Romanian language facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Romanian |
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| Daco-Romanian limba română |
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| Native to | Romania, Moldova, Transnistria (Disputed region) Minority in: Israel, Serbia, Ukraine, Hungary, diaspora in Italy, Spain, Scotland, Portugal and other parts of Western Europe |
| Native speakers | 24 million (2007) Second language: 4 million |
| Language family |
Indo-European
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| Early forms: |
Proto-Romanian
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| Dialects |
Megleno-Romanian
Istro-Romanian
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| Writing system | Latin (Romanian alphabet) Romanian Braille |
| Official status | |
| Official language in |  Romania MoldovaVojvodina  European Union |
| Recognised minority language in |  Hungary Italy Serbia Spain Scotland Ukraine |
| Regulated by | Academia Română Academy of Sciences of Moldova |
| Linguasphere | 51-AAD-c (varieties: 51-AAD-ca to -ck) |
Blue: region where Romanian is the dominant language. Green: areas with a notable minority of Romanian speakers.
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The Romanian language is a Romance language, meaning it comes from Latin like French, Spanish and Italian. It has 66% Latin-based words and 20% Slavic-based words. The rest are newer and come from Dacian, Turkish, Greek, or English. There are about 28 million speakers: 24 million who speak it as their mother tongue and 4 million who have learned it as their second language.
Romanian is also the most spoken language in Moldova, which is northeast of Romania. The Moldovan language is a kind of Romanian with certain differences, such as the dialect and a Moldavian accent.
Images for kids
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Official usage of Romanian language in Vojvodina, Serbia
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Romanian language in the Romance language family
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Neacșu's letter is the oldest surviving document written in Romanian.
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A sample of Romanian written in the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, which was still in use in the early 19th century
See also
In Spanish: Idioma rumano para niños
