# What IS this language, anyway? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 7, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194 "2009-04-07T00:17:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/21 "2009-04-08T02:43:07Z")
> [@Svejk\_1](#): > > Do you mean declension or cases? [Latin has only 5 declensions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_declension). Holy crap. Yes, of course I meant cases. That was quite a brain fart on my part. Please never tell my students! (I was all ready to come to to a vigorous defense of the vocative.) ---
**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:** [April 8, 2009, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/22 "2009-04-08T04:54:39Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > **Johanna** , I’ve seen it suggested that Sard is an outlier to the other Romance languages, sharing little with them besides origin from Vulgar Latin. OTOH, I’ve also seen it described as a dialect of Italian. Subjective, of course, but what standards would you use to resolve that? I think the first opinion is fairly accurate. Sardinian developed in its own direction, relatively isolated\* while the other Romance languages were in continuous contact. Except for Daco-Romanian on the lower Danube–while there were also forms of Romanian called Istrian, Vlach, Aromanian, and Megleno-Romanian spoken in Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, and Greece, which would have been in contact with Italian. \*Sardinia being literally an island, and the word _isolated_ of course deriving from the Italian word for island, _isola_. Linguistically, Sardinian has more in common with Spanish than it does with Italian. It was grouped as an “Italian” “dialect” for purely political reasons, not linguistic. The House of Savoy which formed united Italy based their expansion on Sardinia. But otherwise Sardinian is a completely different language from Italian. Mussolini also claimed Maltese as an “Italian” dialect, which is preposterous, because Maltese isn’t even Indo-European, it’s Arabic. ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/23 "2009-04-08T13:53:08Z")
> [@furt](#): > > They were probably the biggest Xtian rock band there was in the 80s. > > Not as _good_ as a metal band based in Chicago commune I could name, but the biggest for sure. Yeah, Rez was huge. It was different for us though. It’s hard to see someone as a rockstar even in a limited way when you live two doors down the hall from them. Jim Denton was really good friends with my parents so I sawa them all the time. I remember hanging out in their first studio built in a garage on Paulina. ---
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/24 "2009-04-08T23:29:56Z")
> [@MikeG](#): > > Yeah, Rez was huge. It was different for us though. It’s hard to see someone as a rockstar even in a limited way when you live two doors down the hall from them. Jim Denton was really good friends with my parents so I sawa them all the time. I remember hanging out in their first studio built in a garage on Paulina. I’d say Petra was probably the most popular in my own “commune” in Georgia, but I preferred The Rez Band myself because they rocked just a bit harder. [/hijack] IANALinguist, but I thought it looked like Latin. ---
**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:** [April 9, 2009, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/25 "2009-04-09T08:08:28Z")
Does anyone know why, of all Easterm European Roman provinces, only the Rumanians still speak a Romance language? ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/26 "2009-04-09T08:31:52Z")
I think it’s because all the other people living their now, speaking Slavic languages or Hungarian, moved there only after Roman might waned. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/27 "2009-04-09T08:54:34Z")
Although I’m predisposed to loathe anything labeling itself as “Christian music” that’s actually a pretty beautiful song. ---
**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:** [April 9, 2009, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/28 "2009-04-09T12:00:16Z")
> [@Svejk\_1](#): > > I think it’s because all the other people living their now, speaking Slavic languages or Hungarian, moved there only after Roman might waned. But the Rumanians are also Slavs, which means that they also moved there later. Why do they speak a derivative of Latins and not, say, the Bulagrians or Serbians? ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/29 "2009-04-09T12:35:16Z")
No, they’re not Slavs. The ethnic background of the modern-day Romanians is a bit of a mixed bag (which is probably true as well of the Slavic people that live in the areas surrounding them, especially in former Yugoslavia) but they certainly do not uniformly decend from Slavic tribes moving in from the east. [obligatory Wikipedia link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania#History) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/30 "2009-04-09T12:52:12Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Although I’m predisposed to loathe anything labeling itself as “Christian music” that’s actually a pretty beautiful song. Much of “contemporary Christian music” has something in common, nomenclature-wise, with the “Holy Roman Empire” 🙂 I was sent the link to that video by a friend who was a Petra fan, in an effort to make a point in a discussion. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/31 "2009-04-09T13:08:12Z")
What’s the Chicago commune? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/32 "2009-04-09T15:16:53Z")
The Daley family fiefdom? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/33 "2009-04-09T17:54:58Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Much of “contemporary Christian music” has something in common, nomenclature-wise, with the “Holy Roman Empire” 🙂 So, it’s not contemporary, not Christian, and not music? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/34 "2009-04-09T18:07:15Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > What’s the Chicago commune? WAG: [Jesus People USA](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_People_USA)? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/35 "2009-04-09T19:48:33Z")
> [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#): > > So, it’s not contemporary, not Christian, and not music? 😛 [Insert innocent-looking angelic smiley here] 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/36 "2009-04-09T20:01:46Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > WAG: [Jesus People USA](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_People_USA)? Yeah, that was it. Lived there from '76-'82. There’s some pics on my Facebook of me back then with my long hippy hair 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/37 "2009-04-10T00:30:11Z")
> [@MikeG](#): > > Yeah, that was it. Lived there from '76-'82. There’s some pics on my Facebook of me back then with my long hippy hair 🙂 The Wikipedia article is almost completely useless in describing what it actually was. Would you be prepared to elaborate in a reasonably detailed manner (maybe in another thread?)? It sounds bizarre to me - yet fascinating. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/38 "2009-04-10T00:56:40Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > But the Rumanians are also Slavs, which means that they also moved there later. Why do they speak a derivative of Latins and not, say, the Bulagrians or Serbians? Oh man, do not say this to a Romanian. They are _really_ proud of being Latins in a sea of Slavs. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2009, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194/39 "2009-04-15T02:05:29Z")
> [@Cerowyn](#): > > I worked on a project last year that involved a Romanian division, and was told this several times. Regardless, Romanian has a lot of influence from Slavic tongues, as well as some from Hungarian (which is not even from the Indo-European family). Italian, as mentioned above, is probably the language that has the least non-Romance influences of the Latin descendant tongues. IIRC most of the Slavic influence is in the vocabulary, much as French has influenced the vocabulary of English. But in the case of English, the underlying grammatical and phonetic structure remains unarguably Germanic, and I would be willing to bet that the same is true of Romanian with respect to the Romance language family. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-language-anyway/492194.md?page=1)