Romance and Slavic Languages Textbook PDF

The Romance languages The Romance languages are a branch of Indo-European languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin, the colloquial form of Latin spoken in the Roman Empire. Latin belongs to the Italic branch and was spoken in central and southern Italy, with subgroups including the Latino-Faliscian...

The Romance languages The Romance languages are a branch of Indo-European languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin, the colloquial form of Latin spoken in the Roman Empire. Latin belongs to the Italic branch and was spoken in central and southern Italy, with subgroups including the Latino-Faliscian and Sabellian branches, which include the Oscian and Umbrian languages. The Romance languages are typologically relatively homogeneous, meaning that they share many similarities. This has led to the creation of a 'Romance language type', which describes the common features of these languages. LANGUAGE DISTRIBUTION NATIVE SPEAKERS Spanish (Castellano, Spain, CentralandSouthAmerica, Equatorial 400.000.000 Español) Guinea, Philippines, USA Portuguese (with Brazilian Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Madeira, 210.000.000 Português) Azores French (Français) France, southern Belgium, Luxembourg, 205.000.000 Switzerland (western cantons), Antilles, Canada, in former French and Belgian colonies of Africa Italian (Italiano) Italy, Switzerland(southerncantons), Croatia, 70.000.000 Slovenia Romanian (Română), with Romania, Moldova, (Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, 30.000.000 Moldavian USA, Canada Catalan (Català) Catalonia, Andorra, BalearicIslands, Valencia, 10.000.000 Sardinia (L'Alguer) Galician (Galego) Galicia (Spain) 3.000.000 Occitan (Occità) Southern France, Monaco, peripheral areas of 2.800.000 Italy (Piedmont) and Spain (Arantal in Catalonia with Aranese) Furlanian (Furlan) Friuli (Italy) 350.000 Romansh (Graubünden Swiss Canton Grisons/Graubünden 35-40.000 Romansh),Rumantsch (Romontsch/Rumauntsch) Ladin Italy 30-40.000 (Ladin Dolomitan) Classification of the Romance languages The Romance languages are divided into subgroups based on both linguistic and geographical criteria. However, a problem arises because some Romance languages are listed as independent languages, while others are considered dialects, depending on the source. This is because some Romance languages do not have a single standard language and are mainly used alongside another standard language in informal contexts (diglossia). The term 'diglossia' was introduced by C.A. Ferguson in 1959 to describe a stable form of social bilingualism. In diglossic situations, there is a clear functional distribution between a socially 'low' language variety and a 'high' variety, which is typically the standard language. The high variety is more complex, codified, standardised, socially prestigious and used in formal speech and writing. The term has been extended to non-genetically related languages and to all situations where two language varieties are used in functionally different contexts. With the exception of Sephardic and Anglo-Norman, the languages listed here developed directly from spoken Latin in a temporal and spatial continuum, forming a spatial continuum in Europe 1 (with the exception of Romanian). This temporal and spatial continuity is sometimes referred to as the 'Romanian continuum', particularly because of the strong similarities between Italian, Ibero- Romance and Occitan. Broad classification based on phonetic, morphological, geographical criteria Western Romance (Ibero-Romance, Gallo-Romance, Rhaeto-Romance): sonorization or extinction of intervocalic stop sounds e.g. Spanish fuego Romanain foc, ‘fire’ Eastern Romance (Balkan-Romance, Italo-Romance): loss of the final [s], cf. Ital. sapete vs. Span. sabeis ‘you know’; Ital. le case vs. Span las casas ‘the houses’. Figure 1 Chart of Romance languages based on structural and comparative criteria, not on socio-functional ones. FP: Franco-Provençal, IR: Istro-Romanian. Number of Languages Because it is difficult to assign rigid categories to phenomena such as languages, which exist on a continuum, estimates of the number of modern Romance languages vary. Dalby, for example, lists 23, based on the criterion of mutual intelligibility. These and other current living languages and one extinct language, Dalmatian, are listed below. 