Romanian language, between tradition and innovation

Abstract

This chapter proposes an outline of the general characteristics of the Romanian language and the way in which tradition blends with innovation in this Romance language. We are considering aspects related to the manner in which progress is manifested in language, similar to a permanent interplay between the necessity of keeping the fundamental coordinates of the linguistic system and the need to adapt communication to the new challenges of reality. Some of the most important landmarks in the evolution of Romanian language and certain manifestations of linguistic variation, mostly the diatopic one (dialectal) are also highlighted. In order to delve into the issue of the relation between tradition and innovation in Romanian, a few representative linguistic phenomena from the phonetic, morphosyntactic and semantic fields are discussed.