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SLAV CONTRIBUTION TO THE FORMATION OF THE ROMANIAN LANGUAGE

Influena elementului slav la formarea naionalitii romneti este att de evident, nct putem zice, fr exagerare, c nici nu poate fi vorba de popor romn nainte de absorbirea elementelor slave de ctre populaia btina n cursul secolelor VI - X. Ioan BOGDAN, acad., linguist

Bulgaria around 814 A.D.


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The ''Slavic influences on Romanian'' are especially noticeable and can be observed at all linguistic levels: lexis, phonetics, morphology and syntax. This situation is due to the migration of Slavic tribes who traversed the territory of present-day Romania during the early evolution of the language. This process of the introduction of Slavic in Dacia was similar to the appearance of various Germanic dialects in the Western Roman Empire, where Gallic Latin and Northern Italian dialects became strongly germanized. However, due to lower Romance-speaking populace in the East, Slavic remained spoken for much longer and did not die out immediately. This partly explains why spoken Romanian is not intelligible to speakers of Western Romance languages unless they attempt to learn it. And indeed, while Dacia was part of the Roman Empire for less than 2 centuries, various Slavic tribes crossed, ruled and settled the former Roman province from the 6th to the 12th century. Their presence was even stronger in Moldova and Bessarabia, where in the 16th centry Rusyn-speaking Slavs made up at least a third of the population. The Moldavian principality was thus refereed to as '''' (i.e. Russo-Vlahia). It is interesting to note that even though the Slavs migrated from the north, they were assimilated immediately north of the lower Danube. At the same time, they almost completely subsumed the Romanized population (the Vlachs) immediately south of Danube. Unlike in the West, Dacian Romance-speaking population was rural and did not preserve written Latin language. Therefore, it was the written Old Slavonic that originated around the Byzantine city of Salonika and quickly spread in use as the literary language of Vallachia and Moldavia. Modern Romania and Vallachia continue to be surrounded by the Slavic languages (with the exception of Hungarian after the 10th century) and thus have influenced Romanian through centuries of interaction. Early Slavic features in Romanian have primarily Balkan (Bulgarian) character, whereas later borrowings (especially in the modern Republic of Moldova, where the majority of the population continues to be bilingual or even multilingual), have Eastern European (mostly Russian and less frequently Ukrainian or Ruthenian) origin. Of great importance was the influence of Old Church Slavonic, as it was the liturgical language of the Romanian Orthodox Church (compared to western and central European countries which used Latin) from the Middle Ages, until the 18th century. However, Latin did get an important position in Transylvania after the 12th century, a part of the western-styled feudal Kingdom of Hungary at that moment. Liturgical Romanian was first officially used there after the union of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Transylvania with Rome, giving birth to the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church in 1698 (the
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most widespread denomination in Transylvania until World War II. This caused Romanian to lose some of its Slavic borrowings, as the first standardization (among others the switch to the Latin alphabet) was done by coala Ardelean, founded in Transylvania. However, the capital of independent Romania (Bucharest) was located in the Eastern part of the country where Hungarian, German, and Latin influences were minimal.

