Can Spanish and Romanian speakers understand each other? | Mutual Intelligibility Challenge

In this video, we present a language challenge focused on testing the mutual intelligibility between Romanian and Puerto Rican Spanish. Mutual intelligibility refers to the extent to which speakers of two related languages can understand each other without prior knowledge or formal training in the other language.
Through a series of word guessing challenges, we aim to explore the similarities and differences between Romanian and Spanish. You will be able examine vocabulary, grammar structures, and pronunciation patterns to gauge the level of comprehension and ease of communication between speakers of the two languages.
Whether you're a Romanian speaker curious about Spanish or a Spanish speaker interested in Romanian, this video offers an opportunity to test your language skills and discover the fascinating similarities and nuances between these two beautiful Romance languages.
🤗 BIG THANKS to the participants of the challenge:
🇷🇴 Dan and 🇵🇷 Carlos
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🕰 Time Stamps:
0:00 - Introductions
1:46 - 1. Language Challenge
5:52 - 2. Language Challenge
10:38 - 3. Language Challenge
17:10 - 4. Language Challenge
22:12 - Participate in future videos!
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🤗 Big hug to everyone reading my video descriptions! You rock! 🤓💪🏻
#spanish #romanian #languagechallenge

[@cerebrummaximus3762]

This was very fun. Much love to both our favourite neighbours and their distant Hispanic cousins from Bulgaria! 🇧🇬❤🇷🇴🇵🇷

[@dmp1248]

Salutări din Romania

[@dhanyrafael]

I love Bulgaria !! Such a beautiful country. With love from Romania. :) I hope to visit Veliko Trnavo and Bansko next year. :)

[@ErikPT]

Eh? Bulgaria can understand espanol?

[@marcomedeiros8512]

Oi, tudo bem? E Português , você entende?

[@giuseppelopresti3740]

As Italian , it was easy to understand.

[@michaelbellone1680]

Italian is a good bridge between Spanish and Romanian.

[@DrWhom]

*As _an_ Italian. _I found this_ easy to understand.

[@Shadow_TC]

​@@DrWhomWhat do you mean by that?

[@DrWhom]

"As Italian , it was easy to understand." means that "it" when interpreted as being in the Italian language, was easy to understand. That is nonsense, and also not what he meant to say. What I wrote, was what he should have said to express his thought in English, @@Shadow_TC

[@Shadow_TC]

@@DrWhom Ohh cool 👍

[@osvaldobenavides5086]

I think that a posible Spanish cognate to "lemn" is "leña" which is another word for wood.

[@nelsonmaldonado9]

Wow! This video is so specifically pertinent to my language journey. Eu sunt portorican, dar vorbesc limbă română! I loved it! What are the chances?! Gracias Norbert! Mulţumesc! Saludos desde Puerto Rico! România te Iubesc! 🇵🇷🇷🇴

[@PopescuSorin]

Salut din Romania!

[@DAKESIS17]

Bravo, Nelson! Tine-o tot asa:) Para que tu lo sepas!:))

[@norielgames4765]

Qué curiosa casualidad! Sigamos aprendiendo idiomas 😊 salutări, frate

[@MrLimelight1993]

Wow what an awesome video! im Puerto Rican and I speak Romanian. It was pretty easy for me to learn! Love to see this. Latin brothers 🖤

[@nelsonmaldonado9]

Yo también soy puertorriqueño, dar vorbesc limbă româna! Foarte tare! E bine de ştiut că nu sunt singurul! 🇵🇷🇷🇴

[@MrLimelight1993]

@@nelsonmaldonado9 Mi gente !!! Que interesante!! Da , Acum suntem prieteni 😊🇵🇷 Nu stiu nicio persoane boricua, ce vorbesc Romana. Ahora si 👍🏼 placer primo

[@frubulubu]

Sunt Mexican și eu vorbesc limba Romana noi suntem frații.

[@MrLimelight1993]

@@frubulubu Asiiii familia!! Cu placere !! Noul meu frate 🤙🏼

[@frubulubu]

@@MrLimelight1993 familia mare!

[@davidrubio9753]

My mom is Mexican and speaks Spanish... Obviously. She was a teacher's aid and she had a Romanian student. She said she could understand most of what the kid was saying. If you compare Italian and Spanish, it's almost the same language.

[@bigmoney4685]

No chance a mexican speaker listening to two romanians chatting away wouldnt understand mostly everything thats bs. Portuguese is more similar to spanish than italian is. Romanian is more similar to the sardinian language, catalan and italian.

[@saebica]

Who wants to hear the Aromanian language vs other Romance languages? ❤

[@proudream]

te vad in toate videourile despre romania :)) aromana si istro-romana au influente slave foarte puternice, nu cred ca ar intelege nimic latinii de aici

[@ytbaccount5513]

@@proudream stiu niste aromana si nu e chiar asa, depinde foarte mult de dialect. In general graiul pindean e influentat foarte mult de greaca, farserotii sunt influentati de albaneza si macedonenii de blugara/macedoneana, dar in mare parte s-a romanizat foarte mult aromana, diferentele nu mai sunt uriase. ar fi interesant de vazut o conversatie aromana - romana

[@proudream]

@@ytbaccount5513 Da, asa e. Este si multa influenta greaca. Istro-romana intr-adevar e mai slava. In orice caz, asta voiam sa spun - aceste dialecte sunt si mai putin latine decat romana. Daca deja se chinuie cu romana, nu o sa inteleaga nimic din celelalte.

[@saebica]

@@proudream Totuși, merge-ncercat. Ca să se vadă diferențele.

