Moldavian subdialect of Romanian
Encyclopedia
The Moldavian subdialect (subdialectul / graiul moldovean / moldovenesc) is one of the several subdialects of the Romanian language
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...

 (specifically, of the Daco-Romanian
Daco-Romanian
Daco-Romanian is the term used to identify the Romanian language in contexts where distinction needs to be made between the various Eastern Romance languages...

 dialect). It is spoken across the approximate area of the historical region of Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...

, now split between Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

.

The delimitation of the Moldavian subdialect, as with all other Romanian subdialects, is made primarily by analyzing its phonetic features and only marginally by morphological, syntactical, and lexical characteristics.

The Moldavian subdialect is the representative of the northern grouping of Romanian subdialects and has influenced the Romanian spoken over large areas of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

.

The Moldavian and the Wallachian subdialects are the only two that have been consistently identified and recognized by linguists. They are clearly distinct in dialect classifications made by Heimann Tiktin, Mozes Gaster, Gustav Weigand
Gustav Weigand
Gustav Weigand , was a German linguist and specialist in Balkan languages, especially Rumanian and Aromanian. He is known for his seminal contributions to the dialectology of the Romance languages of the Balkans and to the study of the relationships between the languages of the Balkan...

, Sextil Pușcariu, Sever Pop, Emil Petrovici
Emil Petrovici
Emil Petrovici was a Romanian linguist, who studied both Romanian and the Slavic languages. His studies included Romanian phonetics, phonology, and Romanian and Slavic dialectology....

, Romulus Todoran, Ion Coteanu, Alexandru Philippide, Iorgu Iordan
Iorgu Iordan
Iorgu Iordan was a Romanian linguist, philologist, diplomat, journalist, and left-wing agrarian, later communist, politician. The author of works on a large variety of topics, most of them dealing with issues of the Romanian language and Romance languages in general, he was elected a full member...

, Emanuel Vasiliu, and others, whereas the remainder of subdialects and speech varieties have proven to be considerably more controversial and difficult to classify.

The Moldavian subdialect is not the Moldovan language
Moldovan language
Moldovan is one of the names of the Romanian language as spoken in the Republic of Moldova, where it is official. The spoken language of Moldova is closer to the dialects of Romanian spoken in northeastern Romania, and the two countries share the same literary standard...

. The latter term is the official name given to the Romanian language
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...

 in the Republic of Moldova, for historic and political reasons. The border between Romania and the Republic of Moldova does not correspond to any significant isogloss
Isogloss
An isogloss—also called a heterogloss —is the geographical boundary of a certain linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or use of some syntactic feature...

es to justify a dialectal division; phonetics and morphology (which define dialectal classifications) are identical across the border, whereas lexical differences are minimal.

Geographic distribution

The Moldavian subdialect is spoken in the north-eastern part of Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, the Republic of Moldova, and small areas of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

. It is the only Romance variety spoken east of the Eastern Carpathians. In detail, its distribution area covers the following administrative or historical regions:
  • in the Romanian part of Moldavia
    Moldavia
    Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...

    : the counties
    Counties of Romania
    The 41 judeţe and the municipality of Bucharest comprise the official administrative divisions of Romania. They also represent the European Union' s NUTS-3 geocode statistical subdivision scheme of Romania.-Overview:...

     of Bacău
    Bacau County
    Bacău is a county of Romania, in Moldavia, with its capital city at Bacău. It has one commune, Ghimeş-Făget, in Transylvania.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 706,623 and the population density was 113/km²....

    , Botoșani
    Botosani County
    Botoșani is a county of Romania, in Moldavia, with the capital city at Botoșani.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 452,834 and the population density was 91/km2.*Romanians – – the highest percentage of Romanians in Romania...

    , Galați
    Galati County
    Galaţi is a county of Romania, in Moldavia region, with the capital city at Galaţi.-History:Historically Galaţi is part of Moldavia...

    , Iași
    Iasi County
    Iași is a county of Romania, in Moldavia, with the administrative seat at Iași.-Demographics:As of 1 July 2007, Iași County had a population of 825,100, making it the second most populous county in Romania after Bucharest, with a population density of 150/km².*Romanians - 98.1%*Roma -...

    , Neamț
    Neamt County
    Neamț is a county of Romania, in the historic region of Moldavia, with the county seat at Piatra Neamț. It has three communes, Bicaz-Chei, Bicazu Ardelean and Dămuc in Transylvania.-Demographics:...

