The Transylvanian varieties of Romanian (''subdialectele / graiurile ardelene'') are a group of

dialects The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

of the

Romanian language Romanian (obsolete spellings: Rumanian or Roumanian; autonym: ''limba română'' , or ''românește'', ) is the official and main language of Romania and the Moldova, Republic of Moldova. As a minority language it is spoken by stable communi ...

(Daco-Romanian). These varieties cover the historical region of

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

, except several large areas along the edges towards the neighboring dialects. The Transylvanian varieties are part of the northern group of Romanian dialects, along with Moldavian and

Banat Banat (, ; hu, Bánság; sr, Банат, Banat) is a geographical and historical region that straddles Central and Eastern Europe and which is currently divided among three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania (the counties of T ...

. Among the Transylvanian varieties, the

Crișana dialect The Crișana dialect (''subdialectul / graiul crișean'') is one of the dialects of the Romanian language (Daco-Romanian). Its geographic distribution covers approximately the historical region of Crișana, in western Transylvania. Classification ...

is easier to distinguish, followed by the

Maramureș dialect The Maramureș dialect (''subdialectul/graiul maramureșean'') is one of the dialects of the Romanian language (Daco-Romanian). Its geographic distribution covers approximately the historical region of Maramureș, now split between Romania and Ukra ...

. Less distinct are two other dialectal areas, one in the northeast and another in the center and south.

Classification

Unlike the other Romanian dialects, those of

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and so ...

Moldavia Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centr ...

, and

, the Romanian of

is broken up into many smaller and less distinct local speech varieties, making its dialectal classification more difficult. Classifications made until the late 19th century included a Transylvanian dialect, but as soon as detailed language facts became available, in the early 20th century, that view was abandoned. In 1908, Gustav Weigand used phonetic differences and reached the conclusion that the Romanian in Transylvania was a mosaic of transition varieties. Subsequent researchers agreed with his view.

Emil Petrovici Emil Petrovici (; 1899–1968) was a Romanian linguist, dialectologist and Slavist. He studied both Romanian and Serbian languages. His studies included Romanian phonology, and Romanian, Serbian, and other Slavic dialectology. Petrovici, of Ser ...

suggested that dialectal fragmentation could be attributed to the fact that Transylvania has been inhabited for more time and so differentiated and split into small dialectal cells, which were determined by geography. However, Moldavia and Wallachia were relatively recently colonized, which led to a remarkable dialectal unity in both regions.Emil Petrovici, "Transilvania, vatră lingvistică a românismului nord-dunărean", in ''Transilvania'', LXXII, 1941, 2, p. 103, cited by Vasile Ursan

Phonetic features

As a group, all Transylvanian varieties share a small number of common phonetic features: *The stressed vowels open to . *After and, in some varieties also after , the following vocalic changes occur: becomes , becomes , and reduces to . *The diphthong found in the Wallachian dialect is realised as the monophthong : for ''câine'', ''mâine'', ''pâine''. *Stressed vowels tend to be pronounced longer. *The vowel before a stressed syllable closes to . *In a series of verbs, the stress shifts to the root: for standard ''blestém'', ''înfășór'', ''strecór'', ''măsór''. *The vowel is found in the full paradigm of the verbs ''a durmi'', ''a adurmi'' ("to sleep, to fall asleep", compare with standard ''a dormi'', ''a adormi'').

References

Bibliography

*Vasile Ursan
"Despre configurația dialectală a dacoromânei actuale"
''Transilvania'' (new series), 2008, No. 1, pp. 77–85 *Ilona Bădescu
"Dialectologie"
teaching material for the University of Craiova. {{Romanian language Culture of Transylvania Romanian language varieties and styles

Classification

Phonetic features

See also

References

Bibliography