Church Slavonic in Romania

Church Slavonic was the principal administrative and liturgical language of the medieval Romanian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. Its adoption reflected the strong cultural and political influence of the various Slavic states neighbouring the principalities, particularly the Second Bulgarian Empire. From the 14th to the 16th centuries, most official charters, chronicles, and religious texts were produced in Slavonic, even though the local population continued to speak Romanian in daily life. Beginning in the 16th century, Romanian gradually replaced Slavonic in official documents and eventually became the dominant language of administration and worship, although the language would continue to be written in the Cyrillic alphabet until the mid-19th century.