How do you percieve Romania?

[Jebus]

I had an english teacher with some pretty goofy ideas about history. She seemed to think that World War II happened in the 1960's and World War I happened in the 1940's. It wasn't just history, it was literature too. She once said that Odysseus's wife's name was Prudence. I told her that Odysseus's wife's name was Penelope, but she wouldn't believe me.

That seems a bit exxagerated.

Sources, please.

[maskoolin]

I ve one friend from Romania and he told me : Never go to Bucarest in your life !! if they know your not from there, even some bad bad taxi driver could make you

[tk-421]

That seems a bit exxagerated.

Sources, please.

The World War thing is a little exagerated, but the Prudence thing is not. My class read a short story called Demon Lover that was set during or just after WWII. There was a flashback scene set in WWI. A girl asked her when the flashback was. She said that the flashback scene was in the 40's and that the main part of the story was took place 20 some years later. I corrected her. It took her a moment to realize that she was wrong.

Prudence was a vocabulary word that needed to be memorized for a test. She was going over the list of vocab words and someone asked what prudence meant. She explained what the word meant and then went on to say that Odysseus's wife's name was Prudence. I'm not sure how I kept from laughing, but I did. I told her that the name was Penelope. She told me that I wrong. Homer's epics are some of my favorite books and I was rereading the Odyssey at the time. I pulled a copy out my backpack and showed her. Then she told me that Penelope is Greek for prudence. I don't know what Penelope means, but I know that it is not prudence. I didn't say anything more because I didn't want to push my luck.

This post makes her sound sort of stupid, but she really isn't. She doesn't have a clues about history or math, but she knows more about proper english grammar than anyone alive.

[GoreBag]

This post makes her sound sort of stupid, but she really isn't. She doesn't have a clues about history or math, but she knows more about proper english grammar than anyone alive.

Sounds like a challenge. Get her on a game show or something.

[Simetrical]

According to Wikipedia, "[Penelope's] name is close to the Greek word for "duck," but is usually understood to be a combination of the greek word for "web" or "woof" (πηνη) and the word for "face" (ωψ), very appropriate for a weaver of cunning whose motivation is hard to decipher."

[Teutobod II]

not fondly:
gangs of gipsies, burglars, pickpockts and saferobbers from there roam around Western Europe. And they will be allowed to come legally once Romania is in the EU!

sorry, but thats the main impression one gets

[Callatian]

I think that Romania is an island somewere in the Pacific

Loll if anyone decides to visit Romania make sure you ask us what to visit and what taxis to use.

Merry Christmas / Craciun Fericit.

[the_handsome_viking]

I think of vlad the impaler.

[SIGNIFER,LEGIOVIICLAUDIA]

Interesting... the Byzantines didn't call themselves Byzantines? I guess calling themselves Romania actually makes sense. (Assuming this is serious, it's hard to tell with all the spam posts lately) ;)

The Byzantine state was really called Romani'a(with the stress in 'i').This is natural,as all the Greeks and hellenised of the eastern provinces of the empire had the title of the Roman citizen since 212 A.D.(constitutio Antoniniana).Before this date many Greeks had also the title but not all.
So,in medieval times they perceived themselves as Romans,since their grandfathers were also Romei and the Christian Roman Emperor(Πιστος Εν Χριστω Αυτοκράτωρ και Βασιλευς Ρωμαίων) still ruled in the Εast until 1453 A.D..The word for Romans in Greek is Romei(Romei,from here originates the word that the Turks use for the Christians in Turkey:Rum.The lands of modern Greece,especially Sterea Ellas was called by the Ottomans Rum-Eli=land of the Romans).One of the ethnic names of the Greeks today,except for the Ellinas and Grekos,is Romios(which has to do with the Christian identity and the medieval past).However,the word Romani'a and the Byzantine Empire has nothing to do with the modern Romanians(the citizens of modern Romania).

