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Language

Many people may have heard about Romania or Moldova, but may not know that both countries speak the same language, although with small regional variations. Romania and Moldova are the only countries in the world that speak beautiful Romanian language.

Alexandru Niculescu, in his book Outline History of the Romanian Language, says that "Romanian is the only Romance language that has developed in the Eastern part of Latin Europe."

The Romanian language is a mix of old Latin and the language of Dacian, the first civilization known to have lived on this land since ancient times.

Linguists have studied the Romanian language to find words of Dacian origin. They have discovered 160 words with this origin. Some examples are: brânza (cheese), copil (child), brad (Christmas tree).

In addition to the Roman Empire conquest, the language was also influenced by the migrating tribes, especially Slavic, that passed through the territories now known as Romania and Moldova. That’s how about 10% of the Romanian language are words of Slavic origin.

The closest languages to Romanian are old Latin and Italian.


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