Romanian is a Romance language spoken by approximately 24 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova. As the only Romance language in Eastern Europe, Romanian occupies a unique linguistic position — it descends directly from Vulgar Latin brought by Roman colonists to the province of Dacia in the 2nd century CE, yet it has evolved in isolation from its Western Romance cousins, absorbing significant Slavic, Turkish, Greek, and Hungarian influence.
In Australia, approximately 12,000 people speak Romanian at home according to the 2021 Census. Romanian migration to Australia occurred primarily in two waves: post-World War II displaced persons and a larger wave following the fall of the Ceaușescu regime in 1989. Melbourne and Sydney host the largest Romanian communities, with smaller populations in Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth.
Romanian retains many features of Latin grammar that other Romance languages have lost, including a complex case system with five cases and a definite article that attaches to the end of nouns rather than preceding them. This postposed article system is unique among major Romance languages and creates distinctive grammatical patterns that translators must handle carefully.
The language uses the Latin alphabet supplemented with five special characters: Ă, Â, Î, Ș, and Ț. These diacritical marks are essential for correct spelling and meaning — omitting them can change the meaning of words entirely. Romanian underwent a significant orthographic reform in 1993 that standardised certain spellings, though some older community members may use pre-reform conventions.
For Australian service providers, Romanian language services are relevant across government, healthcare, aged care, and legal sectors. The established nature of the Romanian community means services span from aged care for elderly first-generation migrants to settlement support for newer arrivals. Romania's accession to the European Union in 2007 also brought skilled migration to Australia.
Diacritical Marks
Romanian requires five special characters: Ă, Â, Î, Ș, and Ț. These must be rendered correctly — using S-cedilla (Ş) instead of S-comma-below (Ș) is a common error that occurs with incorrect font or encoding settings. Content management systems and fonts must support the correct Unicode characters. Omitting diacritics entirely changes meaning and appears unprofessional.
Grammatical Complexity
Romanian's postposed definite article and five-case system create translation challenges, particularly for technical and legal content where precision is essential. Gender agreement across nouns, adjectives, and articles requires careful attention — Romanian has three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), with neuter nouns behaving as masculine in singular and feminine in plural.
Romanian vs Moldovan
Romanian and Moldovan are linguistically the same language, though political sensitivities exist. In Australia, some community members from Moldova may identify their language as Moldovan. Standard Romanian is appropriate for both communities in most contexts. Awareness of this distinction demonstrates cultural sensitivity without requiring different translations.
Text Expansion
Romanian text is approximately 15-20% longer than English. The agglutinative nature of the definite article and rich inflectional system produce longer words on average. This expansion should be factored into design layouts, especially for UI elements, forms, and signage.
Formality Registers
Romanian distinguishes between informal (tu) and formal (dumneavoastră) address. Government, healthcare, and legal communications should use the formal register. The formal forms significantly lengthen text and affect verb conjugation throughout a document, so this decision impacts both translation length and style.
NAATI Certification
NAATI-certified Romanian translators and interpreters are available in Australia, primarily in Melbourne and Sydney. Availability for specialised fields such as legal or medical interpreting may require advance booking.