Slavic borrowings Two types of Slavic borrowings can be distinguished in Romanian. First came everyday spoken words that describe animals, emotional states, as well as certain grammatical features that appear in both spoken and written Romanian language. These Slavic features were incorporated into Balkan Latin through everyday contact of Romanian speakers with early Slav settlers. Then, with the spread of Orthodox Christianity and the Cyrillic alphabet, literary high-style words of the official Church Slavonic were introduced to supplement Romanian with terms for abstract concepts that were not present in the local Romance dialect. Writing in old Romanian language first appeared in the Cyrillic alphabet (a modified version of the Greek alphabet) in the 16th century and existed in this form in Romania until 1860s. In Bessarabia (under Russian suzerainty) the tradition continued until 31 August 1989 (except for the interwar period of Romanian occupation, 19181940). The switch (as well as the related relatinization) caused additional tension in the unrecognized trilingual republic of Transnistria, which has decided to preserve the age-old tradition of writing in Cyrillic. At least a quarter of the basic spoken Romanian lexis is based on common Slavic roots such as: ''a iubi'' "to love", ''a citi'' "to read", ''glas'' "voice", ''nevoie'' "need", ''cinstit'' "honest", ''prieten'' "friend", ''trebuie'' "necessary". This situation is akin to the number and usage of French borrowings in English. Slavic borrowings are especially frequent when strong emotional terms or feelings are involved: ''sil'' "compulsion", ''vin'' "guilt", ''jale'' "sorrow", ''mil'' "compassion", ''boal'' "illness, disease", ''iubire'' "love", ''dragoste'' "love", ''slav'' "glory", ''ndejde'' "hope", etc. Slavicderived adjectives and participles seem to have been borrowed in droves and form a whole lexical layer: ''slab'', ''drag'', ''bolnav'', ''bogat'', ''prost'', ''drgu'', ''cinstit'', ''iscusit'', ''iubit'', ''jalnic'', ''zadarnic'', ''vrednic'', ''obraznic'', ''voinic'', ''groaznic'', ''harnic'', ''stranic'', ''darnic'', ''milostiv'', ''mucenic''. Romanian uses numerous Slavic verbs to describe various actions and changes of state: ''a lovi'' "to hit", ''a goni'' "to chase", ''a topi'' "to melt", ''a gsi'' "to find", ''a trezi'' "to wake up", ''a pomeni'' "to mention", etc.
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Many others borrowings exist in different spheres of life: ''sil'' "force", ''rzboi'' "war", ''noroi'' "dirt", ''bogie'' "richness", ''trup'' "body", ''plod'' "fetus", ''oglind'' "mirror", ''copit'' "hoof", ''zori'' "dawn", ''zpad'' "snow", ''ceas'' "time", ''nisip'' "sand", ''vreme'' "weather", etc. Compare essentially the same, but less numerous Germanic borrowings in Western Romance languages such as in Spanish: ''guerra'' "war" (Slavic rzboi in Romanian), ''rico'' "rich" (Slavic bogat), ''ganso'' "goose" (Slavic gsc), ''buscar'' "to search" (Slavic ''a gsi'' - "to find" in Romanian).

Cattle-breeders Until the arrival of the Slavs, the Romance-speaking Vlachs were rural semi-nomadic cattle breeders as most Romanian vocabulary related to cattle and cattle-breeding is of Latin origin. In contrast, most tools and utensils related to agronomy (as well as urban life) have Slavic names as a result of being introduced by the agricultural Slavic population: ''lopat'' "spade", ''dalt'' "chisel", ''plug'' "plough", ''topor'' "axe", ''sit'' "sieve", ''nicoval'' "anvil", ''coas'' "scythe", ''tocil'' "grindstone", ''grebl'' "rake", ''sanie'' "sleigh", ''potcoav'' "horseshoe", ''gard'' "zabor", ''zabrea'' "trellis". The names of many animals, birds, fish, and plants also made a transition from the Slavic: ''vrabie'' "sparrow" (), ''lebd'' "swan" (), ''veveri'' "squirrel" (e), ''vidr'' "otter" (), ''tiuc'' "pike" (), ''rac'' "crayfish" (), ''pianjen'' () "spider", ''lobod'' "pig-weed", ''bob'' "seed, bean" (), ''morcov'' "carrot" (), ''sfecl'' () "beets", ''hreni'' () "water cress", ''rs'' () "lynx". Various onomatopoeic verbs and other words, such as ''a plesci'' "splash" (compare Slavic ), ''a opti'' "whisper" (compare Slavic o, ) ''a hui'' "echo" (), ''tropot'' "clatter" (), ''a clocoti'' "to boil over" (), are closer to their Slavic than their Western Romance equivalents (compare Spanish: chapoteo/rocin; susurro/murmurro; eco; pataleo/trapa trapa). Certain interjections, such as ''ba!'' "oh yes!" and ''iat!'' "Look!" (< ), are taken from the Old Slavic (mostly Old Bulgarian) language. Borrowings from Old Church Slavonic are also very numerous in certain lexical fields and include the following: ''a izbvi'' < '''' "to deliver", ''venic'' < '''' "forever, perpetual, undying", ''sfnt'' < '''' "holy, saint", ''a sluji'' < '''' "to serve", ''amvon'' < '''' "pulpit", ''rai'' < '''' "paradise", ''iad'' < '''' "hell", ''proroc'' < ''''
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"prophet", ''hram'' < '''' "church", ''duhovnic'' "confessor", ''dihanie'' < '''' "wild beast, monster".

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Slavic terminology is almost exclusive when used to assign titles and ranks to medieval nobility (''boier'', ''cneaz'', ''rob'', ''slug'', ''a sluji''). It is also used to describe urban life and finances which emerged with the arrival of the Slavs: ''a plti'' "pay", ''trg'' "market", ''rnd'' "row", ''sticl'' "glass". Seafaring concepts are no exception: ''corabie'' ("ship"), ''lotc'' ("boat"), ''ostrov'' ("island") and ''vsl'' ("oar") all come from their Slavic equivalents virtually unaltered.

