Is the Romanian language closer to Italian or Czech

[Corvus]

Or is it a mix. Can someone like me who is able to speak a little bit Italian and a little bit Czech easily learn it :)
Poll is coming

[Corvus]

Ok here are examples:

Italian:

ZgAtkc1U8KQ

Czech:

W8WYAL-WvRk

[Corvus]

I think Romanian is closer to Czech. There is some evidence to emphasize this allegation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_influence_on_Romanian

[morski]

I think Romanian is closer to Czech. There is some evidence to emphasize this allegation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_influence_on_Romanian

Most of the Slavic influence in Romanian is actually Bulgarian. They basically used Middle Bulgarian as an official language untill the XVII c.

[Sikeliot]

Italian of course.

[Dacul]

Is possible that old romanian language was mutually inteligible with old bulgarian,but were not same languages.Otherwise how it is possible that a common bulgarian-wallachian empire existed?

As another weird thing ,lots of wallachians migrated to Poland,there are villages of wallachians documentary attested in Poland around 1400 or so.They migrated because they feared the invasion of cumans and pechenegs.

[Sikeliot]

Well Romanian was "purified" of most Slavic words at some point and much of Italian vocabulary now consists of words that were chosen to sound more Italian or French.

[Anonym]

As Romanian native, I understand random Italian words from that video posted , but I don't understand almost anything from the Czech one.
We have loaned in Romanian language many Slavic words, though.

[RussiaPrussia]

its bulgarian italian mix

[rashka]

Let's take an interesting word: draga.
Which slavic countries use this word to mean dear, darling?

[Dacul]

To be gross,see how is called in romanian language the female sexual organ:
pizda.
This is cognate with all slavic languages.
What you want to say that the romanian people borrowed this word from slavic?
Lol.
Why they would do this?
How about zapada,romanian language is the only european language that maintains this word from proto-slavic,to call snow,all slavic languages are using a word borrowed from germanic in different forms.
What do you want to tell,that old dacians did not knew how to call snow till slavs "came"?
How about a iubi and iubire,obvious cognate with ljuba ?
Or how about vedea ,obvious cognate with slavic languages?
You want to say old dacians did not had a word for to see?
Were lots of basic words in old romanian language that were cognates with slavic.
The absurdity of the people who are saying that romanians did not fought slavic invaders cause they were weak has no limits.
If they were weak,how come south romanians allied with bulgarians gave big headaches to Byzatine Empire?
That Empire was one of the most strongest military forces in Europe that time,if not strongest.
And finally a word to shake latinists,iezer,this is how lake was called in old romanian.
The name of the lakes from Carpathians mountains are still maintained as "Iezeru etc".
This words are from old dacian language,so think again before you are sustaining such nonsenses.

[Virtuous]

Romanian is somewhat Latin sounding, too.

[RussiaPrussia]

Let's take an interesting word: draga.
Which slavic countries use this word to mean dear, darling?

sounds like friend in russian drug

[inactive_member]

How about zapada,romanian language is the only european language that maintains this word from proto-slavic,to call snow,all slavic languages are using a word borrowed from germanic in different forms.

A similar word for snow is used in all Baltic languages. Lithuanian – sniegas, Latvians - sniegs. Old Prussian (Baltic language) – snaygis.

Zapada sounds Slavic to my ears which probably formed from a word "fall" or "to fall” . The word 'zapada' could had been used by a group of Slavic people speaking a dialect living close to ancestors of Romanians.

I checked two dictionaries of etymology both stating 'sneg' is an old slavic word. I would like read the source on the origin of the word "zapada" being a proto-Slavic for snow, as it's difficult to imagine a vast group of people using the variants of the same word borrowed from German.

PS Romanian sound more Italian than Czech to me.

[Dacul]

A similar word for snow is used in all Baltic languages. Lithuanian – sniegas, Latvians - sniegs. Old Prussian (Baltic language) – snaygis.

Zapada sounds Slavic to my ears which probably formed from a word "fall" or "to fall” . The word 'zapada' could had been used by a group of Slavic people speaking a dialect living close to ancestors of Romanians.

I checked two dictionaries of etymology both stating 'sneg' is an old slavic word. I would like read the source on the origin of the word "zapada" being a proto-Slavic for snow, as it's difficult to imagine a vast group of people using the variants of the same word borrowed from German.

PS Romanian sound more Italian than Czech to me.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/zapadati
Is from old slavonic language.
It also means to fall snow.

[inactive_member]

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/zapadati
Is from old slavonic language.
It also means to fall snow.

