1 items found for "Romanian"
Did you know this about... Romanian?
01In the Romanian language, the same words can have a different meaning depending on where you place the accent e.g. úmbrele – umbréle (shadows – umbrellas), véselă – vesélă (happy – tableware).
The name “Romania” comes from the Latin word “Romanus” which means “citizen of the Roman Empire.”
02Although it is classified as a romance language, Romanian has developed a very distinct phonology and grammar system different from other Romance languages. Historians believe that this is due to Romania’s relative isolation from areas where the other Romance languages developed, and because of Romanian contact with Slavic-speaking peoples. For example, while most Romance languages have lost the Latin language differentiation between a long “o” and short “u”, fusing the two together, Romanian has retained this distinction. Another distinct feature Romanian has as a Romance language is the fact that it tends to replace consonants such as “k” and “g” with the labial consonants “b,” “m” or “p.”
03The longest word in the dictionary containing only vowels is an onomatopoeia: "uiuiu". It is used as an interjection to express happiness. "Oaia aia e a ei, eu i-o iau" (That sheep is hers, I’m taking it) is a sentence made up only of vowels.
04The Romanian language has no word for “shallow.” To describe something as shallow, people speaking Romanian usually use the word “small” (“small water” means “shallow water,” for example) or simply “not deep.”
05The Institutul de Lingvisticǎ al Academiei Române (Institute for Linguistics of the Romanian Academy)
was founded in 1866 under the name of the Romanian Literary Society which is a cultural forum responsible for cultivation of Romanian language, history and literature. From the very beginning its primary mission was to elaborate the three necessary instruments of a modern culture, namely to normalize the orthography, set down the grammar, and compile an exhaustive dictionary of the Romanian language.
www.academiaromana.ro
What does Romanian sound like? Listen to a Romanian radio station here