Editing Romanian language (section)

== History ==
{{Main|History of the Romanian language}}

=== Common Romanian ===
{{Main|Proto-Romanian language}}
{{See also|Slavic superstratum in Romanian|Substrate in Romanian}}
Romanian descended from the [[Latin]] spoken in the [[Roman province]]s of [[Southeastern Europe]]{{sfn|Petrucci|1999|p=4}} north of the [[Jireček Line]] (a hypothetical boundary between the dominance of Latin and Greek influences).

Most scholars agree that two major dialects developed from Common Romanian by the 10th century.{{sfn|Petrucci|1999|p=4}} Daco-Romanian (the official language of Romania and Moldova) and [[Istro-Romanian language|Istro-Romanian]] (a language spoken by no more than 2,000 people in [[Istria]]) descended from the northern dialect.{{sfn|Petrucci|1999|p=4}} Two other languages, [[Aromanian language|Aromanian]] and [[Megleno-Romanian language|Megleno-Romanian]], developed from the southern version of Common Romanian.{{sfn|Petrucci|1999|p=4}} These two languages are now spoken in lands to the south of the [[Jireček Line]].{{sfn|Andreose|Renzi|2013|p=287}}

Of the features that individualize Common Romanian, inherited from Latin or subsequently developed, of particular importance are:<ref name="books.google.ro">Pană Dindelegan, Gabriela, [https://books.google.com/books?id=DlrPPUCQmk4C ''The Grammar of Romanian''], Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-964492-6, page 4</ref>
* appearance of [[Mid central vowel|schwa]] (written as ''ă'' in Romanian) vowel;
* growth of the plural inflectional ending -uri for the neuter gender;
* analytic present conditional (ex: Daco-Romanian {{lang|ro|aș cânta}});
* analytic future with an auxiliary derived from Latin volo (ex: Aromanian {{lang|rup|va s-cântu}});
* enclisis of the definite article (ex. Istro-Romanian {{lang|ruo|câre}} – {{lang|ruo|cârele}});
* nominal declension with two case forms in the singular feminine.

=== Old Romanian ===
{{Main|Old Romanian}}

The use of the denomination ''Romanian'' ({{lang|ro|română}}) for the language and use of the demonym ''Romanians'' ({{lang|ro|Români}}) for speakers of this language predates the foundation of the modern Romanian state. Romanians always used the general term {{lang|ro|rumân}}/{{lang|ro|român}} or regional terms like {{lang|ro|ardeleni}} (or {{lang|ro|ungureni}}), {{lang|ro|moldoveni}} or {{lang|ro|munteni}} to designate themselves. Both the name of {{lang|ro|rumână}} or {{lang|ro|rumâniască}} for the Romanian language and the self-designation {{lang|ro|rumân/român}} are attested as early as the 16th century, by various foreign travelers into the Carpathian Romance-speaking space,<ref>Ștefan Pascu, ''Documente străine despre români'', ed. Arhivelor statului, București 1992, {{ISBN|973-95711-2-3}}</ref> as well as in other historical documents written in Romanian at that time such as {{lang|ro|{{ill|Letopisețul Țării Moldovei|ro|lt=Cronicile Țării Moldovei}}}} (''The Chronicles of the land of Moldova'') by [[Grigore Ureche]].

