The earliest surviving documents in Albanian and Romanian were written around the same period. Albanian was written in Latin and Romanian in Cyrillic.

7 comments

1. “Formula e Pagëzimit”(Baptismal Formula) – earliest Albanian writing found, it’s a short sentence:

   “Unte ‘paghesont premenit Atit et birit et spertit senit” (I baptize thee in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit) – 1462

   “Meshari”(The Missal) – earliest book written in Albanian – 1555

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   “Neacșu’s letter” – earliest Romanian writing found – 1521

   “Palia de la Orăștie” – earliest known translation, even partial, of the Old Testament in Romanian – 1582

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   It’s interesting that Romanian (a Romance language) was first written in Cyrillic, and Albanian was first written with Latin letters.

2. Btw, if you take Neascu’s letter and only translate the letters from cyrilic to latin, I can understand more than 50% of the words as a Romanian.

3. It’s funny how one of the earliest Romanian documents are written in Cyrillic alphabet despite being a Latin language.Today without studying it almost nobody can understand Cyrillic alphabet

4. In Macedonia we have surviving text from 9th and 10th century, written in old Church Slavonic (the language spoken in Macedonia, Serbia and Bulgaria during the Middle Ages) which is also written in Cyrillic.

   And for those interested, Cyrillic alphabet was created in the Balkans 😊

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6. Why these two, OP? Why specifically these two? Cause I smell a smelly smell. You find stuff interesting. I also find stuff interesting, like the Hungarian brigands modifying Romania’s wikipedia pages. Did you find that interesting, OP?

7. Great achievement, indeed… One lousy letter in broken Romanian and scribbled in Cyrillic, while the English and French literature were flourishing in the early 16th century.