2 Ibero-Romance Iberian Romance languages East Iberian (alternatively West Iberian classified as Gallo- Romance languages) Catalanic Occitanic Asturleonese Castilian Galician-Portuguese Pyrenean–Mozarabic Catalan Gardiol Asturian Spanish Fala Navarro-Aragonese† Mozarabic† Judaeo-Catalan† Occitan Cantabrian Judaeo-Spanish Galician Aragonese Shuadit† Extremaduran Judaeo-Portuguese† Judaeo-Aragonese† Leonese Portuguese Mirandese Occitano-Romance The Catalan/Valencian, Occitan (lenga d'oc), and Gascon languages form a group spoken in the southern part of France, eastern Spain, Andorra, Monaco, parts of Italy, and historically in other regions. The classification of these languages is debated both linguistically and politically. Some consider Occitan and Catalan/Valencian as Gallo-Romance languages, while others include Aragonese as part of the Ibero-Romance languages. The discussion is influenced by territorial and historical factors. The unity of the languages of the Iberian Peninsula has been advocated by scholars like Ramón Menéndez Pidal and Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke. Aragonese is sometimes labeled as a Spanish dialect due to limited study compared to Catalan and Occitan. Gallo-Romance: The langues d'oïl include French, Orleanais, Gallo, Angevin, Tourangeau, Saintongeais, Poitevin, Bourguignon, Picard, Walloon, Lorrain and Norman. Franco-Provençal Franco-Provençal is spoken in east-central France, western Switzerland, and the Aosta Valley region of northwestern Italy. While it was previously considered a dialect of either the langue d'oïl or Occitan, it is now recognized as a distinct language or a separate group of languages. Its dialects often have limited mutual intelligibility. Franco-Provençal shares linguistic features with both French and Occitan. There are other language families that are also classified as part of Gallo- Romance. Occitano-Romance including languages and dialects such as Catalan, Occitan, Provençal, Gascon-Aranese and Aragonese. Rhaeto-Romance Rhaeto-Romance includes Romansh in Switzerland, Ladin in the Dolomites area, and Friulian in Friuli. Rhaeto-Romance, which encompasses Romansh, can be classified either as part of Gallo- Romance or as a separate branch within the Western Romance languages. Rhaeto-Romance is a diverse group of languages, with the Italian varieties influenced by Venetian and Italian, while Romansh has been influenced by Franco-Provençal. 3 Gallo-Italic Gallo-Italic includes Piedmontese, Ligurian, Western and Eastern Lombard, Emilian, Romagnol, Gallo-Italic of Sicily, and Gallo-Italic of Basilicata. According to both Ethnologue and Glottolog, Venetian is also part of the Gallo-Italic branch. Gallo-Italic can be classified as either part of Gallo- Romance or as a separate branch within the Western Romance languages. Ligurian and Venetian, if considered part of Gallo-Romance, are exceptions as they retain the final -o. Some Romance languages have developed varieties which seem dramatically restructured as to their grammars or to be mixtures with other languages. There are several dozens of creoles of French, Spanish, and Portuguese origin, some of them spoken as national languages and lingua franca in former European colonies. Pidgins, creoles, and mixed languages Creoles of French: Antillean (French Antilles, Saint Lucia, Dominica; majority native language) Haitian (one of Haiti's two official languages and majority native language) Louisiana (US) Mauritian (lingua franca of Mauritius) Réunion (native language of Réunion) Seychellois (Seychelles' official language) Creoles of Spanish: Chavacano (in part of Philippines) Palenquero (in part of Colombia) Creoles of Portuguese: Angolar (regional language in São Tomé and Principe) Cape Verdean (Cape Verde's national language and lingua franca; includes several distinct varieties) Daman and Diu Creole (regional language in India) Forro (regional language in São Tomé and Príncipe) Kristang (Malaysia and Singapore) Kristi (regional language in India) Macanese (Macau) Papiamento (Dutch Antilles official language, majority native language, and lingua franca) Guinea-Bissau Creole (Guinea-Bissau's national language and lingua franca) 4 Français (French) French, the northernmost Romance language, originated from the Latin spoken in northern Gaul after the decline of the Roman Empire. It underwent significant phonological changes, diverging further from Latin compared to other Romance languages. From the late 17th century until after World War I, French held prominence as the language of international diplomacy and culture, replacing Latin in that role. With speakers on every continent, either as a first or second language, French is considered one of the major global languages. Fluctuating figures. Approx. 