/20 "2012-05-11T20:55:15Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Regular, everyday English includes words such as:\* > really > very > please > people > fine > remember > place > nice > family > money > real > problem > minute > exactly > probably > excuse > second > cause > use > move > person > married > point > reason > damn > case > party > important > promise > close > easy > question > doctor > trouble > different > hospital > story > stupid > office\* > (et cetera) > And those are just picked from the top 500 [most frequent words](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Frequency_lists/TV/2006/1-1000) in English. The corpus for this list being derived from TV, which is one of the most demotic media for language. I was distinguishing between words that were borrowed into English directly from Latin, as opposed to those that came into the language via Norman French. Words like “Bishop”, “Priest” and “Nun”. Like I said, thousands and thousands of Latin words came into English via French and we cobbled together latin roots to form new words, like television, that wouldn’t make sense to a Latin speaker 2000 years ago. So, it depends on how you do the counting. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/romanian-latin-with-a-slavic-accent/621551.md?page=2)