This article discusses the phonology of the Romanian language. For other details on this language (history, grammar) the reader is referred to that article.
The phoneme inventory of Romanian consists of seven vowels, two or four semivowels (different views exist), and twenty consonants. In addition, as with all languages, other phonemes can occur occasionally in interjections or recent borrowings.
Notable features of Romanian include two unusual diphthongs /e̯a/ and /o̯a/ and the central vowel /ɨ/.
Contents |
There are seven monophthongs in Romanian:[1]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ɨ | u |
| Mid | e̞ | ə | o̞ |
| Open | ä |
Although e̞, o̞ are written above with diacritics to show their mid height and ä with a diacritic to show its central backness, in virtually all phonetic transcriptions of Romanian these characteristics are implied and the symbols are written without diacritics. The same convention is applied in this article.
The table below gives a series of word examples for each vowel.
| Vowel | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| /a/ | Open central unrounded | apă /ˈa.pə/ water balaur /baˈla.ur/ dragon cânta /kɨnˈta/ to sing |
| /e/ | Mid front unrounded | erou /eˈrow/ hero necaz /neˈkaz/ trouble umple /ˈum.ple/ to fill |
| /i/ | Close front unrounded | insulă /ˈin.su.lə/ island salcie /ˈsal.tʃi.e/ willow topi /toˈpi/ to melt |
| /o/ | Mid back rounded | oraș /oˈraʃ/ city copil /koˈpil/ child acolo /aˈko.lo/ there |
| /u/ | Close back rounded | uda /uˈda/ to wet aduc /aˈduk/ I bring simplu /ˈsim.plu/ simple |
| /ə/ | Mid central unrounded | ăsta /ˈəs.ta/ this păros /pəˈros/ hairy albă /ˈal.bə/ white (fem. sg.) |
| /ɨ/ | Close central unrounded | înspre /ˈɨn.spre/ toward cârnat /kɨrˈnat/ sausage coborî /ko.boˈrɨ/ to descend |
While most of these vowels are relatively straightforward and similar or identical to those in many other languages, the close central unrounded vowel /ɨ/ is uncommon as a phoneme[1] and especially uncommon amongst Indo-European languages.
In addition to the seven core vowels, in a number of words of foreign origin (predominantly French, but also German) the close-mid front rounded vowel /ø/, the open-mid front rounded vowel /œ/, and the mid-central rounded vowel /ɵ/ (different from the already existing unrounded /ə/) have been preserved, without replacing them with any of the existing phonemes, at least in careful speech. 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. Romanian dictionaries use ⟨ö⟩ in their phonetic descriptions to represent all the three vowels, which suggests that they may be actually pronounced identically by Romanian speakers. However, the 2005 edition of the prescriptive work Dicționarul ortografic, ortoepic și morfologic al limbii române gives for the ad-hoc phonetic symbol ⟨ö⟩ two distinct values: the mid front rounded vowel (example: acheuleean, 'Acheulean') and the French "e caduc", that is, the mid-central rounded vowel (example: chemin de fer, 'the card game Chemin de Fer').[2] The vowel occurs in words such as: bleu /blø/ ('light blue'), pasteuriza /pastøriˈza/ ('to pasteurize'), loess /løs/ ('loess'), cozeur /koˈzør/ ('pleasant talker'). As it is not a native phoneme, its pronunciation may fluctuate or it may even be replaced by the diphthong /e̯o/. In older French borrowings it has often been replaced by /e/, /o/, or /e̯o/, as in șofer /ʃoˈfer/ ('driver', from French chauffeur), masor /maˈsor/ ('masseur', from masseur), and sufleor /suˈfle̯or/ ('theater prompter', from souffleur).
Similarly, borrowings from languages such as French and German sometimes contain the close front rounded vowel /y/: ecru /eˈkry/, tul /tyl/, fürer /ˈfyrer/. The symbol used for it in phonetic notations in Romanian dictionaries is ⟨ü⟩. Educated speakers usually pronounce it /y/, but other realizations such as /ju/ also occur. Older words that originally had this sound have had it replaced with /ju/, /u/, or /i/. For instance, Turkish kül became ghiul /ɡjul/ ('large ring'), Turkish tütün became tutun [tuˈtun] ('tobacco'), but tiutiun [tjuˈtjun] in the Moldavian subdialect, German Düse gave duză /ˈduzə/ ('nozzle') and French bureau became birou /biˈrow/ ('desk', 'office').
According to Ioana Chițoran, Romanian has two diphthongs: /e̯a/ and /o̯a/. As a result of their origin (diphthongization of mid vowels under stress), they appear normally in stressed syllables[3] and make morphological alternations with the mid vowels /e/ and /o/.