80 million, with Romania nova and second language approx. 270 million. The name "French" derives from the word "françois," which is the adjective form related to France. The term "Francia" originally referred to "Franconia" in Germanic, meaning "free." This connection to freedom is also evident in loanwords such as "franc" in Romance languages, which means "free." The German term for French, "Französisch," is based on "françois." The original Latin term for the language is preserved in Ladin. While Northern French, Franco-Provençal, and Provençal are sometimes mistakenly referred to as dialects of French, they are distinct languages. Northern French is also known as "Langue d'oil," and Provençal is referred to as "Langue d'oc," based on the word for "yes" in each respective language. French is spoken in various regions and countries, including France, the Channel Islands, Western Switzerland, Valle d'Aosta, and Walloon Belgium. It remains widely spoken alongside Provençal in southern France. Additionally, French is spoken in southeastern Canada and more than 50 other countries. It holds official language status in numerous countries, including Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, France, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, Italy (Aosta Valley), Cameroon, Canada, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Monaco, Niger, Rwanda, Switzerland, Senegal, Seychelles, Togo, Chad, Vanuatu, and the Central African Republic. Moreover, French is recognized as an official language in the European Union, the African Union, the Organization of American States (OAS), the United Nations, and various other international organizations. Phonology Vowels (16): French has 12 oral vowels and four nasal vowels (ɛ̃, œ̃, ɑ̃, ɔ̃) as well as several diphthongs. All front vowels contrast unroundedness versus roundedness. 20 - 21 consonant phonemes Sound combinatorics: The sense unit forms the phonological word, where grammatical boundaries do not serve as phonological boundary signals, resulting in syllabification crossing these boundaries. In traditional French grammar, liaison is primarily used to designate this phenomenon, as seen in examples like "il faut y aller" [i.fo.tja.le]. There is often a regular KV structure with anaptyxis (sprouting vowel) and syncope. In everyday speech, liaison is often reduced, and liaison omission before "h aspiré" was already present in older French. This is due to the historical reduction of initial stress on the word body from Latin to modern French. Latin French Vermis (Würmer, worms) ver versus (gegen, against) vers vitrum (Glas, glass) verre viridis (grün, green) vert Orthography Orthography in Old French was relatively phonological and consistent. Initially, the letter "h" was 5 not present in orthography or phonology, except for its use as an "h aspiré" in loanwords from Frankish. However, in Middle French, significant sound changes occurred without corresponding adjustments in orthography. In the 16th century, a principle of etymology was introduced in spelling, leading to the adoption of similar to Latin and the inclusion of numerous pseudoetymologies. Morphology The development of the French language involved a shift from synthetic Latin morphology to predominantly analytic morphology. This transition is evident in the case of verbs, where synthesis is diminishing. However, synthetic forms in French emerged from late Latin's analytic constructions, particularly noticeable in the future tense. For example, "finire habeo" in Latin evolved into "finirai" in French (alongside the analytic form "je vais finir"). French demonstrates synthetic conjugation in four tenses (present, imperfect, preterite, future) in two moods, as well as the conditional. Additionally, there are analytical tenses and aspects. The reduction of endings in French resulted in a significant decrease in morphology. Compared to other Romance languages, personal verb endings have decayed to a greater extent. In most subparadigms, including the present and imperfect, only the first and second-person plural forms remain distinct from zero. Regarding