Romanian phonology

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This article discusses the phonology of the Romanian language. For other details on this language (history, grammar) the reader is referred to that article.

Phonemes

The phoneme inventory of Romanian consists of seven vowels, four semivowels, and twenty consonants. In addition, as with all languages, other phonemes can occur occasionally in interjections or recent borrowings.

Vowels

There are seven vowel phonemes in Romanian:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e̞	ə	o̞
Open		ä

While most of the Romanian vowels are relatively straightforward and similar or identical to those in many other languages, the close central unrounded vowel /ɨ/ might represent a problem especially for native English speakers. A practical way to understand the articulation of this vowel is as follows: First pronounce vowel /i/ as in "ease." Then, without changing the shape of your lips, try to pronounce vowel /u/ as in "ooze." The vowel obtained is a good approximation of /ɨ/.

The table below gives a series of word examples for each vowel.

Vowel	Description	Examples
/a/	Open central unrounded	water balaur /baˈla.ur/ dragon cânta /kɨnˈta/ to sing
/e/	Mid front unrounded	hero necaz /neˈkaz/ trouble umple /ˈum.ple/ to fill
/i/	Close front unrounded	island salcie /ˈsal.ʧi.e/ willow topi /toˈpi/ to melt
/o/	Mid back rounded	city copil /koˈpil/ child acolo /aˈko.lo/ there
/u/	Close back rounded	to water aduc /aˈduk/ I bring simplu /ˈsim.plu/ simple
/ə/	Mid central unrounded	this păros /pəˈros/ hairy albă /ˈal.bə/ white (fem. sg.)
/ɨ/	Close central unrounded	toward cârnat /kɨrˈnat/ sausage coborî /ko.boˈrɨ/ to descend

Less frequent vowels

In addition to the seven core vowels, in a number of words of foreign origin (predominantly French) the close-mid front rounded vowel /ø/ has been maintained without replacing it with any of the existing phonemes, at least in careful speech. These words have become part of the Romanian vocabulary and follow the usual inflexion rules, so that vowel /ø/, though less common, could be considered as part of the Romanian vowel set. Examples: bleu /blø/ (light blue), pasteuriza /pas.tø.riˈza/ (to pasteurize), loess /løs/ (loess).

Similarly, recent borrowings from languages such as French and German contain the close front rounded vowel /y/: ecru /eˈkry/, tul /tyl/, fürer /ˈfy.rer/. Older words that originally had this sound have had it replaced with /ju/, /i.u/, /u/, or /i/. For instance, Turkish kül became ghiul /gjul/ (large ring), German Düse gave duză /ˈdu.zə/ (nozzle), French bureau became birou /biˈrow/ (desk, office), etc.

Non-syllabic vowels

A particular variant of vowel /i/, marked in IPA as /ʲ/, is found after consonants in word-final positions and rarely inside words. This phoneme is shorter and weaker than a normal vowel, and cannot support a syllable by itself. It often manifests itself as a palatalization of the preceding consonant. Its role is often to mark the plural of nouns and adjectives, or the second person of verbs in the indicative or subjunctive mood.

The following examples show that /ʲ/ can occur after all consonants except /d/ and /s/, which turn invariably into /z/ and /ʃ/ respectively.

Consonant	Examples		Consonant	Examples
	you tear			Arabs
	stupid (masc. pl.)			-
	ears			angle
	wheels
	you do			you go
				you sleep
				money (pl.)
	bosses			bald (masc. pl.)
	-			fir trees
	old men			brave (masc. pl.)
	Wallachians
				schools
				you jump

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

• in noun plural genitive formation: şcoli - şcolilor /ʃkolʲ/ - /ˈʃko.li.lor/ (schools - of the schools),
• when appending the definite article to some plural nouns: brazi - brazii /brazʲ/ - /ˈbra.zij/ (fir trees - the fir trees)
• in verb + pronoun combinations: daţi - daţi-ne /daʦʲ/ - /ˈda.ʦi.ne/ (give - give us).

