Romanian phonology

Template:Short description Template:Self reference Template:IPA notice The Romanian language has a phoneme inventory of seven vowels, two or four semivowels (disputed), and twenty consonants. Other phonemes are found in interjections or recent borrowings.

Romanian includes the two unusual diphthongs and and the central vowel .

Vowels

File:Romanian vowel chart.svg

Romanian vowel chart, from Template:Harvcoltxt. The non-native vowels are not shown.

There are seven monophthongs:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	Template:IPAlink Template:Grapheme	Template:IPAlink Template:GraphemeTemplate:Efn	Template:IPAlink Template:Grapheme
Mid	Template:IPAlink Template:Grapheme	Template:IPAlink Template:Grapheme	Template:IPAlink Template:Grapheme
Open		Template:IPAlink Template:Grapheme

The table below gives examples for each vowel.

Vowel	Description	Examples
Template:IPAslink	Open central unrounded	apă ('water') balaur ('dragon') cânta ('to sing')
Template:IPAslink	Mid front unrounded	erou ('hero') necaz ('trouble') umple ('to fill')
Template:IPAslink	Close front unrounded	insulă ('island') salcie ('willow') topi ('to melt')
Template:IPAslink	Mid back rounded	oraș ('city') copil ('child') acolo ('there')
Template:IPAslink	Close back rounded	uda ('to wet') aduc ('I bring') simplu ('simple')
Template:IPAslink	Mid central unrounded	ăsta ('this') păros ('hairy') albă ('white [fem. sg.]')
Template:IPAslink	Close central unrounded	înspre ('toward') cârnat ('sausage') coborî ('to descend')

Although most of these vowels are relatively straightforward and similar or identical to those in many other languages, the close central unrounded vowel is uncommon as a phoneme and especially uncommon amongst Indo-European languages.

According to Template:Harvcoltxt, is phonetically open-mid somewhat retracted central Template:IPAblink, rather than mid central.

Less frequent vowels

ö

In addition to the seven core vowels, in a number of words of foreign origin (predominantly French, but also German) the mid front rounded vowel (rounded Romanian ; example word: bleu 'light blue') and the mid central rounded vowel (rounded Romanian ; example word: chemin de fer 'Chemin de Fer') have been preserved, without replacing them with any of the existing phonemes. The borrowed words have become part of the Romanian vocabulary and follow the usual inflexion rules, so that the new vowels, though less common, could be considered as part of the Romanian phoneme set. Many Romanian dictionaries use Template:Angbr in their phonetic descriptions to represent both vowels.

Because they are not native phonemes, their pronunciation may fluctuate or they may even be replaced by the diphthong . In older French borrowings it has often been replaced by , , or , as in șofer ('driver', from French chauffeur), masor ('masseur', from masseur), and sufleor ('theater prompter', from souffleur).

ü

Similarly, borrowings from languages such as French and German sometimes contain the close front rounded vowel : ecru , tul , führer . The symbol used for it in phonetic notations in Romanian dictionaries is Template:Angbr. Educated speakers usually pronounce it , but other realizations such as also occur. Older words that originally had this sound have had it replaced with , , or . For instance, Turkish kül became ghiul ('large ring'), Turkish tütün became tutun ('tobacco'), but tiutiun in the Moldavian dialect, German Düse gave duză ('nozzle') and French bureau became birou ('desk', 'office').

Diphthongs and triphthongs

According to Ioana Chițoran, Romanian has two diphthongs: and . As a result of their origin (diphthongization of mid vowels under stress), they appear normally in stressed syllables and make morphological alternations with the mid vowels and .

In addition to these, the semivowels and can be combined (either before, after, or both) with most vowels. One view considers that only and can follow an obstruent-liquid cluster such as in broască ('frog') and dreagă ('to mend') and form real diphthongs, whereas the rest are merely vowel–glide sequences. The traditional view (taught in schools) considers all of the above as diphthongs.

