Varieties of the Romanian language
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Romanian dialects/varieties are not as varied as in many other Romance languages. Romanians themselves refer to them as accents or graiuri (speeches/varieties) rather than dialects. The differences between the varieties of Daco-Romanian are small[1] and mainly in vocabulary and in phonology, as the grammar is almost identical all over the area inhabited by Romanians. This makes the Romanian language mutually intelligible over the entire territory inhabited by Romanians, including Moldova.
Romanian is divided into several "graiuri" ('speeches'), delimited in approximately the following regions:
- the northern varieties - Moldavia, Banat and most of Transylvania:
- Banat (bănăţeană) --- also spoken in northeastern parts of Central Serbia
- Maramureş (maramureşeană)
- Moldavia (moldoveneşte) -- also spoken in the northern part of Dobruja by settlers from Moldavia (including refugees from Bessarabia)
- Ardeal (Transylvania) (ardeleneşte)
- the southern varieties - in Wallachia, the southern Transylvania (Făgăraş and Braşov areas), and the southern part of Dobruja:
- Muntenia (munteneşte) -- spoken in the central and eastern parts of Wallachia, including Bucharest, and the southern part of Dobruja; this has become the basis of the standard language.
- Oltenia (olteneşte) -- western part of Wallachia, also spoken in northeastern parts of Central Serbia and northern Bulgaria
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[edit] References
- ^ Encyclopedia Britannica, entry on "Romanian"
