Romanian Translation Services: The Romance Language at the Crossroads of Eastern Europe
Romanian is a fascinating linguistic outlier: a Romance language surrounded by Slavic, Turkic and Hungarian neighbours. With approximately 24 million speakers across Romania and Moldova, it represents one of the larger language markets in Eastern Europe and a significant EU member state economy.
Market Overview
- Romania: 19 million people, EU member since 2007, rapidly growing IT sector
- Moldova: 2.6 million people (where the language is officially called Moldovan but is linguistically identical to Romanian)
- Diaspora: Large Romanian communities across Western Europe, particularly Italy, Spain, Germany and the UK
Romania has become one of Europe's leading IT outsourcing destinations, with Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Timișoara emerging as significant tech hubs. The domestic digital economy is growing rapidly.
Localization Considerations
Romance Language, But Unique
Romanian shares Latin roots with French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, but centuries of Slavic, Turkish, Hungarian and Greek influence have created a distinctive language. Translators must be native Romanian speakers. Proficiency in other Romance languages does not transfer.
Special Characters
Romanian uses five special characters: ă, â, î, ș, ț. The cedilla-based variants (ş, ţ) were historically used in digital contexts but are now considered incorrect: the comma-below variants (ș, ț) are the standard. This distinction matters for search, sorting and display.
Romania vs. Moldova
While linguistically identical, some vocabulary preferences differ between Romania and Moldova due to Russian influence in Moldova. For most digital content, standard Romanian works for both markets.
EU Terminology
As an EU member, Romania has established official Romanian terminology for EU-related legal and regulatory concepts. Translation of official, legal or regulatory content must adhere to these standards.
Growing Digital Demand
Romania's e-commerce market is expanding rapidly, driven by improving logistics infrastructure and growing consumer confidence in online purchasing. Romanian consumers strongly prefer content in their native language: English proficiency is high among young professionals, but conversion rates are significantly better with Romanian-language content.
El Turco's Romanian Capabilities
- Native Romanian translators with technology, e-commerce and legal expertise
- Romanian special character handling and QA
- EU-standard terminology compliance
- Romanian SEO and digital content optimization
- Romanian AI training data services
Doğa is a Project Manager at El Turco specialising in Balkan and Eastern European language projects.