Falling
Diphthong	Examples
	mai ('May'), aisberg ('iceberg')
	sau ('or'), august ('August')
	lei ('lions'), trei ('three')
	greu ('heavy'), mereu ('always')
	mii ('thousands'), vii ('you come')
	fiu ('son'), scriu ('I write')
	oi ('sheep [pl.]'), noi ('we')
	ou ('egg'), bou ('ox')
	pui ('you put'), gălbui ('yellowish')
	continuu ('continuous')
	răi ('bad [masc. pl.]'), văi ('valleys')
	dulău ('mastiff'), rău ('bad [masc. sg.]')
	câine ('dog'), mâinile ('the hands')
	râu ('river'), brâu ('girdle')
Rising
Diphthong	Examples
	beată ('drunk [fem.]'), mea ('my [fem. sg.]')
	Gheorghe ('George'), ne-o ploua ('it would rain on us'), vreo ('some; around [fem., masc. pl.]')
	(mostly in word combinations) pe-un ('on a'), vreun ('some; around [masc. sg.]')
	biată ('poor [f.]'), mi-a zis ('[he] told me')
	fier ('iron'), miere ('honey')
	iod ('iodine'), chior ('one-eyed')
	iubit ('loved'), chiuvetă ('sink')
	găoace ('shell'), foarte ('very')
	piuez ('I felt [a fabric]'), înșeuez ('I saddle')
	băcăuan ('inhabitant of Bacău'), ziua ('the day')
	două ('two [fem.]'), plouă ('it rains')
	plouând ('raining'), ouând ('laying [eggs]')

Triphthong	Examples
	socoteai ('you were reckoning')
	beau ('I drink'), spuneau ('they were saying')
	pleoapă ('eyelid'), leoarcă ('soaking wet')
	mi-ai dat ('you gave me'), ia-i ('take them')
	iau ('I take'), suiau ('they were climbing')
	iei ('you take'), piei ('skins')
	eu ('I [myself]')
	i-oi da ('I might give him'), picioică ('potato [regionalism]')
	maiou ('undershirt')
	leoaică ('lioness'), rusoaică ('Russian woman')
	înșeuai ('[you] were saddling')
	înșeuau ('[they] were saddling')
	rouăi ('of the dew')
	creioane ('pencils'), aripioară ('winglet')

As can be seen from the examples above, the diphthongs and contrast with and respectively, though there are no minimal pairs to contrast and . Impressionistically, the two pairs sound very similar to native speakers. Because does not appear in the final syllable of a prosodic word, there are no monosyllabic words with ; exceptions might include voal ('veil') and doar ('only, just'), though Ioana Chițoran argues that these are best treated as containing glide-vowel sequences rather than diphthongs. In some regional pronunciations, the diphthong tends to be pronounced as a single vowel .Template:Sfnp

Other triphthongs such as and occur sporadically in interjections and uncommon words.

Diphthongs in borrowings

Borrowings from English have enlarged the set of ascending diphthongs to also include , , , and , or have extended their previously limited use. Generally, these borrowings have retained their original spellings, but their pronunciation has been adapted to Romanian phonology. The table below gives some examples.

Diphthong	Examples
	yearling 'one-year-old animal (colt)'
	western 'Western (movie set in the American West)'
	tweeter 'high-pitch loudspeaker'
	walkman 'pocket-sized tape/CD player'

Borrowings such as whisky and week-end are listed in some dictionaries as starting with the ascending diphthong , which corresponds to the original English pronunciation, but in others they appear with the descending diphthong .

Vowel alternations

Romanian has vowel alternation or apophony triggered by stress. A stressed syllable has an open vowel, or a diphthong ending in an open vowel, and an unstressed syllable has a mid vowel. Thus alternates with , with , and with .

This alternation developed from Romanian vowel breaking (diphthongization) and reduction (weakening). The Eastern Romance mid vowels were broken in stressed syllables, giving the Romanian diphthongs , and the open vowel was reduced in unstressed syllables, giving the Romanian central vowel .

