Why didn't the Romanians get fully Slavicized linguistically?

[Tommie]

what you now name Romanians in many regions of the country are just Romanianized and Romanian/Vlach-mixed Ukrainians, Russians, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Serbs, Slovaks, Poles, Gypsies, Greeks, Albanians, Armenians, Germans and Jews.

the original Romanian region is Oltenia, all the rest of the territory had shared inhabitance of Vlachs with other peoples, often Vlachs beginning as a minority (Dobrudja, Bucovina, parts of Moldova, most of Transylvania, Maramures etc).

Nice trolling.

[Nurzat]

the better question is - how did Vlachs manage to impose their language on all these populations they've occupied I've mentioned above, little by little but wait, a lot of it happened after the annexation of Moldova and then after the annexation of Transylvania, they they got in full power

[ixulescu]

the better question is - how did Vlachs managed to impose their language on all these populations they've occupied I've mentioned above, little by little

they had the money and looks

think of Becali - you'd drop your panties too

[Jana]

Romanians aren't majority Slavic by ancestry so it's natural they are not Slavic speakers. Better question is how come Bulgarians and North Macedonians are Slavic speakers, when they are in majority Thracian/native Balkan by ancestry.

[Aspirin]

the better question is - how did Vlachs manage to impose their language on all these populations they've occupied I've mentioned above, little by little

Very simple, these was mostly sparsely populated territories, and this was more an conquest and colonisation than an occupation.

[Daco Celtic]

the better question is - how did Vlachs manage to impose their language on all these populations they've occupied I've mentioned above, little by little but wait, a lot of it happened after the annexation of Moldova and then after the annexation of Transylvania, they they got in full power

Vlach Magic

[ixulescu]

Very simple, these was mostly sparsely populated territories, and this was more an conquest and colonisation than an occupation.

pretty much. and people in the lowlands wanted protection against raids.

[Aspirin]

pretty much. and people in the lowlands wanted protection against raids.

No, they were really depopulated and very wild, except some tinny parts from North (I speak about Moldova). Nurzat is right to a some degree, Romance population here came from Transylvania and Maramures (from here especially came all the old elite of the country), and it wasnt native.

[ixulescu]

No, they were really depopulated and very wild, except some tinny parts from North (I speak about Moldova). Nurzat is right to a some degree, Romance population here came from Transylvania and Maramures (from here especially came all the old elite of the country), and it wasnt native.

No, I agree. The lowlands were depopulated, yet some people lived there.

Mongols describe that they found people in the lowlands (many of which they killed) and some managed to flee to the mountains. So yeah, I'm pretty sure people in the lowlands were happy to see the creation of a state, able to defend borders.

[Ion Basescul]

I'll just lazily copy and paste what I said about the Romanian language on another forum.

"Two types of Slavic borrowings can be distinguished in Romanian. First came everyday spoken words that describe animals, emotional states, as well as certain grammatical features that appear in both spoken and written Romanian language. These Slavic features were incorporated into Balkan Latin through everyday contact of Romanian speakers with early Slav settlers. Then, with the spread of Orthodox Christianity and the Cyrillic alphabet, literary high-style words of the official Church Slavonic were introduced to supplement Romanian with terms for abstract concepts that were not present in the local Romance dialect. Writing in old Romanian language first appeared in the Cyrillic alphabet (a modified version of the Greek alphabet) in the 16th century and existed in this form in Romania until 1860s. In Moldova the tradition continued until 1990s. The alphabet reform had certain political implications and many peasants resisted it. The switch (as well as the related relatinization) caused additional tension in the unrecognized trilingual republic of Transnistria, which has decided to preserve the age-old tradition of writing in Cyrillic.