[@saebica]

@@ytbaccount5513 Exact.

[@_marcobaez]

Wow Romanian is very similar to Italian!

[@3dfxvoodoocards6]

Romanian = latin + slavic influence Spanish = latin + arabic influence Portuguese = latin + arabic influence French = latin + germanic influence

[@proudream]

Accurate

[@stephanedumas8329]

French Germanic influence not German

[@UlpianHeritor]

Italian = Latin + some Germanic influence

[@GlossaME]

There is very little influence of slavic in Romanian language.

[@Bleyk01]

@@GlossaME 15% of Romanian vocabulary is of slavic influence. Thats a pretty decent amount.

[@erolegario]

He straight-up used the Roman Latin word "Sunt" unchanged, which I have not heard in other Romance varieties.

[@mareksicinski3726]

Not sure if it’s the exact same meaning grammar wise

[@vincentstef5708]

Spanish guy was on the ball this time... Romanian is quite easy to understand, quite an underrated Romance language!!

[@ivanovichdelfin8797]

Pues yo no he entendido casi nada de lo que ha dicho

[@MarioSergioPassos]

Fácil de entender?! Vós estais a brincar conosco!!!

[@gtripmusic2906]

​@@MarioSergioPassos Usted es guatemalteco? En Argentina y Uruguay dicen "vos estás" no "vos estais"

[@giulibi1766]

well i speak spanish (i'm peruvian) and I only understood 2 o 3 words of what the romanin guy said HAHA Even reading the subtitles, it was ininteligible

[@CrisOnTheInternet]

​@@gtripmusic2906looks like European Portuguese

[@pile333]

"Purice", similar to italian "pulce". Interesting.

[@DrWhom]

French puce. All from Latin pulex

[@AdamSlatopolsky]

From RAE (Diccionario de la Real Academia de la Lengua Española) Pulga =Del latín vulgar *pulĭca, y este del latín pulex, -ĭcis. So it is the same ethimology for all Romance Languages

[@wyqtor]

@@DrWhom From the Latin accusative form, which would be something more recognizable, 'pulicis' I believe.

[@DrWhom]

yes, for some reason many French words come via the accusative form.@@wyqtor

[@seand9089]

Fascinating. It's hard to believe Romanian survived as a Latin language in Eastern Europe surrounded by aggressive Slavs. Romanians must be very stubborn and strong people.

[@cristianpetrumaidan5781]

Este un fapt! Dar și miracol! E limba latină vorbită în popor (latina vulgata), nu cea universitară sau de cancelarie, în proporție de cca. 80% - avem sinonime latine cunoscute pentru foarte multe cuvinte din alte limbi, trebuie doar să le folosim

[@JanKowalski-vj9py]

Well. The best answer to Your comment is romanian anthem. Find it, listen, find the lyrics, try to understand.

[@mareksicinski3726]

‘Aggressive Slavs’ is a bit questionable lol There was a lot of interaction; Slavs also got Romanianized and so on.

[@mareksicinski3726]

@@JanKowalski-vj9pyno it isn’t the best answer at all

[@pierreabbat6157]

Transcription error: "zapatos de hiero" (shoes of I hurt) should be "zapatos de hierro" (shoes of iron). Also Romanian words were missing the diacritic on "ă". The Spanish cognate of "lemn" is "leña". Carlos said "juegos de azar", which should have been a big clue, as "azar" is cognate with "zar", both from Arabic. Not to be confused with "azahar", also from Arabic, which means "blossom".

[@DrWhom]

Indeed. The article "al" often got merged in during the transfer, that's why many of these begin with a, and that is how the Romance languages lent out their "praecox" fruit and borrowed the word back as apricot.

[@MrQ454]

The guy from Puerto Rico have a stronger accent, probable a European Spanish would be easier to understand

[@mihai7558]

In romanian you can also say "joc de hazard", that's what I associated it with when I heard "juegos de azar". I think what makes it a bit difficult for a romanian speaker is the way "j" is pronounced as romanian "h" (so you imagine it being written like "huegos" rather than "juegos" for example)

[@marcalonso361]

In catalan game is "joc" and bone is "os" the same as romanian. You should make a video between catalan and romanian!

[@nandorocker]

That was so cool. I love exploring the Romanian connection. They’re like our lost half-siblings. The language was extremely hard without subtitles (I cover them to listen more), but after explaining most things make sense. Interesting how many words get shorter in a way they don’t in Portuguese, Spanish or Italian (“cal” is fantastic). Fun to watch the guests, great job guys! (Edit: removed the “part Slavic” note as it was distracting from my point)

[@val91201]

Romanian isn't half-Slavic, although it contains many Slavic terms

[@AMplusPM]

only 10-15% Slavic. We are unable to understand any Slavic language.

[@nandorocker]

@@val91201 fair, not trying to be exact here. Romanian just has more Slavic influence than any other Romance language.

[@AMplusPM]

@@nandorocker Slavic is like the "Chemical X" in Powerpuff Girls

[@nandorocker]

@@AMplusPM which is surprising since you're literally surrounded by them from all sides ;)

[@proudream]

Yesss more Romanian content! Love it!

[@nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115]

Vee?

[@juandiegovalverde1982]

Sunt din Spania și învăț limba română și îmi place foarte mult.

