Academy president Ioan-Aurel Pop: Romanian - among the world's top 20 spoken languages

Romanian is among the top 20 spoken languages of the planet's roughly 7,000, says president of the Romanian Academy, Ioan-Aurel Pop. 

"Through our language we communicate and introduce ourselves to the world with the Romanian literature, in other words with that slew of worlds recreated by the Romanian writers, from the chroniclers onwards. Of the 6,000 - 7,000 languages spoken on the planet, Romanian is - according to objective criteria set by non-Romanians - among the top 15-20, which is no little feat. (...) Let us guard it, as yesteryear poet Ienachita Vacarescu advised us, and pass down to our boys and girls a beautiful, warm, pure and sparkling language," Ioan-Aurel Pop said in a statement to AGERPRES on the occasion of the celebration of Romanian Language Day. 

In his opinion, "the Romanian language is the most deeply engraved effigy of the Romanians". 

"The language is like a living organism which is born, grows, develops, ages and dies with the people who created it and whom it served as a means of communication. This is why we speak of living languages and of dead languages. Ours is alive and no matter how contaminated it is with neologisms, barbarisms, hyperurbanisms, abbreviations or weird short text acronyms, we shouldn't be afraid. The Romanian language has the power to remain itself, despite the various influences," considers Ioan-Aurel Pop. 

He stresses that "one cannot be Romanian if one doesn't speak Romanian, although one can speak the language without being Romanian". 

Professor Ioan-Aurel Pop also brought to mind that the Romanian Academy has completed in 2000 the Romanian Language Thesaurus, "a monument meant to overcome time". 

"In more than a century, the Romanian Academy's linguists have put together the Romanian Language Thesaurus, in an effort that started before 1900 and was completed after 2000. It's a monument meant to overcome time, with tens of volumes and encompassing almost 200,000 words, commented and defined according to the rules of science. Also noteworthy are the linguistic atlas, the collection of Romanian literature (in almost 250 volumes) and many others! I like to say that the Romanian people's most important spiritual creation is the Romanian language. Let us guard it, as Ienachita Vacarescu once urged us, and pass it down beautiful, warm, pure and sparkling, to our boys and girls!," said Ioan-Aurel Pop. 

The Romanian Language Day, created under Law No. 53 / 2013, is celebrated every year on August 31.