# Slavic-Romance Doubles in Romanian



## Denmark

Hello to everybody!

I would like to see how many Slavic-Romance doubles there are in Romanian. You are more than welcome to add other word combinations to the list!!!

Substantives, adjectives, verbs and so on:

nădejdă - speranță (încredere)
a nădăjdui - a spera
a izbi - a bate
a lovi - a bate (?)
a goni - a fugări
a izgoni - a fugări
războinic - militar
văzduh - aer
ceas - oră
vreme - timp
glas - voce
graniță - frontieră
milostiv - îndurat
duh - spirit
a izbăvi - a salva (a scăpa)
veşnicie (vecie) - eternitate
slujbă - serviciu, funcție
războinic - luptător, ostaş (both from Latin: luctare and hostis)
jalnic - trist (well, it's not quite the right translation. jalnic is stronger and means miserable and trist means sad.)
vină - culpă
vinovat - responsabil
greşeală -eroare


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## farscape

(I'm not sure if list are encouraged on the forum). In any case, check the definitions of the words I listed below at: dexonline.ro 

_Hope_ is spelled *nădejde*.

Best,




Denmark said:


> nădejde - încredere
> a izbi - a bate
> a lovi - a bate (?)
> a goni - a fugări
> a izgoni - a fugări
> războinic - militar
> văzduh - aer
> vreme - timp (two meanings, time and weather)
> milostiv - îndurat
> duh - spirit
> jalnic - trist (deplorabil)
> vinovat - responsabil


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## Denmark

Thanks

I am not only interested in the list of the words but also their usage in Romania (and in Moldova). If there is any difference between using them in the Western part og the Eastern part of the country.

Best wishes
Alex


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## féebleue

The difference is not really geographical. It's just that the Slavic words are usually older, while their Latin doubles entered the language later as neologisms, usually borrowed from French during the 19th century.

Thus, in some cases, the Slavic words (like văzduh, a izbăvi, milostiv, nădejde) are slightly archaic. They are typical for the religious vocabulary and they're not really used in the normal language, except maybe for literary works.

Also, some Latin words (like frontieră, eroare, culpă, responsabil) are still considered neologisms and are typical for the official, formal style, while in the informal speech it's much more natural to use the older Slavic double (graniţă, greşeală, vină, vinovat). However, nowadays journalists tend to use a lot of neologisms, so words like responsabil, funcţie, serviciu have become pretty common.

In other cases though, the Latin words are not neologisms. They have been in the language ever since the language was born in the early Middle Ages, after the Romans colonized Dacia. This means these words are just as old, or even older than the Slavic ones, and they are both used very often, although they have suffered slight changes of meaning, so they're not actually synonyms anymore: voce-glas, a lovi-a bate, ceas-oră, vreme-timp.


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## Denmark

I'll take an example from a Romanian song. Maybe it sounds strange in Romanian too to say but anyway: Respir un aer mult prea trist. It means that it will be weird to hear one saying- respir un văzduh mult prea trist. 

Vreme and timp seem to be slightly different as you said but what about glas-voce and ceas-oră: there meening is the same, isn't it?

Let's say if I only use old slavic doubles, will my speech be considered then as a kind of a "socialect" (lower class)? 

It is funny you mention frontieră-granită. I have two books in Romanian- in the older book (made in Soviet time) it says frontieră, in the newer one- granită.


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## farscape

Denmark said:


> ...It means that it will be weird to hear one saying- respir un văzduh mult prea trist.



Weird indeed: văzduh is more like the upper layers of the atmosphere and not air (O2 + N2 + inert gases). But you can safely say s-a ridicat în aer/s-a ridicat în văzduh.



> Vreme and timp seem to be slightly different as you said but what about glas-voce and ceas-oră: there meaning is the same, isn't it?


Correct, they are not on the list. And *vreme *has two meanings, the synonim for time, as FB said, being somewhat archaic.



> Let's say if I only use old slavic doubles, will my speech be considered then as a kind of a "socialect" (lower class)?


No, but people would assume that you're either very old (sight unseen) or that you're trying to make an impression...

Later,


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## féebleue

Actually, you can't say "respir un văzduh". It would be wrong, because văzduh means air as in sky, atmosphere, not as in the air you breathe. You could say "Avionul este în văzduh" (the plane is in the air), but it would sound extremely weird indeed. Văzduh is an archaism.

Vreme and timp are not so different. They can both mean time or weather. But nowadays vreme is generally used meaning weather, while timp means time.

