What is the closest language to Romanian in sound?

[dviz]

I hear often that Romanian sounds close to Portuguese, or Italian, or that it seems like Italian spoken by a Russian, or that it sounds like Albanian.

Obviously, none of these language sound that close to Romanian, even the Romance languages. Both Portuguese and Italian have a musicality that is missing in Romanian, Albanian has sounds that are not found in Romanian, and Russian has a very specific accent. To me, Romanian has a neutral accent, and a rhythm that reminds me more of Latin than other Romance languages.

See these short clips and vote the closest language to Romanian.

Romanian


listen to the Romanian female politician, starting at 0:20


Italian


Portuguese


Albanian


Russian

[Blondie]

Italian

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

I always thought that Romanian intonation had some similarities with Italian and that of all the Romance languages it was the most similar (although still distant). It doesn't sound anything like Russian to me. The comparison with the Albanian is funny, from the surface I'd say they're not similar but in the video you've uploaded it does sound a bit similar. I'm a native Portuguese speaker and as such I can't get abstract about the fact that Romanian sounds quite different to me when contrasted with my language, but perhaps others have a different perception.

[dviz]

I always thought that Romanian intonation had some similarities with Italian and that of all the Romance languages it was the most similar (although still distant). It doesn't sound anything like Russian to me. The comparison with the Albanian is funny, from the surface I'd say they're not similar but in the video you've uploaded it does sound a bit similar. I'm a native Portuguese speaker and as such I can't get abstract about the fact that Romanian sounds quite different to me, but perhaps others have a different perception.

I agree with you about Italian and Russian. I really don't see any similarity between Romanian and Russian. This misconception may be due to some people hearing Moldovans speaking Romanian with a Russian accent, which happens simply because many Moldovans are native in both languages.

In regards to Albanian - to Romanians, Albanian sounds different because we notice immediately sounds that we cannot pronounce. The way Albanians open their mouth and roll the tongue is different. They have so many letters in the alphabet (36 letters), and so many vowels/diphthongs compared to Romanian, it's hard for us to ignore the differences.

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

I agree with you about Italian and Russian. I really don't see any similarity between Romanian and Russian. This misconception may be due to some people hearing Moldovans speaking Romanian with a Russian accent, which happens simply because many Moldovans are native in both languages.

In regards to Albanian - to Romanians, Albanian sounds different because we notice immediately sounds that we cannot pronounce. The way Albanians open their mouth and roll the tongue is different. They have so many letters in the alphabet (36 letters), and so many vowels/diphthongs compared to Romanian, it's hard for us to ignore the differences.

Albanian almost sounds like a Romance language because of the number of Latin loanwords it seems to have. Although I wasn't able to understand the context of the conversation, I managed to pick up a lot of loose words such as at second 0:26 "que informaciones" (sounds Spanish) or at second 0:46 something like "probleme pour moi" (sounds French), followed by "que pasa un minuta". However, I find it easier to understand words in Romanian or the context, even though it's the Romance language I understand the least.

[dviz]

Albanian almost sounds like a Romance language because of the number of Latin loanwords it seems to have. Although I wasn't able to understand the context of the conversation, I managed to pick up a lot of loose words such as at second 0:26 "que informaciones" (sounds Spanish) or at second 0:46 something like "probleme pour moi" (sounds French), followed by "que pasa un minuta". However, I find it easier to understand words in Romanian or the context, even though it's the Romance language I understand the least.

Yes, in this group of languages, Russian is the odd one out. It sounds so completely different.
Albanian can sneak in

[dviz]

Any other opinions on this topic? maybe votes in the poll?

[KirillMazur]

I agree with you about Italian and Russian. I really don't see any similarity between Romanian and Russian. This misconception may be due to some people hearing Moldovans speaking Romanian with a Russian accent, which happens simply because many Moldovans are native in both languages.

I agree that Moldovan from the Republic of Moldova is more slavicized in phonetics and vocabulary than Romanian.
But I would not say that Romanian is completely devoid of Slavic influence - it sounds like Italian, laid on a Slavic and Paleo-Balkan substrate.

In regards to Albanian - to Romanians, Albanian sounds different because we notice immediately sounds that we cannot pronounce. The way Albanians open their mouth and roll the tongue is different. They have so many letters in the alphabet (36 letters), and so many vowels/diphthongs compared to Romanian, it's hard for us to ignore the differences.

That American "r" sound.

[Hulu]

That American "r" sound.

We have both soft R and strong Rr as separate letters in the Alphabet.


Capital letters
A B C Ç D Dh E Ë F G Gj H I J K L Ll M N Nj O P Q R Rr S Sh T Th U V X Xh Y Z Zh

Examples: Rruge - Street, Dore - Hand