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 câţiva /kɨʦʲˈva/ (a few) and oriunde /orʲˈun.de/ (wherever), where the first morpheme happened to end in this /ʲ/. A word that contains this phoneme twice is cincizeci /ʧinʧʲˈzeʧʲ/ (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 a 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 must be attributed to the fact that, unlike /ʲ/, it didn't play any morphologic role. 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).

Diphthongs and triphthongs

Romanian makes use of many diphthongs and triphthongs. The semivowels included in these are not marked in writing, which represents a difficulty for those who learn the language. Traditionally Romanian lacks letters w and y which could have helped in distinguishing vowels from semivowels at least in some cases.

Descending diphthongs

Descending (falling) diphthongs, which have the structure V-S (vowel-semivowel), are formed using one of the semivowels /j/ and /w/. All combinations are possible except /uw/:

Diphthong	Examples
	heaven, aisberg /'ajs.berg/ iceberg
	or, august /'aw.gust/ August
	lions, trei /trej/ three
	heavy, mereu /me'rew/ always
	thousands, vii /vij/ you come
	son, scriu /scriw/ I write
	sheep (pl.), noi /noj/ we
	egg, bou /bow/ ox
	you put, gălbui /gəl'buj/ yellowish
	bad (masc. pl.), văi /vəj/ valleys
	mastiff, rău /rəw/ bad (masc. sg.)
	dog, mâinile /'mɨj.ni.le/ the hands
	river, brâu /brɨw/ girdle

Ascending diphthongs

Ascending (rising) diphthongs, which have the structure S-V (semivowel-vowel) use a set of as much as four semivowels: /e̯/, /j/, /o̯/, and /w/.

Diphthong	Examples
	star, mea /me̯a/ my (fem. sg.)
	George, ne-o ploua /ne̯o.plo'wa/ it would rain us
	on a
	newspaper, mi-a zis /mja'zis/ (he) told me
	iron, miere /'mje.re/ honey
	iodine, chior /'kjor/ one-eyed
	loved, chiuvetă /kju've.tə/ sink
	people, foarte /'fo̯ar.te/ very
	the day, steaua /'ste̯a.wa/ the star
	two (fem.), plouă /'plo.wə/ it rains
	raining, ouând /o'wɨnd/ laying (eggs)

Diphthongs /o̯a/ and /wa/, although similar and never occurring simultaneously, are different, as it is proved below. In the word

subsuoară /sub.su'o̯a.rə/ armpit,

after pronouncing vowel /u/ the mouth opens perceptibly for semivowel /o̯/. In some regional pronunciations the diphthong /o̯a/ tends to be pronounced as a single vowel /ɒ/ possibly under the influence of the same sound in Hungarian, but such shift does not happen to diphthong /wa/. The example below shows that semivowel /w/ and vowel /o/ are produced in a different manner:

roua /'ro.wa/ the dew.

However, there is no minimal pair of words which would show that by switching the diphthong the meaning is changed.

That the semivowel /o̯/ is close to vowel /o/ is proved by words like cocoaşe /ko'ko̯a.ʃe/ (hunches), in which the two phonemes are only separated by the consonant /k/, allowing comparison. When vowel /u/ is taken as reference, as in the word cucoane /ku'ko̯a.ne/ (ladies), a distinct vocalic shift ca be noticed.

Diphthongs in borrowings

Borrowings from English have extended the set of ascending diphthongs to also include /jə/, /we/, /wi/, and /wo/. 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
	one-year-old animal (colt)
	Western (movie set in the American West)
	high-pitch loudspeaker
	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/, closer to the actual way these words are pronounced by Romanian native speakers.