In addition to these, the semivowels /j/ and /w/ can be combined (either before, after, or both) with most vowels. One view considers that only /e̯a/ and /o̯a/ can follow an obstruent-liquid cluster such as in broască ('frog') and dreagă ('to mend').[4] can form real diphthongs, while the rest are merely vowel-glide sequences.[5] The traditional view (taught in schools) considers all of the above as diphthongs.
| Falling | |
|---|---|
| Diphthong | Examples |
| /aj/ | rai /raj/ 'heaven', aisberg /ˈajs.berɡ/ 'iceberg' |
| /aw/ | sau /saw/ 'or', august /ˈaw.ɡust/ 'August' |
| /ej/ | lei /lej/ 'lions', trei /trej/ 'three' |
| /ew/ | greu /ɡrew/ 'heavy', mereu /meˈrew/ 'always' |
| /ij/ | mii /mij/ 'thousands', vii /vij/ 'you come' |
| /iw/ | fiu /fiw/ 'son', scriu /skriw/ 'I write' |
| /oj/ | oi /oj/ 'sheep (pl.)', noi /noj/ 'we' |
| /ow/ | ou /ow/ 'egg', bou /bow/ 'ox' |
| /uj/ | pui /puj/ 'you put', gălbui /ɡəlˈbuj/ 'yellowish' |
| /uw/ | eu continuu /konˈti.nuw/ 'I continue' (partly replaced by eu continui)[6] |
| /əj/ | răi /rəj/ 'bad (masc. pl.)', văi /vəj/ 'valleys' |
| /əw/ | dulău /duˈləw/ 'mastiff', rău /rəw/ 'bad (masc. sg.)' |
| /ɨj/ | câine /ˈkɨj.ne/ 'dog', mâinile /ˈmɨj.ni.le/ 'the hands' |
| /ɨw/ | râu /rɨw/ 'river', brâu /brɨw/ 'girdle' |
| Rising | |
| Diphthong | Examples |
| /e̯a/ | beată /ˈbe̯a.tə/ 'drunk' (f.), mea /me̯a/ 'my (fem. sg.)' |
| /e̯o/ | Gheorghe /ˈɡe̯or.ɡe/ 'George', ne-o ploua /ne̯o.ploˈwa/ 'it would rain us' |
| /e̯u/ | (only in word combinations) pe-un /pe̯un/ 'on a' |
| /ja/ | biată /bja.tə/ 'poor' (f.), mi-a zis /mjaˈzis/ '(he) told me' |
| /je/ | fier /fjer/ 'iron', miere /ˈmje.re/ 'honey' |
| /jo/ | iod /jod/ 'iodine', chior /ˈkjor/ 'one-eyed' |
| /ju/ | iubit /juˈbit/ 'loved', chiuvetă /kjuˈve.tə/ 'sink' |
| /o̯a/ | găoace /ɡəˈo̯a.tʃe/ 'shell', foarte /ˈfo̯ar.te/ 'very' |
| /we/ | piuez /piˈwez/ 'I felt (a fabric)', înșeuez /ɨn.ʃeˈwez/ 'I saddle (a horse)' |
| /wa/ | băcăuan /bə.kəˈwan/ 'inhabitant of Bacău', ziua /ˈzi.wa/ 'the day' |
| /wə/ | două /ˈdo.wə/ 'two (fem.)', plouă /ˈplo.wə/ 'it rains' |
| /wɨ/ | plouând /ploˈwɨnd/ 'raining', ouând /oˈwɨnd/ 'laying (eggs)' |
| Triphthong | Examples |
|---|---|
| /e̯aj/ | ceainic /ˈtʃe̯aj.nik/ 'tea pot', socoteai /so.koˈte̯aj/ 'you were reckoning' |
| /e̯aw/ | beau /be̯aw/ 'I drink', spuneau /spuˈne̯aw/ 'they were saying' |
| /jaj/ | mi-ai dat /mjajˈdat/ 'you gave me', ia-i /jaj/ 'take them' |
| /jaw/ | iau /jaw/ 'I take', suiau /suˈjaw/ 'they were climbing' |
| /jej/ | iei /jej/ 'you take', piei /pjej/ 'skins' |
| /jew/ | maieu /maˈjew/ 'undershirt', eu /jew/ 'I (myself)' |
| /joj/ | i-oi da /jojˈda/ 'I might give him', picioică /piˈtʃjoj.kə/ 'potato (regionalism)' |
| /jow/ | maiou /maˈjow/ 'undershirt' |
| /o̯aj/ | leoaică /leˈo̯aj.kə/ 'lioness', rusoaică /ruˈso̯aj.kə/ 'Russian woman' |
| /waj/ | înșeuai /ɨn.ʃeˈwaj/ '(you) were saddling' |
| /waw/ | înșeuau /ɨn.ʃeˈwaw/ '(they) were saddling' |
| /wəj/ | rouăi /ˈro.wəj/ 'of the dew' |
| /e̯o̯a/ | pleoape /ˈple̯o̯a.pe/ 'eyelids', leoarcă /ˈle̯o̯ar.kə/ 'soaking (wet)' |
| /jo̯a/ | creioane /kreˈjo̯a.ne/ 'pencils', aripioară /a.riˈpjo̯a.rə/ 'winglet' |
