Today it was announced that Al Lewis, Grandpa Munster from the hit TV show The Munsters, has passed away. Lewis was best remembered for this role as Count Vladimir Dracula, a 378 year-old native of Transylvania.
AP Photo
What may be of interest to language aficionados is that Transylvania is one of the most language-rich regions in the world. When you meet a native of the Transylvanian region, you may find that the person speaks 3, 4 or even more languages fluently. Which makes it kind of funny that our 378 year old Grandpa spoke in a heavy Brooklyn accent.
Transylvania is a large territory in the country of Romania. The region is home to the castle of Bran, supposed to have been the home of Prince Vlad Tepes, on whom the novel and movies Dracula were based. According to recent census information, the population of the Transylvania region (over 7 Million people) has large Rumanian, Hungarian and German speaking communities.
Over the last 1,000 years, territorial conflicts and wars have led to relatively frequent power shifts, with the official language also changing frequently as a result. Official languages in this region have included Latin, Hungarian and Rumanian. Other major language influences due to the presence of occupational armies include German, Russian and Slovakian.
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