Triphthongs: S-V-S

There are numerous triphthongs in which the main vowel is clamped between two semivowels:

Triphthong	Examples
	tea pot, socoteai /so.ko'te̯aj/ you were reckoning
	I drink, spuneau /spu'ne̯aw/ they were saying
	you gave me, ia-i /jaj/ take them
	I take, suiau /su'jaw/ they were climbing
	you take, piei /pjej/ skins
	undershirt, eu /jew/ I (myself)
	I might give him, picioică /pi'ʧjoj.kə/ potato (regionalism)
	undershirt
	lioness, rusoaică /ru'so̯aj.kə/ Russian woman
	(you) were saddling
	(they) were saddling
	of the dew

Other triphthongs can be built on the same S-V-S pattern, such as /juj/ and /o̯aw/, but they only occur sporadically in interjections and uncommon words.

Triphthongs: S-S-V

These triphthongs start with a glide through two semivowels.

Triphthong	Examples
	eyelids, leoarcă /'le̯o̯ar.kə/ soaking (wet)
	pencils, aripioară /a.ri'pjo̯a.rə/ winglet

Triphthong /je̯a/ occurs in the word ea /je̯a/ she, or in certain areas as a replacement for diphthong /ja/.

Consonants

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

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p   b		t   d			k   g
Affricate			ʦ		ʧ   ʤ
Nasal	m		n
Fricative		f   v	s   z		ʃ   ʒ		h
Liquid			l   r

Besides the consonants in this table, a few consonants can have allophones, such as /k/ which is palatalized before vowels /e/ and /i/, their semivocalic counterparts or the non-syllabic /ʲ/; /n/ becomes the velar [ŋ] before /k/ and /ɡ/; and /h/ becomes velar or palatal depending on the following vowel.

The Romanian consonant set is almost the same as that in Italian, with a few exceptions: The Italian palatal consonants /ɲ/, /ʎ/ and affricate /ʣ/ are missing in standard Romanian, which in turn has the affricate /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 in speak (1)	step, spate /'spa.te/ back, cap /kap/ head
	b in boy	money, zbor /zbor/ I fly, rob /rob/ slave
	t in stop (1)(2)	hard, stai /staj/ you stay, sat /sat/ village
	d in day (2)	if, vinde /'vin.de/ he sells, cad /kad/ I fall
	k in sky (1)	horse, ascund /as'kund/ I hide, sac /sak/ sack
	g in go	empty, pungă /'puŋ.gə/ bag, drag /drag/ dear
	ts in nuts	country, aţă /'a.ʦə/ thread, soţ /soʦ/ husband
	ch in chin	sky, vacile /'va.ʧi.le/ the cows, maci /maʧʲ/ poppies
	j in jingle	frost, magic /'ma.ʤik/ magical, rogi /roʤʲ/ you ask
	m in man	small, amar /a'mar/ bitter, pom /pom/ tree
	n in name	cloud, inel /i'nel/ ring, motan /mo'tan/ tomcat
	f in fine	fire, afară /a'fa.rə/ out, pantof /pan'tof/ shoe
	v in voice	wave, covor /ko'vor/ carpet, mov /mov/ mauve
	s in sound	salt, case /'ka.se/ houses, ales /a'les/ chosen
	z in zone	wall, mazăre /'ma.zə.re/ pea, orez /o'rez/ rice
	sh in shy	snake, aşa /a'ʃa/ so, oraş /o'raʃ/ city
	s in measure	embers, ajutor /a.ʒu'tor/ help, vrej /vreʒ/ stalk
	h in hope	chimney, pahar /pa'har/ glass, duh /duh/ spirit
	l in like	long, alună /a'lu.nə/ hazelnut, fel /fel/ sort
	Italian r (3)	quickly, tren /tren/ train, măr /mər/ apple

(1) Note that 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) Consonants /t/ and /d/ are only similar to their English counterparts. While in English they are 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) Consonant /r/ is an alveolar trill, informally also called "rolled r," present in a number of languages such as Italian, Spanish, or Russian. Romanian phonetics sources classify this sound as dental. It is sometimes compared with the consonant in the middle of "get up" in informal American English (spelled "geddup" to mark the changed pronunciation); this phrase could be transcribed phonetically in Romanian as "gherap."

