Page:A simplified grammar of the Roumanian language.djvu/12

viii rustic Latin” spoken by the Roman provincials between Pontus and Adria. These provincials became barbarized in consequence of the protracted miseries induced by the repeated invasions of the northern barbarians. The western portion of the Roman Empire was conquered once for all by the Teutonic invaders. The lands north and south of the eastern course of the Danube were repeatedly laid waste for many centuries by successive waves of barbarians—Goths and Huns, Slavs and Bulgars. This unsettled state of things, though disastrous for the political and social development of the Roumanian people, rendered possible the growth of an original language differing in a marked manner from the other Romance languages of the West.

I have endeavoured in this short Grammar to give the student a clear notion of the framework of the Roumanian Language, and to help him in becoming acquainted with it without unnecessary consumption of his time. Any elucidatory details which may be considered not absolutely indispensable in a strictly philological handbook will nevertheless, it is hoped, prove useful to those who learn the language for some practical purpose. R. TORCEANU.
 * September, 1883.
 * September, 1883.