Romanian (Terra Cognita)

Romanian (romana or lingua romana) is a Latinic language of the Indo-European language family. Romanian descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire and is the closest language to it of the Latinic languages. Romanian is the official language in Romania and has an official minority status in in Sicilia, Goa, Ania, and Concordia. Romanian is also spoken by large expatriate communities in the Cambria.

Romanian is a major European language, being one of the working languages of the Council of Europe. Through all types of printed and electronic media, Romanian has become one of the leading languages of international discourse and is a world lingua franca in many professional contexts such as science, navigation, entertainment, and law. Romanian was adopted by Roman emperor Torgodoriu who introduced the Carta Vulgare in AUC 1823 as an effort to standardize the various forms of Vulgar Latin broadly used across the Roman Empire. It was principally derived from the dialect spoken around the city of Rome. Its development was also influenced by other Latin languages and to some minor extent, by the Germanic languages of the Migration Era invaders. As in most Latinic languages, stress is distinctive and, unlike most other Latinic languages, Romanian retains Latin's contrast between short and long consonants. Almost all words and syllables finish with pure vowels, a factor that makes Romanian words extremely easy to use in rhyming.

Classification
Romanian is a Latinic language, a descendant of Vulgar Latin (colloquial spoken Latin). Romanian remains the closest living Latinic language to Classical Latin. The language shares its Latinic family with Andalusian, Dalmatian, African, Wallachian, Gallo, and the nearly extinct Romano-Sicilian in Sicilia.

Languages and dialects
Romania is broadly homogeneous linguistically. The standard form of the language is in widescale use though regional dialects have been making a come back in the past few decades. The dialects of Romania, five recognized in total, share a high degree of mutual intelligibility. The dialect groupings are Italian (Southern), Raetian (Northern), Gallian (Western), Hispanian (Southwestern), and Corso-Sardinian (Insular). 

Minority languages spoken in Romania, excluding those of immigrant communities, include Cimbrian, a Germanic language spoken in a few of the northeastern Alpine villages. Cimbrian is very close to Lombard and it is assumed by linguists that it is a remnant of Lombard settlements further south than they are now.

Italian Dialect

The Italian, or Latsian-Tuscian dialect, hardly differs from standard Romanian as the language is standardized from this dialect.

Raetian Dialect

The Raetian dialect shows influence in its vocabulary and sound from a pre-Roman substratum, Celtic and Raetic, as well as Germanic.

The region was settled by the Germanic Lombards, Alemanni, Cimbri, and Burgundians, resulting in this linguistic distinctiveness. Germanic is noticeable in grammatical constructions, which are sometimes closer to Germanic than to Romanian other Latinic languages.

In contemporary spoken language, adjective forms are often not distinguished from adverbs, as in Raetian Eau dreta 'I am going directly', compare to Romanian Eo diretumente. This usage is rare in most other Latinic languages with a few sporadic exceptions in Romanian, such as vogà fort 'speak aloud'. Raetian does not use the -u ending as Romanian does, likely due to Celtic or Germanic influence. Take for example Romanian 'Medilanu' to Raetian 'Melaun' for the city Milan.

Raetian is sometimes described as sounding like a Francian or Lombard speaking Romanian.

A few samples of pre-Roman vocabulary:

Raetic: igniv (nest, eyrie), ampana (raspberry), grip (cliff), tshéss (golden eagle)

Celtic: carmun (weasel), disharel (goblin), draig (sieve), trut (footpath)

Germanic: sedon (spoon), blets (wet), blov (blue), glied (people), gòld (forest)

Word comparison, Romanian to Raetian

My - Meu (Rom.) Mes (Rae.)

Good - Bonu (Rom.) Bun (Rae.)

Hello - Sàlve (Rom.) Salv (Rae.)

