Transylvanian varieties of Romanian

Unlike the other Romanian dialects, those of Wallachia, Moldavia, and Banat, the Romanian of Transylvania is broken up into many smaller and less distinct local speech varieties, making its dialectal classification more difficult. Classifications made until the late 19th century included a Transylvanian dialect, but as soon as detailed language facts became available, in the early 20th century, that view was abandoned. In 1908, Gustav Weigand used phonetic differences and reached the conclusion that the Romanian in Transylvania was a mosaic of transition varieties. Subsequent researchers agreed with his view. Emil Petrovici suggested that dialectal fragmentation could be attributed to the fact that Transylvania has been inhabited for more time and so differentiated and split into small dialectal cells, which were determined by geography. However, Moldavia and Wallachia were relatively recently colonized, which led to a remarkable dialectal unity in both regions. ==Phonetic features==

As a group, all Transylvanian varieties share a small number of common phonetic features: • The stressed vowels open to . • After and, in some varieties also after , the following vocalic changes occur: becomes , becomes , and reduces to . • The diphthong found in the Wallachian dialect is realised as the monophthong : for câne, mâne, pâne. • Stressed vowels tend to be pronounced longer. • The vowel before a stressed syllable closes to . • In a series of verbs, the stress shifts to the root: for standard blestèm, înfășèr, strecòr, măsòr. • The vowel is found in the full paradigm of the verbs a durmi, a adùrmi ("to sleep, to fall asleep", compare with standard a dormi, a adormi). ==See also==