    , Suceava
    Suceava County
    Suceava is a county of Romania, in the historical region of Moldavia and few villages in Transylvania, with the capital city at Suceava.- Demographics :...

    , Vaslui
    Vaslui County
    Vaslui is a county of Romania, in the historical region Moldavia, with the seat at Vaslui.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 455,049 and the population density was 86/km².*Romanians - over 98%*Romas, other-Geography:...

    , Vrancea
    Vrancea County
    Vrancea is a county in Romania, with its seat at Focşani. It is mostly in the historical region of Moldavia but the southern part, below the Milcov River, is in Muntenia.-Demographics:...

    ;
  • in Muntenia
    Muntenia
    Muntenia is a historical province of Romania, usually considered Wallachia-proper . It is situated between the Danube , the Carpathian Mountains and Moldavia , and the Olt River to the west...

     and Dobrogea, some isogloss
    Isogloss
    An isogloss—also called a heterogloss —is the geographical boundary of a certain linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or use of some syntactic feature...

    es extend over the northern parts of the following counties: Buzău
    Buzau County
    Buzău is a county of Romania, in the historical region Muntenia, with the capital city at Buzău.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 496,214 and the population density was 81/km².*Romanians – 97%*Roma – under 3% declared, and others....

    , Brăila
    Braila County
    Brăila is a county of Romania, in Muntenia, with the capital city at Brăila.- Demographics :In 2002, Brăila had a population of 373,174 and the population density was 78/km².*Romanians – 98%*Romas, Russians, Lipovans, Aromanians and others....

    , Tulcea
    Tulcea County
    Tulcea is a county of Romania, in the historical region Dobruja, with the capital city at Tulcea.-Demographics:In 2002, Tulcea County had a population of 256,492...

    ;
  • in the Republic of Moldova: the whole territory, including the breakaway region of Transnistria
    Transnistria
    Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine...

    ;
  • in Ukraine
    Ukraine
    Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

    :
    • Chernivtsi Oblast
      Chernivtsi Oblast
      Chernivtsi Oblast is an oblast in western Ukraine, bordering on Romania and Moldova. It has a large variety of landforms: the Carpathian Mountains and picturesque hills at the foot of the mountains gradually change to a broad partly forested plain situated between the Dniester and Prut rivers....

      : the Northern Bukovina, the Hertza region
      Hertza region
      Hertza region is the territory of an administrative district of Hertsa in the southern part of Chernivtsi Oblast in southwestern Ukraine, on the Romanian border...

      , and other areas of the oblast;
    • Odessa Oblast
      Odessa Oblast
      Odesa Oblast, also written as Odessa Oblast , is the southernmost and largest oblast of south-western Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Odessa.-History:...

      : the historical region of Budjak
      Budjak
      Budjak or Budzhak is a historical region in the Odessa Oblast of Ukraine. Lying along the Black Sea between the Danube and Dniester rivers this multiethnic region was the southern part of Bessarabia...

       (consisting of the current raion
      Raions of Ukraine
      Raions of Ukraine are small territorial subdivisions of Ukraine. They are a second level of an administrative division...

      s of Artsyz, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Bolhrad, Izmail, Kiliia, Reni, Sarata, Tarutyne, Tatarbunary) and other areas in the Odessa Oblast;
    • smaller pockets in other parts of Ukraine;
  • in the north-eastern half of Transylvania
    Transylvania
    Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

    , various isoglosses include all or part of the following counties: Bistrița-Năsăud
    Bistrita-Nasaud County
    Bistrița-Năsăud is a county of Romania, in Transylvania, with the capital city at Bistrița.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 311,657 and the population density was 58/km².*Romanians – 90.3%*Hungarians – 5.9%*Roma – 3.6%...

    , Harghita
    Harghita County
    Harghita is a county in the center of Romania, in eastern Transylvania, with the county seat at Miercurea-Ciuc.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 326,222 and a population density of 52/km².*Hungarians- 85%...

    , Covasna
    Covasna County
    Covasna is a county of Romania, in Transylvania, with the capital city at Sfântu Gheorghe.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 222,449 and the population density was 60/km².*Hungarians – 73.79% *Romanians – 23.28%...

    , Cluj
    Cluj County
    Cluj ; is a county of Romania, in Transylvania, with the capital city at Cluj-Napoca.-Demographics:In 2007, it had a population of 692,316 and a population density of 104/km².*Romanians – 80%*Hungarians – 17.5%*Roma – 2.5%-Geography:...

     (eastern half), Mureș
    Mures County
    Mureș is a county of Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania, with the administrative centre in Târgu Mureș.-Geography:The county has a total area of 6,714 km²....