As can be seen from the examples above, the diphthongs /e̯a/ and /o̯a/ contrast with /ja/ and /wa/ respectively, though there are no minimal pairs to contrast /o̯a/ and /wa/.[7]</ref> Impressionistically, the two pairs sound very similar to native speakers[8] Because /o̯a/ doesn't appear in the final syllable of a prosodic word, there are no monosyllabic words with /o̯a/; exceptions might include voal ('veil') and trotuar ('sidewalk'), though Ioana Chițoran argues[9] that these are best treated as containing glide-vowel sequences rather than diphthongs. In some regional pronunciations, the diphthong /o̯a/ tends to be pronounced as a single vowel /ɒ/.
Other triphthongs such as /juj/ and /o̯aw/ occur sporadically in interjections and uncommon words.
Borrowings from English have enlarged the set of ascending diphthongs to also include /jə/, /we/, /wi/, and /wo/, or have extended their previously limited use. Generally, these borrowings have retained their original spellings, but their pronunciation has been adapted to the Romanian phonology. The table below gives some examples.
| Diphthong | Examples |
|---|---|
| /jə/ | yearling /ˈjər.linɡ/ 'one-year-old animal (colt)' |
| /we/ | western /ˈwes.tern/ 'Western (movie set in the American West)' |
| /wi/ | tweeter /ˈtwi.tər/ 'high-pitch loudspeaker' |
| /wo/ | walkman /ˈwok.men/ 'pocket-sized tape/CD player' |
Borrowings such as whisky and week-end are listed in some dictionaries as starting with the ascending diphthong /wi/, which corresponds to the original English pronunciation, but in others they appear with the descending diphthong /uj/.[10]
Romanian has a broad process of alternating between a mid vowel and a "low" vowel: /e̯a/ alternates with /e/, /o̯a/ with /o/, and /a/ with /ə/.[11]
Originally, this was the result of a phonological process wherein mid vowels (Balkan Latin, by this time, had merged the long and short mid vowels) lowered to [ɛ] and [ɔ] under stress; a subsequent change diphthongized these vowels.[12] This has resulted in stress alternations,[13] as shown in the examples below, where stressed vowels and diphthongs are highlighted in bold:
| Stressed | Unstressed | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a - ə | carte | 'book' | cărticică | 'book' (diminutive) |
| casă | 'house' | căsuță | 'house' (diminutive) | |
| e̯a - e | beat | 'drunk' | bețiv | 'drunkard' |
| seară | 'evening' | înserat | 'dusk' | |
| o̯a - o | poartă | 'gate' | portar | 'gatekeeper' |
| coastă | 'rib' | costiță | 'rib' (diminutive) | |
This has since been morphologized and now shows up in verb conjugations[14] and nominal inflection (e.g. oaste/oști, 'army'/'armies')[15]
Standard Romanian has twenty consonants, as listed in the table below.
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Post- alveolar |
Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||
| Plosive | p b | t d | k ɡ | |||
| Affricate | ts | tʃ dʒ | ||||
| Fricative | f v | s z | ʃ ʒ | h | ||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Approximant | l |
Besides the consonants in this table, a few consonants can have allophones:
The Romanian consonant set is almost the same as that in Italian, with a few exceptions: The Italian palatal consonants /ɲ/, /ʎ/ and affricate /dz/ are missing in standard Romanian, which in turn has the fricative /ʒ/ and the "glottal" /h/.