To Cronos:
why did the Wallachians and the Moldovans name themselves Romanians and their new state Romania?
As far as I know the Wallachians,north of the Danube never used the term Rom^an before the Union of Wallachia and Moldavia,because they had never been subjects of the Byzantine(Roman) Emperor.
Which are the real origins of the Wallachians and Moldovans?How did they get themselves up there?I personally do not believe in the Daco-Romanian continuity.(the province of Dacia was totally evacuated by the legendary pagan Roman Emperor Aurelianus).
Why did not the Wallachians name their state(Romania) Wallachomoldavia or MoldoWallachia?


The Romanian language is very close to Vulgar Latin but has a great slavic influence(this is natural).
It is as close as the Italian in vocabulary,but is closer to Vulgar Latin in grammar than Italian is

[Krusader]

Getai.

Wallachia

Ceausescu and his wife Elina me thinks her name was.

Gheorge Hagi

Some rumour that they considered some Roman soldiers under Trajan part of their ancestors.

Vlad the Impaler.

Romania and WW2.

Girls in Constanta should be avoided (according to sergiu)

[antiochus epiphanes]

getai
umm a nation that produces its own variants of soviet tanks

[Zalmoxis]

It bothers me uite a bit that when I tell people I'm romanian and that Romania is in Eastern Europe, they ask me if I speak Russian.

[eadingas]

Romania?

1. some very weird history pre WWI. Mostly under Turks, it would seem. Moldova and Wallachia and Transylvania.
2. rich nation between wars. axis ally. imprisoned Polish leaders fleeing from german invasion - not a good move
3. in punishment, they got Ceausescu, and had to ride around in Dacias :P
4. NOT Bulgaria
5. You send all your beggars and homeless abroad. I wonder how your cities look like without them?
6. Renault Logan

[Spendios]

Romania?

5. You send all your beggars and homeless abroad. I wonder how your cities look like without them?
6. Renault Logan

LOL !!!!!

[Jebus]

They got pretty humiliated in WWII too. Practically every surrounding nation took a piece of it: Hungaria took Transsylvania, Bulgaria took Constanta and the Soviet Union took half of the country... And all without fireing a shot.

Pretty embarassing.

[Krusader]

They got pretty humiliated in WWII too. Practically every surrounding nation took a piece of it: Hungaria took Transsylvania, Bulgaria took Constanta and the Soviet Union took half of the country... And all without fireing a shot.

Pretty embarassing.

They were forced into this by Germany. Only Bessarabia (today's Moldova plus other regions me thinks) was not returned after 1945.

Transsylvania was made part of Hungary due to the Hungarian minority, where the 1989 revolution started, in Timisoara if my history is correct.

[gugul]

They got pretty humiliated in WWII too. Practically every surrounding nation took a piece of it: Hungaria took Transsylvania, Bulgaria took Constanta and the Soviet Union took half of the country... And all without fireing a shot.

Pretty embarassing.

Hungary took a part of Transylvania in 1940, but it was given back to Romania in 1945 after it changed sides and fought the Germans and Hungarians in Hungary and Austria.
Constanta???!!! wher did you hear that? ... The historical province of Dobrogea lost it's most Southern tip (Cadrilater) to Bulgaria in 1940. It was inhabited mostly by Buglarians, Turks and Aromanian colonists and it was more Bulgarian than Romanian in culture(my grandparents were one and they together with all Aromanians got relocated to Northern Areas, like Constanta)
Bassarabia was taken by force by the Soviet Union and never given back and it forms today's republic of Moldova(Europe's poorest state). It is not "half of the country" it is a scarcely populated, small region of the country (still v. important for national reasons).
You have to look at the political situation it was faced in 1940: Hungary, USSR and Bulgaria all had territorial demands and with the defeat of Romania's traditional ally France, they forced the country to cede those territories. Hitler and Mussolini backed the Hungarians and Bulgarians, while the Soviet Union threatend with invasions (which it deed, crossing the border without a declaration of war and without further negotiations).
To simplify it, it's like Belgium going to war against Germany, France and the Netherlands simultaniously.