nouns, French lacks cases, which are instead expressed analytically with prepositions. Gender and number are primarily indicated in writing and through liaison. Nouns without audible plural form Nouns with audible plural form Sg. Pl Sg Pl Le livre Les livres Le journal Les journaux La femme Les femmes Le travail Les travaux Le bateau Les bateaux Le noyau Les noyaux Le cours Les cours Le prix Les prix Le gaz Les gaz Word formation French has no composition, but extensive derivation. Syntax Literary French word order is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO); however everyday speech is flexible and several other orders are possible. As the case system of Latin no longer exists in French, prepositions are used to indicate syntactical relations. Lexicon The French language is primarily derived from Vulgar Latin. Additionally, it has borrowed words from Greek (mediated through Latin), Celtic, and Germanic sources. Since the mid-20th century, there has been an increasing influence of English loanwords in French, such as "sport," "parking," and "test." Latin, like in other Western European languages, is a significant source of vocabulary for French. Borrowing from Latin has resulted in lexical doublets and has contributed to the phonological and semantic complexity found in Romance languages. 6 Españ ol (Spanish) Lat. Hispānia "Iberia," Hispānus "Iberian"; vulgarlat. Spania; de-minutive Spaniolus > español. Hispānicus > vulg.-lat. Spanicus > dt. spanish. Still in old Spanish time language designation Ladino "Latin". Since the Spanish written language was influenced by the language use of the central Spanish region of Castile, and in order to distinguish the language from the other Romance idioms spoken in Spain as well as the nationality designation "Spanish", one also finds castellano ("Castilian". Landscape name Castilia originally "Burgenland") in the Spanish language area. Term español decreed in 1925. Distribution Spanish is the official language (native speakers in Spain, official language of the UN and the EU, the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America from Mexico to Chile, in the Caribbean, and in Equatorial Guinea. There are also Spanish-speaking populations in Morocco, Western Sahara and the Philippines. In the British territory of Gibraltar, Spanish is an official language along with English. Spanish is also widely spoken, partly due to its colonial past, in: Andorra, Belize, Morocco, Netherlands Antilles, Philippines, Trinidad and Tobago, Western Sahara, Puerto Rico. Official language for EU, African Union and UN. Number of speakers Mother tongue for approx. 486 million people, incl. second language 595 million. Spanish is the official language of 20 countries. It is the world's second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese; the world's fourth-most spoken language overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu); and the world's most widely spoken Romance language Varieties, dialects Modern standard Spanish developed from the Castilian dialect but regional dialects subsist in Aragon, Navarre, Leon, Asturias, Santander, and Andalusia. Latin-American Spanish has a number of regional dialects, most of which (especially the coastal ones) have a phonology similar to Andalusian as many early settlers were from the kingdom of Seville. Ladino or Sefardi is an archaic form of Castilian Spanish spoken by Sephardic Jews, expelled from Spain, in the Balkans, the Middle East, North Africa, Greece, and Turkey that is almost extinct now; it is written in Hebrew characters. Phonology Vowels: Spanish has a straightforward vowel system consisting of five single, short vowels and five diphthongs. There is no phonemic vowel length, and vowels in open syllables are not phonetically lengthened. Therefore, the [a] in ['laɣɔ] "lake" is not longer than the [a] in ['laɾɣɔ] "long". Spanish has a simple syllable structure without consecutive consonants, except for the contrast between /ɾ/ and /r/ in words like caro and carro. Unstressed syllables do not undergo vowel reduction. Intonation is monotonic. Spanish has 21 consonants, including 8 stops and affricates, 4 fricatives, 3 nasals, 6 liquids and glides. The language is distinguished for having two lateral liquids (l-sounds) articulated at different places (alveolar l and palatal λ), and two rhotics (r-sounds) articulated at the same place (one is a tap [ɾ] and the other a trill [r]). Morphology Spanish is a grammatically inflected language, which means that many words are modified ("marked") in small ways, usually at the end, according to their changing functions. Verbs are marked for tense, aspect, mood, person, and number (resulting in up to fifty conjugated forms per verb; 900 irregular verbs.). Nouns follow a two-gender system and are marked for number. Personal pronouns are inflected for person, number, gender (including a residual neuter), and a very reduced case system; the Spanish pronominal system represents a simplification of the ancestral Latin system. Adjectives agree with their nouns in gender and number. The case system of Latin has been 7 completely lost except for pronouns which have subject, object, possessive, and prepositional forms. Most nouns end in o or a. Nouns ending in o are masculine and those ending in a are feminine with a few exceptions (e.g. planeta [‘planet’] and día [‘day’] are masculine, mano [‘hand’] and foto [‘photo’] are feminine). Nouns that have other endings may be either masculine or feminine. Plurality is usually marked by adding -s or -es to the singular. Some nouns have only a singular form, others only a plural one, and still others have identical singular and plural forms. Syntax Spanish is mainly a Subject-Verb-Object-Complement language. Subject pronouns may be dropped. Some sentences have no subject at all (e.g. nieva todos los días ['it snows everyday']). It uses prepositions to establish syntactical relations. Vocabulary Only a few words can be identified as loanwords of Iberian, vega "Aue" manteca "Lard" izquierdo "link" Several words are of Celtiberian origin; Approximately 300 roots are of Visigothic origin. Several of them are also found in other Romance languages. Only in Ibero-Romance: Gothic Meaning Spanish Portuguese Meaning krappa Iron clamp grapa grampo Krampe triggwa Ceasefire tregua trégua Ceasefire garws Jewelry garbo garbo Grace goose Goose ganso ganso Goose hagja Protector aya aia Nanny lôfa flat hand altsp. lu(v)a luva Glove About 1500 words of Arabic origin: Arabic Meaning Spanish Meaning al-bannāʔ Bricklayer albañil Bricklayer al-ğabr Reduction algebra Algebra al-iksīr Philosopher's stone elixir Elixir al-kīmīyā Philosopher's stone alquimia Alchemy al-kuḫl Cosmetic powder alcohol Alcohol al-manāḫ Calendar almanaco Almanac al-maḫzan Memory almacén Bearing al-qāḍī Judge alcalde Mayor al-qalʕa Fortress Alcalá [Toponym] as-simūt Direction acimut Azimuth as-sukkar Sugar azúcar Sugar az-zaʕfarān Saffron azafrán Saffron dīwān Office aduana Customs funduq Hostel fonda Hostel ṣifr empty; null cero zero cifra Digit 8 American Spanish Spanish is the primary language in most countries of South and Central America. Differences from Castilian Spanish have emerged due to several factors, including the vast geographical area, the passage of time, and contact with indigenous languages. These deviations are most noticeable in pronunciation and vocabulary. Regarding grammar there are no significant changes compared to Castilian Spanish, apart from some peculiarities in the use of the past tense (with a dominance of the "indefinido" tense) and the "voseo" pronoun usage in Argentina, Uruguay, and Nicaragua, The main differences between Latin American Spanish and Castilian Spanish include the prevalence of "seseo" in Latin America. While in European Spanish, the letter "z" is mostly pronounced as the voiceless "th" sound in English, in Latin America, it is pronounced as the voiceless "s" sound, along with "c" before "e" and "i". This pronunciation pattern originated from southern Spanish dialects, especially from regions like Extremadura and Andalusia, which contributed to the majority of Spanish immigrants to the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries. There is also a tendency to slur or soften the "s" sound, influenced by Andalusian Spanish, as seen in pronunciations like "ehtoy" instead of "estoy". The use of the "Pretérito Perfecto" (I have bought) is less common in Latin America, with the preference for the "Pretérito Indefinido" (I bought) instead. The use of the formal address "usted(es)" (derived from "vuestra merced") in Spain is mainly for politeness in formal interactions. In Latin America, however, it is the standard form of address used regardless of the level of formality or familiarity. In Argentina and Uruguay, there is a distinctive feature known as "voseo," where the pronoun "vos" is used instead of "tú" in the second- person singular. The verb conjugations also differ in this case, such as "vos sos" meaning "you are" in standard Spanish, which would be "tú eres". Semantic peculiarities mainly pertain to colloquial language and everyday terms. However, there are no significant communication problems between speakers from different regions of the Spanish language, whether from Europe or the Americas. German european Span. Amer. Span. Butter mantequilla Manteca (Argentina, Chile) Strawberry fresa frutilla (Argentina) Icebox nevera heladera refrigerador Skirt falda pollera Car(mobile) coche carro, car 9 Portuguê s (Portuguese) It is spoken by over 230 million native speakers; including second language speakers, the number of speakers is about 25 million. Portuguese is recognized as a global language and serves as an official language in various countries and regions. It is the official language of the European Union and is spoken in Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Macao, Cape Verde Islands, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé, Principe, Goa, and East Timor. It is also learned and spoken as a second language by many individuals worldwide. Furthermore, in addition to standard Portuguese, there are approximately twenty creole languages that are predominantly based on Portuguese. Due to recent emigration from Portugal, Portuguese has also become a significant minority language in several Western European countries and North America. Phonology Portuguese has one of the most complex vowel systems within the Romance languages. It includes 8 oral and 5 nasal vowels (13) which combine to give many diphthongs (17). The Portuguese consonant system is less complex than its vowel system. It includes three pairs of stops and three pairs of fricatives, each pair contrasting voiceless and voiced sounds. The other consonants are three nasals, four liquids and two glides. The liquids include a dental flap (weak r- sound) and an uvular trill (strong r-sound); and two laterals (l-sounds). Grammar In Portuguese grammar, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and articles are moderately inflected: there are two genders (masculine and feminine) and two numbers (singular and plural). The case system of the ancestor language, Latin, has been lost, but personal pronouns are still declined with three main types of forms: subject, object of verb, and object of preposition. Most nouns and many adjectives can take diminutive or augmentative derivational suffixes, and most adjectives can take a so-called "superlative" derivational suffix. Adjectives usually follow their respective nouns. 10 Italiano (Italian) After the fall of the Roman Empire, spoken Latin gave birth to many regional Romance languages in the Italic peninsula. During the Renaissance, an archaic form of Tuscan was chosen as the standard but remained more a literary language than an oral one. Only after the unification of Italy in 1861, Tuscan spread (rather slowly) to all regions and social classes, though the old regional languages, considered now as dialects of Italian, remained strong. Due to its prolonged literary character, Italian changed very little across the centuries, being one of the most conservative Romance languages. The vast majority of Italian speakers live in the Italic peninsula, namely in Italy but also in San Marino and in the Vatican. Italian is also spoken in parts of France (Alps, Côte d'Azur, Corsica), Switzerland and Malta, as well as in small communities in Croatia and Slovenia. Several waves of migrants carried the language outside Europe, mainly to North America (Canada, USA) and South America (Argentina, Brazil) but also to Australia and Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia and Libya). Native speakers: Approximately 65 million in Italy, with an additional 68 million second language speakers worldwide. Italian holds official status as a language in the European Union, Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, and the Vatican. Unlike Ibero-Romance and Gallo-Romance languages, Italian does not have a comparable colonial influence, which contributes to its more localized nature. The various dialects of Italian can differ significantly from one another, and some dialects are even considered distinct languages. All Italian dialects and Romance languages spoken in Italy can be traced directly back to Vulgar Latin. In a