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.
Romanian vs Moldovan
Romanian and Moldovan are essentially the same language with minor vocabulary differences. Moldovan uses Cyrillic in Transnistria but Latin script in the Republic of Moldova. For all practical purposes, standard Romanian is appropriate for both Romanian and Moldovan audiences in Australia.
Diacritical Characters
Romanian uses five special characters: ă, â, î, ș (or ş), and ț (or ţ). The characters with comma below (ș and ț) are the correct standard forms, while the cedilla variants (ş and ţ) are older conventions still seen in some fonts. All systems must support the correct Romanian diacritical marks. Their omission changes meaning and is conspicuous to Romanian readers.
Gendered Language
Romanian has three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and retains a case system with nominative-accusative and genitive-dative forms. Unlike other Romance languages, Romanian places the definite article at the end of the noun rather than before it. These features require native-level proficiency for accurate translation.
Text Expansion
Romanian text typically runs 15-20% longer than equivalent English content. The language's use of articles, prepositions, and inflectional endings creates moderate expansion that must be accommodated in layout designs.
Community Demographics
The Romanian-Australian community includes both established migrants and recent arrivals. Recent migration has been driven by professional opportunities, particularly in IT, engineering, and healthcare. Translation needs span from aged care for elderly migrants to professional and business communications for recent arrivals.
NAATI Certification
NAATI-certified Romanian translators are available in Australia, concentrated in Melbourne and Sydney. Medical and legal translation specialisations are accessible.