I see. But old Slavonic and proto-Slavic are not the same languages.

The source, wiktionary, does not state 'zapadati' or 'zapada' meant 'snow' in proto-Slavic language. I checked the popular Vasmer dictionary (http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=%2Fusr%2Flocal%2Fshare%2Fstarlin g%2Fmorpho&morpho=1&basename=morpho\vasmer\vasmer&first=1&off=&text_word=%D1%81%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B3&method_word=substring&ic_word=on&text_general=&method_general=substring&ic_general=on&text_origin=&method_origin=substring&ic_origin=on&text_trubachev=&method_trubachev=substring&ic_trubachev=on&text_editorial=&method_editorial=substring&ic_editorial=on&text_pages=&method_pages=substring&ic_pages=on&text_any=&method_any=substring&sort=word&ic_any=on) of etymology and the dictionary of A. Semenov (http://evartist.narod.ru/text15/021.htm#%D0%B7_33).

I am more inclined to think 'Zapada' (related to the word 'fall') was used in a dialect.

[alfieb]

There was a Romanian poster on ABF, I forget his name, but he was banned some time ago.

We had many discussions on our (Sicilianu/Romana) languages, and I understood his pretty well, but he understood mine even better. Neither of us could understand certain other Latin languages, but mutual intelligibility was surprisingly good, considering lack of shared ancestry and governance.

Other than the Slavic words, obviously, I feel like I can understand Romanian easier than Portuguese or French. So, while I know nothing of Czech, I voted for Italian.

[Corvus]

The vote is unambiguously. I always thought Romanian is very similar to Czech
also because of the Vlach connection but perhaps this was a misconception

[morski]

Let's take an interesting word: draga.
Which slavic countries use this word to mean dear, darling?

Bulgarian for example, драга моя.:)

[Daos]

The answer is obvious: Italian. I can actually understand what the narrator in the Italian video is talking about, but I can only catch a few words in the Czech video.

But, as mentioned, the Czech language is a strange choice, the Romanian language being closer to Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian.

[Pobre Diablo]

There was a Romanian poster on ABF, I forget his name, but he was banned some time ago.

We had many discussions on our (Sicilianu/Romana) languages, and I understood his pretty well, but he understood mine even better. Neither of us could understand certain other Latin languages, but mutual intelligibility was surprisingly good, considering lack of shared ancestry and governance.

Other than the Slavic words, obviously, I feel like I can understand Romanian easier than Portuguese or French. So, while I know nothing of Czech, I voted for Italian.

Yes, Sicilian is strangely similar to Romanian, even more than Italian. You can even build entire sentences that are almost the same:

Sicilian- La Sicilia si cumponi di 9 pruvincî e havi un tutali di 390 cumuna
Romanian-Sicilia se compune din 9 provincii si are un total de 390 comune

Sicilian-La Sicilia fu chiamata di li Greci "Trinacria",
Romanian-Sicilia fu chemata de Greci "Trinacria",

Sicilian-Lu primu dizziunariu talianu fu fattu di un sicilianu
Romanian-Primu dictionariu Italian fu facut de un Sicilian

Sicilian-Lu Polu Nord è unu dî dui poli magnetici
Romanian-Polu Nord e unu din doi poli magnetici

*in Romanian translation some words are regionalisms (as in Sicilian)

(^ copied that from another forum)

Other southern Italian dialects are also closer to Romanian than Italian, but if we're talking mainstream languages then first is Italian with French second (because of the vast vocabulary that Romanian shares with French)

[Pobre Diablo]

Listening to spoken Sicilian is strange, some parts are very similar to Romanian (with some words even pronounced the same) while others are unintelligible. To a lesser extent that's the case with portuguese too, spoken portuguese may as well be chinese to me but from time to time there's words pronounced just like in Romanian. It's kinda eerie

[Peyrol]

Honestly?

Is very slavic in the intonation/pronunciation of the words.

I can, btw, understand about 35-40% of spoken language and about 80% of written romanian.

[Peyrol]

Listening to spoken Sicilian is strange, some parts are very similar to Romanian (with some words even pronounced the same) while others are unintelligible. To a lesser extent that's the case with portuguese too, spoken portuguese may as well be chinese to me but from time to time there's words pronounced just like in Romanian. It's kinda eerie

What about forlan (language from Friuli)?
Some people says that sound a bit romanian in the pronunciation.

05O3mSX4xnQ

[Corvus]

Honestly?

Is very slavic in the intonation/pronunciation of the words.