Here are some examples, with an approximate indication of how each consonant is pronounced, intended for English native speakers.
| Consonant | Pronounced as | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| /p/ | p in speak (1) | pas /pas/ step, spate /ˈspa.te/ back, cap /kap/ head |
| /b/ | b in boy | ban /ban/ money, zbor /zbor/ I fly, rob /rob/ slave |
| /t/ | t in stop (1)(2) | tare /ˈta.re/ hard, stai /staj/ you stay, sat /sat/ village |
| /d/ | d in day (2) | dacă /ˈda.kə/ if, vinde /ˈvin.de/ he sells, cad /kad/ I fall |
| /k/ | k in sky (1) | cal /ˈkal/ horse, ascund /asˈkund/ I hide, sac /sak/ sack |
| /ɡ/ | g in go | gol /ɡol/ empty, pungă /ˈpun.ɡə/ bag, drag /draɡ/ dear |
| /ts/ | ts in nuts | țară /ˈtsa.rə/ country, ață /ˈa.tsə/ thread, soț /sots/ husband |
| /tʃ/ | ch in chin | cer /tʃer/ sky, vacile /ˈva.tʃi.le/ the cows, maci /matʃʲ/ poppies |
| /dʒ/ | j in jingle | ger /dʒer/ frost, magic /ˈma.dʒik/ magical, rogi /rodʒʲ/ you ask |
| /m/ | m in man | mic /mik/ small, amar /aˈmar/ bitter, pom /pom/ tree |
| /n/ | n in name | nor /nor/ cloud, inel /iˈnel/ ring, motan /moˈtan/ tomcat |
| /f/ | f in fine | foc /fok/ fire, afară /aˈfa.rə/ out, pantof /panˈtof/ shoe |
| /v/ | v in voice | val /val/ wave, covor /koˈvor/ carpet, mov /mov/ mauve |
| /s/ | s in sound | sare /ˈsa.re/ salt, case /ˈka.se/ houses, ales /aˈles/ chosen |
| /z/ | z in zone | zid /zid/ wall, mazăre /ˈma.zə.re/ pea, orez /oˈrez/ rice |
| /ʃ/ | sh in shy | șarpe /ˈʃar.pe/ snake, așa /aˈʃa/ so, oraș /oˈraʃ/ city |
| /ʒ/ | s in measure | jar /ʒar/ embers, ajutor /a.ʒuˈtor/ help, vrej /vreʒ/ stalk |
| /h/ | h in hope | horn /horn/ chimney, pahar /paˈhar/ glass, duh /duh/ spirit |
| /l/ | l in like | lung /lunɡ/ long, alună /aˈlu.nə/ hazelnut, fel /fel/ sort |
| /r/ | Italian r (3) | repede /ˈre.pe.de/ quickly, tren /tren/ train, măr /mər/ apple |
(1) Note that in English p in speak and p in peak are not the same sounds: The second is aspirated. Romanian /p/ is not aspirated. The same holds for /t/ and /k/.
(2) /t/ and /d/ are only similar, not identical, to their English counterparts. While in English they are usually alveolar, pronounced by touching the alveolar ridge with the tip of the tongue, in Romanian and other Romance languages they are dental, obtained by touching the roof of the mouth just behind the teeth with the flat of the tongue. The same remark is valid for consonants /n/, /s/, and /z/, although the difference is not as obvious.
(3) Somewhat as in Italian and Spanish, /r/ is usually a flap, though it may occasionally be a trill in word-initial position.[16] It is similar to the consonant in the middle of "get up" in American English.
In addition to appearing before /i/, palatalized consonants also appear terminally as the manifestation of certain morphological markers, namely to indicate:[18]
The interpretation commonly taken is that an underlying morpheme /i/ palatalizes the consonant and is subsequently deleted. However, /sʲ/, /tʲ/, and /dʲ/ become [ʃʲ], [t͡sʲ], and [zʲ], respectively,[18] 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 | |
| /p/ | rupi /rupʲ/ 'you tear' | /b/ | arabi /aˈrabʲ/ 'Arabs' | |
| /t/ | proști /proʃtʲ/ 'stupid (masc. pl.)' | /d/ | nădejdi /nəˈdeʒdʲ/ 'hopes' | |
| /k/ | urechi /uˈrekʲ/ 'ears' | /ɡ/ | unghi /unɡʲ/ 'angle' | |
| /t͡s/ | roți /rot͡sʲ/ 'wheels' | – | ||
| /t͡ʃ/ | faci /fat͡ʃʲ/ 'you do' | /d͡ʒ/ | mergi /merd͡ʒʲ/ 'you go' | |
| – | /m/ | dormi /dormʲ/ 'you sleep' | ||
| – | /n/ | bani /banʲ/ 'money (pl.)' | ||
| /f/ | șefi /ʃefʲ/ 'bosses' | /v/ | pleșuvi /pleˈʃuvʲ/ 'bald (masc. pl.)' | |
| /s/ | bessi /besʲ/ 'Bessi' | /z/ | brazi /brazʲ/ 'fir trees' | |
| /ʃ/ | moși /moʃʲ/ 'old men' | /ʒ/ | breji /breʒʲ/ 'brave (masc. pl.)' | |
| /h/ | vlahi /vlahʲ/ 'Wallachians' | – | ||
| – | /l/ | școli /ʃkolʲ/ 'schools' | ||
| – | /r/ | sari /sarʲ/ 'you jump' | ||
In certain morphological processes /ʲ/ is replaced by the full vowel /i/, for example
This may explain why /ʲ/ is perceived as a separate sound by native speakers and written with the same letter as the vowel /i/.