Most Slavic words were acquired through direct everyday contact with Slavic merchants, peasants, soldiers, etc. Due to massive influx of Slavs, much of the original Vlach population, estimated at 1 million people at the end of the Roman rule, became more or less bilingual during the 6th-12th centuries.[citation needed] Apparently, interethnic marriages were very common as Slavs settled among the Romanians and mingled with them very intensely. Indeed, some words describing family relations are Slavic or show heavy Slavic influence: tată < тата "father", nevastă "wife" < невеста, rudă "relatives" < родня; mezin "youngest child" < мезинец; plod "baby", the suffix -că added to Latin root fi- in fiică "daughter" (compare Slavic: дочка), bunică "granny" or maică "mommy". The degree to which Slavic and Romance populations interacted is also illustarted by the fact that practically all words that describe affection are borrowed from Slavic. A direct proof of this is the usage of Slavic particle "da" for affirmation in Romanian, which caused the native sic to shift its meaning to şi (and).

At least a quarter of the basic spoken Romanian lexis is based on common Slavic roots such as: a iubi "to love", a citi "to read", glas "voice", nevoie "need", cinstit "honest", prieten "friend", trebuie "necessary". This situation is akin to the number and usage of French borrowings in English. Slavic borrowings are especially frequent when strong emotional terms or feelings are involved: silă "compulsion", vină "guilt", jale "sorrow", milă "compassion", boală "illness, disease", iubire "love", dragoste "love", slavă "glory", nădejde "hope", etc. Slavic-derived adjectives and participles seem to have been borrowed in droves and form a whole lexical layer: slab, drag, bolnav, bogat, prost, drăgúţ, cinstit, iscusit, iubit, jalnic, zadarnic, vrednic, obraznic, voinic, groaznic, harnic, straşnic, darnic, milostiv, mucenic, etc.

Romanian uses numerous Slavic verbs to describe various actions and changes of state: a lovi "to hit", a goni "to chase", a topi "to melt", a găsi "to find", a trezi "to wake up", a pomeni "to mention", etc. Many others borrowings exist in different spheres of life: silă "force", război "war", noroi "dirt", bogăţie "richness", trup "body", plod "fetus", oglindă "mirror", copită "hoof", zori "dawn", zăpadă "snow", ceas "time", nisip "sand", vreme "weather", etc. Compare essentially the same, but less numerous Germanic borrowings in Western Romance languages such as in Spanish: guerra "war" (Slav. război in Romanian), rico "rich" (Slav. bogat), ganso "goose" (Slav. gâscă), buscar "to search" (Slav. a gasi "to find" in Romanian).

Apparently, until the arrival of Slavs Romance-speaking Vlachs were rural semi-nomadic cattle-breeders[ as most Romanian vocabulary related to cattle and cattle-breeding is of Latin origin. By contrast, most tools and utensils related to agronomy as well as new urban life have Slavic names, most likely as a result of being introduced by the agricultural Slavic population: lopată "spade", daltă "chisel", plug "plough", topor "axe", sită "sieve", nicovală "anvil", coasă "scythe", tocilă "grindstone", greblă "rake", sanie "sleigh", potcoavă "horseshoe", gard "zabor", zabrea "trellis", etc.

Names of many animals, birds, fish, and plants also made a swift transition from Slavic: vrabie "sparrow" (воробей), lebădă "swan" (лебедь), veveriţă "squirrel" (вевeрица), vidră "otter" (выдра), ştiucă "pike" (щука), rac "crayfish" (рак), păianjen "spider", lobodă "pig-weed", bob "seed, bean" (боб), morcov "carrot" (морковь), sfeclă "beets", hreniţă (хрен) "water cress", râs "lynx", etc.

Various onomatopoeic verbs and expressions such as a plescăi "splash" (compare Slav. плескать), a şopti "whisper" (compare Slav. шoпот, шептать) a hăui "echo" (эхо), tropot "clatter" (топот), a clocoti "to boil over" (клокотать), etc. are closer to their Slavic rather than Western Romance equivalents (compare Spanish: chapoteo/roción; susurro/murmurro; eco; pataleo/trapa trapa).Certain interjections such as ba! "oh yes!" and iată! "Look!" (< это) are taken from the Old Slavic (mostly Old Bulgarian) language.

Borrowings from Old Church Slavonic are also very numerous in certain lexical fields and include the following: a izbăvi < избавить "to deliver", veşnic < вечный "forever, perpetual, undying", sfânt < святой "holy, saint", a sluji < сружить "to serve", amvon < омовение "pulpit", rai < рай "paradise", iad < ад "hell", proroc < ророк "prophet", hram < храм "church patron", duhovnic < духовник "confessor", dihanie < дыхание "wild beast, monster".