I can, btw, understand about 35-40% of spoken language and about 80% of written romanian.

The Romanian language contains a fair share of Slavic words and as you say the intonation and pronunciation is very Slavic, which creates some difficulties for an Italian speaker to understand the content esp. in the oral form

[Žołnir]

Or is it a mix. Can someone like me who is able to speak a little bit Italian and a little bit Czech easily learn it :)
Poll is coming

In linguistic essence there is no doubt Italian is closer. :)

[Corvus]

In linguistic essence there is no doubt Italian is closer. :)

I suspected it. I took first and foremost these languages because I understand them a bit and I wanted to find out how they compare to Romanian

[Žołnir]

What about forlan (language from Friuli)?
Some people says that sound a bit romanian in the pronunciation.


Yeah to me it has this Romanian "feel" it's not extreme but for me noticable. :)

[Peyrol]

The Romanian language contains a fair share of Slavic words and as you say the intonation and pronunciation is very Slavic, which creates some difficulties for an Italian speaker to understand the content esp. in the oral form

There are about 70,000 romanian speakers in greater Torino, i know well the language. :D
A lot of them are moldovans, btw.

[Žołnir]

I suspected it. I took first and foremost these languages because I understand them a bit and I wanted to find out how they compare to Romanian

Well Romanian is like English not saying they are close but they have one thing in common. Both have lots of foregin vocabulary and maybe even foregin accent (personally i am not sure about accent, should czech out better).

[Pobre Diablo]

What about forlan (language from Friuli)?
Some people says that sound a bit romanian in the pronunciation.

05O3mSX4xnQ

I don't think it's closer to romanian than italian, but as far as pronunciation goes you're right, there are parts where it sounds like a romanian peasant trying to speak italian :)

[Dacul]

Yes, Sicilian is strangely similar to Romanian, even more than Italian. You can even build entire sentences that are almost the same:

Sicilian- La Sicilia si cumponi di 9 pruvincî e havi un tutali di 390 cumuna
Romanian-Sicilia se compune din 9 provincii si are un total de 390 comune

Sicilian-La Sicilia fu chiamata di li Greci "Trinacria",
Romanian-Sicilia fu chemata de Greci "Trinacria",

Sicilian-Lu primu dizziunariu talianu fu fattu di un sicilianu
Romanian-Primu dictionariu Italian fu facut de un Sicilian

Sicilian-Lu Polu Nord è unu dî dui poli magnetici
Romanian-Polu Nord e unu din doi poli magnetici

*in Romanian translation some words are regionalisms (as in Sicilian)

(^ copied that from another forum)

Other southern Italian dialects are also closer to Romanian than Italian, but if we're talking mainstream languages then first is Italian with French second (because of the vast vocabulary that Romanian shares with French)
Lol no romanian is speaking like that.
Let me put how you say normally in romanian:

Sicilia fu chemata de Greci "Trinacria",
Sicilia a fost chemata de greci "Trinacria".

Primu dictionariu Italian fu facut de un Sicilian.
Primul dictionar de italiana a fost facut de un sicilian.

Polu Nord e unu din doi poli magnetici
Polul nord e unul din cei doi poli magnetici.

[Pobre Diablo]

Lol no romanian is speaking like that.
Let me put how you say normally in romanian:

Sicilia fu chemata de Greci "Trinacria",
Sicilia a fost chemata de greci "Trinacria".

Primu dictionariu Italian fu facut de un Sicilian.
Primul dictionar de italiana a fost facut de un sicilian.

Polu Nord e unu din doi poli magnetici
Polul nord e unul din cei doi poli magnetici.

You completely missed the point, I say pretty clearly that you can build similar sentences in both languages, not that they're the most used forms of speech. Also it's funny you say "nobody speaks like that" while adding the -l at the end of words, when that -l is almost always dropped in spoken romanian

Si cum poti sa spui ca nimeni nu foloseste perfectul simplu lol, poate ar fi cazul sa-ti cunosti mai bine tara :icon_lol:

[Dacul]

You completely missed the point, I say pretty clearly that you can build similar sentences in both languages, not that they're the most used forms of speech. Also it's funny you say "nobody speaks like that" while adding the -l at the end of words, when that -l is almost always dropped in spoken romanian

Si cum poti sa spui ca nimeni nu foloseste perfectul simplu lol, poate ar fi cazul sa-ti cunosti mai bine tara :icon_lol:


Only people from Oltenia are using ocassionaly simple perfect.
And that is because that area was conquered by Roman Empire.
But that is only how language is,people from Oltenia as phenotypes are very dinarid.
And I am pretty certain people from Oltenia have more germanic ancestry,than latin ancestry.
Some germanic knights were settled there,after 4th crusade,go read some history instead listening to all the lies that are told by all pseudo-scientists,lol.
I think in Romania were not even allowed genetic tests,so fanatic latinists can keep telling lies without shame.
I already written,we have diacritics that are not present in any romance language so we can pronounce all slavic languages without any problems.
Neither italians,neither spaniards,neither people from Portugal can do this.

