Confusing ROMANIAN language with MOLDOVAN

MOLDOVAN   Sun Jan 17, 2010 11:42 am GMT
Many people asked me why Romanian language sometimes sounds like Sicilian Italian, but few times sounds like Russian? Well, the answer is MOLDOVAN version sounds like Russian, not Romanian.

The Moldovan Language of the Republic of Moldova is basically a Romanian language BUT is spoken with a heavy Russian accent.

MOLDOVA was a region inhabited by Romanians but half of MOLDOVA was annexed by RUSSIA in 1812 and was part of SOVIET UNION, its official language was RUSSIAN.

The Soviet Moldova became an independent nation in 1992 when the SOVIET UNION dissolved. The Official language was changed back to MOLDOVAN.

After nearly 200 years of Russification the MOLDOVAN language (a Romanian dialect) became heavily influenced by the Russian language.

MOLDOVAN of today is still a Romanian language mutually intelligible.
But the MOLDOVAN spoken in the Republic of Moldova, sounds like Russian because of the RUSSIFICATION, heavy Russian accent, and it uses some Russian words.

So when you hear a ROMANIAN dialect that sounds SLAVIC, that is 100% MOLDOVAN from the Republic of MOLDOVA an EX-SOVIET STATE.

LISTEN TO Standard Romanian from Romania

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMHLiCmZBro&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9PzkpSToaw

MOLDOVAN - Moldovan president speaking Moldovan and Russian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv4Gdqcu5Z4
Franco   Sun Jan 17, 2010 11:59 am GMT
i agree with u.
romanian sounds like italian, open vowels,slow speech,effeminate voice,i cant take it as russian...
Dan   Sun Jan 17, 2010 12:41 pm GMT
It is not a coincidence that Romanian sounds like the Southern dialects of Italian - it happens because all these languages/dialects were formed in regions inhabited by latinized population under Greek/Byzantine dominance (or heavy Greek/Byzantine cultural influence). In other words these languages were spoken by latinized populations that also spoke Greek (a thousand years ago), hence the common sounds.

Now, Moldovan has a heavy Russian accent, simply because it is spoken by many native Russians/Ukrainians. If half of the US population was made of Russian native speakers (like it is the case with Rep of Moldova) then American English would have had a heavy Russian accent. Mind you, Moldovan is still proper Romanian, just that the syntax is sometimes unusual (yet grammatically correct, Romanian can be very liberal with the syntax) and from time to time Romanian words are replaced randomly with Russian words.

So, if you are able to distinguish Romanian and notice a Russian accent you can be pretty sure the speaker is Moldovan.
Dracula   Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:39 am GMT
A lot of Moldovans have Romanian passports, so they may insist they are Romanians and speak Romanian. Also because Romania joined the European Union, millions of Moldovans applied for Romanian citizenship to gain the EU Citizenship and escape from the Moldovan Russian puppet state.

Also many Moldovans have Russian citizenship as well, some of them have multiple citizenship, Romanian, Moldovan and Russian.
Moldovan accent is very heavy indeed, unmistakable to any Romanian and many foreigners, but the problem is Moldovans use random Russian words Romanians don't understand!

Moldovan is like African English mixed with random local African language and heavy African accent. Almost all Moldovans are bilingual, speaking Moldovan and Russian.
to Baldewin   Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:49 am GMT
Moldovan and Romanian are like West Flemish and Brabantian Flemish.
andrei   Sun Jan 24, 2010 12:22 pm GMT
Dan, you made a little mistake: Russians are not half of the Moldovan but only 5%. There are also Ukrainians (8%), Gagauz, Bulgarians etc. Moldovans (Romanians) represent 78% of the total population of Moldova.
Penza   Sun Jan 24, 2010 9:17 pm GMT
<<Dan, you made a little mistake: Russians are not half of the Moldovan but only 5%. There are also Ukrainians (8%), Gagauz, Bulgarians etc. Moldovans (Romanians) represent 78% of the total population of Moldova. >>


That's ethnically. But there are a lot of Romanians, Moldovans, Ukrainians whose native language is Russian.
Ville Platte   Mon Jan 25, 2010 6:08 pm GMT
I think the real question is: why are there so many Youtube clips of old Romanian weather broadcasts?
Agamemnon   Mon Jan 25, 2010 8:16 pm GMT
"I think the real question is: why are there so many Youtube clips of old Romanian weather broadcasts?"

The clips are listed under HOT ROMANIAN GIRLS (Romanian tv presenters are very hot)

Anyway, what about the autonomous region of Moldova, Transnistria the unrecognized illegal state sponsored by the Russian army. A Russian mess.

30% of Transnistrian population are trapped Moldovan citizens...
Is Romanian still banned in Transnistria?
transnistrian romanian   Tue Jan 26, 2010 1:38 am GMT
"30% of Transnistrian population are trapped Moldovan citizens...
Is Romanian still banned in Transnistria? "

Not quiet banned but isolated.
The official language in Transnistria is Russian! Public education in the Romanian language is done using the Soviet-originated Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet. The usage of the Latin script (the norm) was restricted to only 6 schools. Four of these schools were forcibly closed by the authorities, who claimed this was due to the refusal of the schools to apply for official accreditation.These schools were later registered as private schools and reopened. This process may have been accelerated by pressure from the European Union

The OSCE mission to Moldova has urged local authorities in the Transnistrian city of Rîbniţa to return a confiscated building to the Moldovan Latin script school located in the city. The unfinished building was nearing completion in 2004, when Transnistria took control of it during that year's school crisis

In November 2005 Ion Iovcev, the principal of a Romanian-language school in Transnistria and active advocate for human rights as well as a critic of the Transnistrian leadership, received threatening calls that he attributed to his criticism of the separatist regime
Freedom!   Tue Jan 26, 2010 2:12 am GMT
Freedom for Pridnestrovie!
Paul   Tue Jan 26, 2010 5:17 am GMT
...i was always confused by the comments about Romanian sounding "slavic". Sure there are lots of slavic origin words, but it doesn't sound slavic phonetically. To me it sounds like a very typical romance language, and I can't distinguish it from Italian.
random   Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:24 pm GMT
I agree Romanian sounds almost exactly like Italian but there are more "sh" noises and dipthongs, I could see how people hear the slavicness in it, probably because of all the "sh" I still love it though :)
andros   Fri Jan 29, 2010 11:52 pm GMT
Yeah, as far as phonetics goes, it doesn't sound Slavic to me. Here's part of a recital of a poem by Mihai Eminescu called Scrisoarea a Treia in standard literary Romanian as an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OljoUTbDLC0
Andros   Sat Jan 30, 2010 2:03 am GMT
It doesn't sounds standard literary Romanian; it seems to me that the recital has a fine accent what I don't realy know whom region to atribute. Se below these recitals in standard Romanian.

ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08Ov_GoJHPk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ti8BUx07bA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBgJCryHIT8&feature=related

and here an imptoreisve interpretation of a very old Romanian song, by
an famous Italian singer: Toto Cutugno; with the exception of "mea" and meu", the pronunciation was no different at all of a "vero" standard speaking Romanian; hat off, Toto!