Editing Romanian language (section)

==Overview==

The history of the Romanian language started in the [[Roman province]]s north of the [[Jireček Line]] in [[Classical antiquity]] but there are 3 main hypotheses about its exact territory: the autochthony thesis (it developed in left-Danube Dacia only), the discontinuation thesis (it developed in right-Danube provinces only), and the "as-well-as" thesis that supports the language development on both sides of the Danube.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Breu |first=Walter |date=23 March 2022 |title=Romance in Contact with Slavic in Southern and South-Eastern Europe |url=https://oxfordre.com/linguistics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.001.0001/acrefore-9780199384655-e-449 |website=Oxford Research Encyclopedias |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.449 |isbn=978-0-19-938465-5 |access-date=8 August 2023 |archive-date=26 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926064340/https://oxfordre.com/linguistics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.001.0001/acrefore-9780199384655-e-449 |url-status=live }}</ref> Between the 6th and 8th century, following the accumulated tendencies inherited from the vernacular spoken in this large area and, to a much smaller degree, the influences from [[Substrate in Romanian|native dialects]], and in the context of a lessened power of the Roman central authority the language evolved into [[Common Romanian]]. This [[proto-language]] then came into close contact with the [[Slavic migrations to Southeastern Europe|Slavic languages]] and subsequently divided into [[Aromanian language|Aromanian]], [[Megleno-Romanian language|Megleno-Romanian]], [[Istro-Romanian language|Istro-Romanian]], and Daco-Romanian.<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=13 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Brâncuș |first=Grigore |trans-title=Introduction to the History of Romanian Language |title=Introducere în istoria limbii române] |publisher=Editura Fundației România de Mâine |year=2005 |isbn=973-725-219-5  |page=16 }}</ref> Due to limited attestation between the 6th and 16th century, entire stages from its history are re-constructed by researchers, often with proposed relative chronologies and loose limits.<ref>[[Gabriela Pană Dindelegan|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, pages 3 and 4</ref>

From the 12th or 13th century, official documents and religious texts were written in [[Old Church Slavonic]], a language that had a similar role to [[Medieval Latin]] in Western Europe. The oldest dated text in Romanian is [[Neacșu's letter|a letter]] written in 1521 with [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic letters]], and until late 18th century, including during the development of printing, the same alphabet was used. The period after 1780, starting with the writing of its first grammar books, represents the modern age of the language, during which time the [[Latin script|Latin alphabet]] became official, the literary language was standardized, and a large number of words from [[Neo-Latin|Modern Latin]] and other [[Romance languages]] entered the lexis.

In the process of language evolution from fewer than 2500 attested words from [[Late antiquity|Late Antiquity]] to a [[Romanian lexis|lexicon]] of over 150,000 words in its contemporary form,<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=44 }}</ref> Romanian showed a high degree of lexical permeability, reflecting contact with [[Thraco-Dacian]], [[Slavic languages]] (including [[Old Church Slavonic|Old Slavic]], [[Serbian language|Serbian]], [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]], [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], and [[Russian language|Russian]]), [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[German language|German]], [[Turkish language|Turkish]], and to languages that served as cultural models during and after the [[Age of Enlightenment]], in particular [[French language|French]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Schulte |first=Kim |editor1-last=Haspelmath |editor1-first=Martin |editor2-last=Tadmor |editor2-first=Uri |title=Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |year=2009 |pages=231–250 |chapter=Loanwords in Romanian |isbn=978-3-11-021843-5}}</ref> This lexical permeability is continuing today with the introduction of [[English language|English]] words.<ref name="The Grammar of Romanian">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>

Yet while the overall lexis was enriched with foreign words and internal constructs, in accordance with the history and development of the society and the diversification in semantic fields, the fundamental lexicon—the core [[vocabulary]] used in everyday conversation—remains governed by inherited elements from the [[Latin]] spoken in the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] provinces bordering [[Danube]], without which no coherent sentence can be made.<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 |pages=63–64 }}</ref>