Editing Romanian grammar (section)

{{short description|Grammar of the Romanian language}}
Standard [[Romanian language|Romanian]] (i.e. the ''[[Daco-Romanian]]'' language within [[Eastern Romance languages|Eastern Romance]]) shares largely the same [[grammar]] and most of the vocabulary and [[Romanian phonology|phonological processes]] with the other three surviving varieties of Eastern Romance, namely [[Aromanian language|Aromanian]], [[Megleno-Romanian language|Megleno-Romanian]], and [[Istro-Romanian language|Istro-Romanian]].

As a [[Romance languages|Romance language]], Romanian shares many characteristics with its more distant relatives: [[Italian language|Italian]], [[French language|French]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Catalan language|Catalan]], etc. However, Romanian has preserved certain features of [[Latin]] grammar that have been lost elsewhere. This could be explained by a host of factors such as: relative isolation in the Balkans, possible pre-existence of identical grammatical structures in its substratum (as opposed to the substrata over which the other Romance languages developed), and existence of similar elements in the neighboring languages. One Latin element that has survived in Romanian while having disappeared from other Romance languages is the morphological [[Declension|case]] differentiation in nouns. Nevertheless, declensions have been reduced to only three forms (nominative/accusative, genitive/dative, and vocative) from the original six or seven. Another, that is only seen marginally in other Romance languages such as Italian, is the retention of the neuter [[Grammatical gender|gender]] in nouns.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nicolae |first=Andreea |last2=Scontras |first2=Gregory |date=2015 |title=The progression of gender from Latin to Romanian |url=https://www.academia.edu/19563354/The_progression_of_gender_from_Latin_to_Romanian_Harvard_Working_Papers_in_Linguistics_2015_ |access-date=6 September 2023 |website=Academia.edu}}</ref>

Romanian is attested from the 16th century. The first '''Romanian grammar''' was [[Elementa linguae daco-romanae sive valachicae]] by 
Samuil Micu and Gheorghe Șincai, published in 1780. Many modern writings on Romanian grammar, in particular, most of those published by the [[Romanian Academy]] ({{Lang|ro|Academia Română}}), are prescriptive; the rules regarding plural formation, verb conjugation, word spelling and meanings, etc. are revised periodically to include new tendencies in the language.<ref>James E. Augerot (2000). "Romanian / Limba română: A Course in Modern Romanian". Center for Romanian Studies.</ref><ref>Laura Daniliuc and Radu Daniliuc (2000). "Descriptive Romanian Grammar: An Outline". Lincom Europa, Munich, Germany.</ref><ref>Gheorghe Doca (1999). ''Romanian language''. Vol. I: ''Essential Structures''. Ars Docendi, Bucharest, Romania </ref><ref>Gheorghe Doca (2000). ''Romanian language''. Vol. II: ''Morpho-Syntactic and Lexical Structures''. Ars Docendi, Bucharest, Romania </ref><ref>{{in lang|ro}} Liana Pop, Victoria Moldovan (eds) (1997). "Gramatica limbii române / Grammaire du roumain / Romanian Grammar". Echinox, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.</ref><ref>{{in lang|ro}} Maria Aldea, [https://web.archive.org/web/20120205175052/http://www.romaniaminor.net/ianua/Ianua05/ianua05_02.pdf "Valori referențiale generate de articolul definit și de cel indefinit românesc în determinarea substantivului. Studiu de caz: ''Scrisoarea lui Neacșu'' (1521)"].</ref>