Slavic terminology is almost exclusive when used to assign the titles and ranks to medieval nobility (boier, cneaz, rob, slugă, a sluji, etc.). It is also used to describe various concepts of urban life and finances that emerged with the arrival of Slavs: a plăti "pay", târg "market", rând "row", sticlă "glass", etc. Seafaring concepts are no exception: corabie "ship" , lotcă "boat", ostrov "island" and vâslă "oar" all come from their Slavic equivalents virtually unaltered.

Many Romanian names were also influenced by the use of Slavonic in Church and in administration. Over time, especially after the Latin alphabet was adopted, some Slavic words became archaic, but others such as the affirmative particle da "yes", clearly of Slavic origin, have maintained a widespread use.

In general, most Slavic borrowings have become well incorporated into Romanian and are no longer perceived as foreign. In fact, many Romanian words occur as a natural combination of Slavic and Romance elements: devreme "early", aşíjderea "likewise", a se îmbolnăvi "to fall ill", a împleti "to weave", a învârti "to turn, rotate", a îmbogăţi "to enrich", nebunie "craziness", răzbunare "revenge", răscruce crossing", bunică "granny", portiţă "wicket", româncă "Romanian woman", evreiesc "Jewish", neaşteptat "unexpected", neruşinat" "unashamed", citire "reading", iubită "girlfriend", iubesc "I love", prostie "foolishness", hulubăríe "dove-cot", slăbiciune "weakness", milos "charitable", etc.

The indirect Slavic influence on Romanian lexis and expressions is also very important. Many words and expressions were calqued from their Slavic equivalents or created to reproduce the patterns of the Slavic speech. Words such as suflet "soul" copy the logic of the Slavic word душа, and the original Latin anima shifted its meaning to inimă "heart". The development of the Romanian particle şi "and" hints at the usage of the Slavic particle "da" that is often used in both senses ("yes" as well as "and"). Other examples include lună meaning both "month" and "the moon"; "lume" (originally light) used in the sense of the world. Certain expressions such as din topor meaning "unrefined" also tend to be similar to their Slavic equivalents: топорный = грубый.

Another prominent feature of modern Romanian that has resulted from intense contact with Slavic speakers is the formation of numerals from 11 to 20. For instance, unsprezece "eleven" is based on three components "un+spre+zece" literally "one above ten". Even though the elements themselves are Romance in origin, the model itself is word-by-word imitation of a typical Slavic "один+над+цать" literally "one above ten" and is not found in the West where original whole Latin words were preserved (Spanish: once, doce, quince, veinte).

As a result of the long tradition of written Church Slavonic, most Slavic borrowings in Romanian are surprisingly well-preserved phonetically and changed little over the centuries. Some phonetic adjustment has taken place in certain cases: ohileti > a ofili, ljubiti> a iubi, protiva > potrivă, podkova > potcoavă. Importantly, many Slavic borrowing changed their original meaning after being incorporated into Romanian speech. Most notable examples are: a găsi "to find" < гасить "to extinguish", a lovi "to strike" < ловить "to catch", clipă "moment" < клепание "rhythmic movement" etc.

To a significant extent, Slavic speech patterns have also influenced borrowing from other languages. For instance, Latin schola/scola > Slav. школа shkola > modern Rom. şcoală "school". Had the original Latin word been preserved in Dacia, it would have sounded as "scoară".

Thus, Slavic borrowings in Romanian help reveal the historical development of the language even though it is difficult to determine what was the cause and what was the effect of certain developments. Whatever the cause or effect, the migration of Slavs clearly separated the old Balkan Latin from the Western Romance area. The Old Romanian language emerged. By the 6th century the previously common shift of intervocal l>r (solis>soare); an, am, in, im > ân, în; si>şi etc. stops, as new borrowings from Old Slavonic do not undergo the process: сила > silă instead of the hypothetical "şiră'". New developments such as sv>sf, h>f occur instead.

