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TheRomanian language has aphoneme inventory of sevenvowels, two or foursemivowels (disputed), and twentyconsonants. Other phonemes are found in interjections or recent borrowings.

Romanian includes the two unusual diphthongs/e̯a/ and/o̯a/ and the central vowel/ɨ/.

There are sevenmonophthongs:^[1]

The table below gives examples for each vowel.

Although most of these vowels are relatively straightforward and similar or identical to those in many other languages, theclose central unrounded vowel/ɨ/ is uncommon as a phoneme^[1] and especially uncommon amongstIndo-European languages.

According toSarlin (2014),/ə/ is phonetically open-mid somewhat retracted central[ɜ̠], rather than mid central.^[2]

In addition to the seven core vowels, in a number of words of foreign origin (predominantly French, but also German) themid front rounded vowel/ø/ (rounded Romanian/e/; example word:bleu/blø/ 'light blue') and themid central rounded vowel/ɵ/ (rounded Romanian/ə/; example word:chemin de fer/ʃɵˌmendɵˈfer/ 'Chemin de Fer') have been preserved, without replacing them with any of the existing phonemes.^[3] 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^[which?] use⟨ö⟩ 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/e̯o/. In older French borrowings it has often been replaced by/e/,/o/, or/e̯o/, as inșofer/ʃoˈfer/ ('driver', from Frenchchauffeur),masor/maˈsor/ ('masseur', frommasseur), andsufleor/suˈfle̯or/ ('theater prompter', fromsouffleur).

Similarly, borrowings from languages such asFrench andGerman sometimes contain theclose front rounded vowel/y/:ecru/eˈkry/,tul/tyl/,führer/ˈfyrer/,/ˈfyrər/. 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,Turkishkül becameghiul/ɡjul/ ('large ring'), Turkishtütün becametutun/tuˈtun/ ('tobacco'), buttiutiun[tjuˈtjun] in theMoldavian dialect^{[citation needed]},GermanDüse gaveduză/ˈduzə/ ('nozzle') andFrenchbureau becamebirou/biˈrow/ ('desk', 'office').

According to Ioana Chițoran, Romanian has twodiphthongs:/e̯a/ and/o̯a/. As a result of their origin (diphthongization of mid vowels under stress), they appear normally in stressed syllables^[4] and makemorphological alternations with the mid vowels/e/ and/o/.

In addition to these, the semivowels/w/ and/j/ 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 inbroască ('frog') anddreagă ('to mend')^[5] and form realdiphthongs, whereas the rest are merely vowel–glide sequences.^[6]The traditional view (taught in schools) considers all of the above as diphthongs.

As can be seen from the examples above, the diphthongs/e̯a/ and/o̯a/ contrast with/ja/ and/wa/ respectively, though there are nominimal pairs to contrast/o̯a/ and/wa/.^[8] Impressionistically, the two pairs sound very similar to native speakers.^[9] Because/o̯a/ does not appear in the final syllable of a prosodic word, there are no monosyllabic words with/o̯a/; exceptions might includevoal ('veil') anddoar ('only, just'), though Ioana Chițoran argues^[10] 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/.^[11]

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

Borrowings fromEnglish 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 Romanian phonology. The table below gives some examples.

Borrowings such aswhisky andweek-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/.^[12]

Romanian has vowelalternation orapophony triggered bystress. A stressed syllable has anopen vowel, or a diphthong ending in an open vowel, and an unstressed syllable has a mid vowel. Thus/e̯a/ alternates with/e/,/o̯a/ with/o/, and/a/ with/ə/.^[13]

This alternation developed fromRomanian vowel breaking (diphthongization) andreduction (weakening). TheEastern Romance mid vowels/eo/ werebroken in stressed syllables, giving the Romanian diphthongs/e̯ao̯a/,^[14] and the open vowel/a/ wasreduced in unstressed syllables, giving the Romanian central vowel/ə/.

These sound changes created the stress-triggered vowel alternations in the table below.^[15] Here stressed syllables are marked with underlining (a):

This has since beenmorphologized and now shows up in verb conjugations^[16] and nominal inflection:oaste —oști, 'army' — 'armies'.^[17]

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

Besides the consonants in this table, a few consonants can haveallophones:

• Palatalized consonants occur when preceding an underlying word-final/i/, which is then deleted.^[18][20]
• /n/ becomes the velar[ŋ] before/k/,/ɡ/ and/h/;
• /h/ becomes the velar[x] in word-final positions (duh 'spirit') and before consonants (hrean 'horseradish'); it becomes the palatal[ç] before[i],[j], like in the wordhuman in English, and as a realization for an underlying/hi/ sequence in word-final positions (cehi 'Czech people' is pronounced[t͡ʃeç], though usually transcribed[t͡ʃehʲ]).^{[citation needed]}

The consonant inventory of Romanian is similar toItalian. Romanian, however, lacks the palatal consonants/ɲʎ/, which merged with/j/ bylenition (though/ɲ/ is retained in theBanatian regionalism), and the affricate/d͡z/ changed to/z/ byspirantization (regionally retained in the Banatian andMoldovan regionalisms). Romanian has the fricative/ʒ/ and the glottal fricative/h/, which do not occur in Italian.

