Romania is the largest country where Romanian (limba română) is the official, everyday language — spoken by roughly 19 million residents as a first language. But "the Romanian of Romania" is not a single timeless thing: the standard you learn in textbooks is a relatively recent achievement, built deliberately in the 1800s and 1900s alongside the political unification of the country. This page explains the legal status of the language, the institution that guards it, how it became standardized, and why Romania is in fact a multilingual state despite a strong official monolingualism.
Constitutional status: one official language
Article 13 of the Romanian Constitution states it in a single short sentence: „În România, limba oficială este limba română." ("In Romania, the official language is the Romanian language.") This makes Romania, on paper, a monolingual state — official business, courts, and national administration are conducted in Romanian.
În România, limba oficială este limba română.
In Romania, the official language is the Romanian language. (the text of Article 13 of the Constitution)
Toate actele oficiale se redactează în limba română.
All official documents are drafted in Romanian. (everyday administrative phrasing)
This is stronger than it sounds. In many countries "official language" is a soft designation; in Romania it has real teeth — you have a constitutional right to use Romanian with the state, and minority languages are accommodated only in specific, locally defined circumstances (see below). The Romanian word for the country's standard variety is limba literară ("the literary/standard language") — note that literară here does not mean "literary" in the sense of poetry; it means the codified written norm, the same way English speakers say "Standard English."
The Romanian Academy: the keeper of the norm
The body that codifies the standard is the Academia Română (the Romanian Academy), founded in 1866. Through its linguistics institutes it publishes the authorities that define "correct" Romanian:
| Work | What it codifies |
|---|---|
| DOOM (Dicționarul ortografic, ortoepic și morfologic) | Spelling, pronunciation, and word forms — the binding norm |
| DEX (Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române) | Definitions and standard usage |
| Gramatica limbii române (GALR) | The reference grammar |
The Academy's decisions are not merely advisory in Romania — schools, publishers, and official bodies follow DOOM. The most famous Academy intervention is the 1993 spelling reform, which restored â word-internally (and the form sunt for "I am / they are", replacing the older sînt) after the Communist-era 1953 reform had standardized î almost everywhere. This is exactly why you must learn the â / î split: it is the visible result of an Academy ruling, not a phonetic rule (see î vs â).
Academia Română stabilește norma ortografică prin DOOM.
The Romanian Academy sets the spelling norm through the DOOM. (academic register)
Conform DOOM, scriem „român
According to the DOOM, we write 'român' with â, but 'început' with î. (academic register)
How the standard was built: unification first, language second
Here is the deep point about Romanian in Romania, and the one most learners miss: standardization followed political unification, not the other way around. A single national standard could not exist before there was something like a single Romanian state to project it.
| Year | Event | Linguistic consequence |
|---|---|---|
| 1859 | Union of Wallachia (Țara Românească) and Moldavia under Alexandru Ioan Cuza | A single political space; the Muntenian (Wallachian/Bucharest) variety becomes the prestige base for the standard |
| 1860s | Switch from the Cyrillic to the Latin alphabet | Romanian aligns visually with its Romance relatives (see historical spread) |
| 1866 / 1879 | Founding and reorganization of the Romanian Academy | An institution to codify and police the norm |
| 1918 | "Greater Romania": Transylvania, Bessarabia, Bukovina unite with the Old Kingdom | The standard is extended over regions with different speech, accelerating school-driven leveling |
The standard variety is based largely on the Muntenian (Wallachian) speech of the south, centered on Bucharest, the capital — capitals tend to set norms. This is why, for example, the southern soft pronunciation of certain consonants and the southern vocabulary often "win" in the standard, even though a Transylvanian or Moldavian speaker may say things differently at home.
Limba standard de azi s-a format mai ales după Unirea din 1859.
Today's standard language took shape mainly after the 1859 Union. (academic register)
Norma literară are la bază graiul muntenesc, vorbit în zona Bucureștiului.
The literary norm is based on the Muntenian dialect, spoken in the Bucharest area. (academic register)
School and media: how the standard is enforced today
Two engines keep the standard uniform. The first is compulsory education — every child in Romania is taught limba și literatura română (Romanian language and literature) from the first grade, and the school grammar is the Academy's grammar. The second is national media — public broadcasting (TVR, Radio România) and the press model a neutral, Bucharest-leaning standard pronunciation that most Romanians can produce when they want to sound "correct," even if they speak with a regional accent at home.
La școală învățăm gramatica după norma Academiei.
At school we learn grammar according to the Academy's norm. (everyday)
Prezentatorii de la TVR vorbesc o română standard, fără accent regional puternic.
The TVR presenters speak a standard Romanian, without a strong regional accent. (everyday)
The result is diglossia-lite: nearly everyone controls a standard for formal/written situations and a regional or colloquial variety for home and friends. A Moldavian speaker may say îs for sunt and pronounce ce and ci with a softer sibilant among family, then switch to standard forms in a job interview (see spoken vs written).
Romania is multilingual
Despite the strong constitutional monolingualism, Romania is genuinely multilingual, and pretending otherwise is a mistake. The largest minority languages are:
| Language | Where | Approximate scale |
|---|---|---|
| Hungarian (magyar) | Transylvania, especially the Szeklerland (Harghita, Covasna, Mureș) | The largest minority — on the order of one to 1.2 million speakers; in some counties a local majority |
| Romani (limba romani) | Throughout the country | Several hundred thousand speakers; the Roma are a large minority though many also speak Romanian or Hungarian |
| German (the Transylvanian Saxon and Banat Swabian communities) | Transylvania, Banat (Sibiu, Brașov, Timișoara) | Now small after 20th-century emigration, but historically major, with a living school and press tradition |
Romanian law (in line with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which Romania ratified in 2007) allows the use of a minority language in dealings with local authorities where that minority exceeds a threshold of the local population — historically set at 20%. So in parts of the Szeklerland you will see bilingual Romanian–Hungarian signage and hear Hungarian in the town hall, entirely legally.