These sound changes created the stress-triggered vowel alternations in the table below. Here stressed syllables are marked with underlining (a):

	Stressed		Unstressed		IPA and recording
	carte	'book'	cărticică	'book' (diminutive)	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler
	casă	'house'	căsuță	'house' (diminutive)	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler
	beat	'drunk'	bețiv	'drunkard'	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler
	seară	'evening'	înserat	'dusk'	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler
	poartă	'gate'	portar	'gatekeeper'	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler
	coastă	'rib'	costiță	'rib' (diminutive)	Template:ErrorTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Category handler

This has since been morphologized and now shows up in verb conjugations and nominal inflection: oaste — oști, 'army' — 'armies'.

Consonants

Standard Romanian has twenty consonant phonemes, as listed in the table below.

Romanian consonants

		Labial	DentalTemplate:Efn		Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Velar	Glottal
			median	sibilant
Nasal		Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme			Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme	Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme	Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme		Template:IPA link Template:GraphemeTemplate:Efn	Template:IPA link Template:GraphemeTemplate:Efn
	voiced	Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme	Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme			Template:IPA link Template:GraphemeTemplate:Efn	Template:IPA link Template:GraphemeTemplate:Efn
Fricative	voiceless	Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme		Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme		Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme		Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme
	voiced	Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme		Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme		Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme
Trill					Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme
Approximant					Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme	Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme	Template:IPA link Template:Grapheme

Besides the consonants in this table, a few consonants can have allophones:

• Palatalized consonants occur when preceding an underlying word-final , which is then deleted.
• becomes the velar Template:IPAblink before , and ;
• becomes the velar Template:IPAblink in word-final positions (duh 'spirit') and before consonants (hrean 'horseradish'); it becomes the palatal Template:IPAblink before , , like in the word human in English, and as a realization for an underlying sequence in word-final positions (cehi 'Czech people' is pronounced , though usually transcribed ).

The consonant inventory of Romanian is similar to Italian. Romanian, however, lacks the palatal consonants , which merged with by lenition (though is retained in the Banatian regionalism), and the affricate changed to by spirantization (regionally retained in the Banatian and Moldovan regionalisms). Romanian has the fricative and the glottal fricative , which do not occur in Italian.

Palatalized consonants

Palatalized consonants appear mainly at the end of words, and mark two grammatical categories: plural nouns and adjectives, and second person singular verbs.

The interpretation commonly taken is that an underlying morpheme palatalizes the consonant and is subsequently deleted. However, , , and become , , and , respectively, with very few phonetically justified exceptions, included in the table below, which shows that this palatalization can occur for all consonants.

Voiceless		Voiced
Consonant	Examples	Consonant	Examples
Template:IPAslink	rupi 'you tear'	Template:IPAslink	arabi 'Arabs'
Template:IPAslink	proști 'stupid (masc. pl.)'	Template:IPAslink	nădejdi 'hopes'
Template:IPAslink	urechi 'ears'; ochi 'eye(s)'	Template:IPAslink	unghi 'angle'
Template:IPAslink	roți 'wheels'	–
Template:IPAslink	faci 'you do'	Template:IPAslink	mergi 'you go'
–		Template:IPAslink	dormi 'you sleep'
–		Template:IPAslink	bani 'money (pl.)'
Template:IPAslink	șefi 'bosses'	Template:IPAslink	pleșuvi 'bald (masc. pl.)'
Template:IPAslink	bessi 'Bessi'	Template:IPAslink	brazi 'fir trees'
Template:IPAslink	moși 'old men'	Template:IPAslink	breji 'brave (masc. pl.)'
Template:IPAslink	vlahi 'Wallachians'	–
–		Template:IPAslink	școli 'schools'
–		Template:IPAslink	sari 'you jump'

In certain morphological processes is replaced by the full vowel , for example

• in noun plural genitive formation: școli — școlilor ('schools — of the schools'),
• when appending the definite article to some plural nouns: brazi — brazii ('fir trees — the fir trees')
• in verb + pronoun combinations: dați — dați-ne ('give — give us').

This may explain why is perceived as a separate sound by native speakers and written with the same letter as the vowel .

The non-syllabic can be sometimes found inside compound words like câțiva ('a few') and oricare ('whichever'), where the first morpheme happened to end in this . A word that contains this twice is cincizeci ('fifty').