[@thetrueoneandonlyladyprinc8038]

Contrary to popular belief and the current language classifications, that's not a true Latin language, and it doesn't really sound good at all, the words have really non-pretty word endings and non-good letter combinations and odd pronunciation that makes it sound very uncouth, and any true linguist would immediately notice that, and it's in fact a Slavic language with Turkic influences and a lot of words with Latin base, but it sounds Slavic 100% actually, so it should be grouped with a type of Slavic languages instead, tho it was interesting to see such comparison, even though they are not related languages -- the true Latin languages are Gallo / Galician / Guernsey / Portuguese / Catalan / Latin / Occitan / Spanish / French / Walloon / Esperanto / Aranese / Italian and the other Italian-based languages and French-based languages and Portuguese-based languages, which have that typical sound Latin and pretty word endings and good letter combinations, which make them sound very elegant and refined, tho Germanic languages are the prettiest and most refined / elegant languages ever created, which are close to perfection, and the 6 Modern Celtic languages also come close, and, words such as like or find it interesting etc should be used instead of love!

[@thetrueoneandonlyladyprinc8038]

When it comes to language related videos in general, it would be nice to see videos comparing Old Norse to Dutch and English and even comparing Old Norse to Spanish and Latin because there are many words that sound just like Latin words in Old Norse, plus words such as mar and Sól that come from the same root word in most European languages, like Sowilo / Sunno etc - the pretty languages should be included the most in most videos, including the prettiest languages ever such as Old Norse and Dutch and Norwegian and Icelandic and Gothic and Danish and Faroese etc, which are just as gorgeous and perfect and refined as English, and also Welsh / Breton / Cornish and Manx / Irish / Scottish Gaelic, and also Gallo and Catalan and Galician etc, and also Hungarian and Slovene, which are also gorgeous and most of them aren’t very known, including Limburgish and the three Frisian languages and Luxembourgish and languages such as Aranese / Walloon / Occitan / Guernsey / Sardinian and the other Italian-based languages (which are usually referred to as dialects, even tho they are different languages) etc, so I would highly recommend creating many videos comparing Old Norse / Dutch / Gothic / Danish / Norwegian / Breton / Hungarian etc to every other language, which would be so nice!

[@thetrueoneandonlyladyprinc8038]

Old Norse and Dutch and English and Icelandic and Gothic and Danish are the prettiest and most refined languages ever, and also Welsh / Breton / Cornish etc, they are so magical and so gorgeous, so I highly recommend that everyone learn them or any of them, especially Old Norse and Dutch and English, and at least one Modern Celtic language, and Slovene which is the prettiest Slavic language, and Hungarian - I am learning them all, and I am writer level in English and advanced level in Dutch and upper beginner level in Old Norse and Icelandic and Welsh and native speaker level in Spanish and intermediate level in Norwegian / German / Swedish and Portuguese / Italian / French and beginner level in Galician / Latin / Esperanto / Breton / Slovene / Cornish / Occitan / Gothic / Hungarian / Gallo / Faroese / Luxembourgish / Aranese / Limburgish and the three Frisian languages and the other pretty languages that are on my list of languages I want to learn and improve, and I am learning 15+ languages at the moment, and have over 50 languages on my list, and I got to an intermediate level in about 6 languages and to upper beginner level in 3 languages and to a really advanced level in Dutch in less than one year, and I am so happy I found Old Norse, because this language is so magical, and Old Norse and Dutch and English should be the universal languages that everyone knows, so hopefully Old Norse and Dutch become as popular as English in the near future, and I cannot recommend them enough, they are such gorgeous poetic languages, perfect for lyrics and poetry etc!

[@chartophylacium5250]

In Latin: 1. equus (there is the word caballus but it originally meant hack or nag, so a really bad horse) 2. malleus 3. alea 4. pulex

[@DrWhom]

Yeah, slang or pejorative words in Latin often became standard in Romance languages.

[@octaviantimisoreanu5810]

@@DrWhom Yep. That is a sign that the language is alive. A living language constantly innovates, and everyday slang words become the common vernacular and eventually the formal tongue. This is why many people argue that Latin is not a dead language, because it just naturally evolved into today's romance languages.

[@DrWhom]

it is really funny that cul is quite common in French and typically in the vulgar register, whereas reculer ("arse-wards-ing") is neutral or formal register@@octaviantimisoreanu5810

[@mareksicinski3726]

Caballos came to VL from Gaulish supposedly

[@fox200065]

Joc de masa se zice si in romaneste.

[@AdamSlatopolsky]

@@ManuelMiranda-pn20 s,i (s cedilla) significa en Rumano "también", creo

[@JoseAntonio-tt2mb]

Faça um comparativo de português com romeno .

[@mihai7558]

There is already one video on this channel from 1 month ago, comparing romanian and european portuguese. I would love to see one comparing romanian with brasilian portuguese though.

[@JoseAntonio-tt2mb]

@@mihai7558 mande o link por favor .

[@yohanapereira1629]

​@@mihai7558or someone from Africa and Asian speaking Portuguese

[@maryocecilyo3372]

Português: 1. Cavalo 2. Martelo 3. Dados / Dado 4. Pulga

[@IvanPlechkov]

Я изучаю португальскому языку (европейскому варианту) - большой спасибо для это сборник словами.

[@Hidalgo777]

I think Romanian its way more understandable than French to me as a Spanish speaker.

[@ionbrad6753]

Wow. Interesting! Pronounciation, probably.

[@heraldomedrano1417]

You understand more if write then you speak it.

[@heraldomedrano1417]

I can probably understand About 50%>

[@Hidalgo777]

@@ionbrad6753 yes

[@wyqtor]

We don't have anything crazy in terms of pronunciation, unlike the French. For us, Spanish is also probably the easiest to pronounce, well maybe except for the rr sound (Italian has an intonation of its own, while Romanian intonation is usually closer to the Spanish one).

