The territory of Romania is
divided into counties, towns and communes.
After the 1968
reorganization, Romania consists of the following 39 counties:
A municipality is marked by a
larger population, a lively economic‑socio‑politic‑cultural life. or a
potential for development in this direction. Beside the Municipality of
Bucharest, 46 other towns are organized as municipalities.
The Commune is an
administrative unit with an economic potential which permits the realization of
economic, socio‑cultural and other enterprises, of larger scope. The majority
of communes comprise several villages.
The commune is governed by
the People's Council, the administrative organ formed by a number of deputies
chosen for a period of four years. The Executive Board is appointed from
amongst the deputies, and headed by a chairman who is sometimes also called the
Mayor of the Commune.
Romanian is a language of
Latin origin, whose grammatical structure and the majority of words are basically
Latin.
The Romanian people and
language were born in the last centuries of the 1st millennium, on the
country's present territory, as a result of the Romanization of the indigenous
Dacian population, and the gradual assimilation of Slav and other elements.
Slav influence, however, has remained small; the proportion of Latin words in
Romanian is 60%; in everyday speech
more than 80%.
From the 19th century
onwards, Romanian began to borrow words of international usage, especially in
the technical and scientific vocabulary.
The Greek and then the Roman
alphabets were used in Romania, until around the 10th century when the Cyrillic
alphabet was introduced into Romania, based on the Greek alphabet and the Slav
language, which was the language of culture in general.
Romanian was written in
Cyrillic alphabet since around 1500, until 300 years later, with a few attempts
to reintroduce the Latin letters in the 16th and 18th centuries; in 1780 a
Romanian Grammar was printed in Latin alphabet. This was followed by a period
of transition when a Cyrillic‑Latin alphabet was used, which was officially and
finally changed to the Latin one in 1860, after the Union of the Romanian
Principalities under Prince Cuza. After various stages of perfectionization,
the present Romanian writing is that stabilized by the Academy of the Socialist
Republic of Romania and approved by the Council of Ministers in 1953, with
additions in 1965.
The minority groups in
Romania are divided into three: Magyar (8.3%), Germanic (2%), and others (2.2%),
i.e. Ukrainians, Russians, Croats, Serbs, Jews, Tartars, Turks.
The history of the Romanian
people mentions the arrival of the minorities as colonists who were brought by
the Magyar kings into territories populated by Romanians. This was effected
under the pretext that the settlers would block the invasions of the migratory
peoples from the east, but in fact the colonists were also brought to act as a
counterpart to the insubordinate Romanian population.
In the Socialist Republic of
Romania, national minorities are free to use their mother tongue, in all forms
of expression and grades of education : books, newspapers, magazines, theatre,
opera, schools and even universities.
In administrative territories
inhabited by a population other than Romanian, all institutions use the respective
national minority language, both in speech and in writing.
Religious groups are
organized and are active on an autonomous basis as laid down by the
Constitution. The largest group is the Romanian Orthodox Church which is
considered the national church.
Other religious groups
include Roman Catholics (about 400,000), which is the largest; the Reform
Church, the Evangelical Church; Baptist, Unitarian, Pentecostal, Serbian
Orthodox, Seventh‑Day Adventist, Armenian‑Gregorian, Ancient Rite, Gospel and
Presbyterian.
The 110,000 Jews in Romania
are organized in 70 communities, with the Chief Rabbi in Bucharest.
There are few Moslems in the country.