In Old Romanian and still in some local pronunciations there is another example of such a non-syllabic, non-semivocalic phoneme, derived from , which manifests itself as labialization of the preceding sound. The usual IPA notation is . It is found at the end of some words after consonants and semivowels, as in un urs, pronounced ('a bear'), or îmi spui ('you tell me'). The disappearance of this phoneme might be attributed to the fact that, unlike , it did not play any morphological role. It is a trace of Latin endings containing (-us, -ūs, -um, -ō), this phoneme is related to vowel used to connect the definite article "l" to the stem of a noun or adjective, as in domn — domnul ('lord — the lord', cf. Latin dominus).

Other consonants

As with other languages, Romanian interjections often use sounds beyond the normal phoneme inventory or disobey the normal phonotactical rules, by containing unusual phoneme sequences, by allowing words to be made up of only consonants, or by consisting of repetitions. Such exceptional mechanisms are needed to obtain an increased level of expressivity. Often, these interjections have multiple spellings or occasionally none at all, which accounts for the difficulty of finding the right approximation using existing letters. The following is a list of examples.

• A bilabial click , pronounced by rounding the lips and strongly sucking air between them, is used for urging horses to start walking.
• Whistling is another interjection surpassing the limits of the phoneme inventory. It is usually spelled fiu-fiu.
• The dental click (see also click consonants) is used in an interjection similar to the English tut-tut (or tsk-tsk), expressing concern, disappointment, disapproval, etc., and generally accompanied by frowning or a comparable facial expression. Usually two to four such clicks in a row make up the interjection; only one click is rare and more than four can be used for over-emphasis. The Romanian spelling is usually tț, ttt or țțț.
• The same dental click is used in another interjection, the informal equivalent of "no" (nu in Romanian). Only one click is emitted, usually as an answer to a yes–no question. Although there is rarely any accompanying sound, the usual spelling is nt or nț.
• A series of interjections are pronounced with the mouth shut. Depending on intonation, length, and rhythm, they can have various meanings, such as: perplexity, doubt, displeasure, tastiness, toothache, approval, etc. Possible spellings include: hm, hâm/hîm, mhm, îhî, mmm, îî, hî. Phonetically similar, but semantically different, is the English interjection ahem.
• Another interjection, meaning "no", is pronounced (with a high-low phonetic pitch). Possible spellings include: î-î, îm-îm, and m-m. The stress pattern is opposite to the interjection for "yes" mentioned before, pronounced (with a low-high phonetic pitch).
• Pfu expresses contempt or dissatisfaction and starts with the voiceless bilabial fricative , sounding like (but being different from) the English whew, which expresses relief after an effort or danger.
• Câh/cîh expresses disgust and ends in the voiceless velar fricative , similar in meaning to English ugh.
• Brrr expresses shivering cold and is made up of a single consonant, the bilabial trill, whose IPA symbol is

Stress

Romanian has a stress accent, like almost all other Romance languages (with the notable exception of French). Generally, stress falls on the last syllable of a stem (that is, the root and derivational affixes but excluding inflections). Although a lexically marked stress pattern with penultimate stress exists, morphologically derived forms continue to follow the unmarked pattern.

fráte ('brother'), copíl ('child')

strúgure ('grape'), albástru ('blue'), călătór ('voyager').

Stress is not normally marked in writing, except occasionally to distinguish between homographs, or in dictionaries for the headwords. When it is marked, the main vowel of the stressed syllable receives an accent (usually acute, but sometimes grave), for example véselă 'jovial (fem. sing.)' vs. vesélă 'tableware'.

In verb conjugation, noun declension, and other word formation processes, stress shifts can occur. Verbs can have homographic forms only distinguished by stress, such as in el suflă which can mean 'he blows' (el súflă) or 'he blew' (el suflắ) depending on whether the stress is on the first or the second syllable. Changing the grammatical category of a word can lead to similar word pairs, such as the verb a albí 'to whiten' compared to the adjective álbi 'white, masc. pl.'. Stress in Romanian verbs can normally be predicted by comparing tenses with similar verbs in Spanish, which does indicate stress in writing.

Secondary stress occurs according to a predictable pattern, falling on every other syllable, starting with the first, as long as it does not fall adjacent to the primary stress.

