The roadside rest area

[x-type]

before translating Numa Numa i understood only "un haiduc"
i also caught the word "voinic", but i thought it had completely different meaning

[Verso]

Yeah, hajduk and vojnik.

[x-type]

Originally Posted by Verso

Yeah, hajduk and vojnik.

i will never forget when i heard that song for the first time, i exactly remember that i was in car and in which street. the weather, the part of the day, everything. and at first i thought it was in some weird slovenian dialect, exactly because of haiduc and voinic romanian disco was still not popular here so i really didn't think of romanian language.

[cinxxx]

As I said, the Slavic influence is pretty big, think only on the Romanian YES=DA .
It used to be bigger, but after the great French import, many words of Slavic origin were discarded, and are now archaisms.

About Moldovan language, I have no idea, I'm not exactly sure it's recognized anywhere else out of Moldova as a separate language. You could call it Romanian dialect. But for Romanians, maybe excepting including Romanian part of Moldova, it can be hard to understand, because of strong accent (sounds much like Russian) and many regional words used only in that part. Mostly Moldovans, as I have met some, speak Moldovan, Romanian that's more close to standard language but with Moldovan accent, and Russian.

[g.spinoza]

I'm curious to know why did French have an impact so important in Romanian. Napoleon?

[Penn's Woods]

Originally Posted by cinxxx

...

About Moldovan language, I have no idea, I'm not exactly sure it's recognized anywhere else out of Moldova as a separate language. You could call it Romanian dialect. But for Romanians, maybe excepting including Romanian part of Moldova, it can be hard to understand, because of strong accent (sounds much like Russian) and many regional words used only in that part. Mostly Moldovans, as I have met some, speak Moldovan, Romanian that's more close to standard language but with Moldovan accent, and Russian.

I believe that during the Soviet period Moldovans (Moldavians, we said in English at the time) wrote in the Cyrillic alphabet? I thought that that was the reason, or at least the main reason, Moldavian was considered a separate language.

[bogdymol]

Originally Posted by NordikNerd

Are there any differences between the romanian & moldovan languages ?

Originally Posted by cinxxx

About Moldovan language, I have no idea, I'm not exactly sure it's recognized anywhere else out of Moldova as a separate language. You could call it Romanian dialect. But for Romanians, maybe excepting including Romanian part of Moldova, it can be hard to understand, because of strong accent (sounds much like Russian) and many regional words used only in that part. Mostly Moldovans, as I have met some, speak Moldovan, Romanian that's more close to standard language but with Moldovan accent, and Russian.

Come on, it's the same language... It's like American English vs. British English.

For us, Romanians, when we hear a person speaking Moldavian we imeddiatly recognise the funny accent used there. But there are no problems in understanding 99% of what they are saying. I had a classmate at the university which was from Rep. of Moldova and there were no problems in communicating with him. Also, sometimes I watched news from Moldavian TV stations and I had no problems in understanding.

[cinxxx]

Originally Posted by g.spinoza

I'm curious to know why did French have an impact so important in Romanian. Napoleon?

I have no idea, but since 1848 the French model was adopted in the Romanian states. We still have it now. Centralized national, unitary state, school system. They also decided there is to much Slavic in the language, including the Cyrillic alphabet, so they switched to Latin and also brought a lot of words from French. I'm guessing they wanted to reinforce the Latin character of the language.

Originally Posted by Penn's Woods

I believe that during the Soviet period Moldovans (Moldavians, we said in English at the time) wrote in the Cyrillic alphabet? I thought that that was the reason, or at least the main reason, Moldavian was considered a separate language.

Romanian was also written in Cyrillic before the reform in 1848. But that script should not be confused with the Russian one. You can google it, it was not the same.
After Moldova became SSR Republic, people were forced to speak and learn Russian, and the Russian Cyrillic alphabet was also forced, so people ended up writing Romanian in Russian Cyrillic.

[cinxxx]

Originally Posted by bogdymol

Come on, it's the same language... It's like American English vs. British English.

