Theodisce wrote:It's intriguing that Romanians succeeded in basically reinventing their language, at least when it comes to vocabulary (a 19th century dictionary classified Romanian as a Slavic language, or so I'm told), whereas it did not happen to that extent with Katharevousa, which ended up being substituted with Demotic after having left some traces (I guess some still use Katharevousa, but they are few). Any ideas why?
I don't think that Romanian was classified as Slavic honestly. What I think is that like other languages (for example Turkish) they wanted to purify the language by substituting part of the invasors' vocabulary with (in this case) Romanian words.
(It would be brilliant if English does the same and bases the spelling on the Icelandic one [for me].
Imagine a dialogue like this:
- Hæ!
- Hæ Endriú, uót’s ap?
- Naþing spéshal Tómmý. Há is going uiþ iór maðer?
- Shi is still in ðe sikhás!
- Oh, it spæts mí! Uót a béd goin-on! Strenþ!
- Þenx Tómmy. Bíar?
Aaaaaahh.
)
To my ear Romanian sounds like Italian pronounced by people who have been largely exposed to Slavic languages, but this sensation is obviously influenced by my knowledge of history.
Romanian is definitely Italian spoken by a Russian man who drank too much Palinka.
As for audio books, the Italian ones are read with rocket speed, at least those I bought. After 380 hours of input it is no more the problem it was at the beginning of the journey though.
I never used an italian audiobook in my life (and I will probably die without doing it) but I find it hard to believe, Italian is always read in a slow and solemn way (but I believe you.) But great to hear that with practice this is not anymore a problem