[gugul]

not fondly:
gangs of gipsies, burglars, pickpockts and saferobbers from there roam around Western Europe. And they will be allowed to come legally once Romania is in the EU!

sorry, but thats the main impression one gets

I cannot disagree here... It's a fact that a lot of Europe's burglars, prostitutes and beggars come from Romania and Moldavia (both being inhabited mostly by Romanians).
But i don't see the Spaniards or Italians complaining about the VERY cheap labour force Romanians provide there.
An analogy would be Mexicans in the US. Cheap labour force that boosts both countries economies but bring burglars and beggars with them. The difference is many Romanians come back to Romania after working and a large proportion never settle there.

Someone said that all our beggars went to W Europe and that our cities look better because of this... Quite true, quite true

[gugul]

Actually Albanian is much closer to latin then any other language I've come across, even Italian.

No... Albanian is not even a romance language. It has Thracian/Illyrian origins and is considered to be even older than Latin.
Romanian is GRAMMATICALLY (as in: no necesarily in other aspects) the closest language to Latin (it is the only Romance language together with Latin that has the "neutral" genre), but the use of some (more like more than 15%) Slavic words makes it sound sometimes different.

[eadingas]

Most slavic languages also have neutral gender, do they not?

[Ranika]

Wallachia, and Nerdach mac Ebhurach, since in the Epic of Orriagh, he supposedly came from an area around Dacia before he fled to Ireland. Oh, and 'Burning Club' (a derogatory thing), since that was what Nerdach called the king of the region when he fled.

Also makes me think of gypsies, which makes me think of tinkers. Those weird bastards. They make me angry. So Romania helps encourage me to anger by making me think of gypsies, which make me think of tinkers.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
About the neutral gender, what happened to German das or Greek το if I may ask, or was it something else in your mind?
.

[gugul]

Most slavic languages also have neutral gender, do they not?

I am not sure about that, but i will edit that right now to "Romance" instead of "European" since there have to be some other languages that use neutral. I initially meant to say Romance but.....

[SIGNIFER,LEGIOVIICLAUDIA]

Also makes me think of gypsies, which makes me think of tinkers. Those weird bastards. They make me angry. So Romania helps encourage me to anger by making me think of gypsies, which make me think of tinkers.

The gypsies in their language are called Roma.Surprisingly most of them live in a country named Romania...Is there any connection?

[SIGNIFER,LEGIOVIICLAUDIA]

.
About the neutral gender, what happened to German das or Greek το if I may ask, or was it something else in your mind?
.

The weird thing with the Romanian language is that they put the definite article at the end of the word...
It is as if a German said 'Buchdas' instead of 'das Buch'.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

that's very strange. Where in the devil does that come from? (speaking as someone familiar with romantic languages mostly)

[Ranika]

The gypsies in their language are called Roma.Surprisingly most of them live in a country named Romania...Is there any connection?

The word gypsy in Ireland is often associated with 'tinkers', who are called 'Irish gypsies'. They've got a reputation for wandering (the forerunners to such folks were 'ebrinaght'; 'wandering men'), theivery, and bizarre social practices that seem to have formed out of a void.

[khelvan]

So you export the burglars and beggars, good, but it's too bad about the prostitutes!

So who are these "tinkers?" Are they the nomadic groups that we occasionally have problems with in the US?

[L'Impresario]

The weird thing with the Romanian language is that they put the definite article at the end of the word...

that's very strange. Where in the devil does that come from? (speaking as someone familiar with romantic languages mostly)

Well, it's a result of the special circumstances in the Balkans, where a "Sprachbund" is noted (mainly between Albanian, Bulgarian, Greek and Romanian). So even if most languages there weren't initially close to each other, after centuries some common attributes can be discerned, like in the case of the definite article already mentioned (must have been initially a baltoslavic influence), or the lack of infinitives.

[Ranika]

So you export the burglars and beggars, good, but it's too bad about the prostitutes!

So who are these "tinkers?" Are they the nomadic groups that we occasionally have problems with in the US?

Yes, there are tinkers in the US, as well as Ireland (though a lot have been forced to leave the island due to their horrible reputation; they mostly can't get work), Britain, Australia, and some isolated parts of Europe and other places like New Zealand. They range from very large, with many families, to as small as a single family.