4 ms·

> not slavic at all Try telling that to US universities where Romanian is usually studied in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature :-) The truth i

> not slavic at all Try telling that to US universities where Romanian is usually studied in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature :-) The truth is that Romanian is a romance language with more slavic imports than any other language from its family. This lexical distance graph makes it clear (Rom == Romanian): http://elms.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/lexical-distance-among-languages-of-europe/ http://elms.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/lexical-distance-among-...

optymizer 12y ago
As someone who speaks Romanian, Russian and Bulgarian, and has plenty of Albanian friends, I'm surprised that Albanian is be placed between Romanian and Russian. I don't know exactly why it would even be linked to Romanian or Russian. The only cause I can think of is Turkish/Indian words that made their way into Romanian and Russian, but that makes the links extremely weak.
- stefantalpalaru 12y ago
  > I don't know exactly why it would even be linked to Romanian or Russian. It comes down to a common origin that Romanians and Albanians share in Thracian tribes. A presumed Thraco-Illyrian language family[1] is the explanation for the weak[2], but relevant link between the two languages. As for the Slavic connection, Wikipedia has this to say[3]: "Albanian does share two features with Balto-Slavic languages: a lengthening of syllabic consonants before voiced obstruents and a distinct treatment of long syllables ending in a sonorant." [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thraco-Illyrian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thraco-Illyrian [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Romanian_words_of_possible_Dacian_origin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Romanian_words_of_possi... [3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_language#Linguistic_affinities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_language#Linguistic_af...
- mercer 12y ago
  I grew up speaking Albanian, and I find it pretty useless in any of the surrounding countries (aside from Kosovo, of course). It's a fun language to know though!

optymizer 12y ago

As someone who speaks Romanian, Russian and Bulgarian, and has plenty of Albanian friends, I'm surprised that Albanian is be placed between Romanian and Russian. I don't know exactly why it would even be linked to Romanian or Russian. The only cause I can think of is Turkish/Indian words that made their way into Romanian and Russian, but that makes the links extremely weak.

stefantalpalaru 12y ago
> I don't know exactly why it would even be linked to Romanian or Russian. It comes down to a common origin that Romanians and Albanians share in Thracian tribes. A presumed Thraco-Illyrian language family[1] is the explanation for the weak[2], but relevant link between the two languages. As for the Slavic connection, Wikipedia has this to say[3]: "Albanian does share two features with Balto-Slavic languages: a lengthening of syllabic consonants before voiced obstruents and a distinct treatment of long syllables ending in a sonorant." [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thraco-Illyrian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thraco-Illyrian [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Romanian_words_of_possible_Dacian_origin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Romanian_words_of_possi... [3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_language#Linguistic_affinities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_language#Linguistic_af...
mercer 12y ago
I grew up speaking Albanian, and I find it pretty useless in any of the surrounding countries (aside from Kosovo, of course). It's a fun language to know though!