Romanian: From Ancient Dacia to Around the World

The Romanian language, like Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian is a Romance language. Among the Romance languages, Romanian is closest to its Italian cousin.

It is spoken by around 24 to 28 million people. The majority of these speakers reside primarily in Romania as well as in neighboring Moldova, where it is referred to as Moldovan.

It also spoken in the autonomous regions of Vojvodina in Serbia.

The origin of the Romanian people has been a source of dispute and two primary theories exist. The first theory sees a Romanian continuity with the inhabitants of Dacia and the adjacent regions. The second theory holds that present day Romanians are in fact the descendants of Romanic peoples that migrated from former Roman provinces south of the Danube in the Balkans regions.

Economic and political changes have spread Romanian speakers throughout various countries including, Italy, Spain, Israel, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other regions of Europe.

The history of Romania, which among the various reaches of ancient Roman rule, alone bears the name of Rome, is fascinating. Present day Romania was inhabited in ancient times by the Dacians. Defeated by the Roman army in 106 CE, Dacia became a Roman province.

Heavy Roman colonization, brought the Latin language into the realm of administration and commerce in the region. Roman rule ended in 271 CE with the increasing pressure brought upon by migrating Gothic tribes.

The geographical isolation of Dacia may have been the impetus in Romanian likely being the first Latin based language to evolve.

Romanian however has been influenced by Slavic, Greek, Turkish, and Hungarian languages due to various political changes. Romanian speaking minorities are to be found in a various places in Europe including in Serbia, the Ukraine, Hungary, and Bulgarian in addition the large immigrant communities already mentioned.

Of special note is the immigration of Romanian Jews to Israel which has created a proprotionally significant number of Romanian speakers.

Approximately ten percent of Romanian speakers reside in Moldovan territory where Romanian (albeit under the name Moldovan) is the official language. It is used in all spheres of life including schools, the media, and educational institutions.

Interestingly the term "Romanian language" is used for several largely mutually unintelligible dialects which are termed independent languages.