[Dacul]

English language have 40% of the words from latin,but that does not make it a romance language,is still germanic.
Same about romanian,is slavic,even if so many words from french and latin were introduced in it.
Go see with what languages is common the presence of definite article at the end of the word,with south slavic languages,italians do not have such a thing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EuropeArticleLanguages.png

Is also a strange thing the resemblance between scandinavian languages - more exactly swedish and norwegian and romanian about article.

[8050]

Let's take an interesting word: draga.
Which slavic countries use this word to mean dear, darling?

We use this word in that form. Драга моја.. but is also use in Serbia.

[Corvus]

0 votes for Czech, some people will be surprised but there are some striking analogies of Czech and Romanian. One Czech friend who speaks Romanian too has told me recently.
Romania is also very popular in the Czech Rep. They regard them as Cousins in a metaphorical sense
I cannot verify it because I have not sufficent knowledge of Romanian but I believe him.

[Dacul]

Romanian is most closed to sicilian,not to italian.
I can understand some words from italian because I also know english.
But because the strong south slavic resemblances,it is not right to call our language "romanian" call it dacian and that's it.
Драга моја - that ia Draga moja,my dear in english,Draga mea in romanian.
Old romanian was Draga mia with i pronounce as j from south slavic.
As a short example that romanian also have strong resemblances with south slavic.
As some people said,a romanian from Bukovina is understanding with a romanian from Oltenia,to take most different forms of romanian.
Now how is possible,if our language is not very closed to dacian,such a thing?
Since Bukovina was never conquered by Roman Empire.

[Mistel]

Ok, I will give my input even though I am not very familiar wit the Romanian language :) I am not a native Italian speaker, but I can speak it to a near-native level, but I don't understand one word of spoken Romanian. However, I can understand some written Romanian. There are lots of Romanians where I live and it sounds very Slavic to my ears. Not at all like Italian. Once I was with my Polish friend and there were a group of Romanians sitting next to us and we were trying to work out what language they were speaking. I assumed they were speaking a Slavic language, maybe even Polish. I usually joke with my Polish friend whenever there are Romanians that she should speak to them in her language :)

[Comte Arnau]

Is this a thread for the lolz?

[MarkyMark]

Italian. But my opinon is not included in the poll(Portuguese).

[Corvus]

Is this a thread for the lolz?

No it isn`t. Romania or Dacia as it should be called is not a classic Romanic nation. The Slavic influence is very strong which is also reflected by the idiom.
Vlachs also settled in the Czech territory which lead to a strong cultural bound with implications until today.
Czech-Slovak/Romanian alliance is the answer on the Hungarian/Turkish one


Italian. But my opinon is not included in the poll(Portuguese).

No way, there is not even a slight overlap

[Comte Arnau]

No it isn`t. Romania or Dacia as it should be called is not a classic Romanic nation. The Slavic influence is very strong which is also reflected by the idiom.
Vlachs also settled in the Czech territory which lead to a strong cultural bound with implications until today.
Czech-Slovak/Romanian alliance is the answer on the Hungarian/Turkish one


Romanian will always be closer to any Romance language, whether it is Italian, Catalan or Portuguese, than to Czech.

What's more. If you analyze the Slavic influence in the Romanian lexicon, you'll see that most of it is Balkan Slav, not Czech.

[Corvus]

Romanian will always be closer to any Romance language, whether it is Italian, Catalan or Portuguese, than to Czech.

What's more. If you analyze the Slavic influence in the Romanian lexicon, you'll see that most of it is Balkan Slav, not Czech.

I suppose you don`t speak Czech. Romanian is a hybrid of Slavic and Romanic languages, beeing shaped by both elements It is close to Czech if you like it or not.

[Comte Arnau]

I suppose you don`t speak Czech. Romanian is a hybrid of Slavic and Romanic languages, beeing shaped by both elements It is close to Czech if you like it or not.

It is not whether I like it or not, I couldn't care less. It's that yours is a mere personal impression, while what I've said can be perfectly attested with linguistic sources, that's all.