Church Slavonic Many Romanian names were also influenced by the use of Slavonic in Church and in administration. Over time, especially after the Latin alphabet was adopted, some Slavic words became archaic, but others such as the affirmative particle ''da'' "yes", clearly of Slavic origin, have maintained a widespread use. In general, most Slavic borrowings have become well incorporated into Romanian and are no longer perceived as foreign. In fact, many Romanian words occur as a natural combination of Slavic and Romance elements: ''devreme'' "early", ''ajderea'' "likewise", ''a se mbolnvi'' "to fall ill", ''a mpleti'' "to weave", ''a nvrti'' "to turn, rotate", ''a mbogi'' "to enrich", ''nebunie'' "craziness", ''rzbunare'' "revenge", ''rscruce'' "crossing", ''bunic'' "granny", ''porti'' "wicket", ''romnc'' "Romanian woman", ''evreiesc'' "Jewish", ''neateptat'' "unexpected", ''neruinat" "unashamed", ''citire'' "reading", ''iubit'' "girlfriend", ''iubesc'' "I love", ''prostie'' "foolishness", ''hulubre'' "dove-cot", ''slbiciune'' "weakness", ''milos'' "charitable". The indirect Slavic influence on Romanian words and expressions is also important. Many words and expressions were calqued from their Slavic equivalents or created to reproduce the patterns of Slavic speech. Words such as ''suflet'' ("soul") copy the logic of the Slavic word '''', and the original Latin ''anima'' shifted its meaning to ''inim'' ("heart"). The development of the Romanian particle ''i'' ("and") hints at the usage of the Slavic particle ''da'', which is used in both senses ("yes" and "and"). Other examples include ''lun'' (meaning "month" and "the moon") and ''lume'' (originally "light"), used in the sense of "the world". Certain expressions (such as ''din topor'', "unrefined") also tend to be similar to their Slavic equivalents: '' = ''.
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Another prominent feature of modern Romanian that has resulted from intense contact with Slavic speakers is the formation of numerals from 11 to 20. For instance, ''unsprezece'' "eleven" is based on three components "un+spre+zece" literally "one above ten". Even though the elements themselves are Romance in origin, the model itself is word-by-word imitation of a typical Slavic "++" literally "one above ten" and is not found in the West where original whole Latin words were preserved (Spanish: once, doce, quince, veinte). As a result of the long written Church Slavonic tradition, most Slavic borrowings in Romanian are surprisingly well-preserved phonetically and changed little over the centuries. Some phonetic adjustment has taken place in certain cases: ohileti > a ofili, ljubiti> a iubi, protiva > potriv, podkova > potcoav. Importantly, many Slavic borrowing changed their original meaning after being incorporated into Romanian speech. Most notable examples are: ''a gsi'' "to find" < "to extinguish", ''a lovi'' "to strike" < "to catch", ''clip'' "moment" < "rhythmic movement". Slavic speech patterns have also influenced borrowing from other languages, for instance Latin ''schola/scola'' > Slav. , ''shkola'' > modern Romanian ''coal'' "school". Had the original Latin word been preserved in Dacia, it would have been pronounced "scoar". Slavic borrowings in Romanian help reveal the historical development of the language, although it is sometimes difficult to determine cause and effect in some developments. Whatever the cause or effect, the migration of Slavs separated the Balkan Latin from Western Romance and a proto-Romanian language emerged. By the sixth century the shift of the intervocal l>r (''solis>soare''; ''an, am, in, im > n, n; si>i'') stopped; new borrowings from Old Slavonic do not undergo the process: > ''sil'' instead of the hypothetical ''ir'''. New developments, such as sv>sf and h>f, occur instead.

