Editing Romanian language (section)

=== 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 as well as in other historical documents written in Romanian at that time such as {{lang|ro|{{ill|Letopisețul Țării Moldovei|ro|lt=Cronicile Țării Moldovei}}}} (''The Chronicles of the land of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>