Languages of Romania
| Languages of Romania | |
|---|---|
| Official languages | Romanian (>90%) |
| Minority languages | Hungarian, Romani, Ukrainian, German, Serbian, Russian, Croatian, Slovak, Bulgarian, Turkish |
| Main foreign languages |
English (31%) French (23%) Italian (7%) German (7%) |
| Sign languages | Romanian Sign Language |
In Romania there are several spoken languages. Beside Romanian, the only official language nationwide, other spoken languages include Hungarian, English, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian, Russian, Slovak, Romani, Ukrainian, and German.
According to the 2002 Romanian Census, Romanian is spoken by 91% of the population as a primary language. According to the Romanian Constitution and the law 1206 of 2006 the only official language in Romania is the Romanian Language both at national and local level.
After the fall of Romania's communist government in 1989, the various minority languages have received more rights, and Romania currently has extensive laws relating to the rights of minorities to use their own language in local administration and the judicial system.
While Romanian is the only official language at the national and local level, there are 14 other living languages in Romania. The Romanian laws include linguistic rights for all minority groups that form over 20% of a locality's population. This includes the adoption of signage in minority languages, access to local administration and justice systems, the right to receive education in that language, and a series of other rights.
Hungarian is the largest minority language in Romania: the 2002 census listed 1,447,544 native Hungarian speakers in the country, or 6.7% of the total population. This minority largely lives in Transylvania, which was part of the Kingdom of Hungary until 1918 (Northern Transylvania was part of Hungary again between 1940 and 1947) though there are Hungarian speaking minorities in other parts of the country as well.
Roma make up the second largest minority in Romania and 241,617 Romani speakers were reported in the 2002 census, or 1.1% of the total population. Dialects of Romani spoken include Balkan Romani, Vlax Romani, and Carpathian Romani. Romani is used in local signage, administration, education and justice in 79 communes and one town (Budești).
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