Dialect and style The share of Slavic words in Romanian differs by dialect and style. The number of Slavicisms is higher in border regions with significant Slavicspeaking populations. In spoken Romanian, their share is between 30 percent in Romania and up to 40 percent in Moldova, where Russian borrowings and constructions are common (compare ''Vreau un holodilnic'' and ''Vreau s cumpr un frigider''). In written Romanian, their share is somewhat lower (around 30 percent); Latin-based words represent around 55 percent, with the remaining percent of Greek, Hungarian, and Turkic origin and from the Dacian substratum.
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In modern literary Romanian, Slavonic influences are evident in phonetics and morphology, heavily influenced by Slavic speakers. Phonetic Slavicisms include the iotation of the initial -e in words such as ''el'', ''ea'', ''este'' pronounced as [jel], [ja], [jeste] (compare Spanish: ''el'', ''ella'', ''estamos'', without the Slavic iotation effect) as well as the palatalization of consonants in the plural form: ''pom-pomi'', ''lup-lupi'' pronounced as [pom ] and [lup] etc. (compare the original Italian sound in ''lupi''). Besides, numerous Slavic prefixes and suffixes such as ''ne-'', ''-c'', ''-i'', ''rs-/rz-'', have become an integral part of the Romanian lexis. Especially ''c'' and ''-i'' are important markers of the feminine gender in Romanian morphology: ''lup-lupoaic'', ''italian-italianc'', ''actor-actri'', etc. Unlike Western Romance languages, Romanian is also quite unusual in the way that its nouns often undergo internal vowel modifications while being inflected: fat-fete, ghea-gheuri, etc. This feature is quite common in the neighboring Slavic languages: -, -, -. These changes indicate that unlike later arriving Hungarians, local Slavs who settled in the Vlach lands learned Balkan Latin. On the one hand, this process infused Romanian with Slavic features and on the other, led to the eventual assimilation of Slavs north of the Danube. Noteworthy, the original Latin sound [h] was lost in early Balkan Latin between the 3rd and 5th centuries A.D., just like in the Western Romance languages: ''hibernum'' > Rom. ''iarn'' and Spanish ''invierno'' "winter". However, Slavic interference after the 6th century lead to a reintroduction of the Slavic hard ''h'' sound into Romanian. Thus, most Romanian words beginning with ''h'' are Slavic in origin: ''hram'', ''hran'', ''hulubrie'', ''hrean''. The addition of numerous Slavic verb stems ending in -i ( ''a iubi'', ''a citi'', ''a goni'', ''a izbi'', ''a rni'', ''a primi'') and - (''a posomor'', ''a omor'', ''a tr'') has led to a dramatic expansion of this conjugation pattern in Romanian, which is extremely productive: ''a opri'', ''a zdrobi'', ''a toropi'', '' a osteni'', ''a podi'', ''a vrui'', ''a beli'', ''a cerni'', ''a plesni'', ''a coji'', ''a oci'', ''a nscoci'', ''a grohi'', ''a glumi'', ''a trudi''. By contrast, in Western Romance languages, the number of verbs in the original Latin "-i" group shrank with time. Certain indirect sentence structures such as ''mi-e bine'' and ''mi-e frig'' (literally "to me is cold") are also Slavic-influenced (compare ''hladno mi je'', " "). In the West, direct constructions are used instead (estoy bien). The preservation of cases and the neutral gender has also occurred under Slavic influence, and is not observed in modern Western Romance. The tendency of late Latin was to drop all noun cases and
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redistribute the neutral gender between masculine and feminine (as in all modern Western Romance languages). Slavic influence has kept Romanian from losing these features. Romanian has also developed a Slavic-influenced vocative case, ending in ''-o'': ''Fetio!''.

Romania and Moldavia The sustainability of Slavic elements in Romanian is also evident in the toponymics of Romania and Moldova. Despite the fact that Dacia was a core of the empire's influence, the Romance-speaking population left the original Roman cities after the decline of the Roman Empire and shifted to seminomadic cattle-breeding. As a result, no original Roman place names survived north of the Danube. Newly-founded settlements were largely a result of Slavic (and, later, Hungarian) activities. Slavic place names are found throughout Romania and Moldova: Bala, Bahna, Bela, Bistra, Bistre, Bistria, Bc, Breaza, Bucovina, Cerna, Cernavod, Corabia, Cozia, Craiova, Crasna, Crivina, Dmbovia, Dobra, Dolj, Dumbrava, Glod, Grditea, Gorj, Holod, Hulub, Ialomia, Ilfov, Jijia, Lipova, Lovite, Moldova, Novaci, Ocna, Ohaba, Orova, Ostrovu, Pociovalite, Predeal, Prilog, Potcoava, Putna, Rmnic, Rodna, Rus, Ruscova, Slatina, Snagov, Sohodol, Straja, Talna, Trgovite, Trnava, Tecuci, Topila, Topolnia, Topolog, Vlcea, Vrtop, Vidra, Vlaca, Vodia, Vorona, Zlatna South of the Danube (where most Slavs eventually settled) the Vlach population was outnumbered and eventually assimilated. The processes of linguistic exchange in the Balkans appear to be unequal most likely due to social and political circumstances. While Romanian exhibits significant Slavic influences, fewer Romance traces are found in the Slavic languages. Still, Balkan Latin influences have caused a simplification of declension in Bulgarian and Macedonian as well as strengthened certain analytical features and constructions in these languages. Overtime, Romanian, Bulgarian and Albanian developed typical "Balkan" grammar and phonetics while forming the core of the so called Balkan linguistic union.

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