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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Fraz Diglot Newbie CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6632 days ago 13 posts - 13 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English, Romanian* Studies: French | Message 9 of 36 08 November 2007 at 8:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
Well, I personally enjoy rock so I'll give you two bands. Neither of these are "young" (they've been around for something like 30 years) but are some of the better available. The first is the original and definitive Romanian rock act, Phoenix. Because rock music was a bit taboo under communism they developed a pretty unique brand of rock with a lot of folk influence in their early albums, which are worth tracking down. Phoenix on Wikpedia Here's one video, it looks really old :) Phoenix - Nunta There's a lot of history behind them too (all but one of the band members defected to the west at one point). The more contemporary material is less folk-ish. Love 'em or hate 'em this band invented Romanian rock, they did for Romanian rock what Erkin Koray did for Turkish rock. The second band is called Iris, here's the Wiki link. And here's a video clip from them: Iris - Da, da, eu ştiu Notice my use of diacritics so I don't upset Iversen ;). Edit: As far as a textbook to use, this looks like a good (and inexpensive) choice: Routledge Colloquial Romanian You can find some reviews of it on Amazon. Edited by Fraz on 08 November 2007 at 10:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Alvinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 6234 days ago 828 posts - 832 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish | Message 10 of 36 09 November 2007 at 5:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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do you know more bands or singers which sing in Romanian....except O-Zone and stuff like that, I'd like to know further about more about Romanian music, mainly pop mixed with folk music...tks
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 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 11 of 36 10 November 2007 at 8:22am | IP Logged | |||||
Thank you :)) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Dogtanian Diglot Newbie Scotland Joined 6407 days ago 33 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Russian, Greek | Message 12 of 36 11 November 2007 at 6:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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Iversen, thank you for the link, there are more channels there than I expected! It looks quite promising on the resource front after all.
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| Dogtanian Diglot Newbie Scotland Joined 6407 days ago 33 posts - 39 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Russian, Greek | Message 13 of 36 11 November 2007 at 7:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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Fraz, I had heard one or two songs from Phoenix some time ago, it's great to see them though. I didn't expect them to look like this at all, they remind me of the Kinks or Dave Dee, I love 60's and 70's music so I'll definitely be listening to more of them in future. Thanks!
I also found this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WReABTpqv0I A band called Zdob si Zdub. Do you happen to know them? I'm wondering whether this use of brass is typical for Romania, or in this case Moldova. I've similar types of music from Serbia and had been told it was a style peculiar to Serbia itself, is this wrong? My second question is about language. As I currently know very little Romanian I can't tell whether this is standard Romanian or a dialect, are there great variations in Romanian accents or dialects? I seem to be captivated by music from all over south-eastern Europe for some reason, all different styles but equally entrancing, Romanian though is just an amazing language for song! So multumesc, I am now a Romanian learner :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Fraz Diglot Newbie CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6632 days ago 13 posts - 13 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English, Romanian* Studies: French | Message 14 of 36 12 November 2007 at 3:37am | IP Logged | |||||
I'm hardly an expert on the matter so I'm going on a limb. For the record I had heard of Zdob & Zdub before but never actually listened to them. As for the brass bands themselves, well, as far as I know they are typical for a lot of Eastern Europe. In Romania they're usually associated with "lăutari", essentially roving bands of (often gypsy) musicians. One famous such Romanian group is this one: Taraful Haiducilor However, they are not really a brass band. Here's another one (also Roma musicians) that has more of a brass element: Fanfara Ciocârlia To be honest the brass influences may well have been borrowed from the Serbs, Macedonia, etc. but I associate the music with Romania too. A lot of these bands borrowed all sorts of regional elements so it's hard to figure out what comes from where. If you like this sort of music (and strange atmosphere!) I urge you to watch Emir Kusturica's films "Black Cat, White Cat" and "Underground" which are masterpieces of the Serbian director and some of my favorite films.
All Romanian speakers should be able to understand each other. The Zdob & Zdub guys are from Moldova and (at least in that video) speak with a fairly evident accent, but at least to my ears it's fairly inconsistent throughout the video clip, so I wonder if it's only done for the artistic effect. You'll find a strong regional accent in both Moldova the republic and Moldova the northern region of Romania. The accent would be perfectly understood in Bucharest but isn't quite what I'd call a prestige accent in the capital region. In any case I would not recommend for a foreigner to use it actively. In Moldova they may refer to something called the "Moldavian language" which is essentially Romanian renamed for political purposes. In the Soviet days they used to write it in Cyrillic script as well, a practice that's been given up today. There is only one Romanian language, with a variety of provincial accents as you leave the capital and the main cities. Vocabulary is also largely the same, with perhaps more Russian element in Moldova. For example they might use the word "cuhnia" for kitchen, borrowed directly from the Russian "кухня" as opposed to the standard Romanian "bucătărie". However, overall the differences are small. Edited by Fraz on 12 November 2007 at 4:03am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Alvinho Triglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 6234 days ago 828 posts - 832 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish | Message 15 of 36 13 November 2007 at 9:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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If someone knows about a good website that has romanian classes for free with audio and sentesies or even articles, please let me know...
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| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 16 of 36 13 November 2007 at 5:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I agree with Fraz, - there is surprisingly little difference between the (sub)dialects spoken in different parts of Romania and even in Moldova. I visited several cities from Bucureşti to Sighisoara plus Chişinău and could hardly hear any differences, apart from a few words in Moldova that could be ascribed to its time as part of the Sovjet Union. The only thing I can add to Fraz' post is that there are in fact a couple of sister languages (or according to some sources, dialects) to the standard Daco-Romanian, namely Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian, which are spoken by some dwindling minorities in Northern Greece, Albania and Macedonia. Another form, Istro-Romanian, is even closer to extinction, and Dalmatian - which is considered a language by everybody - is already extinct. The other three may well die out within a generation or so.
During my study years in the seventies I had access to text samples in all four variants, and I remember that I simply couldn't understand anything. I have had a brief look at some texts in Aromanian since then, and I still struggle to understand them. Besides I have heard a few sentences on TV in that language (or whatever it is) - but could only understand a few scattered words. I didn't press the issue, because I prefer to concentrate on the one kind of Romanian that has a future. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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