Romanian language
| Romanian | |
|---|---|
| Daco-Romanian | |
| limba română, românește, română | |
| Pronunciation | [roˈmɨnə] |
| Native to | Romania, Moldova |
| Region | Southeastern Europe Eastern Europe Central Europe |
| Ethnicity | |
Native speakers | 22 million (2020) |
Early forms | |
Standard forms | |
| Dialects | |
| |
| Official status | |
Official language in | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Regulated by | Romanian Academy |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | ro |
| ISO 639-2 | rum (B) ron (T) |
| ISO 639-3 | ron |
| Glottolog | roma1327 |
| Linguasphere | (varieties: 51-AAD-ca to -ck) 51-AAD-c (varieties: 51-AAD-ca to -ck) |
Blue: region where Romanian is the dominant language. Cyan: areas with a notable minority of Romanian speakers. | |
Distribution of the Romanian language in Romania, Moldova and surroundings | |
Romanian (obsolete spelling: Roumanian; endonym: limba română [ˈlimba roˈmɨnə] ⓘ, or românește [romɨˈneʃte], lit. 'in Romanian') is the official and main language of Romania and Moldova. Romanian is part of the Eastern Romance sub-branch of Romance languages, a linguistic group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin which separated from the Western Romance languages in the course of the period from the 5th to the 8th centuries. To distinguish it within the Eastern Romance languages, in comparative linguistics it is called Daco-Romanian as opposed to its closest relatives, Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian, and Istro-Romanian. It is also spoken as a minority language by stable communities in the countries surrounding Romania (Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Ukraine), and by the large Romanian diaspora. In total, it is spoken by 25 million people as a first language.
Romanian was also known as Moldovan in Moldova, although the Constitutional Court of Moldova ruled in 2013 that "the official language of Moldova is Romanian". On 16 March 2023, the Moldovan Parliament approved a law on referring to the national language as Romanian in all legislative texts and the constitution. On 22 March, the president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, promulgated the law.