Yes - Sì (Rom.) Ea (Rae.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[218248,218303,0,0]}">Goodbye - Valere, Bonu andare (Rom.) Sin seveser (Rae.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[218305,218340,0,0]}">School - Scola (Rom.) Scoula (Rae.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[218342,218375,0,0]}">Forest - Selva (Rom.) Gòld (Rae.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[218377,218413,0,0]}">Mister - Senore (Rom.) Signur (Rae.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[218415,218453,0,0]}">Monday - Dìlúna (Rom.) Lùndesdi (Rae.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[218455,218493,0,0]}">Tuesday - Dìmartis (Rom.) Mardi (Rae.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[218800,218821,0,0]}">Gallian Dialect

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[218823,219496,0,0]}">The Gallian dialect of Romanian has ancestral elements from pre-Roman Celtic and this comes through in the vocabulary and the sound. Of the dialects outside of Italia, however, it is regarded as probably the closest to the standard, having been heavily influenced by it over history. Some notable features that set it apart from Romanian include the use of g as a softer sound ⟨dʒ⟩ (like 'j' in jump), and the writing of ⟨ɲ⟩ as 'gn' (written ñ in Romanian). Gallian, like Raetian, does not employ the -u ending as Romanian does but rather drops them. An example being 'nùmer' in Gallian and 'numer' in Raetian, versus 'númeru' in Standard Romanian and 'nomro' in Hispanian.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[219498,219540,0,0]}">Word comparison, Romanian to Gallian

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[219542,219573,0,0]}">Home - Casa (Rom.) Mison (Gal.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[219575,219604,0,0]}">Name - Nome (Rom.) Nòm (Gal.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[219606,219636,0,0]}">Apple - Mela (Rom.) Pom (Gal.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[219638,219678,0,0]}">To work - Lavorare (Rom.) Travajé (Gal.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[219680,219714,0,0]}">School - Scola (Rom.) Scòla (Gal.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[219716,219750,0,0]}">Forest - Selva (Rom.) Bòsch (Gal.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[219752,219785,0,0]}">Mister - Senore (Rom.) Sùr (Gal.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[219787,219822,0,0]}">Monday - Dìlúna (Rom.) Lùnes (Gal.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[219824,219863,0,0]}">Tuesday - Dìmartis (Rom.) Màrtes (Gal.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[220352,220375,0,0]}">Hispanian Dialect

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[220377,220968,0,0]}">Altogether there are over 2,000 words of pre-Roman origin, some verbs and toponymic names of towns, rivers, utensils and plants. Additionally there are some 500 Germanic words to the lexicon via the Goths who held a Kingdom in Hispania before the Roman reconquest. Many of these Germanic words are related to warfare – such as Spora 'spur', Staca 'stake', and guerra 'war' (of the same origin as Gallian 'guèra' and Raetian 'veara'), from Gothic spaúra, stakka, and wirro respectively; the natural world, i.e., suino 'swine' from sweina, gavian 'hawk' from gabilans, vaga 'wave' from vigan'.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[220970,221407,0,0]}">Hispanian has a guttural and nasal sound originating from deeper Celtic influence, something shared with Gallian though Hispanian has clearly retained that influence far more. The sound of b and v are frequently merged into one sound, resulting in both sounding like 'b'. Another distinguishing feature is any -s ending in Hispanian has a lengthy sound, like 'sh' in 'she'. Unlike Romanians use of a -u ending, Hispanian uses -o endings.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[221409,221621,0,0]}">The dialect has been described as nasally and smooth. Oddly, it has been described as sounding like a Ruthenian speaking a Latin tongue, inexplicably so as no such Venetic influence is accounted for in Hispanian.

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[221623,221667,0,0]}">Word comparison, Romanian to Hispanian

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[221669,221695,0,0]}">My - Meu (Rom.) Meu (His.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[221697,221725,0,0]}">Good - Bonu (Rom.) Bó (His.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[221727,221765,0,0]}">Hello - Sàlve (Rom.) Saúde, Olá (His.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[221767,221792,0,0]}">Yes - Sì (Rom.) Si (His.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[221794,221846,0,0]}">Goodbye - Valere, Bonu andare (Rom.) Até logo (His.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[221848,221882,0,0]}">School - Scola (Rom.) Scola (His.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[221884,221920,0,0]}">Forest - Selva (Rom.) Foresta (His.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[221922,221958,0,0]}">Mister - Senore (Rom.) Sênior (His.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[221960,221994,0,0]}">Monday - Dìlúna (Rom.) Lues (His.)