The non-syllabic /ʲ/ can be sometimes found inside compound words like câțiva /kɨt͡sʲˈva/ ('a few') and oriunde /orʲˈun.de/ ('wherever'), where the first morpheme happened to end in this /ʲ/. A word that contains this twice is cincizeci /t͡ʃint͡ʃʲˈzet͡ʃʲ/ ('fifty').
In old Romanian and still in some local pronunciations there is another example of such a non-syllabic, non-semivocalic phoneme, derived from /u/, which manifests itself as labialization of the preceding sound. The usual IPA notation is /ʷ/. It is found at the end of some words after consonants and semivowels, as in un urs, pronounced /un ˈursʷ/ ('a bear'), or îmi spui /ɨmʲ spujʷ/ ('you tell me'). The disappearance of this phoneme might be attributed to the fact that, unlike /ʲ/, it didn't play any morphological role. It is possibly a trace of Latin endings containing /u/ (-us, -um), this phoneme is related to vowel /u/ used to connect the definite article "l" to the stem of a noun or adjective, as in domn - domnul /domn - ˈdom.nul/ ('lord - the lord', cf. Latin dominus).
Although not a central part of the Romanian phoneme inventory, other consonants are often used in certain interjections:
Romanian has a stress accent, like almost all other Romance languages (with the notable exception of French). Generally, stress falls on the rightmost syllable of a prosodic word (that is, the root and derivational material but excluding inflections and final inflectional vowels).[19] While a lexically marked stress pattern with penultimate stress exists, any morphologically derived forms will continue to follow the unmarked pattern.[19]
In the examples below, the stress is indicated in the phonetic transcription by a small vertical line before the stressed syllable.
Stress is not normally marked in writing, except occasionally to distinguish between homographs, or in dictionaries for the entry words. When it is marked, the main vowel of the stressed syllable receives an accent (usually acute, but sometimes grave), for example véselă - vesélă ('jovial', fem. sg. - '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" or "he blew" depending on whether the stress is on the first or the second syllable, respectively. Changing the grammatical category of a word can lead to similar word pairs, such as the verb a albi /alˈbi/ ('to whiten') compared to the adjective albi /ˈalbʲ/ ('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.
Languages such as English, Russian, and Arabic are called stress-timed, meaning that syllables are pronounced at a lower or higher rate so as to achieve a roughly equal time interval between stressed syllables. Another category of languages are syllable-timed, which means that each syllable takes about the same amount of time, regardless of the position of the stresses in the sentence. Romanian is one of the syllable-timed languages, along with other Romance languages (French, Spanish, etc.), Telugu, Yoruba, and many others. (A third timing system is 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 in reality only approximately equal, with many exceptions and large deviations having been reported. However, while the actual time may be only approximately equal, the differences are perceptually identical.
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:
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, but still perceivably, the syllables are extended in time also on one hand by the presence of liquid and nasal consonants, and on the other by that of semivowels in diphthongs and triphthongs, such as shown in the examples below.
| Romanian | English |
|---|---|
| pic - plic | bit - envelope |
| cec - cerc | cheque - circle |
| zic - zinc | I say - zinc |
| car - chiar | carriage - 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.
A detailed description of the intonation patterns must consider a wide range of elements, such as the focus of the sentence, the theme and the rheme, emotional aspects, etc. In this section only a few general traits of the Romanian intonation are discussed. Most importantly, intonation is essential in questions, especially because, 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.
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.
Wh-questions start with a high pitch on the first word and then the pitch falls gradually toward the end of the sentence.
Repeat questions have a rising intonation.
Tag questions are uttered with a rising intonation.
Unfinished utterances have a rising intonation similar to that of yes/no questions, but the pitch rise is smaller.
Various other intonation patterns are used to express: requests, commands, surprise, suggestion, advice, and so on.
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