[@sapoverde2u]

Wow 😮 Im Native Spanish speaker and I'm currently learning Portuguese. Due to similarity with other languages ( understandable) , I've been able to learn a bit of Italian but now I'm SO SO IMPRESSED how Romanian is so close to Spanish though It shouldn't be ignored by the Latam anymore

[@ErikPT]

never. They're our cousins our primos!

[@valeriocorona3218]

I would love to partecipate as a native speaker of campidanese sardinian. That could be awesome to try understand someone from others countries who speaks a different language

[@anayansyreyes7088]

Súper. Con esto estoy tratando de aprender Rumano

[@Tony_TLNTS]

Great video! I loved hearing both languages side by side ❤

[@martelkapo]

Both Carlos and Dan are great at rephrasing things to better explain them! I understood the Spanish words easily, as I'm currently studying it…Romanian was much more difficult for me, but a really fun challenge. Jen la vortoj prezentitaj en la divenludo en Esperanto: 1. ĉevalo 2. martelo 3. ĵetkubo (literally a "throw-cube") 4. pulo

[@user-cr9ir3pm3x]

Saluton, samideano! As an Esperanto speaker and a Russian speaker I would like to try to communicate with a Romanian speaker (in Esperanto from my side). Kiel esperantoparolanto kaj rusparolanto mi volus provi komuniki kun rumanparolanto (en Esperanto de mia flanko).

[@martelkapo]

@@user-cr9ir3pm3x nu, tio estus amuza eksperimento…vi verŝajne povus apliki vian scion de kaj Esperanto kaj la rusa por diveni la sencon de la rumanaj frazoj - Esperanton por kompreni la latinidajn vortojn, kaj la rusan por kompreni la slavajn!

[@user-cr9ir3pm3x]

@@martelkapo Jes, entute mi ne scipovas la rumanan, mi scias nur kelkajn rumanajn vortojn kaj frazojn, sed danke al Esperanto, kiam mi aŭdas la rumanan paroladon, al mi ŝajnas, ke mi komprenas sufiĉe multe, kvankam mi ne scipovas respondi la rumanan - nur Esperanton.

[@Cyclonus2377]

I have studied Spanish and Italian (and more recently, Latin). And Romanian is surprisingly easy for me to understand. Or at least, make an educated guess as to what is being said. But that's one of the most fascinating things about languages in general: You can find similarities in the most unlikely of places 😃😃😃😃

[@danascully6698]

" Most unlikely of places"? Seriously? The name of the country and of the language "ROMANia" and "ROMANian" does it mean nothing to you? Could it be any clearer than that? I say no!

[@dhanyrafael]

I hope that Slavic influence in Romanian will be even more reduced by adopting words and endings from Romance languages. I hope they remove somehow the diacritics like î, ă which are hard to pronounce. ș and ț are found in many languages as sh and tz so they can be kept further because they are easy to use.

[@b.m.48933]

At the end, he said gymnastics and "salt" (in Romanian) for "jump." It is interesting that you guys didn't pick it up. "Somersault" is usedin gymnastics. It comes from old-French, Latin "Sobre"(above) + "Saut" (leap).

[@AdamSlatopolsky]

Salire was in latin "to jump" and Saltare the verb "to jump" in the intensive way. From there, saltar passed to Spanish as "to jump" and salir as "to exit"

[@DrWhom]

perhaps via an idiom that initially meant just getting off a horse and then (horses being high prestige and slang always focusing on bling) generalised to exiting or leaving@@AdamSlatopolsky

[@N.P.Antzinas]

Amazing video! It was a great study and very entertaining to watch and play along. Big thanks to your guests, I would love to see them back on your channel someday!

[@TeiuAl]

Very good mediation skills, dude! Always looking forward to the next video

[@joepdl88]

I think I found a new favorite channel. I'm super stoned and this is great

[@darkknight8139]

Fantastic challenge! Both languages sound really beautiful in their own ways. I am Dutch and I know a little French, I got the first three words right. I did need the Romanian and Spanish subtitles on the top of the video though, but I did not use the other subtitles :) The way Carlos pronounces the Puerto Rican Spanish language differs a lot from Spanish that I have heard before (let's say Spanish from Spain), it felt more like Portuguese at some points.

[@pierreabbat6157]

I heard a tiny bit of Puelto Lican, but not much. My accent in Spanish is mostly Salvadoran.

[@aiziszizis2536]

@@pierreabbat6157 A video about differences between Spanish spoken in various Latin American countries would be interesting.

[@peterfireflylund]

He dropped many s’s that I’m not used to being dropped (estar pronounced eta with a very weak, almost mumbled second syllable!) + he used contractions I’m not used to. I had to work almost as hard with the PR guy’s Spanish to try to match it up with the (Castilian) Spanish I know as I had with the Romanian guy to match it up with bits of Spanish, French, Italian, and long forgotten Latin. That was a surprise to me. I had expected the Spanish to be easy and the Romanian to be hard but they were both hard. (Native Danish speaker. Been brushing up my Spanish for half a year.)

[@juandiegovalverde1982]

@@pierreabbat6157 en Puerto Rico dicen Puelto Rico, no Puelto Lico, no son chinos.

[@jrxl556]

The Spanish was different from what I’m used to mostly in pronunciation and emphasis on certain syllables. My parents are from Mexico.