Prosody

Rhythm

Romanian is syllable-timed, along with most Romance languages (but not Portuguese), Telugu, Yoruba, Chinese, Indonesian/Malay and many others. That is, each syllable takes approximately the same time to pronounce. This contrasts with stress-timed languages such as English, Russian, and Arabic, in which syllables are pronounced at a lower or higher rate so as to achieve a roughly equal time interval between stressed syllables and with mora timing, exemplified by Classical Latin, Fijian, Finnish, Hawaiian, Japanese, and Old English.

The distinction between these timing categories may sometimes seem unclear, and definitions vary. In addition, the time intervals between stresses/syllables/morae are only approximately equal, with many exceptions and large deviations. However, whereas the actual time may be only approximately equal, the differences are clear.

In the case of Romanian, consonant clusters are often found both in the syllable onset and coda, which require physical time to be pronounced. The syllable timing rule is then overridden by slowing down the rhythm. Thus, it is seen that stress and syllable timing interact. The sample sentences below, each consisting of six syllables, are illustrative:

Mama pune masa – Mom sets the table

Mulți puști blonzi plâng prin curți – Many blond kids cry in the courtyards

The total time length taken by each of these sentences is obviously different, and attempting to pronounce one of them with the same rhythm as the other results in unnatural utterances.

To a lesser extent, syllables are also lengthened by liquid and nasal consonants, and by semivowels in diphthongs and triphthongs, as in these examples:

Romanian	English
pic — plic	bit — envelope
cec — cerc	cheque — circle
zic — zinc	I say — zinc
car — chiar	I carry — even
sare — soare	salt — sun
sta — stea	to stay — star
fi — fii	be (inf.) — be (imperative)

A simple way to evaluate the length of a word, and compare it to another, consists in pronouncing it repeatedly at a natural speech rate.

Intonation

Intonation is influenced by many factors: the focus of the sentence, the theme and the rheme, emotional aspects, etc. This section covers a few general traits. Most importantly, intonation is essential in questions since, unlike English and other languages, Romanian does not distinguish grammatically declarative and interrogative sentences.

In non-emphatic yes/no questions the pitch rises at the end of the sentence until the last stressed syllable. If unstressed syllables follow, they often have a falling intonation, but this is not a rule.

— Ai stins lumina? [ai stins lu↗mi↘na] (Have you turned off the light?)

— Da. (Yes.)

In Transylvanian speech these yes/no questions have a very different intonation pattern, usually with a pitch peak at the beginning of the question: [ai ↗stins lumi↘na]

In selection questions the tone rises at the first element of the selection, and falls at the second.

— Vrei bere sau vin? [vrei ↗bere sau ↘vin] (Do you want beer or wine?)

— Bere. (Beer.)

Wh-questions start with a high pitch on the first word and then the pitch falls gradually toward the end of the sentence.

— Cine a lăsat ușa deschisă? [↗cine↘ a lăsat ușa deschisă] (Who left the door open?)

— Mama. (Mom did.)

Repeat questions have a rising intonation.

— A sunat Rodica adineauri. (Rodica just called.)

— Cine a sunat? [cine a su↗nat] (Who called?)

— Colega ta, Rodica. (Your classmate, Rodica.)

Tag questions are uttered with a rising intonation.

— Ți-e foame, nu-i așa? [ți-e foame, nu-i a↗șa] (You're hungry, aren't you?)

Unfinished utterances have a rising intonation similar to that of yes/no questions, but the pitch rise is smaller.

— După ce m-am întors... [după ce m-am în↗tors...] (After I came back...)

Various other intonation patterns are used to express: requests, commands, surprise, suggestion, advice, and so on.

External links

• Very detailed Romanian grammar, with some notes on phonetics and morpho-phonology (PDF; 183 pages; 4.6 MB)
• Template:In lang DEX online, a collection of Romanian language dictionaries; one-letter entries indicate the possible pronunciations
• Romanian Language Sounds Sounds of the Romanian Language Project (SROL)
• Rhymes Dictionary – dictionar de rime Romanian Rhymes Dictionary – allows the user to obtain words which rhyme with the search word (possible indication of pronunciation rules)