DacoRomanian

Daco-Romanian is the term used in linguistics to describe the Romanian language as it developed from Vulgar Latin in the region historically known as Dacia, corresponding roughly to present-day Romania and Moldova. It is part of the Eastern Romance subgroup of the Balkan Romance languages and forms the basis of the modern standard Romanian. In many scholarly contexts it is used to distinguish the Romanian language from other Balkan Romance tongues, such as Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian and Istro-Romanian.

Historical development begins with Roman conquest of Dacia in the 2nd century CE and the continued use of Latin among the local population after the Roman withdrawal. Over the medieval period the Latin speech in this area gradually evolved into Old Romanian, which later diversified into the dialects and standard form known today. The language was transmitted and standardized through writing in the Romanian principalities and, later, in the Romanian state and Moldova. The modern language uses the Latin alphabet, a shift completed in the 19th century.

Dialects and distribution correspond to historical regions. Major dialect groups include Moldavian (in the east), Muntenian or Wallachian (in the south), and Transylvanian, along with other regional varieties such as Banatian and Oltenian. These dialects share a common core but exhibit phonetic, lexical, and some syntactic differences.

Phonology and grammar feature a Latin-derived core with characteristic Balkan influences. Notable features include the postposed definite article attached to nouns, a reduced case system, and extensive use of clitics and prepositions. The vocabulary is largely Latin-based with borrowings from Slavic, Hungarian, Greek, Turkish, and other contact languages.

Sociolinguistically, Romanian is the official language of Romania; in Moldova, the language is commonly referred to as Moldovan in political contexts, though most linguistic standards regard Moldovan as the same language as Romanian. There are communities of speakers worldwide in diaspora.