În Harghita și Covasna, multe localități au și plăcuțe în limba maghiară.
In Harghita and Covasna, many localities also have signs in Hungarian. (everyday)
Comunitatea germană din Sibiu și Brașov are școli și un ziar în limba germană.
The German community in Sibiu and Brașov has schools and a newspaper in German. (everyday)
România a ratificat Carta limbilor regionale sau minoritare în 2007.
Romania ratified the Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in 2007. (academic register)
The most internationally famous symbol of this is that Romania's president from 2014 to 2024, Klaus Iohannis, is an ethnic German (a Transylvanian Saxon) from Sibiu — a reminder that "Romanian" the nationality and "Romanian" the language do not perfectly overlap.
Common Mistakes
These are misconceptions learners carry about Romanian in Romania, not grammar errors.
Don't assume the standard is the oldest, "purest" form of the language:
❌ Standard Romanian is the ancient, original Romanian; dialects are corruptions of it.
Misconception — the standard is a 19th-century codification based on Bucharest/Muntenian speech; regional varieties are equally old siblings.
✅ Standard Romanian was codified after the 1859 Union, on a Muntenian base.
Correct framing.
Don't read limba literară as "literary language":
❌ „Limba literară
False friend — it means the standard, codified norm (like 'Standard English').
✅ „Limba literară
Correct distinction.
Don't imagine Romania is linguistically uniform:
❌ Everyone in Romania speaks only Romanian.
Misconception — there is a large Hungarian minority in the Szeklerland, plus Romani and historic German communities.
✅ Romania is officially Romanian-speaking but genuinely multilingual.
Correct framing.
Don't think the Academy's rulings are mere suggestions:
❌ The Romanian Academy gives optional advice that nobody follows.
Misconception — DOOM is binding in schools, publishing, and official use; the 1993 â-reform is the proof.
✅ The Academia Română sets a binding norm through DOOM and DEX.
Correct framing.
Don't conflate the Romanian state with the Romanian language area:
❌ Romanian is spoken only inside Romania's borders.
Misconception — it is also official in Moldova and spoken by communities in Ukraine, Serbia, Hungary, and a large diaspora.
✅ Romanian extends well beyond Romania's borders.
See the Moldova, minorities, and diaspora pages.
Key Takeaways
- Article 13 makes Romanian the sole official language of Romania, with real legal force.
- The Academia Română codifies the norm through DOOM, DEX, and the reference grammar; its rulings (e.g., the 1993 â reform) are binding.
- The standard is a 19th-century construction on a Muntenian/Bucharest base, built alongside the 1859 and 1918 unifications — not an ancient "pure" form.
- School and national media keep the standard uniform, while most Romanians keep a regional or colloquial variety for home.
- Romania is officially monolingual but genuinely multilingual, with a large Hungarian minority in Transylvania and significant Romani and historic German communities.
Now practice Romanian
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Where Romanian Is SpokenA2 — A map of the Romanian-speaking world — around 19 million speakers in Romania, the Republic of Moldova where Romanian is the official language, the large recent diaspora in Italy, Spain, Germany and beyond, and the historic minorities in Ukraine, Serbia and Hungary — with the key point that 'Moldovan' is not a separate language but Romanian under another name.
- Romanian in the Republic of MoldovaB1 — Romanian as the official language of the Republic of Moldova — the legacy of Soviet 'Moldovan' and Cyrillic, the 2013 Constitutional Court ruling and the 2023 constitutional change that fixed the name as 'Romanian', the continuing weight of Russian, and Transnistria's frozen Moldovan-Cyrillic.
- Historical Spread and ContactB2 — How Romanian got where it is — its Daco-Roman Latin origins, the centuries of Slavic contact and Old Church Slavonic literacy in Cyrillic, the Ottoman and Phanariot-Greek layer, and the 19th-century Westernizing 're-Latinization' that gave the modern Latin-script, French-influenced standard.
- Romanian Minorities AbroadB2 — The Romanian-speaking minorities living outside Romania and Moldova — the Timok Vlachs of eastern Serbia, the Romanians of northern Bukovina and southern Bessarabia/Budjak in Ukraine, and the community around Gyula in Hungary — their history, their assimilation pressures, the politics of the 'Vlach' label, and why these Daco-Romanian groups are distinct from the Aromanians further south.
- Language Institutions and ResourcesB1 — Who decides what counts as 'correct' Romanian, and where to look it up — the Romanian Academy and its Institute of Linguistics, the normative DOOM (the official spelling/morphology dictionary) and DEX (the standard meaning dictionary), the Institutul Limbii Române and Institutul Cultural Român, and the certification exams. When sources disagree, DOOM is the arbiter.
- Spoken vs Written RomanianB2 — Medium (spoken vs written) and formality (informal vs formal) are two independent axes. Spoken Romanian favors the o-să future, ăsta/asta, dropped final -l, clitic fusion, fillers, repair, and dislocation (Cartea, am citit-o); written Romanian favors the voi-future, acesta, full forms, dense subordination, and — in narrative — the perfectul simplu. Crucially, even a formal SPEECH keeps some spoken features that a formal LETTER would not, so 'spoken vs written' is not the same cut as 'informal vs formal'.