[@LearningZoneLanguages]

It was interesting and entertaining.You've done a great job 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[@kaibasan1]

More Puerto Rico Spanish please.

[@EgoJinpachi_]

puelto lico

[@tchr9206]

@@EgoJinpachi_así no é

[@joselugo4536]

​@@tchr9206Only Chinese people pronounce Puerto Rico in that way!

[@proudream]

I feel like there are a lot of key words that were similar but the speakers didn't get them. For example the "a sari / a salta" - "saltar", "joc" - "juego" etc. I think it's easier in written form

[@kakalushkklush102]

Totally agree with you, romanian guy say is passionate by foreign languages but do not know one single word,I feel ashamed as romanian

[@proudream]

@@kakalushkklush102 No don't be ashamed, the Romanian guy did his best and what matters is that he did guess the words correctly.

[@kakalushkklush102]

Yes but when you are saying that foreign languages is your passion but you can't guess juego = Joc and hueso = os, I am sorry but it's just make me angry! I am not at all specialist in foreign language however the basic Spanish Hola como estas, quiero jugar contigo, even a little brat will know it. I can't accept it. Why he said so many times Slavic word "folosesc" instead of Latin word "utilizez"? He didn't prepare at all his speech. I am sorry but it's a NO for me.

[@ghost8596]

@@kakalushkklush102 why should he prepare his speech. The point is using every day language to observe mutual intelligibility, not cherry picking comfortable words.

[@kakalushkklush102]

Look the Romanian vs Italian, episode. Iulian, prepared, anticipated and chose carefully his words, so he made the exchanges so fluent and pleasant. Italians girls were in the final wery impressed about similar words and one of them admit that it's because Iulian knew how to present and choose the words. I appreciated so much! This episode is a total deception for me. I am sorry but once again, I wasn't pleased at all I felt bad like it suked.

[@Weissenschenkel]

L1 Brazilian Portuguese speaker here. I only had trouble with the hammer, because I was thinking of a shovel instead -- one can buy gardening shovels in the supermarket. Great video, as always!

[@emmalethmayfair9742]

You can also buy hammers. I'm not sure but I think Dan said something to the fact of it being similar to a kitchen tool (meat tenderizer mallet) so that did it for me to figure out it was a hammer.

[@wendywinn270]

Love this.. more please

[@marcusviniciusmartinsantun6167]

Muito bom. Excelente!

[@torysvyat]

I'm from Moldova. I learn Romanian😊 Very beautiful and wonderful language. This video some very nice 👍 Thanks, Norbert!

[@christopherellis2663]

Romanian is the official language of Moldova 🇲🇩

[@vlachlemnmichail]

​@@christopherellis2663 he is probably ethnic russian/ukrainian

[@ME_Razvan]

To be honest, there are people born and raised in Romania and don't know a word in romanian..sad but true

[@proudream]

@@ME_Razvan Ah, the Hungarians.

[@PopescuSorin]

@@vlachlemnmichailyeah, his name is 100% not Romanian

[@mechelobita]

me gusta este tipo de videos. ya es el 2do que veo y me parece genial, porque me pongo a tratar de escuchar y entender a la ´persona que no habla español. con la chica italiana y el chico argentino, entendí practicamente todo (mi acercamiento al italiano es con duolingo y pelliculas o series), con el muchacho rumano, literalmente estaba como el chico puertorriqueño, tratando de entender lo que decía, con la única ayuda del subtitulo en rumano. este tipo de videos vale la pena. congrats ecoluinguist! this type of videos are awesome. I was practicing my listening with the natives. as I said, the video with italian, argentinian and english, I understood everything (as an argentinian, whom speaks english and understand italian a little bit), but this one, I was absolutelly as the puerto rican guy. with the only help of subtitles. I hope keep and going watching this!

[@gabrielbade1669]

VERY FUN -SUPER AMUZANT- GRACIAS!

[@andrenicodemus]

I’m glad the flea word was not described by a Portuguese speaker to a Romanian. Our word for “jumping” means something a bit odd in Romanian 😂

[@Dr.Sheikh.Al.Hikmah]

Pul*

[@TheSpeedsters86]

Long live Romance languages!🇷🇴🇪🇸🇮🇹🇫🇷🇵🇹

[@airindd5528]

I always love your videos with the romance languages...I miss the videos with all of them..Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, Catala

[@studiosnch]

🇵🇭 Filipino (which is heavily influenced by Spanish): horse = kabayo (we basically spell how the "ll" is read) hammer = martilyo (same thing as above), pamukpok (meaning "something used to hammer", but it's rarely used in common language) dice = dais (imported words are to be spelled as they are read in Filipino phonology) flea = pulgas

[@ricardomedina4831]

I am a native of Cuba and I know that Filipino Spanish is called "CHABACANO" and the difference from Spanish (Castellano) is that it does not follow the grammatical rules of the language,

[@studiosnch]

​@@ricardomedina4831Thanks for appreciating. There is a Philippine Spanish that's just the standardized version of Spanish. Chavacano is a creole language, and there's many forms of it as well: Chavacano Caviteño (spoken in Cavite but is dying out now, sadly), and the most familiar version Chavacano Zamboangeño (spoken in Zamboanga City).

