Languagle #65: Romanian
Banii fac bani și păduchii tot păduchi
"Money makes money, and lice make more lice."
What it means
Those who already have an advantage keep gaining more, and those stuck with a problem find it multiplies. Money breeds money, and lice breed more lice. A blunt Romanian version of 'the rich get richer'.
How to say it
BA-nee fak BAHN shee puh-DOO-kee tot puh-DOOK
Ă is a soft 'uh', and ș is sh. A single i at the end of a word is barely said, which is why bani sounds like 'bahn'.
Word by word
- Banii BA-nee: money, literally 'the coins'
- fac fak: make
- bani bahn: money, coins
- și shee: and
- păduchii puh-DOO-kee: the lice
- tot tot: still, also
- păduchi puh-DOOK: lice
Bani is money and banii is the money: the 'the' goes on the end.
Where it was written down
A traditional proverb, passed down by word of mouth.
Similar sayings
- English: The rich get richer
How to recognise Romanian
Romanian uses ă, â, î, ș and ț, with a comma under s and t. It's also the only Romance language that puts 'the' on the end of a word: om is a man, omul is the man. Italian, Spanish and Portuguese put it in front and use none of those letters.
About the Romanian language
Romanian is a Romance language spoken by around 24 million people, mainly in Romania and Moldova. It is the only major Romance language of Eastern Europe, and has borrowed many words from its Slavic neighbours, but it has kept features of Latin that its western relatives lost, such as noun cases. It also puts the word for 'the' on the end of a noun: bani is 'money', banii 'the money'. It was written in Cyrillic until the 1860s.