The few allusions to the use of Romanian in writing as well as common words, anthroponyms, and toponyms preserved in the Old Church Slavonic religious writings and chancellery documents, attested prior to the 16th century, along with the analysis of graphemes show that the writing of Romanian with the Cyrillic alphabet started in the second half of the 15th century.<ref name="Dindelegan(ed.)">{{Cite web |last1=Timotin |first1=Emanuela |last2=Stan |first2=Camelia |last3=Maiden |first3=Martin |date=3 March 2016 |editor-last=Pană Dindelegan |editor-first=Gabriela |title=The Syntax of Old Romanian - Introduction |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198712350.003.0001 |access-date=3 September 2023 |website=Oxford Academic|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198712350.003.0001 }}</ref>  
[[Image:Neacşu's letter.jpg|thumb|left|[[Neacșu's letter]] is the oldest surviving document written in [[Old Romanian]] that can be precisely dated]]
The [[Hurmuzaki Psalter]] (''Psaltirea Hurmuzaki'') is the oldest writing in Romanian, dated on the basis of watermarks between 1491-1504.<ref>{{cite book|first=Iosif|last=Camară|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/128007318|chapter=Data alcătuirii celui mai vechi text românesc. Filigranul de tip corabie din Psaltirea Hurmuzaki|trans-chapter=The Date When the Oldest Romanian Text Was Written. The ship Watermark of the Hurmuzaki Psalter|title=Zamfirei Mihail: Omagiu|editor-last4=Academia Română. Institutul de Studii Sud-est Europene|publisher=Scriptor & Mega|editor-first1=Lia|editor-last1=Brad Chisacof|editor-first2=Simona|editor-last2=Nicolae|editor-first3=Cătălina|editor-last3=Vătășescu|location=Cluj-Napoca|year=2024|pages=151–165|isbn=978-606-8539-58-4}}</ref> It is a copy of an older, fifteenth-century translation of the Psalter,<ref name="Dindelegan(ed.)" /><ref name="Ledgeway">{{Cite book |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199677108.001.0001 |title=The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages |date=2016-06-30 |publisher=Oxford University PressOxford |isbn=978-0-19-967710-8 |editor-last=Ledgeway |editor-first=Adam |page=95 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199677108.001.0001 |editor-last2=Maiden |editor-first2=Martin}}</ref> which was bilingual (written in Church Slavonic, with Romanian translation after each verse).<ref name="auto">{{cite journal | last=Camară | first=Iosif | title=Originea celui mai vechi text românesc | trans-title=The origin of the oldest Romanian text | journal=Receptarea Sfintei Scripturi: între filologie, hermeneutică şi traductologie | volume=12 | date=2024 | issn=2285-5580 | doi=10.47743/rss.2023.12-9 | doi-access=free | pages=111–140 | url=https://mld.uaic.ro/RSS/RSS12_Camara.pdf}}</ref> The oldest Romanian document precisely dated is [[Neacșu's letter]] (1521) and was written using the [[Romanian Cyrillic alphabet]], which was used until the late 19th century. The letter is the oldest testimony of Romanian epistolary style and uses a prevalent lexis of Latin origin.<ref name="e616">{{cite journal | last1=Milică | first1=Ioan | last2=Morcov | first2=Gabriela-Iuliana | title=Romanian letter-writing: a cultural-rhetorical perspective (I) | journal=Diacronia | issue=3 | date=12 February 2016 | doi=10.17684/i3A39en | doi-access=free | url=https://www.diacronia.ro/en/journal/issue/3/A39/en/pdf | access-date=7 April 2025 | page=}}</ref> The slow process of Romanian establishing itself as an official language, used in the public sphere, in literature and ecclesiastically, began in the late 15th century and ended in the early decades of the 18th century, by which time Romanian had begun to be regularly used by the Church. The oldest Romanian texts of a literary nature are liturgical texts of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]: Psalter ([[Hurmuzaki Psalter]], Scheian Psalter, Psalter of Voroneț) and [[Apostolos (Eastern Orthodox liturgy)|Apostolos]] lectionary (Bratu's Codex, Codex of Voroneț). Their origins go back to the 15th century. The fact that they are bilingual writings or descend from bilingual writings shows that the initiative to translate them was prompted by the need to facilitate access to the Church Slavonic liturgical text.<ref name="auto"/>