     (northern half).

Transition areas

Transition varieties of the Moldavian subdialect are found in areas of contact with the other subdialects and speech varieties. As such, Moldavian features often occur outside the historical Moldavia: in northern Dobrogea, in north-east Muntenia
Muntenia
Muntenia is a historical province of Romania, usually considered Wallachia-proper . It is situated between the Danube , the Carpathian Mountains and Moldavia , and the Olt River to the west...

, and in north-east Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

.

Phonetic features

The Moldavian subdialect has the following phonetic particularities that contrast it with the other Romanian subdialects and varieties:
  • The postalveolar affricates [t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ] become the fricatives [ʃ, ʒ]: [ˈʃapɨ, ˈʃinɨ, ˈʒeni] for standard ceapă, cină, gene (they are not also palatalized like in the Banat subdialect
    Banat subdialect of Romanian
    The Banat subdialect is one of the several subdialects of the Romanian language, specifically of the Daco-Romanian dialect...

    ). As a consequence, the affricate [d͡ʒ] and the fricative [ʒ] merge into the latter: [ʒok, ˈsɨnʒi] for joc, sînge. However, the Atlasul lingvistic român (1938–1942) and other field works record examples of pronunciations showing that, while the merger covers most of the subdialect area, it is not systematic and sometimes found in free variation
    Free variation
    Free variation in linguistics is the phenomenon of two sounds or forms appearing in the same environment without a change in meaning and without being considered incorrect by native speakers...

    . In parts of the south-western and north-eastern Moldavia the distinction is preserved.
  • After the fricatives [s, z, ʃ, ʒ] and the affricate [t͡s] (sometimes also after [r]), a vocalic shift occurs that changes [e] into [ə], [i] into [ɨ], and [e̯a] into [a]: [səmn, ˈsɨnɡur, ˈsarə, zər, zɨd, ˈzamə, ˈʃəli, raˈʃɨnɨ, ˈʒəli, t͡səs, ˈt͡sapən, rəʃʲ] for semn, singur, seară, zer, zid, zeamă, șale, rășină, jale, țes, țeapăn, reci. In the same phonetic contexts, the phoneme /ʲ/, which is generally responsible for indicating the plural in nouns and adjectives or the second person in verbs, is no longer realized: [paˈrint͡s, vjez] (for standard părinți, vezi). As a consequence, the number distinction is completely lost in some nouns and adjectives, such as moș, leneș, colț, ursuz.
  • After the labial [v], [e] changes into [ə] and [e̯a] into [a]: [loˈvəsk, sə loˈvaskə] for lovesc, să lovească.
  • Word-final [ə] becomes [ɨ]: [ˈmamɨ, ˈkasɨ] for mamă, casă.
  • Unstressed [o] closes to [u]: [akupiˈrit] for acoperit.
  • The diphthong [o̯a] is preserved: [ˈso̯ari, ˈbo̯alɨ] for soare, boală.
  • Unstressed [e] in middle and final positions closes to [i]: [ˈlapti, disˈfak] for lapte, desfac.
  • In the northern areas, the vowel [ə] immediately before the stress opens to [a]: [maˈɡar, baˈtrɨn, taˈkut, paˈduri] for măgar, bătrîn, tăcut, pădure.
  • The diphthong [ja] becomes [je]: [bəˈjet, ɨnkuˈjet] for băiat, încuiat.
  • Etymologic [ɨ] is preserved in the words [ˈkɨni, ˈmɨni, mɨnʲ, ˈpɨni] for cîine, mîine, mîini, pîine.
  • The labials [p, b, m] receive a palatalized pronunciation when followed by front vowels and become [c, ɟ, ɲ], respectively: [koˈkʲil, ˈɡʲini, nʲel] for copil, bine, miel.
  • Similarly, the palatalization of the labio-dentals [f, v] occurs, but in two different ways. In the southern half of the subdialect area they become [ç, ʝ], respectively, whereas in the northern half they become [ɕ, ʑ]: [ˈhʲerbi / ˈʃʲerbi, ɦʲiˈt͡səl / ʒʲiˈt͡səl] for fierbe, vițel.
  • The dentals [t, d, n] are left unchanged before [e, i, e̯a]: [ˈfrunti, diˈparti, de̯al, ˈneɡru, ˈne̯aɡrə].
  • The affricate [d͡z] occurs, as in [d͡zɨk], similarly to the Banat subdialect, the Maramureș variety and the Aromanian
    Aromanian language
    Aromanian , also known as Macedo-Romanian, Arumanian or Vlach is an Eastern Romance language spoken in Southeastern Europe...

