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Message:: [QUOTE="ambr0zie, post: 5006870, member: 80952"]Hi [USER=72790]@kevin McGonigal[/USER] , yes, you are correct.I will try to answer your questions from what I know."Do you know if the Latin of Romania was like the Latin of other provinces"I studied (some) Latin in school, but beginner's level. From what I learned in history classes, the Latin used after conquering Dacia was not the "official" Latin, so some kind of a dialect or a lingua franca if we can say this. The colonists who settled in Dacia were, most likely, from Moesia and surrounding provinces that were already conquered by the Empire, so not "truly" Romans.  Latin speakers, of course, but in what degree Latin, I don't know.There is a theory that Dacian language was also very close to Latin. "Can a modern speaker of Romanian read Latin texts"If you ask me if I can understand Latin, the answer is no. They "sound" very much the same and from what I remember from 20 years ago, the grammar rules are somehow similar (our grammar is very different from English, for example).But in this particular case, the RESTITUTOR ORBIS coin - Restorer of the world, in Romanian this would be translated as "Restauratorul lumii".So Restorer is quite similar, but the word for Orbis .....Another example - a Roman saying I remember from school - Vita nostra brevis est (Our life is short). in Romanian it would be "Viața noastră este scurtă". The ț in "viata" is pronounced like a tz. So, not exactly similar. The verb is almost identical but the position in the sentence changes.For me it is very easy to READ a text in Latin because we use the same kind of accent and pronunciation but I will understand, perhaps 30-40% of the words.I know that a native English or German speaker would have difficulties in pronouncing Latin words. For me it feels natural. "Is Romanian close enough to Italian and Spanish to be mutually understood"Better than an Englishman, yes, but a conversation is impossible. I do not speak these languages, I can DETERMIN or guess what someone is saying much better than, let's say, Norwegian or Hungarian - just two examples of languages that have nothing in common with Romanian.But it's much easier to learn these languages for us that it would be for a German for example, because of the accent and similar grammar rules.Using Google translate - I wrote a simple sentece in Romanian - "I like this forum because I learn new things about old coins".Romanian: "Îmi place acest forum pentru că învăț lucruri noi despre bani vechi." (notice again the diacritics)Italian translation - cannot even be sure if it is accurate: "Mi piace questo forum perché imparo cose nuove sui vecchi soldi." This example is almost identical but the "soldi" doesn't have a clear correspondent in Romanian for money, although the word "soldă" means the payment received by a SOLDIER, in Romanian "soldat".Spanish: "Me gusta este foro porque aprendo cosas nuevas sobre el dinero antiguo"    - so not quite similar. What I must add, a lot of people have names of Latin origin. Can't say if this is just a trend starting in 19th century when Romania gained independence. Traian is a popular name in Romania, we even had a president with this name (2004-2014) - Traian Basescu. Not at all uncommon.  Same situation with Aurelian - it is not uncommon to meet a Romanian with the given name Aurelian. Or Sever, Titus, Constantin (very popular in Romania), Liviu, Octavian, Cezar, Tiberiu, Horatiu, Sergiu. Same situation for ladies. My grandmother's name was Lucretia (paternal grandmother) and I also had a great aunt (my maternal grandfather's sister) with the same name.[/QUOTE]

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