Generally, the share of Slavic words differs significantly depending on dialect and style. The number of Slavicisms is higher in border regions with significant Slavic-speaking populations. In spoken Romanian in general their share is around 30% and up to 40% in Moldova, where Russian borrowings and constructions are traditionally commonplace (Compare: "Vreau un holodilnic" instead of "Vreau să cumpăr un frigider"). In literary written Romanian, their share is somewhat lower (around 10%), while Latin-based words represent around 85%, with the remaining 5% being of Greek, Hungarian, and Turkic origin as well as from the Dacian substratum.

But even in modern literary Romanian, Slavonic influences are evident in phonetics and morphology, heavily influenced by Slavic speakers. Phonetic Slavicisms include the iotization of the initial -e in words such as el, ea, este pronounced as [jel], [ja], [jeste] (compare Spanish: el, ella, estamos, without the Slavic iotization effect) as well as the palatalization of consonants in the plural form: pom-pomi, lup-lupi pronounced as [pomʲ] and [lupʲ] etc. (compare the original Italian sound in lupi). Besides, numerous Slavic prefixes and suffixes such as ne-, -că, -iţă, răs-/răz-, have become an integral part of the Romanian lexis. Especially -că and -iţă are important markers of the feminine gender in Romanian morphology: lup-lupoaică, italian-italiancă, actor-actriţă, etc. Unlike Western Romance languages, Romanian is also quite unusual in the way that its nouns often undergo internal vowel modifications while being inflected: fată-fete, gheaţă-gheţuri, etc. This feature is quite common in the neighboring Slavic languages: лёд-льда, сон-сны, день-дни. These changes indicate that unlike later arriving Hungarians, local Slavs, who settled in the Vlach lands, were also keen on learning Balkan Latin. On the one hand, this process infused Romanian with Slavic features and on the other, led to the eventual assimilation of Slavs north of the Danube.

Noteworthy, the original Latin sound [h] was lost in early Balkan Latin between the 3rd and 5th centuries A.D., just like in the Western Romance languages: hibernum > Rom. iarnă and Spanish invierno "winter". However, Slavic interference after the 6th century lead to a reintroduction of the Slavic hard h sound into Romanian. Thus, most Romanian words with a letter h are Slavic in origin: hram, hrană, hulubărie, hrean, etc.

The addition of numerous Slavic verb stems ending in -i ( a iubi, a citi, a goni, a izbi, a răni, a primi, etc.) and -î (a posomorî, a omorî, a târî etc.) has led to a dramatic expansion of this conjugation pattern in Romanian, which is extremely productive: a opri, a zdrobi, a toropi, a osteni, a podi, a vărui, a beli, a cerni, a plesni, a coji, a ţocăi, a născoci, a grohăi, a glumi, a trudi, etc. By contrast, in Western Romance languages, the number of verbs in the original Latin "-i" group shrank over time.

Certain indirect sentence structures, such as mi-e bine, mi-e frig (literally "to me is cold"), are also Slavic-influenced (compare мне холодно). In the West, direct constructions are used instead: Spanish estoy bien. Preservation of cases and neutral gender has also occurred under Slavic influence and is not observed in modern Western Romance. The natural tendency of late Latin was to drop all noun cases and get rid of neutral gender that was redistributed between masculine and feminine (as in all modern Western Romance languages). Slavic languages have kept Romanian from losing these features. Moreover, Romanian developed a Slavic-influenced vocative case ending in -o: Fetiţo!, Mamo! (compare with Slavic Мамо!).

The sustainability of the Slavic elements in Romanian is also evident in the toponymics of Romania and Moldova. Despite the fact that Roman Dacia was the core of the ancient empire's influence, Romance population fled the original Roman cities after the fall of the Roman Empire and quickly shifted to semi-nomadic cattle-breeding. As a result, no original Roman placenames survived to the north of the Danube. Newly-founded settlements were largely a result of Slavic, and later Hungarian activities. Numerous Slavic placenames are found to these days throughout Romania and Moldova: Cernavodă, Prilog, Dumbrava, Bistriţa, Talna, Rus, Bistra, Glod, Ruscova, Straja, Putna, Hulub, Bâc, Tecuci, Potcoava, Corabia, Lipova, Holod, Topila, Ostrovu, etc.

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