[ioan assen]

Italian deffinately. Nothing Czeck. When I have communicated with Romanians it always strike me that such basic words are common (slavic) like masa (table). There are lots of Bulgarian words, I ve read a little bit about slavic influence over Romanian: its almost entirely Bulgarian. Thats not surprising: I think in middle ages Romanians (Vlahs) and Bulgarians were almost always in one state and collaborated in one way or another. As I have mentioned in medieval Vatican sources Bulgarians and Romanians were sometimes refered to as one people or people speaking similar language. Since the 1st Bulgarian empire most of what is Romania was incorporated in Bulgaria.

[Daco Celtic]

Italian of course...holy Mamaliga!

[Kriptc06]

Italian ofc the closest language to it. bunã seara = buona sera, and many more words, shi ai multe cuvinte

[Kivan]

Italian. Both are Romance languages after all.

[Óttar]

Italian and Romanian are similar because besides both being Romance languages, Italian is the easternmost national Western Romance language.

[Mikula]

Italian, of course.
Here is example of Lords Prayer in Latin, Italian and Romanian. (https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumun%C5%A1tina#Ot%C4%8Den%C3%A1%C5%A1)
As a native Czech I find only one simillar word:

ci ne izbăvește de cel rău.

in Czech
ale zbav nás od zlého

[Dandelion]

Neuter nouns in Romanian behave like they're of the masculine gender in singular and like they're of the feminine gender in plural.

In Czech the word for child is neuter in singular ('dítě') and feminine in plural ('děti').

Not a real commonality, but still noteworthy. :p

[gıulıoımpa]

Romanian is surprisingly close to Southern italian dialects don't be fooled by first impression of the sound, the main gap are the cases.

[alnortedelsur]

To Italian, of course.

Is this even a serious question? :picard1::picard1:

[Kamal900]

To Italian, of course.

Is this even a serious question? :picard1::picard1:

Especially on the fact that Romanian is an eastern Romance language which shares the same ancestry as Italian and other Romance languages AKA vulgar latin.

[Ülev]

prima zapada - first snow, za-padać in polish - snowing
pivnitsa and polish piwnica as basement

balta eng puddle, pool - Baltic sea is a big puddle

proto-indo-european is Romanian language :rolleyes:

[Joso]

Italian

[Kriptc06]

prima zapada - first snow, za-padać in polish - snowing
pivnitsa and polish piwnica as basement

balta eng puddle, pool - Baltic sea is a big puddle

proto-indo-european is Romanian language :rolleyes:

there are several slavic words in romanian, but it's still romance, like english has many latin/greek words.

Ceas - time/clock
Vreme - weather
prieten - friend
cocush - chicken

are some of the words with slavic origins that come to my mind now.

[Aspirin]

prima zapada - first snow, za-padać in polish - snowing
pivnitsa and polish piwnica as basement

balta eng puddle, pool - Baltic sea is a big puddle

proto-indo-european is Romanian language :rolleyes:

Zăpadă I think is from Southern Slavs, and is used in South Romania, in Moldova for example is used term Omăt.

Baltă comes from slavic word Boloto (swamp), but in romanian have different meaning (puddle). For example second largest city in Republic of Moldova is called Bălți (puddles).

[AGIOS O TERROR]

By vocabulary, closer to Italian since there have been major romance imports since the 17th century and efforts of "de-slavization".

By pronunciation, probably closer to Czech. We have to take into consideration the geographical proximity of the 2 nations and their ethnic and linguistic development over the centuries. Italian had a very specific accent while Romanian is closer to a generic Central European accent.

[Dacul]

By vocabulary, closer to Italian since there have been major romance imports since the 17th century and efforts of "de-slavization".

By pronunciation, probably closer to Czech. We have to take into consideration the geographical proximity of the 2 nations and their ethnic and linguistic development over the centuries. Italian had a very specific accent while Romanian is closer to a generic Central European accent.
Lol, how is closer as pronunciation to the Czech language?
Have you ever tried to pronounce Czech?
It was a lot more consonants and is quite difficult to pronounce for a Romanian native speaker.

[Dna8]

I would say Romanian has an Italian heart and soul, and in comparison, merely a Czech skin tone..

[Dacul]

Romanians can pronounce South Slavic languages, without problems.
Eastern Slavic languages, comme ci, comme ca. As a Romanian you will have problem with hard and soft consonants, because we do not have hard or soft consonants.
Western Slavic is most hard to pronounce for native Romanian speakers, from the Slavic languages.
So the question is just lol.