somewhat exaggerated sense, one could describe the Romance languages of Italy as "Latin dialects." Morphological typology: Italian is an inflectional language, displaying a level of inflectional morphology that is less extensive than Latin but more robust than French. Phonetic-phonological peculiarities: Most consonants also occur as geminates (double consonants), e.g.: sette [ˈsɛt-te], braccio [ˈbrat- tʃo], bocca [ˈbok-ka] (cf. Spanish siete, brazo, boca). Sardu (Sardinian) The Sardinian language (Sardinian: limba sarda) is spoken by about 1-1.3 million people, most of whom are bilingual in Italian and Sardinian. In comparison to Italian and other Romance languages, Sardinian has retained a relatively large number of phonetic and grammatical elements from Latin. One particularly notable feature of Sardinian is its definite article, which differs from the other Romance languages. Instead of deriving from the Latin demonstrative pronouns ille, illa, illud, it originates from Latin ipse, ipsv(m), ipsa(m), etc. The definite article in Sardinian is "su" for masculine singular and "sa" for feminine singular. 11 Româ nă (Romanian ) Romanian is the easternmost and most isolated Romance language. It is spoken, mostly in Romania, as L1 by about 24 million people, and by 4 million people as an L2. Romanian is spoken as a minority language in countries such as Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia, Albania, and Greece. Romanian is an inflectional language, and word formation it exhibits a mixed type, combining synthetic and analytic traits. Unlike some other Romance languages, Romanian maintains three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. One interesting and distinctive feature of Romanian is the use of enclitic (joins with the preceding word phonetically, graphically, or both) articles. Tree pom - the tree pom-ul Syntax Romanian follows an SVO (subject-verb-object) word order, but it also allows for a relatively free word order. Lexicon As a result of Romania's geopolitical situation, the Romanian vocabulary is exceptionally diverse. Romanian has a strong inclination to incorporate foreign words, with approximately 43% of its vocabulary influenced by Latin-Romance languages, notably French. Only 20% of Romanian words can be traced back to the ancient Latin heritage, while around 11% have origins in Slavic languages, particularly Bulgarian. Additionally, around 3.6% of Romanian words have Turkish roots, 2.4% come from Modern Greek, and 2.17% have Hungarian origins. This linguistic amalgamation creates a fascinating blend of influences within the Romanian language. 12 The Slavic languages The Slavic languages form a branch of the Indo-European language family, believed to have originated from the original Slavic language. The oldest written Slavic language, Old Church Slavonic (from the 9th century), was closely related to the original Slavic. From Old Church Slavonic, variants known as Church Slavonic emerged around the 11th century. These include Bulgarian Church Slavonic (also known as Middle Bulgarian), Russian Church Slavonic, Serbian Church Slavonic, Croatian Church Slavonic, and Czech Church Slavonic. In Romania, a special variant of Church Slavonic was used as a liturgical language until the 19th century. The Baltic language branch is the closest relative to the Slavic languages due to their historical proximity and shared Indo-European dialectal origins. However, the idea of a "Balto-Slavic language unit" is a matter of debate among linguists (cf. Balto-Slavic, Baltic languages skriptum). The Slavic languages can be broadly categorized into three traditional subgroups: Eastern Slavic, Western Slavic, and Southern Slavic. The standard Slavic languages are listed first, followed by so- called micro-literary languages, which are forms of language used in written texts that do not possess all the characteristics of fully recognized standard languages. Eastern Slavic languages include Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Ruthenian, and Rusyn. Western Slavic languages include Polish, Sorbian (Lower Sorbian and Upper Sorbian), Polabian (extinct), Kashubian, Czech, and Slovak. Southern Slavic languages encompass Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian, Slovenian, and Serbian. Several Slavic languages have become extinct over time. Due to German colonization of the East, various West Slavic tribes were assimilated or displaced, resulting