Palatalized consonants appear mainly at the end of words,^[21] and mark two grammatical categories: plural nouns and adjectives, and second person singular verbs.^[22]

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,^[22] with very few phonetically justified exceptions, included in the table below, which shows that this palatalization can occur for all consonants.

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

• in noun plural genitive formation:școli — școlilor/ʃkolʲ/—/ˈʃkolilor/ ('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:dați — dați-ne/dat͡sʲ/—/ˈdat͡sine/ ('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 likecâțiva/kɨt͡sʲˈva/ ('a few') andoricare/orʲˈkare/ ('whichever'), where the first morpheme happened to end in this/ʲ/. A word that contains this twice iscincizeci/t͡ʃint͡ʃʲˈzet͡ʃʲ/ ('fifty').

InOld 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 aslabialization of the preceding sound. The usual IPA notation is/ʷ/. It is found at the end of some words after consonants and semivowels, as inun urs, pronounced/unˈursʷ/ ('a bear'), orîmi spui/ɨmʲspujʷ/ ('you tell me'). The disappearance of this phoneme might be attributed to the fact that, unlike/ʲ/, it did not play any morphological role. It is a trace of Latin endings containing/u(ː)/,/oː/ (-us, -ūs,-um,-ō), this phoneme is related to vowel/u/ used to connect the definite article "l" to the stem of a noun or adjective, as indomn — domnul/domn/—/ˈdomnul/ ('lord — the lord', cf.Latindominus).

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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.^[23] Often, these interjections have multiple spellings or occasionally none at all, which accounts for the difficulty of finding the right approximation using existing letters.^[24] The following is a list of examples.

• Abilabial click[ʘ], pronounced by rounding the lips and strongly sucking air between them, is used for urging horses to start walking.^[23]
• Whistling is another interjection surpassing the limits of the phoneme inventory. It is usually spelledfiu-fiu.^[23]
• Thedental click[ǀ] (see alsoclick consonants) is used in an interjection similar to the Englishtut-tut (ortsk-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 usuallytț,^[25]ttt orțțț.
• 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 ayes–no question. Although there is rarely any accompanying sound, the usual spelling isnt ornț.
• 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.^[24] Possible spellings include:hm,hâm/hîm,mhm,îhî,mmm,îî,hî. Phonetically similar, but semantically different, is the English interjectionahem.
• Another interjection, meaning "no", is pronounced[ˈʔḿʔm̀] (with a high-low phonetic pitch). Possible spellings include:î-î,îm-îm, andm-m. The stress pattern is opposite to the interjection for "yes" mentioned before, pronounced[m̀ˈḿ̥m] (with a low-high phonetic pitch).
• Pfu expresses contempt or dissatisfaction and starts with thevoiceless bilabial fricative/ɸ/, sounding like (but being different from) the Englishwhew, which expresses relief after an effort or danger.
• Câh/cîh expresses disgust and ends in thevoiceless velar fricative/x/, similar in meaning to Englishugh.
• Brrr expresses shivering cold and is made up of a single consonant, thebilabial trill, whoseIPA symbol is/ʙ/

Romanian has astress accent, like almost all otherRomance languages (with the notable exception ofFrench). Generally, stress falls on the lastsyllable of a stem (that is, the root and derivational affixes but excluding inflections).^[26] Although a lexically marked stress pattern with penultimate stress exists, morphologically derived forms continue to follow the unmarked pattern.^[26]

fráte/ˈfrate/ ('brother'),copíl/koˈpil/ ('child')

strúgure/ˈstruɡure/ ('grape'),albástru/alˈbastru/ ('blue'),călătór/kələˈtor/ ('voyager').

Stress is not normally marked in writing, except occasionally to distinguish between homographs, or in dictionaries for theheadwords. When it is marked, the main vowel of the stressed syllable receives an accent (usuallyacute, but sometimesgrave), for examplevéselă '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 inel 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 verba albí/alˈbi/ 'to whiten' compared to the adjectiveálbi/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.

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.^[27]

Romanian issyllable-timed, along with most Romance languages (but notPortuguese),Telugu,Yoruba,Chinese,Indonesian/Malay and many others. That is, each syllable takes approximately the same time to pronounce. This contrasts withstress-timed languages such asEnglish,Russian, andArabic, in whichsyllables are pronounced at a lower or higher rate so as to achieve a roughly equal time interval betweenstressed syllables and withmora timing, exemplified byClassical Latin,Fijian,Finnish,Hawaiian,Japanese, andOld 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 syllableonset andcoda, 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:

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 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 inquestions since, unlike English and other languages, Romanian does not distinguish grammatically declarative and interrogative sentences.

Innon-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]

Inselection 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.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toRomanian pronunciation.

• Very detailed Romanian grammar, with some notes on phonetics and morpho-phonology (PDF; 183 pages; 4.6 MB)
• (in Romanian)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 rimeArchived 2018-08-16 at theWayback Machine Romanian Rhymes Dictionary – allows the user to obtain words which rhyme with the search word (possible indication of pronunciation rules)

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