Romanian phonology

There are seven monophthongs:^[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, the close central unrounded vowel /ɨ/ is uncommon as a phoneme^[1] and especially uncommon amongst Indo-European languages.

According to Sarlin (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) the mid front rounded vowel /ø/ (rounded Romanian /e/; example word: bleu /blø/ 'light blue') and the mid central rounded vowel /ɵ/ (rounded Romanian /ə/; example word: chemin de fer /ʃɵˌmen dɵ ˈfer/ '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 In older French borrowings it has often been replaced by /e/, /o/, or /e̯o/, as in șofer /ʃoˈfer/ ('driver', from French chauffeur), masor /maˈsor/ ('masseur', from masseur), and sufleor /suˈfle̯or/ ('theater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/, 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, Turkish kül became ghiul /ɡjul/ ('large ring'), Turkish tütün became tutun /tuˈtun/ ('tobacco'), but tiutiun [tjuˈtjun] in the Moldavian dialect^{[citation needed]}, 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^[4] and make morphological 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 in broască ('frog') and dreagă ('to mend')^[5] and form real diphthongs, 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 no minimal 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 include voal ('veil') and doar ('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 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 Romanian phonology. The table below gives some examples.

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/.^[12]

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 /e̯a/ alternates with /e/, /o̯a/ with /o/, and /a/ with /ə/.^[13]

This alternation developed from Romanian vowel breaking (diphthongization) and reduction (weakening). The Eastern Romance mid vowels /e o/ were broken in stressed syllables, giving the Romanian diphthongs /e̯a o̯a/,^[14] and the open vowel /a/ was reduced 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 been morphologized 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 have allophones:

• 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 word human 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 to Italian. Romanian, however, lacks the palatal consonants /ɲ ʎ/, which merged with /j/ by lenition (though /ɲ/ is retained in the Banatian regionalism), and the affricate /d͡z/ changed to /z/ by spirantization (regionally retained in the Banatian and Moldovan 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 like câțiva /kɨt͡sʲˈva/ ('a few') and oricare /orʲˈkare/ ('whichever'), 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 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 in domn — domnul /domn/ — /ˈdomnul/ ('lord — the lord', cf. Latin dominus).

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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.

• A bilabial 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 spelled fiu-fiu.^[23]
• The dental click [ǀ] (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,^[25] 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.^[24] 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 [ˈʔḿ ʔm̀] (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 [m̀ˈḿ̥m] (with a low-high phonetic pitch).
• Pfu expresses contempt or dissatisfaction and starts with the voiceless bilabial fricative /ɸ/, 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 /x/, 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 /ʙ/

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Romanian 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 rime Archived 2018-08-16 at the Wayback Machine Romanian Rhymes Dictionary – allows the user to obtain words which rhyme with the search word (possible indication of pronunciation rules)