<p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[221996,222035,0,0]}">Tuesday - Dìmartis (Rom.) Martes (His.)

Phonology
Romanian has phonetic features that are relatively archaic compared to other Latinic languages. The harder sounds of Latin, such as hard c's, have been retained, among other features.
 * Latin vowels lost length contrast, but have all preserved their original sound; in particular, short /i/ and /u/, which did not change in Romanian.
 * Preservation of the plosive sounds /k/ and /ɡ/ before front vowels /e/ and /i/ in many words; for example, centum > centu "hundred"; decem > dèce "ten" and gener > gèneru "son-in-law"
 * c is typically pronounced  /k/ and g as  /ɡ/, while the softed sound /dʒ/ is retained in j

Vowels
Vowels are /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/ and /u/, without length differentiation. Metaphony occurs with /e/ and /o/, which in particular tend to be open-mid [ɛ] and [ɔ] when they are stressed and the following syllable does not contain /i/ or u or a palatal. There are three series of plosives or corresponding approximants:
 * Voiceless stops derive from their Latin counterparts in composition after another stop. They are reinforced (double) in initial position, but this reinforcement is not written because it does not produce a different phoneme.
 * Double voiced stops (after another consonant) derive from their Latin equivalents in composition after another stop.
 * Weak voiced "stops" (actually approximants), sometimes transcribed ⟨β δ ğ⟩ (/β ð ɣ/ after vowels), derive from single Latin stops (voiced or voiceless).

Fricatives

 * The labiodentals /f/ (sometimes pronounced [ff] or [v] in initial position) and /v/.
 * /s/
 * /ʃ/, pronounced [ʃ] at the beginning of a word, otherwise [ʃʃ], is often spelled with the letter x.

Affricates

 * /ts/ (or [tts]) and /tʃ/ a denti-alveolar affricate consonant written -ts-
 * /dz/ (or [ddz]), written -z-, corresponds to Italian
 * /dʒ/ is written -j-.

Nasals

 * /m/, /mm/
 * /n/
 * /nn/, written -ñ-
 * /ɲɲ/, written -ñ-

Liquids

 * /l/ is double [ll] initially.
 * /r/ is written r.

Grammer
Some distinctive features typical of Romanian are:
 * The plural marker is -s (from the Latin accusative plural): vulpe, vulpes "fox".
 * The definite article derives from the Latin ille: il, la, plural îs, lis
 * For prohibitions, a negative form of the subjunctive is used: no venire!, "don't come!"
 * Interrogative phrases might be constructed like echo questions, with the interrogative marker remaining in underlying position: Sunt arribàte cuando? ("They arrived when?", that is, "when did they arrive?")
 * Quíta ("What") + adjective + qui ("who"): Quíta bellu qui ses! ("You are so beautiful!").

Vocabulary

 * Note - Italian is used here only as a reference. It does not exist in This World

Basic Wordlist:

Hello – Sàlve

Yes – Sì

No - Non

Goodbye – Valere, Bonu Andare

Thanks - Gràtsia

One - Unu

Two - Duos

Three – Tres

Romanian Poems:

‘Mellusu unu bonu amìcu qui non unu malu parenti’

(English: Better a good friend than a bad relative)

(Italian: Meglio un buon amico che un cattivo parente)***

‘Nè dìsole senzè sole, nè femina senza amòr’

(English: Neither Saturday without sun, nor woman without love)

(Italian: Né sabato senza sole, né donna senza amore)***


 * Note - Italian is used here only as a reference. It does not exist in This World

Nòte et Lùna

Est una nòte et lùna

de cullas lùnas de autunu claru,

qi quando tú t’acciaras

ad la vìdere andare,

speràns denovu in sa fortuna

English translation:

It is a moonlit night,

one of those bright autumn moons

that when you look out

to see it passing,

you hope in good fortune again

 Days of the week: 

Dìsole (Sunday)

Dìlúna (Monday)

Dìmartis (Tuesday)

Dìmércuris (Wednsesday)

Dìjóves (Thursday)

Dìvenere (Friday)

Dìsadurn (Saturday)