[@ricardomedina4831]

@@studiosnch Thank you for your collaboration and I incorporate it into my knowledge. I was born in Cuba and together with Puerto Rico we considered ourselves brothers of the Filipinos and we did not consider them foreigners in our land (with the communist government for 60 years everything changed, including history, traditions and culture ) if you look at the three flags they have a triangle......We call people who do not follow social etiquette and are friendly and close...CHAVACANOS. I send you a cordial greeting

[@stalker3839]

​@@studiosnchyeah i had some friends one 🇵🇭 and other 🇲🇽 they kinda understood each other . He told me that tagalog is more spoken

[@studiosnch]

@@ricardomedina4831 gracias! yes we Cubans and Puerto Ricans share many a common denominators (had revolutions at almost the same time, are island people, and were colonized by the Americans afterwards). our flags also have a common origin as well.

[@latze74]

they seem to be really nice guys and both did good

[@volodymyrkilchenko]

i've got 1st and 4th, a good result for a person who doesnt know any roman language

[@enserioensenas5938]

I love your videos ecolinguist. I must say that you are looking good too!!

[@osvaldobenavides5086]

Thanks!

[@aNu-9017]

Love it! Can you do it with italian and romanian?

[@Ecolinguist]

We did an episode about that already! 🤓

[@aNu-9017]

Oopsie

[@eclipse-jx6kc]

I think this was absolutely fascinating, however I have a comment. I think that both of them were helped by their mutual fluency in English. It would be tough to do, but I would love to see this challenge between two speakers of different Romance languages, who do NOT both speak English. This way they would be relying solely on the mutual intelligibility of their languages. Just a thought!

[@vadimnikitin494]

Will you make a video comparing Czech and Slovak? These Slavic languages are very similar and have similar grammar and vocabulary. The same can be said about Serbian and Croatian, Macedonian and Bulgarian. And what about Turkic languages?

[@nicolaramoso3286]

Even in Venetian "ciocare" it's used when something is hitting something else. That's also something that an uncle of mine, who's married to a Romanian mentioned once during a family lunch. I didn´t expect to be also the case for the Spanish language!

[@mytube001]

Interesting. I watched this with the video scrolled down so I couldn't see the text. I got the first two words easily, but was completely stumped on the last two.

[@Claudiu_S_from_Canada]

I really like your videos, as a Romanian speaker. Now, I'm canadian, and so I also speak french and English and getting into Spanish. It's really easy for Romanians to get spanish, just not the other way around, due to the slavic influente.

[@SusanaXpeace2u]

I can understand some Romanian 😮

[@cristianpetrumaidan5781]

Hello! I am Romanian (daco-get), a teacher of Orthodox religion and history. At school I learned French and Latin. I lived in Portugal for two years (2001-2003) where I learned the language without classes (base in only about 2 months). Now I understand and can handle simple conversations in both Spanish and Italian. All this personal experience has made me better understand the evolution of languages with Latin origins.

[@cristianpetrumaidan5781]

In my mother language I always find Latin synonyms that match those in other languages. This is due to the fact that the language spoken by my people is the very mixed with words taken from Slavic and other languages of the migrating peoples who passed through our country.

[@regnomraw]

Hi Ecolinguist, there are lots of errors in the subtitles and they could do with some revisions - love your channel.

[@octaviantimisoreanu5810]

In Romanian the game backgammon is called "table" and this word is also the plural for "board".

[@vincentstef5708]

Can you do Brazilian Portugese and Romanian as the sounds seem to be more similar in those 2 languages???

[@MarioSergioPassos]

Similar?! Depende de qual Português Vos Fala, o Europeu ou o Português do Brasil !!

[@dialmightyspartangod6717]

@@MarioSergioPassosEuropean Portuguese honestly for the pronunciation but the rhythm is very similar to Brazilian Portuguese

[@MarioSergioPassos]

​@@dialmightyspartangod6717O Português Brasileiro soa como um falante de Espanhol Bêbado, e o Português Europeu soa como um Russo brigando com Outro!!!

[@MarioSergioPassos]

Desculpe Amigo, mas o Português a qual eu falo, que é a minha língua materna e nativa, não se assemelha em nada com o Romeno!!! De repente, o Português Europeu se assemelhe com o Romeno na fonética!!!

[@mihai7558]

There is already a video with romanian vs european portuguese on this channel from about 1 month ago, but I'd love to see one with brasilian portuguese which for me as a romanian speaker seems more intelligible. Not sure if the viceversa would be that intelligible though (romanian for a brasilian portuguese speaker).

[@MrQ454]

there is also ”a sălta” for ”to jump” in Romanian

[@historicastafiilyy1588]

Is it possible to make a video about comparaisons between maltese and maghrebi dialect (algerian, tunisian, moroccan) ?

[@AMplusPM]

9:12 "ciocan" in Romanian I think it comes from the sound "cioc" that is heard when you hit something. That is how we call "knock" in Romanian. 13:52 "dados" in Spanish/ "zaruri" in Romanian. It is interesting. Many words from other Romance languages that begin with "d" are changed into "z" in Romanian. 16:40 The Spanish "hueso" sounds more like the plural in Romanian "oase"

[@gwynbleidd_doethbleidd]

Romanian zar is a Turkish loan from the Ottoman rule.

[@MrQ454]

@@gwynbleidd_doethbleidd or from Neogreek

[@octaviantimisoreanu5810]

@@gwynbleidd_doethbleidd And in Spanish "dados" is ultimately of Arabic origin. It's interesting that these words entered these two Romance languages from contact with Islamic cultures.

[@cristop5]

My barber's Romanian and has never had trouble understanding Puerto Ricans. All this could change if he gets to meet some.

[@GholaTleilaxu]

9:25 He is right about the origins of the words "ciocan" and "chocar". Remember, there is no such thing as a coincidence.

