A Romance language with its own habits
Romanian descends from Latin and keeps a case system and a definite article that sits at the end of the noun: carte becomes cartea. For terminology work this matters, because a glossary entry and the word as it appears in a sentence are often different strings. A term list has to record the concept, not only the visible form.
Romanian is the official language of Romania and Moldova. Contracts, labels and public-sector forms for either country draw on different institutions, so the destination belongs in the brief next to the language name.
Language and locale
Romanian text,
correct to the character
| Convention | Romanian | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Alphabet | Latin with ă, â, î, ș and ț. | Dropping the marks changes words and breaks searches on names. |
| Where it is official | Romania and Moldova. | Institutions, registers and legal references differ by country. |
| Numbers and dates | Decimal comma; dates written day.month.year. | Identifiers and product codes must stay as supplied, not reformatted as numbers. |
| Currency | Romanian leu (RON) and Moldovan leu (MDL). | Amounts need the right currency name and a consistent position of the symbol. |
| Formal address | Dumneavoastră is the polite second-person form. | Letters and interfaces need one register throughout. |
| Company identifiers | CUI for Romanian companies, IDNO in Moldova. | Registration numbers must stay unchanged and traceable. |
The small marks that break a search
Modern Romanian writes ș and ț with a comma below. Older files often carry ş and ţ with a cedilla, which are different Unicode characters that look almost identical. In a database or a company-name comparison, the two sets do not match.
Stripping every diacritic is no remedy: ă, â and î carry real distinctions, and the rule for î at the start and end of a word versus â inside it is part of correct spelling. A registered name copied from a source record is a different editorial case from a paragraph of running text, and the source spelling should stay traceable.
For software localisation, Romanian characters belong in the test content, including capitals, sort order and searchable labels.
Words that look familiar and are not
Romanian shares international roots with English and French, and several of them have shifted meaning. Actual means current, eventual means possible, and a pretinde means to claim or demand. A draft built on resemblance can read smoothly and still say the wrong thing.
Legal translation into Romanian also has to keep the difference between an obligation and a permission, and company forms such as S.R.L. and S.A. stay as registered. Technical translation starts from the function of a term in the equipment.
Translation and revision
One terminology record,
two linguistic checks
A native translator writes natural Romanian; a second qualified linguist checks the result against the source.
For Romanian target text, the translator is a native speaker living in Romania or Moldova with more than ten years of experience in the subject. Under the agency’s ISO 17100 workflow, revision compares source and translation for omissions, meaning and fitness for the stated purpose.
CAT tools, including Trados Studio, hold approved terms and repeated segments. A repeated segment still needs its context, because a label in a parts table may need a different case or article inside a sentence. Dedicated QA software supports the checks; linguistic decisions stay with translator and reviser.
Practical questions
Romanian translation
before commissioning
Which language pairs does Babylon Translations offer for Romanian?
Romanian can be the source or the target with any of the agency’s other 31 languages. The target language decides which native translator is assigned, so a Romanian contract translated into German and the same contract translated into French go to different linguists. The project manager coordinates references for each version.
Should Romanian ș and ț be replaced by ş and ţ?
No. Modern Romanian uses comma-below ș and ț rather than the cedilla look-alikes. Legacy source files may contain either set, so the difference should be examined before names or identifiers are changed. Display text should keep the full Romanian alphabet instead of being reduced to unaccented Latin letters.
Can the same Romanian text serve Romania and Moldova?
Often the language can be shared, but administrative terminology cannot be assumed identical. The destination should be named, particularly for contracts, company documents and references to public bodies. A text written for Romania should not carry Romanian institutional assumptions into a Moldovan legal or commercial context.
What should accompany a Romanian manual for translation?
The complete manual, relevant product references and any existing terminology give the strongest starting point. Drawings or parts lists clarify what a component does. The brief should name the intended reader and the translation direction, and separate approved earlier translations from material supplied only as background.
How is a Romanian translation quoted?
A quotation depends on the complete source text, its subject, repetition, file condition and delivery date. These factors also set the revision effort. Requests go through the agency’s contact details; supplying the whole document helps reveal tables, annexes and references that a sample can hide.