For us, Romanians, when we hear a person speaking Moldavian we imeddiatly recognise the funny accent used there. But there are no problems in understanding 99% of what they are saying. I had a classmate at the university which was from Rep. of Moldova and there were no problems in communicating with him. Also, sometimes I watched news from Moldavian TV stations and I had no problems in understanding.

Did you hear him speak with fellow Moldavian?
Because I did, and you don't understand it, especially when they speak fast. They use many unknown words, the accent and pronunciation is much stronger then when they speak with you.
It's the same when Bavarians here speak German so that "Prussians" understand it easier, and when they speak wit each other in full blown Bavarian. I spoke with someone and had no problems, and then she called his brother, and believe me, it was much harder to understand everything.

I once phoned a work colleague from Iasi and he spoke with strong accent and fast, and I really had problems getting his words, understood mostly from context.

[bogdymol]

Have you ever watched the Moldavian news? I can understand everything from them, although I find the accent funny.

And about the writing: it's 99,9% identical with the Romanian one.

[cinxxx]

Originally Posted by bogdymol

Have you ever watched the Moldavian news? I can understand everything from them, although I find the accent funny.

And about the writing: it's 99,9% identical with the Romanian one.

Again, they speak as close to no dialect as possible there.
Go to Moldova (Basarabia or the Romanian part) and listen them speak. The watch TV from there. You will see what I mean.

We have a friend here originating from Chisinau, and believe me, when she phones at home it's not the same as when speaking with us...

[hofburg]

Originally Posted by cinxxx

I have no idea, but since 1848 the French model was adopted in the Romanian states. We still have it now. Centralized national, unitary state, school system. They also decided there is to much Slavic in the language, including the Cyrillic alphabet, so they switched to Latin and also brought a lot of words from French. I'm guessing they wanted to reinforce the Latin character of the language.



Romanian was also written in Cyrillic before the reform in 1848. But that script should not be confused with the Russian one. You can google it, it was not the same.
After Moldova became SSR Republic, people were forced to speak and learn Russian, and the Russian Cyrillic alphabet was also forced, so people ended up writing Romanian in Russian Cyrillic.

I had few Romanian friends in Paris. It's interesting Paris is the first choice for students from Romania who want to study abroad, while slavic countries seem to prefer german cities.

[cinxxx]

Where were they from? Bucharest?

It's well known that the old kingdom was francophone, while Banat and Transylvania were closer to Austria-Hungary. I now no one that went to Paris, but have many colleagues that went to Germany/Austria.

[hofburg]

that's new to me. yes, they were from 100km around the Bucharest.

[cinxxx]

Originally Posted by hofburg

that's new to me. yes, they were from 100km around the Bucharest.

It's no wonder that Bucharest was called Little Paris, you even find a triumph Arch there.
While Timisoara was called Little Vienna.

[hofburg]

yes, I noticed that, Timisoara is so Austro-hungarian!




http://www.sheldonsquote.com/258-did-you-get-the-part-gif/

[Suburbanist]

Since people are all talking of different languages, I thought of presenting some videos of one of the most annoying songs ever to have reached top charts (# 1 in Netherlands and one of the top 5 in several other European countries this winter)

PS: I mean top adult charts, not the kids' one


.


If this hasn't arrived in your country, it probably will.

[cinxxx]

I so hate this stupid regulations here, I can barely see something on Youtube!

[Suburbanist]

Originally Posted by cinxxx

I so hate this stupid regulations here, I can barely see something on Youtube!

Get yourself a VPN, which allows you to watch unfiltered content (and also American broadcast sites like Hulu). I use Overplay (www.overplay.net), spend US$ 9,00/month

[ChrisZwolle]

Originally Posted by cinxxx

I so hate this stupid regulations here, I can barely see something on Youtube!

It's noticeable, the German version has barely 100,000 views while other versions usually have 10 - 20 times more views.

The video is mind-numbingly stupid, but it's kind of funny to see what noises animals make in other languages.