[@countydude8654]

As a Romanian,i loved this video,but the amount of time Dan uses "care" instead of "pe care" bothers me :)))

[@stephanobarbosa5805]

Lemn é similar a lenha em português !

[@AdamSlatopolsky]

leña en español.

[@stephanobarbosa5805]

Os romenos tiveram bom contato com hispanófonos nos anos 60... quando estreitaram laços com Cuba

[@knightabraxas]

Wow I've never heard a Puerto Rican accent so clear and easy to understand! It's usually much more different - less clear.

[@marianomartinez3008]

The problem is with their SLANG, not their accent

[@knightabraxas]

@@marianomartinez3008 not really. Every country has slang. I stated above that it's usually the accent I have trouble with, not slang.

[@ErikPT]

Man had to slow down because believe me he is not speaking the regular speed

[@marianomartinez3008]

@@knightabraxas Obvio.... Cada uno tiene su jerga, y todos los latinos decimos eso.

[@andresbedoya4466]

Wow. Me gustan tanto estos video que sentí que 20 minutos se me hicieron 2. 😅❤

[@ronshlomi582]

My grandmother was Romanian❤. Are you going to do non-European languages as well, or no?

[@Ecolinguist]

I'd love to but it takes time. Hopefully, I'll find the way one day. :D

[@DrWhom]

Well the channel is about mutual intelligibility between members of a linguistic family. Obviously that is possible with other language families as well, but it takes a bit of doing. Apache and Navajo comes to mind as a possibility, or Cantonese-Mandarin. Korean-Japanese, or are those two too far apart? Urdu-HIndi, that would be too easy perhaps. The Turkish languages are interesting - linguists consider them all extremely closely related, but differences in speech patterns, local vocab and pronunciation prevail nonetheless.

[@rainbs2nd957]

Out of all the romance comparisons, this might be the hardest one for the participants. I speak Italian and Romanian is still very hard for me to understand, then imagine a Spanish speaker. I feel like Romanian and Spanish are so different to the point where only very few words can be understood without any prior studying.

[@japflap7868]

Norbert, your next Romanian challenge should be with a Romanian speaker from Moldova and not Romania, as the accents and vocabulary differ a bit, exactly like Puerto Rican Spanish and Spanish from Spain. It would be interesting!

[@realstatistician]

Native English speaker: I have learned Romanian, and I’ve been exposed to a lot of Spanish, and I think that the Slavic influence has a big impact on how well the Spanish speaker could understand. Some of those -eshte endings just make no sense lol. But the Spanish was still hard for me.

[@mindful-communication]

I love this, I’d love to participate in one of these (Spanish native speaker from Mexico 🇲🇽 👋) I also have a good knowledge of German and a basic knowledge of Russian and Polish and I’d like to participate in one of those where Slavic languages are mixed just to see if I can also understand “interslavic” - would be pretty cool 😍

[@danascully6698]

Romanian is not "interslavic"! Romanians can understand 0% to 1% of any Slavic language, not more!

[@mindful-communication]

I didnt say it was :) I talked about two different things. As a Spanish speaker I'd like to participate in any of those mixed romance languages one and also, additionally, it would be pretty cool for me as a non slavic language speaker to participate guessing a word when it's only slavic language speakers. I don't think he has ever done one like that, has he? I'd be cool:) @@danascully6698

[@4himsanctified]

Another perfect score on a Romance language video (native English speaker with decent Spanish). Yeah me... lol

[@spacecat3198]

I'm English, been trying to learn spanish (I'm just a beginner and still struggling with sources) and I can pick up words. But I also like to compare other languages too. I seem to be drawn to the Romance languages, including French to some degree. But I struggle (I feel bad since so many people have English as a second language) though I have some difficulties with learning like retaining information. Funnily I could understand some of both but more of spanish since I've been learning that. But we have Romanian (and Polish) shops here and I'm getting very curious about Romanian now.

[@user-iz7py3ci5y]

Thanks for your vídeo. En España hablamos un Romance muy arabizado. No es posible hablar entre un rumano y un español. Saludos

[@3dfxvoodoocards6]

Yes spanish and portuguese have arabic influence while romanian has slavic influence. But they are all latin languages.

[@AlekZyandr]

Норнберт как всегда красавчик!)

[@diegosantiago1279]

Puerto Rico 🇵🇷!!!!! ❤❤❤❤

[@010arschloch]

this is extremely interesting. Thanks for making these vids!

[@TeiuAl]

Oh boy, the Romanian made a lot of grammar mistakes... Good thing the Puerto Rican didn't speak Romanian, because it would have been embarrassing

[@JoseAntonio-tt2mb]

O espanhol desse porto riquenho é mais fácil entender .

[@gerardsotxoa]

Porque lo habla con cuidado, debe vivir en estados unidos y se esfuerza en no hablar spanglish

[@aristinasangeorzan1694]

Nu ati putut alege alte cuvinte care să evidențieze latinitatea celor două limbi, spaniola si româna? Cuvintele purice, ciocan, dado (zar), caballo (cal) fac parte din vocabularul de baza al acestor doua limbi?

[@Jinkaza1882]

The "shush" sound in Romainian makes me think of Portuguese. I wonder how that challenge would go now?🤔😀

[@torysvyat]

Very many SHSHSHSH ȘȘȘȘȘ😂😂😂😊

[@torysvyat]

Yeah, just in Portuguese in fact don't has the letter "sh". He has "s", just this S in many words need to read like "sh".

[@torysvyat]

Even the word "Português" reads like "portugaysh". When the S in the end, the she need to read like "sh". If in start, the she need to read like "s".