The language spoken during this period had a phonological system of seven vowels and twenty-nine consonants. Particular to [[Old Romanian]] are the distribution of /z/, as the allophone of /dz/ from [[Common Romanian]], in the Wallachian and south-east Transylvanian varieties, the presence of palatal sonorants /ʎ/ and /ɲ/, nowadays preserved only regionally in [[Banat]] and [[Oltenia]], and the beginning of devoicing of asyllabic  [u] after consonants.<ref name="Dindelegan(ed.)"/> Text analysis revealed words that are now lost from modern vocabulary or used only in local varieties. These words were of various provenience for example: Latin (''cure'' - to run, ''mâneca''- to leave), Old Church Slavonic (''drăghicame'' - gem, precious stone, ''prilăsti'' - to trick, to cheat), Hungarian (''bizăntui'' - to bear witness).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Vîrban |first=Floarea |date=2015 |title=Aspecte privind structura vocabularului în cel mai vechi octoih în limba română |url=http://dspace.bcu-iasi.ro/static/web/viewer.html?file=http%3A%2F%2Fdspace.bcu-iasi.ro%2Fbitstream%2Fhandle%2F123456789%2F30667%2FVirban%2C%20Floarea%2C%20Aspecte%20privind%20structura%20vocabularului%20in%20cel%20mai%20vechi%20octoih%20in%20limba%20romana%20%28I%29%2C%20LR%2C%202015%2C%20An.%2064%2C%20Nr.%201%2C%20p.%2099-110.pdf.pdf%3Fsequence%3D1&isAllowed=y |access-date=5 September 2023 |website=dspace.bcu-iasi.ro |language=ro |archive-date=5 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230905194900/http://dspace.bcu-iasi.ro/static/web/viewer.html?file=http%3A%2F%2Fdspace.bcu-iasi.ro%2Fbitstream%2Fhandle%2F123456789%2F30667%2FVirban%2C%20Floarea%2C%20Aspecte%20privind%20structura%20vocabularului%20in%20cel%20mai%20vechi%20octoih%20in%20limba%20romana%20%28I%29%2C%20LR%2C%202015%2C%20An.%2064%2C%20Nr.%201%2C%20p.%2099-110.pdf.pdf%3Fsequence%3D1&isAllowed=y |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Modern Romanian ===
{{Main|Modern Romanian}}
[[File:Samuil Micu.jpg|thumb|right|[[Samuil Micu-Klein]]]]
The modern age of Romanian starts in 1780 with the printing in Vienna of a very important grammar book<ref name="books.google.ro"/> titled ''[[Elementa linguae daco-romanae sive valachicae]]''. The author of the book, [[Samuil Micu-Klein]], and the revisor, [[Gheorghe Șincai]], both members of the [[Transylvanian School]], chose to use [[Latin]] as the language of the text and presented the [[Romanian phonology|phonetical]] and [[Romanian grammar|grammatical]] features of Romanian in comparison to its ancestor.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.limbaromana.md/index.php?go=articole&n=3889 |title=N. Felecan – Considerations on the First Books of Romanian Grammar |access-date=24 October 2022 |archive-date=24 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221024212115/https://www.limbaromana.md/index.php?go=articole&n=3889 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Modern age of Romanian language can be further divided into three phases: pre-modern or modernizing between 1780 and 1830, modern phase between 1831 and 1880, and contemporary from 1880 onwards.

==== Pre-modern period ====
Beginning with the printing in 1780 of ''Elementa linguae daco-romanae sive valachicae'', the pre-modern phase was characterized by the publishing of school textbooks, appearance of first normative works in Romanian, numerous translations, and the beginning of a conscious stage of [[Re-latinization of Romanian|re-latinization]] of the language.<ref name="books.google.ro"/> Notable contributions, besides that of the [[Transylvanian School]], are the activities of [[Gheorghe Lazăr]], founder of the first Romanian school, and [[Ion Heliade Rădulescu]]. The end of this period is marked by the first printing of magazines and newspapers in Romanian, in particular [[Curierul Românesc]] and [[Albina Românească]].<ref name="SuarezWoudhuysen2013">{{cite book|author1=Michael J. F. Suarez|author2=H. R. Woudhuysen|title=The Book: A Global History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=odDYAQAAQBAJ&pg=PT753|accessdate=30 June 2016|date=24 October 2013|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-166875-3|pages=753–}}</ref>