in the extinction of their languages. The number of speakers of the two Sorbian languages has been declining steadily for centuries, and Lower Sorbian is currently considered definitely endangered. Slavic languages were historically perceived as challenging for Western Europeans, particularly German speakers. This perception was influenced by the resistance to the imposed Russian language and the opinions of Slavic speakers who expressed pride in the difficulty of learning their languages. Certain objective factors contribute to the perceived complexity of Slavic languages: 1. Soft or palatalized consonants are characteristic of some Slavic languages, notably Russian, Polish, and Bulgarian. 2. Consonant clusters are typically found in Slavic languages, especially in those where the sounds "r" and/or "l" can replace vowels, such as Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian. 3. Slavic languages are inflectional, exhibiting a significant number of grammatical forms. Most Slavic languages have six or seven cases, except Bulgarian and Macedonian. Additionally, the tense system is rich in Sorbian, Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian, and Macedonian. 4. The verbal aspect, present in all Slavic languages, is known to pose challenges for learners. It is important to note that while these factors may contribute to the perceived difficulty, individual experiences with learning Slavic languages can vary. meaning Russian Polish Czech Bulgarian Serbian brother fry fry fry fry bràt sister sestrá siostra sestra sestrá séstra hand ruká ręka ruka rŭká rúka fish rýba ryba ryba ríba rìba 13 Bulgarian Bulgarian belongs to the South Slavic branch of Slavic languages, along with Macedonian. Additionally, from an areal typological perspective, Bulgarian is classified as one of the "Balkan sprachbund languages," which includes Albanian, Romanian, Modern Greek, and Macedonian. The distinction between Bulgarian and Macedonian has historically been a subject of political dispute, with Bulgarians considering Macedonian as a dialect of Bulgarian, while Macedonians view Macedonian as a distinct language. This dispute was resolved in 1999 through a recognition treaty. Bulgarian has approximately 10 million speakers worldwide, with around 8 million residing in Bulgaria and neighboring countries. Bulgarian is written in the Cyrillic alphabet, which shares some similarities with the Russian alphabet but also has a few distinct features. Phonetics/Phonology: Modern Bulgarian has six stressed vowels. The mid-central one is very close to a schwa which is found in some Balkan languages, like Romanian and Albanian, but not in other members of the Slavic branch. When a vowel is followed by a nasal consonant and a fricative, it is nasalized. Vowel sequences are possible only across morpheme boundaries. Characteristic of the Bulgarian consonant system is the contrast between palatalized and non- palatalized consonants, forming whole rows, which is also typical of other Slavic languages, e.g. /p/ vs. /p'/: spax (спах) "I slept" vs. sp'ax (спях) "I slept" or /ts/ vs. /ts'/: car (цар) "tsar" vs. c'ar (цяр) "medicine" or /l/ vs. /l'/: lud (луд) "crazy" vs. l'ut (лют) "spicy". Morphology Bulgarian is an inflectional language, but it exhibits some distinct features compared to other related Slavic languages. Bulgarian has the nominative case and a "casus generalis," which involves the replacement of older synthetic inflections with analytical constructions using prepositions. This is particularly evident with the use of the preposition "na" for functions that were traditionally expressed through the genitive and dative cases. However, remnants of the old synthetic case inflection can still be observed in the accusative case, which takes the form of "-a" for personal names and certain noun designations, as well as in the vocative forms, which end in "-e," "-o," and "-u" for masculine nouns and "-o," "-e" for feminine nouns. One distinctive feature of Bulgarian, as a language within the "Balkan Union," is the presence of the postposed definite article. -ăt, -'ăt for masculine nouns in the nominative case, xjlab "bread" vs. xljabăt "the bread"; učitel "teacher" vs. učitel'ăt "the teacher"; -ta for feminines, -to for neuters; plural M.+F. on -te, plural N. on -ta. Word formation Bulgarian word formation is characterized by derivation, mostly with suffixes, and rich compound word formation. 14