AHC: Romanian Language Wank

I just had this idea pop into my head, and I want to run with it. No good ideas on how on earth you'd get this to happen, but, with a POD after AD 1000 (I'm not going to enforce that very rigorously, though), expand the Romanian language as much as you can, both geographically and demographically. Preferably in the Old World.
 
Not sure what Romanian is called in other languages but assuming it is more or less the same as in English.
You could have something the Catherine the Great's New Rome plans come to fruition with Romanian being seen as the 'living Roman language' or something like that giving it a massive prestige and so it starts to become a new lingua franca or something. Another possibility that comes to mind is a Romania/Wallachian revolt manages to somehow steamroll a large part of the Ottoman's establishing Romanian as the language of power and have it slowly trickle down over the coming generations until it becomes entrenched in the Merchant classes around 1900 for the sake of the wank.
On a less serious note, maybe the Cheeky Girls use their abilities to hypnotise millions of young men into learning Romanian...
 
Moldova, Wallachia, and Transylvania end up unifying in the middle ages as the Ottoman Empire begins to loose power. As the Ottomans slowly retreat from Europe, this unified Romanian state expands into Orthodox lands in Rumelia.
 
Maximum irony: Have the Magyars conquer the Bulgarian Empire as well as Pannonia, spreading their settlements thin enough that they adopt the local language in the hilly center of their empire -- the language of the Vlachs. After the Magyars settle down in Dacia, Hungarian and Romanian would be one and the same and the main Romance-speaking people in the Balkans.
 

Brunaburh

Gone Fishin'
Romanians wanted Odessa when "let's just steal the neighbour's territory where the people are nothing like us" was still a thing. That's entirely doable in a TL where you steer things that way. So Odessa should be added to whatever you can get as an after-thought.

Maximum irony: Have the Magyars conquer the Bulgarian Empire as well as Pannonia, spreading their settlements thin enough that they adopt the local language in the hilly center of their empire -- the language of the Vlachs. After the Magyars settle down in Dacia, Hungarian and Romanian would be one and the same and the main Romance-speaking people in the Balkans.

Pre-1000, and it's not really clear where proto-Romanians were at that point. My guess would be, mostly Serbia.
 
The Hungarian and Bulgarian Empires get involved in a long war in the 11th century that results in both sides being exhausted, a new kingdom is created as people in both sides revolt that speaks Romanian, being predominantly from Romania and conquer a buffer around them uniting into a new Kingdom, they then gradually expand into Hungary and Bulgaria and other countries to grow their language, forcing Romanization programs. Eventually they form a Balkan Empire, with Romanian language being forced above and colonize Egypt and Libya, forcing strong Romanization programs.
 
I think a big barrier is that South Slavic dialects which coexisted alongside East Romance dialects have a lot more political weight and it appears the numbers too.
I think we need an Avar POD as Slavic was a lingua franca among their empire towards the end and more thinly spread Hungarians will probably just adopt a standard of that.
Let's make the Avars settle like the Magyars and go Catholic, so no Slavic lingua franca. Then the Magyars come in and don't fully displace them, they also go Catholic like OTL. Someone then unites the disparate entities into a kingdom and enforces a Latin Christian identity allowing an East Romance dialect to achieve prominence, probably with earlier relatinisation.
 

Zagan

Donor
Thats a pretty detailed TL right there. Care to give us an elevator pitch on it?
"Io Mihailŭ, Împĕratul Românilor" - A Michael the Brave Romania Wank


Abstract

One of the greatest Romanian Princes who managed to briefly unite the three Romanian Principalities in OTL before being murdered, stays alive in TTL (the POD, 1601) for another 40 years and turns the United Romanian Lands into a Romanian Empire covering most of the Balkan Peninsula and with Colonies in the Middle East. By the middle of the 17th century (end of Part One), Romania is a Great Power, larger than Spain, France or Germany and more than ten million people speak Romanian as their first language.

Moreover, the story had many mentions (and a dedicated chapter) about the Romanian language from TTL, its differencies from OTL, its new alphabet, etc, so I thought it would be appropriate to mention it in this thread.


Part Two of the story is not yet finished, the TL being dormant (I will continue it later this year after I finish my other active TL).
 
Last edited:
I wonder if it would be possible for a mega-Romania to take the place of Russia and conquer Siberia. A third Rome indeed.

Alright, crazy idea, just dumping this out there: Mongols do better in Hungary, though the Vlachs are spared a bit more than their neighbors, perhaps they surrender more readily. Maybe even some are settled in neighboring devastated lands. When the Mongol tide ebbs, the Vlach are in the best position to take advantage of the power vacuum.
 
Top