[[Image:Rosenthal Rosetti Phrygian.jpeg|thumb|right|upright=1.27|[[Lithograph]] of a group portrait by [[Constantin Daniel Rosenthal]], showing Paris-based revolutionaries during the early 1840s. From left: Rosenthal (wearing a [[Phrygian cap]]), [[C. A. Rosetti]], {{interlanguage link|Vasile Mălinescu|ro}}]]

==== Modern period ====
Starting from 1831 and lasting until 1880 the modern phase is characterized by the development of literary styles: scientific, administrative, and [[belletristic]]. It quickly reached a high point with the printing of [[Dacia Literară]], a journal founded by [[Mihail Kogălniceanu]] and representing a literary society, which together with other publications like {{lang|ro|Propășirea}} and {{lang|ro|[[Gazeta de Transilvania]]}} spread the ideas of [[Romantic nationalism]] and later contributed to the formation of other societies that took part in the [[Revolutions of 1848]]. Their members and those that shared their views are collectively known in Romania as "of '48"({{lang|ro|pașoptiști}}), a name that was extended to the literature and writers around this time such as [[Vasile Alecsandri]], [[Grigore Alexandrescu]], [[Nicolae Bălcescu]], [[Timotei Cipariu]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sala |first=Marius |trans-title=From Latin to Romanian |title=De la Latină la Română] |publisher=Editura Pro Universitaria |year=2012 |isbn=978-606-647-435-1 |page=159 }}</ref>

Between 1830 and 1860 "transitional alphabets" were used, adding Latin letters to the [[Romanian Cyrillic alphabet]]. The Latin alphabet became official at different dates in Wallachia and Transylvania - 1860, and Moldova -1862.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199677108.001.0001 |title=The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages |date=2016-06-30 |page=95 |publisher=Oxford University PressOxford |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199677108.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-967710-8 |editor-last=Ledgeway |editor-first=Adam |editor-last2=Maiden |editor-first2=Martin |access-date=29 August 2023 }}</ref>

Following the [[unification of Moldavia and Wallachia]] further studies on the language were made, culminating with the founding of {{lang|ro|italic=no|Societatea Literară Română}}<!-- no interlanguage link, it redirects to the article on the Romanian Academy --> on 1 April 1866 on the initiative of [[C. A. Rosetti]], an academic society that had the purpose of standardizing the orthography, formalizing the grammar and (via a dictionary) vocabulary of the language, and promoting literary and scientific publications. This institution later became the [[Romanian Academy]].<ref>{{lang|ro|[https://acad.ro/institutia/istoric.html History of Romanian Academy]}}</ref>

[[File:Ion Creanga-Foto03.jpg|thumb|right|[[Ion Creangă]]]]

==== Contemporary period ====
The third phase of the modern age of Romanian language, starting from 1880 and continuing to this day, is characterized by the prevalence of the supradialectal form of the language, standardized with the express contribution of the school system and Romanian Academy, bringing a close to the process of literary language modernization and development of literary styles.<ref name="The Grammar of Romanian"/> It is distinguished by the activity of Romanian literature classics in its early decades: [[Mihai Eminescu]], [[Ion Luca Caragiale]], [[Ion Creangă (writer)|Ion Creangă]], [[Ioan Slavici]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sala |first=Marius |trans-title=From Latin to Romanian |title=De la Latină la Română] |publisher=Editura Pro Universitaria |year=2012 |isbn=978-606-647-435-1 |page=160 }}</ref>

