MovieChat Forums > Transylvania (2006) Discussion > A question about languages in this movie...

A question about languages in this movie.

posted 17 years ago by s_chbihi
18 replies | jump to latest

If you have seen this movie, you may have noticed many languages spoken : I recognized french, rumanian and english of course, but also italian (because the girl is italian), german and turkish...
I'd like to know, are german and turkish spoken in Transylvania too ?
Because the characters' nationalities are the same as the actors' (well, not sure for the guy), and so the languages they speak too, so I wondered if it was really like that in Transylvania or only the director's wish.

Moreover, I found this movie intriguing, interesting and extrordianry !

[–] anna_55 17 years ago

Actually, German is spoken mainly in southern Transylvania (county of Sibiu and county of Brasov) and I don't know about Turkish, but my guess is (taking the historical facts into account) that it is spoken in Dobrogea (county of Constanta and county of Tulcea - next to the Black Sea).

Towards the end of the movie you can also hear a Hungarian song, so altogether 7 languages or so...

[–] therion23 17 years ago

Gabor, the old man towards the end of the movie, speaks Hungarian. Plus, of course, Roma (Romany) is spoken by the band that Tchangalo hires (they ask him directly if he speaks the language, if you recall).

To add to the confusion, i'm fairly sure that Tchangalo's car has Dutch license plates.

You will also find German spoken in smaller towns in the Banat region (there's several in Caras-Severin), and Turkish spoken in Galati.

It would be fun to know where exactly it was filmed, because most of the locations are so desolate that they could be virtually anywhere in Ardeal or even Maramures.

[–] bullacc 16 years ago

Saseasca is spoken by the few sas people still left in Transylvania.
Turkish is also spoken by the few turks in Dobrogea.

These languages are not spoken by romanians, except maybe as foreign languages, and the native speakers are a very small minority.

[–] gencerozkazman 17 years ago

Birol Ünel (Tchangalo) is a Turkish orgined German. When Zingarina is suffering during her baby's birth, and he is searching for help, he whistles "doktor var mi?" in Turkish to the strangers he met, which means "is there any doctor?".

[–] katerpilar 17 years ago

haha yes german is spoken alot here, i`m from transylvania, Brasov, also known as Corona City or Kronstadt :)

[–] LudwA 17 years ago

To add to the confusion, i'm fairly sure that Tchangalo's car has Dutch license plates.

true! Surprised me, no Dutch language in the movie though.
Maybe he bought the car from some Dutch pikers, it's exactly the Mercedes type they always seem to drive.

[–] therion23 16 years ago

The tavern where Tchangalo orders three shots at a time and pays a girl to stay away from him is Ukrainian. The poster behind the singer is written in Ukrainian.

So even if not a spoken language, it's still one more for the list.

[–] maenad-3 16 years ago

The "chanteuse ukrainienne" is singing a popular Ukrainian song written in 1970, in Ukrainian, it is called "Chervona ruta" (Red rue, a plant to use in enchantments) and was a hit when performed by Sofia Rotaru. So Ukrainian is also heard in this film.

[–] bullacc 16 years ago

Dude, that language you somehow hear spoken in Brasov is called saseasca, not german. It's very similar, but not the same language.

[–] redbellypig 16 years ago

Considering that Transylvania is in Romania, it is really a state of Hungary that was stolen after the First World War. Half of my entire family is from Transylvania and they all speak Hungarian even though they were forced to learn Romany. Once it is rightfully returned to Hungary the only language you should expect to hear is Hungarian.

[–] bullacc 16 years ago

Just don't hold your breath waiting for it to be returned.

It wasn't stolen from Hungary, it was *recovered* from the Hungarians - do remember your people came from wherever just 1.000 years ago - Transylvania is rightfully Romanian, as they were here for much longer than that.

[–] bookingoffice 15 years ago

Yes, exactly. Considering the migrant people that came from Asia currently named Hungarian, the only time you could hear official Hungarian in Transylvania will be when an Asian language will be the official language of Hungary. He he he. That is...never.

[–] carmennicol 15 years ago

Your family was forced to learn Romany??? You must be joking, but taking into consideration that Hungarian is a TURKISH language and Romany has some "turkish" words too,that mean that it was not difficult for them to learn it...But of course should have they known the simple rule that a "B" is a "V" and a V is a B!!!

[–] Emreka 15 years ago

How is it that Hungarian is a Turkish language? There are Turkic languages like Azeri, Kazakh, Uzbek, Tatar etc, but Hungarian isn't one of them, and they're really not an Asian people, that's urban legend.

[–] elfcica 15 years ago

It is curious the name of Tschangalo... in Moldova, region of Romania like Transylvania, there's a small ethnic group called Csango, Ceangalai, which means people who is kinda nomad, searching after his place, going everywhere...they speak romanian or hungarian but they don't consider themself part of any of these nationality...

[–] bsj2312 14 years ago

Moldova is not a region of Romania. It is a separate country. It was a region of Romania for exactly 22 years from 1918-1940. For a hundred years before that, it was part of the Russian Empire and after 1940 it was part of the Soviet Union. It became an independent country in 1990 just before the official breakup of the USSR. It joined the CIS, like all the other former Soviet countries.

That said, I do believe there are several Csango in the movie, since they are about the only Roman Catholics in Romania and Moldova.

[–] bullacc 14 years ago

I dunno, official history seems to disagree with you about Moldova being Russian - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldova

Not to mention the fact that the great majority of russian speaking people in Moldova are either colonists imported during soviet rule, or people forced to learn it in school during the same soviet rule...

[–] Emreka 15 years ago

In Knjiga rekorda Sutke, you can see that Balkan Gypsies listen to Turkish music and some speak Turkish. Ottomans ruled Transylvania for a long while and there must be some traces left.