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"When I first turned on the TV, I thought he was speaking Italian. Only later did I find out he was speaking Romanian. At first glance, or in this case, upon first hearing it, Romanian sounded incredibly close to Italian, and many words were exactly the same. It took me about 2-3 minutes to realize that he was not speaking Italian."
Unfortunately this confusion happens very often, even among some romance speakers who believe spoken Romanian is actually an Italian with a strange accent from Calabria or something. But hearing Romanian more often, you'll notice the difference, Romanian being more flat using U endings and being faster than Italian.
>So Marius, you think Romanian and Spanish are equally close to Italian, only at different ends of the spectrum?<
Exactly, besides Italian grammar is closer to Romanian grammar the way Italian forms the Plural, also the phonology of Romanian is closer to Italian than Spanish.
More simply Spanish , Portuguese, Catalan, French, Western Romance in general, are using the Sound “S” a lot, and even forming the plural with “S”, while Romanian and Italian using the sounds “che” “chee” “shee” >CE< >CI< therefore this confusion.
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LAA wrote:
<<Yes, Tiffany, if you don't mind me asking, is your husband from Italy? >>
Yes he is. Sorry, I've been on here so long, I think it is common knowledge when it's not. Missed your intro though. Coincidentally, I was in Italy.
My opinion - Romanian sounds like Latin and Russian had a baby. Can't miss the "da" for yes. But though I think it's phonology sounds very Slavic at some points, I know it is overwhelming Latin in others. Viva la mista :)
Hear some Romanian:
http://scic.cec.eu.int/main/enlargement/lan_pres/rom_01.htm
(Click the phrases)
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You should not mixed up Romanian with Russian. That is wrong. All the Slavic influence in Romanian language is mostly Southern Slavic ad it has nothing to do with Russians. Of course, Russians are Slavic too, but Romanians never had contacts with Russians in history until later centuries.
Also, many Romanians, are speaking with Slavic accent but that'ss a Polish or Ukrainian one, not Russian.
The Russian influence only exists in Republic of Moldova, but it only appeared in the last century.
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Romanians are Slavs with a Romance language.
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Some of them have Slavic origin, but Romanians cannot be named Slavs because they are a huge mixture of population. It is not the origin that put Romanians together as a nation, but the language.
They can not be all Slavs, simply because the language existed before the Slavs came into the area. So, that statement is definitely wrong.
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Romanian sounds like Latin, Russian & French mixed up. 7-10 (Latin)
and 2-10 (russian) & 1-10 (French), in phonology.
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Romanian does sound very removed from the other Latin languages spoken in Western Europe, because of centuries of geographical alienation from the other Romance countries. There is a lot of Slavic influence from repeated Slavic conquests, and peripheal influence from neighboring peoples. Yet sometimes, in isolated instances, Romanian sounds remarkably close to Italian.
And I am positive that the closest neighbor to Romanian is Italian.
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""" They can not be all Slavs, simply because the language existed before the Slavs came into the area. So, that statement is definitely wrong. """
No Romanians are SLAVs and GYPSIES (ROMA = HENCE THE NAMES)
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Romania is a reference to Rome, not Romas (gypsies).
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When "Dragostea Din Tei" became famous here in Ecuador, I first thought it was French (mainly because it starts with "Alo, salut").
There's a phrase in the song "Alo, alo, sunt eu Picasso", which sounds very similar to Spanish "Aló, aló, siento una picazón".
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Guest, dacă ne băgăm un pic pula-n mă-ta, îi mai faci ţigani pe români? O storci în cur aiurea, băga-ţi-ai pula-n mă-ta şi-n morţii tăi!
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Yes, as far as I know, it is not a reference to the Roma, but to the Romans, as the neighboring peoples, who were mainly Slavs, called the Latin speaking people of the region "Romans".
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Ai dreptate,mai trebuie bagata pula-n astia din cand in cand,ca unii cam jignesc romaniii.
Eu mi-am bagat pula-n cativa si le-am zis ca daca i-as sti le-as lua capu' si l-as pune la expozitie da' mi-au sters comentariile ca erau in engleza....
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" And I am positive that the closest neighbor to Romanian is Italian. "
It is funny because it is the opinion of most romance speaker that their language has italian as closest neighbour among main latin languages.
It is not surprising, Italy been the origin of latin (and also vulgar latin) - that each former part of the roman empire deveopped its own form from Italic vulgar latin.
So french people will say that Italian is much closer to french than any other romance speakes. And Spanish or romanians will think also that spanish or romanian is closer to Italian than to any other language.
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