[@christopherellis2663]

Xix!

[@mihai7558]

​@@torysvyatThat is true for european portuguese, but not for the brazilian one (at least not in the accent from DuoLingo lessons).

[@JoseAntonio-tt2mb]

Cavalo tambem é usado medida de potencia de potencia eletrica em motor eletrico.

[@aos32]

It would be cool to see if norwegian, swedish, icelandic and danish could understand elfdalian, that is another idea.

[@SusanaXpeace2u]

Elfdalian??

[@aos32]

@@SusanaXpeace2u Yes, it is a language in sweden.

[@aos32]

It is spoken in a isolated part of Sweden, and they did use runes up until the 20th century. Which is fascinating.

[@DrWhom]

is it close to Old Norse or Icelandic?@@aos32

[@Morindor]

Correction, we do have a "word" for board games in romanian, it's "Joc(uri) de Societate", which would translate as "Society Games" for some reason, as in you need multiple people to play them.

[@carpetano4491]

I speak Spanish, Catalan, and Italian, and to be honest, Romanian is probably the hardest romance language....you need to be 400% concentrated to understand at least 20% of it

[@wyqtor]

But you would understand joc, foc, bou... Here is an easy one for a Catalan speaker: "A fugit un bou în pantaloni scurți acuzat de furt." 🐂

[@danascully6698]

You just don't have the minimal exposure to Romanian language. That's all. It's not harder than others Romance languages.

[@Carlos-rc7hx]

Parlo les mateixes llengües que tu.

[@dhanyrafael]

Catalan is strangely close to Romanian or vice-versa as pronounciation and writing. I visited Barcelona and was shocked to discover this. :)) I felt like home. :))

[@markadams6497]

Where I come from, we wouldn't buy a hammer from a supermarket, we'd go to a hardware store.

[@koraXro]

I am Romanian and i realised people dont understand how Romanian is a latin language because of our accent, which is Slavic. My French friend doesnt understand me when I speak Romanian but if she reads it she understand more than 50%. Many Romanian words that contain the letter Z come from the Dacian language, there is no equivalent in other languages , like the word for War, Razboi. Linguistics is a passion of mine 😅

[@cristianpetrumaidan5781]

Dacă pasiunea ta e lingvistica, ar fi bine să cauți cu atenție originea cuvintelor, precum și faptul că o limbă nu se poate pierde într-un interval așa de scurt 106 ultima cucerire română a Daciei - 271 retragerea aureliană; iar dacii liberi nu au putut fi obligați să învețe limba romanilor (care era tot latina), așa ca au continuat să vorbească limba lor proprie - latina vulgata (populară)

[@juancarlosbravoroman7265]

Lemn has a cognate in Spanish: Leña. Leña is more like the type of wood you burn as fuel.

[@cristianpetrumaidan5781]

bravo! - e posibil ca cei doi interlocutori să fi avut mari emoții sau au citit puțin în limba lor maternă

[@iulianghinea]

Fain! ps: 0:50 - originar nu original. cel puțin eu așa aud, original... + *pe care

[@TheSuperVideoRey1]

Spain has a large romanian inmigration cause of 2 reasons: 1. The wages are higher than in Romania. 2. Spanish is easy to learn for them.

[@dmp1248]

I like ecolinguist.Salutari din Romania

[@kame9]

tip for every romance languages when spanish use ue" its an "o" in other languages(normaly) and ie its an"e" if other languages dont have another diftong. juego = jogo sound more similar to joc but spanish J can confuse another people.

[@wyqtor]

And just like in Spanish, in Romanian we also break down long o into a diphthong, but only in some personal forms of verbs, like 'el/ea joacă' = 'él/ella juega', while for the 1st person sg. is 'eu joc' = 'yo juego'. BUT, in the 1st person plural, we have 'noi jucăm' = 'nosostros/as jugamos', which is again similar!

[@kame9]

@@wyqtor romanian is too from latin words on tonic O or E? french and italian sometimes difton E to EI but its not common as spanish.

[@stephanobarbosa5805]

Jogo em romeno e em catalão = joc

[@aNu-9017]

16:41 Actually; ,,masa" is the definite article. The word for table is ,,masă" It makes a lot of confusion in written romanian ☻️

[@wyqtor]

Before Unicode, when there was little support for diacritics on computers, we used to type without them, so a generation of Romanians got used to typing Romanian incorrectly and in a way that is very confusing for the foreigners trying to learn our language.

[@aNu-9017]

Imagine if you have some complex words, like ,,scârțâit" or ,,țâțâni"

[@joselugo4536]

To think that from 1902 to 1948 the English language was the mandatory language of instruction on the island.

[@DrWhom]

Carlos speaks fluent American English, and I am ready to guess that this is normal in PR

[@joselugo4536]

@@DrWhom No doubt about it, anyway the eradication of the Spanish language was not accomplished as it was in the Philippines.

[@emmalethmayfair9742]

​​@@DrWhomis a norm for those who take it seriously and practice it. Most people here show resistance to it despite the continuous bombardment in multiple media and work places. The imposition of English (1902-1948) on the island did nothing for most other than provide a source of resentment, however many (specially young ones) here speak other languages (learnt as elective courses) fluently rather than English.

[@DrWhom]

I hear you, and it's is no different from the small country that I am from and which fended off British invasions multiple times - and yet we too learn English because it is almost a must for any kind of international job; and I imagine it is the same for you (por ejemplo - mi español es de bajo nivel y no podría tener esta conversación y ese idioma)@@emmalethmayfair9742