Ceas is used nowadays mostly with the meaning of clock/watch. It can still mean hour (oră): două ceasuri = două ore = two hours, but this use is a little bit archaic/poetic today.

Glas and voce do mean the same thing, but glas tends to be used less nowadays. It, too, is slightly more poetic.

So, you can't use *only* Slavic doubles, because, in most cases, they don't mean exactly the same thing. And even when they do, the Slavic word is sometimes a bit archaic, so you'd sound anachronic or weird/pretentious. It has nothing to do with the social classes. The lower, uneducated class probably hasn't even heard of old, poetic words like văzduh.


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## traveling cloud

jilav - umed (humid)
The first one is rarely used; dexonline says it has some other meaning in Banat region ("strong"). Also, from dexonline:





> Pe de altă parte, _jilav_ nu-l substituie pe _umed,_ întrucît primul cuvînt conține ideea de "îmbibat, pătruns de umezeală pe toate părțile"


gâlceavă/sfadă - ceartă (quarrel)
I think the first ones are used mostly in Moldova.

slobod - liber (free)
The first one is archaic, but you can still hear in some rural areas sentenced like "lasă câinele slobod!" ("free the dog!"), or in some  religious texts. An interesting fact, there are many villages and one  city named "Slobozia". Quoting from Wikipedia,





> Its name is from  Romanian "slobozie", which meant a recently colonized village which was  free of taxation.


Also, this word and some derivates have some vulgar meanings.


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## Denmark

Yes, vreme means now more weather than time.

I am not sure if gâlceavă and jilav have Slavic roots???

Another double:

cinstit - onest


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## farscape

Denmark said:
			
		

> I am not sure if gâlceavă and jilav have Slavic roots???



According to the Romanian dictionaries quoted here, dexonline.ro, yes, they come from Bulgarian.

Later,


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## traveling cloud

"jilav" is related to Old Church Slavonic "жила" (sinew). As for "gâlceavă", I found in Bulgarian "гълча" (talk loudly, jabber, scold).

Another one: zvon/veste (both Slavic) - ştire (Latin). Though their meaning are a little different: "zvon" is an unverified news/rumor (maybe the news were announced some time ago using a ringing bell = "zvon" in Slavic languages), but "veste" (familiar) and "ştire" (formal) may be translated as "news".


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## Denmark

Yes, you are right. "Zvon" is refered to a sound of a bell in Russian at least. It might have been used many years ago as a proclamation of something new. 
Veste (vestj and vesti, singular - plural forms, in Russian) is wighdly used nowdays.

It means that it actually doesn't matter if a Slavic word is younger or older than a Romance one. There are 50% chance that eather it will be used on a regular basis or not (archaic and replaced by a Romance one).
It has nothing to do with the history. I mean- people don't want to use more (or only) Romance words instead of Slavic just because of the political situation during the Soviet period. 

Thank you for your help.

Another one ;-) :

veac - secol


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## traveling cloud

Yep, "veac" is used only in literature; "secol" is the only word in use nowadays.




Denmark said:


> duh - spirit


It has the same meaning as in many  Slavic languages (ghost, spirit), but it includes a religious sense  ("Sfântul Duh"). It coexists with "spirit" (which obviously comes from  Latin), along with other words: "strigoi" (from "strigă" - Lat.  strigare), "fantomă", "stafie" (both of Greek origin). All of them have  the same basic meaning, but "spirit" has an wider sense and "fantomă" is  a neologism coming from French and being used more and more frequently.  As many Romanian words of Slavic origin, "duh" is fading into an  archaic use, along with "strigoi" (which is mainly used in Romanian  mythology).

More:
izvor - sursă (source; both widely used, but "izvor" mainly means "spring of water")
iaz - lac (lake, but "iaz" has a narrow sense)
ostrov - insulă (island; only the second one is frequently used)
slugă - servitor (servant; the Slavic one slightly archaic and sometimes pejorative)
ucenic - învăţăcel/discipol (apprentice; "ucenic" is slightly archaic)
zlătar - aurar (goldsmith; zlătar is archaic and designates specifically a gypsy person)
bogat - avut (rich, wealthy; well, here the first one is mostly used, while the second one - coming from the verb "a avea" - is a little more formal and rarely used)
nevastă - soţie (wife, NOT bride as in Slavic languages; both of them are used, the first one being a little more familiar)


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## Trisia

Mod note:

Actually neither lists nor research questions are encouraged here. I'm not going to delete this thread, but I am closing it. Thanks for your understanding, everyone.


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