    , while it evolved to [z] in the Wallachian subdialect, the Criș variety, and standard Romanian: [d͡zɨk] for zic (Latin dico).
  • The diphthong [e̯a] in final positions becomes the monophthong [ɛ]: [aˈvɛ, spuˈnɛ] for avea, spunea.
  • Asyllabic versions of [i] and [u] occur in word-final positions: [pəduˈrarʲ, koʒoˈkarʲʷ] for pădurar, cojocar.
  • In the northern part, [v] followed by [o, u] changes into [h]: holbură, hulpe, hultan (compare with standard volbură, vulpe, vultan).

Morphological features

  • Feminine nouns ending in -că have genitive and dative forms ending in -căi: maicăi, puicăi (compare with standard maicii, puicii).
  • The vocal shifts occurring after [s, z, ʃ, ʒ, t͡s, d͡z] lead to homonymy between singular and plural in feminine nouns and feminine forms of adjectives: [ˈkasɨ] ("house or houses", compare with standard casă / case), [ˈɡrasɨ] ("fat", compare with grasă / grase).
  • The noun tată "father" with the definite article has the form tatul (standard tatăl).
  • The possessive article is invariable: a meu, a mea, a mei, a mele ("mine", standard al meu, a mea, ai mei, ale mele).
  • The number distinction is made in verbs in the imperfect at the 3rd person: era / erau, făcea / făceau (like in the standard language).
  • The simple perfect is not used, except rarely, only in the 3rd person, with the simple value of a past tense.
  • The auxiliary for the compound perfect has the same form for both the singular and the plural of the 3rd person: el o fost / ei o fost ("he was / they were", standard el a fost, ei au fost).
  • In northern Moldavia, the pluperfect is also made analytically: m-am fost dus, am fost venit ("I had gone, I had come", standard mă dusesem, venisem).
  • The future tense in verbs uses the infinitive and is sometimes identical to it: va veni, a veni ("he will come", standard only va veni).
  • The following subjunctive forms occur: să deie, să steie, să beie, să ieie, să vreie (standard să dea, să stea, să bea, să ia, să vrea).
  • The following imperatives occur: ádă, vină (standard adú, vino).
  • When the object of a verb is another verb, the latter is in its infinitive form, including the isolated morpheme a: prinde a fierbe ("starts to boil", the standard uses the subjunctive: prinde să fiarbă or începe să fiarbă).
  • Genitives and datives of nouns tend to be formed analytically: dă mîncare la pisică ("give food to the cat", standard dă mîncare pisicii).

Lexical particularities

  • Some words have preserved archaic forms: îmblu, împlu, întru, înflu, nour, dirept (compare with standard umblu, umplu, intru, umflu, nor, drept).
  • A particular variant for the personal pronoun for the 3rd person occurs frequently and is used for animates
    Animacy
    Animacy is a grammatical and/or semantic category of nouns based on how sentient or alive the referent of the noun in a given taxonomic scheme is...

    and inanimates alike: dînsul, dînsa, dînșii, dînsele ("he, she, they" as well as "it, they", compare with el, ea, ei, ele). In the standard language, these forms have started being used as 3rd person polite pronouns.
  • The demonstrative pronouns have particular forms: [aˈista, aˈjasta, aˈʃala, aˈʃeja] ("this" masculine and feminine, "that" masculine and feminine; compare with standard acesta, aceasta, acela, aceea).
  • Other specific words: omăt ("snow", zăpadă), agudă ("mulberry", dudă), poame ("grapes", struguri), perje ("plums", prune), ciubotă ("high boot", cizmă), cori ("measles", pojar), etc.

Sample

Moldavian subdialect: [jɛ aˈvjɛ ˈdowɨ vaʃ ʃɨ sə nʲeˈra ˈwamini di ˈvaʃili jij kə dəˈdjɛ ũ ʃubəˈraʃ di ˈlapti ‖ ʃɨ aˈʃa di la o ˈvrʲemi stɨrˈkʲsɨ ˈvaʃili ‖ nu maj dəˈdjɛw ˈlapti]

Standard Romanian: Ea avea două vaci și se mirau oamenii de vacile ei că dădeau un ciubăraș de lapte. Și așa de la o vreme stîrpiseră vacile, nu mai dădeau lapte.

English translation: "She had two cows and people were amazed at her cows for giving a bucketful of milk. And so from a while the cows became dry, they stopped giving milk."

Further reading

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