Other consonants

Although not a central part of the Romanian phoneme inventory, other consonants are often used in certain interjections:

• The dental click /ǀ/ (see also click consonants) is used in an interjection similar to the English "tut-tut" (also spelled "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 "ttt" or "ţţţ." Technically, the dental click is obtained by creating a cavity between a velar closure and the tongue touching the alveolar ridge in the same position as for consonant /t/. When the tongue closure is released, the air from outside is sucked in and produces the click.

• 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 aswer to a yes/no question. Although there is rarely any accompanying sound, the usual spelling is "nt" or "nţ," in which the additional "n" has the role of showing either the fact that the click is pronounced stronger, or that the mouth shape before the click is approximately the same as for consonant /n/.

• An interjection that is reluctant to receiving a generally accepted written form is the one pronounced as /a'ha/, but with the mouth shut, and starting with a glottal stop. A possible spelling is "mhm," but in literature "îhî" is generally preferred, although phonetically it is different. This interjection is used as an approval, the answer "yes," or as a sign that the listener is following the story. Phonetically similar, but semantically different, is the English interjection "ahem."

• Another interjection, meaning "no," could be explained as the pronunciation of /'a a/ with the mouth shut. Note that the stress pattern is opposite to the previous example, and that the two voicings start with glottal stops, like the English "uh-oh." Possible spellings include: "î-î," "îm-îm," and "m-m."

• Other interjections employing particular consonants are:
• * "Pfu," to express contempt or dissatisfaction, starting with the voiceless bilabial fricative /ɸ/, sounding like (but being different from) the English "whew," which expresses relief after an effort or danger.
• * "Câh," to express disgust, ending in the voiceless velar fricative /x/, similar in meaning to English "ugh."
• * "Hm" or "hmm," to show that the speaker is thinking before giving an answer, or to convey the meaning of "let's see...," is pronounced with the mouth shut releasing the air flow through the nose, without a glottal stop. Depending on the intonation this interjection can take up other meanings as well.
• * "Brrr," to express shivering cold, is made up of a single consonant, the bilabial trill, whose IPA symbol is /ʙ/. The spelling with several letters r is misleading, as the tongue doesn't play an active role; the actual labial place of articulation is indicated by letter b.

Prosody

Stress

Romanian has a stress accent, like almost all other Romance languages (with the notable exception of French). The position of the stress in a word is usually unpredictable, as it can fall on almost any syllable, making it an intrinsic property of the word. Except for one-syllable words, the stress must be learned with each word. In the examples below, the stress is indicated in the phonetic transcription by a small vertical line before the stressed syllable.

frate /'fra.te/ brother, copil /ko'pil/ child

strugure /'stru.gu.re/ grape, albastru /al'bas.tru/ blue, călător /kə.lə'tor/ voyager

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). If the accent must be placed on low-case letter "i," the dot is normally replaced by the accent: copíi - cópii (children - copies).

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" /al'bi/ (to whiten) compared to the adjective "albi" /'albʲ/ (white, masc. pl.).

Rhythm

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.), Telegu, 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:

Mama pune masa. -- Mom sets the table.

Mulţi puşti blonzi plâng prin curţi. -- 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. Note that the second sentence features in several places the non-syllabic vowel /ʲ/ which has the effect of lengthening the syllable time.

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.

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

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.

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

— Da. (I did.)

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 uşa deschisă? [↗cine↘ a lăsat uşa 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.

— Ţi-e foame, nu-i aşa? [ţi-e foame, nu-i a↗şa] (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)]
• () [DEX online, a collection of Romanian language dictionaries; one-letter entries indicate the possible pronunciations]

 

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