Romanian English Dialect
Listen to the video below to hear Romanians (a) say how they learned English, (b) speak variations of Romanian English.
Some things to notice about the video follow below.
- English's dominating influence in the domains listed in the video makes it easier for Romanians to learn English outside of the classroom. The rising popularity in English songs, cartoons, and films also motivates Romanians to learn English.
- The second man (who likes the Beatles) learned RP English in an educational institution which is why he sounds slightly British.
- The Romanian English dialect sounds different because of the linguistic differences between the two languages.
- Vowels in general are shorter than they are in English.
- Stress is forward with a slight nasal resonance, even though Romanian does not have nasal vowels. An example of this is when the woman says "songs" in the video.
- Consonants in English like [ð] and [θ] that are absent from Romanian. Words like "three" are usually pronounced "free" or "tree". In the video "the" [ðə] was pronounced [tə].
English Status
Romanian is still the official language of the country and has higher prestige than English. However, as English spreads across Romania, so does its prestige. According to my interview, when the Soviet Union had control over Romania English was taught to those privileged enough to afford private tutors or privileged schools. So, for those that were not privileged, French was the popular language of choice for many students (because French and Romanian both stem from Latin).
While being privileged is not necessary to learn English today, English still holds prestige in Romania. Because of English’s international influence, more and more Romanians are learning speak it. According to Dr. Condruz-Băcescu from The Bucharest University in Romania, "the number of students studying English today has come to exceed that of primary school students studying French". This explains why today only about 20 percent of Romanians speak French, while a rising 30 percent speak English. This increasing trend applies to other domains where English dominates (i.e. mass media, the internet, international politics).
While being privileged is not necessary to learn English today, English still holds prestige in Romania. Because of English’s international influence, more and more Romanians are learning speak it. According to Dr. Condruz-Băcescu from The Bucharest University in Romania, "the number of students studying English today has come to exceed that of primary school students studying French". This explains why today only about 20 percent of Romanians speak French, while a rising 30 percent speak English. This increasing trend applies to other domains where English dominates (i.e. mass media, the internet, international politics).