Language in Romania: Romantic and Slavic

Looking to travel to Romania? It’s full of beautiful cities, amazing castles, scenic views, and kind people!

But what about the language? How easily can you get around as an English speaker, and what other languages might you encounter?

Well, it’s actually pretty cut and dry. It’s not as diverse as a country like Indonesia, but there are still plenty of languages and cultures throughout. Unlike other Romance languages (Spanish, Italian, French, etc.), Romanian is heavily influenced by the nearby Slavic languages.

Also, I wrote a quick and easy guide for Romanian that explains the basics of the language! It’s intended for travelers who don’t need to learn all of the intricacies of the language.

Anyway, let’s get started!

English Language in Romania

As an American travel writer, I’m going to assume much of my audience is English-speaking. So, that’s what I’ll start with. How easy will it be to get around if you only know English?

Before, I wrote that only around 31% of Romanians speak English. While this is true, I wrote it before I actually traveled there. I recommended learning some basic Romanian in order to help you get around.

That said, I had no issue getting around using only English. I encountered a few people here and there with less English proficiency, but I don’t think I went to a single place without an English speaker present.

It’s very possible for your experience to differ from mine. However, I visited Busteni, Predeal, Brasov, Sighisoara, Sinaia, Bran, and Bucharest without much issue. The only slight hiccup came from some signs in Bran at a small medieval village re-creation that were only written in Romanian.

I also had people who took me to all of these places that spoke both Romanian and English, so that certainly gave me a bit of an advantage.

I should add that with the exception of Bucharest and Predeal, these were only day trips. So if you spend more time in any of these places, your odds of encountering a non-English speaker will increase.

Romanian Itself

It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that the most widely-spoken language in Romania is the one that shares its name with the country.

Romanian itself is spoken by about 91% of the population (as of 2002). If you take the time to learn some basics of Romanian, you’re certain to find some people to talk with.

This also means that, should you want to fully learn the language, Romania is definitely the place to do it! Immersion will always be one of the most effective methods for language practice.

Romanian is also, unsurprisingly, the official language of Romania, and it’s spread out across the whole country.

Other Languages in Romania

There are plenty of other languages present in Romania, too. Most of them aren’t too surprising given the languages that exist nearby, but they’re definitely worth knowing about. There are about 30 different languages with a significant amount of speakers in Romania. 5 of those are indigenous.

These minority languages also have legal protections which help keep them alive and active. They didn’t exist until 1989, when Romania was no longer communist.

The Hungarian Language in Romania

Some regions of Romania used to be part of Hungary, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that Hungarian is a (somewhat) common language.

You’re most likely to encounter it in central Romania, specifically the northern parts of Transylvania. It’s also present in northwestern Romania near the border of Hungary.

It’s spoken by around 6% of the population, so while it isn’t extremely common, it’s possible you’ll encounter it. That’s still 1.2 million people!

Romani

It might not seem like it from the name (it admittedly confused me a bit at first) but Romani and Romanian are actually separate languages. While Romanian is a Romance language like Spanish, Romani actually has more in common with languages near India.

That said, there are many distinct varieties of Romani in different parts of the world. So Romani speakers in Romania will speak the language quite differently from Romani speakers in the US.

This language, proportionally, makes up a very small part of the population (about 240,000, which is still a very large number) and is scattered all over the country. It’s most likely to be found in the same central region as Hungarian.

The Ukrainian Language in Romania

Ukrainian is spoken primarily along the Ukrainian border in northern Romania.

There are about 50,000 Ukrainian speakers in Romania as of the last census, but recent events have probably increased that number by a lot.

Some Others

There are a few more languages that I don’t think are significant enough for a whole section. In order to paint the full picture, though, I think they’re important to mention.

Romania used to have a much larger population of German speakers in the 1900s. That number has dropped by over 700,000 since the 1940s. It’s now closer to 40,000. Still, they’re one of the larger ethnicities within Romania.

Russian is also commonly spoken by emigrants who left Russia due to religious differences. There are about 30,000 speakers still in Romania.

You might also encounter Turkish speakers, as well as Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Bulgarian, and Greek.

Signage

Most signage was written in Romanian or English and Romanian. A lot of museums had signs in 2-5 languages. I remember seeing a lot of German and Russian in addition to the other two. While it won’t help you as much as English, knowing any of those can give you more access to these places than you might think!

Conclusion

This one wasn’t very long compared to some of my other regional language guides but, like with German, there isn’t as much history of intermixing languages as in some other places.

Still, I was pleasantly surprised at how many languages you might find here. I expected some Slavic languages because of their heavy influence on Romanian, but there’s a lot more than I expected.

It always seems interesting to me to look at this information. As an American near the Canadian border (and nowhere near French Canada), I don’t really encounter other languages often. So looking into the actual population distribution often surprises me with the diversity of language.

Now, that’s not to say that people don’t speak other languages here. People might speak Spanish, Japanese, or thousands of other languages in private while they speak English in public.

The same is true of any country, and I’d imagine that you could get by with Romanian in any part of Romania without much issue.

Like I said, this was a lot shorter than some of my other, similar posts. But if you enjoyed it, be sure to check out those ones, too.

Also, if you find that any of this information needs corrections, or otherwise have questions, comments, or concerns, please reach out in the comments or contact me directly!

Thanks for reading!