The current orthography, with minor reforms to this day and using Latin letters, was fully implemented in 1881, regulated by the Romanian Academy on a fundamentally phonological principle, with few morpho-syntactic exceptions.<ref>Pană Dindelegan, Gabriela, [https://books.google.com/books?id=DlrPPUCQmk4C ''The Grammar of Romanian''], Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-964492-6, page 5</ref>

==== Modern history of Romanian in Bessarabia ====
The first [[Romanian grammar]] was published in Vienna in 1780.<ref name="Elementa" /> Following the [[Treaty of Bucharest (1812)|annexation of Bessarabia by Russia]] in 1812, Moldavian was established as an official language in the governmental institutions of [[Bessarabia]], used along with Russian,<ref>{{in lang|ru}}''Charter for the organization of the Bessarabian Oblast'', 29 April 1818, in "Печатается по изданию: Полное собрание законов Российской империи. Собрание первое.", Vol 35. ''1818'', [[Sankt Petersburg]], 1830, pg. 222–227. Available online at [http://www.hrono.info/dokum/moldav1818.html hrono.info] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120924141759/http://www.hrono.info/dokum/moldav1818.html |date=24 September 2012 }}</ref>
The publishing works established by Archbishop [[Gavril Bănulescu-Bodoni]] were able to produce books and liturgical works in Moldavian between 1815 and 1820.<ref>{{Cite book |last=King |first=Charles |title=The Moldovans: Romania, Russia, and the Politics of Culture |date=2000 |publisher=Hoover Institution Press |isbn=08-1799-792-X |location=Stanford, CA |pages=21–22 |language=en}}</ref>

Bessarabia during the 1812–1918 era witnessed the gradual development of [[bilingualism]]. Russian continued to develop as the official language of privilege, whereas Romanian remained the principal vernacular.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}}

The period from 1905 to 1917 was one of increasing linguistic conflict spurred by an increase in Romanian nationalism.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}} In 1905 and 1906, the Bessarabian {{lang|ru|[[zemstvo|zemstva]]}} asked for the re-introduction of Romanian in schools as a "compulsory language", and the "liberty to teach in the mother language (Romanian language)". At the same time, Romanian-language newspapers and journals began to appear, such as {{lang|ro|Basarabia}} (1906), {{lang|ro|Viața Basarabiei}} (1907), {{lang|ro|Moldovanul}} (1907), {{lang|ro|Luminătorul}} (1908), {{lang|ro|Cuvînt moldovenesc}} (1913), {{lang|ro|Glasul Basarabiei}} (1913). From 1913, the synod permitted that "the churches in [[Bessarabia]] use the Romanian language".<!--<ref name="lidia" />--> Romanian finally became the official language with the [[1923 Constitution of Romania|Constitution of 1923]].

=== Historical grammar ===
Romanian has preserved a part of the Latin [[declension]], but whereas [[Latin]] had six [[Grammatical case|case]]s, from a morphological viewpoint, Romanian has only three: the [[nominative]]/[[accusative]], [[genitive]]/[[dative case|dative]], and marginally the [[vocative]]. Romanian nouns also preserve the neuter [[Grammatical gender|gender]], although instead of functioning as a separate gender with its own forms in adjectives, the Romanian neuter became a mixture of masculine and feminine. The [[verb]] morphology of Romanian has shown the same move towards a compound [[perfect (grammar)|perfect]] and [[future tense]] as the other Romance languages. Compared with the other [[Romance languages]], during its evolution, Romanian simplified the original Latin [[Grammatical tense|tense]] system.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=D’hulst |first1=Yves |title=Balkan Syntax and Semantics |last2=Coene |first2=Martine |last3=Avram |first3=Larisa |date=2004 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing |isbn=978-90-272-2790-4 |editor-last=Mišeska Tomić |editor-first=Olga |location=Amsterdam |page=355 |language=en |chapter=Syncretic and Analytic Tenses in Romanian: The Balkan Setting of Romance |doi=10.1075/la.67.18dhu |quote=general absence of consecutio temporum.}}</ref>