Romanian phonology
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In the
phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
of the
Romanian language Romanian (obsolete spellings: Rumanian or Roumanian; autonym: ''limba română'' , or ''românește'', ) is the official and main language of Romania and the Republic of Moldova. As a minority language it is spoken by stable communities in ...
, the
phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-wes ...
inventory consists of seven
vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s, two or four
semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are the c ...
s (different views exist), and twenty
consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wi ...
s. In addition, as with other languages, other phonemes can occur occasionally in interjections or recent borrowings. Notable features of Romanian include two unusual diphthongs and and the central vowel .


Vowels

There are seven
monophthong A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, wh ...
s in Romanian: In Romanian, both ⟨î⟩ and ⟨â⟩ represent the same sound (). ⟨î⟩ is used at the beginning and end of words, while ⟨â⟩ is used everywhere else. ⟨î⟩ is, however, still retained when adding prefixes: ''înțeles'' → ''neînțeles''. The table below gives a series of word 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 The close central unrounded vowel, or high central unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , namely the lower-case letter ''i'' with a hori ...
is uncommon as a phoneme and especially uncommon amongst
Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
. According to , is phonetically open-mid somewhat retracted central , 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 The mid front rounded vowel is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. Although there is no dedicated symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the "exact" mid front rounded vowel between close-mid and open-mi ...
(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.Academia Română, ''Dicționarul ortografic, ortoepic și morfologic al limbii române'', Ediția a II-a revăzută și adăugită, Editura Univers Enciclopedic, București, 2005 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 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 German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
sometimes contain the
close front rounded vowel The close front rounded vowel, or high front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is /y/, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is y. Ac ...
: ''ecru'' , ''tul'' , ''führer'' . The symbol used for it in phonetic notations in Romanian dictionaries is . 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 subdialect,
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
''Düse'' gave ''duză'' ('nozzle') and French ''bureau'' became ''birou'' ('desk', 'office').


Diphthongs and triphthongs

According to Ioana Chițoran, Romanian has two
diphthongs A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
: 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. As can be seen from the examples above, the diphthongs and contrast with and respectively, though there are no
minimal pair In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, spoken or signed, that differ in only one phonological element, such as a phoneme, toneme or chroneme, and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate ...
s to contrast and . Impressionistically, the two pairs sound very similar to native speakers. Because doesn't 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 . Other triphthongs such as and occur sporadically in interjections and uncommon words.


Diphthongs in borrowings

Borrowings from
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
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. 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 In linguistics, apophony (also known as ablaut, (vowel) gradation, (vowel) mutation, alternation, internal modification, stem modification, stem alternation, replacive morphology, stem mutation, internal inflection etc.) is any alternation wit ...
triggered by
stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...
. A stressed syllable has a low vowel, or a diphthong ending in a low 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 The Eastern Romance languages are a group of Romance languages. Today, the group consists of the Daco-Romance subgroup, which comprises the Romanian language (Daco-Romanian), Aromanian language and two other related minor languages, Megleno-R ...
mid vowels were broken in stressed syllables, giving the Romanian diphthongs , and the low 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''): This has since been morphologized and now shows up in verb conjugations and nominal inflection: ''oaste'' — ''oști'', 'army' — 'armies'.


Consonants

Standard Romanian has twenty phonemic consonants, as listed in the table below. Where symbols for consonants occur in pairs, the left represents a
voiceless consonant In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
and the right represents a
voiced consonant Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to ref ...
. All consonants marked as "dental" in this table (excluding ) are apico-dental. is apico-alveolar. ⟨c⟩+⟨a/ă/â/î/o/u⟩ means ⟨c⟩ is pronounced as . ⟨c⟩+⟨e/i⟩ means ⟨c⟩ is pronounced as . ⟨ch⟩+⟨e/i⟩ means ⟨ch⟩ is pronounced as . ⟨k⟩ is used in loan words. ⟨g⟩+⟨a/ă/â/î/o/u⟩ means ⟨g⟩ is pronounced as . ⟨g⟩+⟨e/i⟩ means ⟨g⟩ is pronounced as . ⟨gh⟩+⟨e/i⟩ means ⟨gh⟩ is pronounced as . Besides the consonants in this table, a few consonants can have
allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...
s: * Palatalized consonants occur when preceding an underlying word-final , which is then deleted. * becomes the velar before , and ; * becomes the velar in word-final positions (''duh'' 'spirit') and before consonants (''hrean'' 'horseradish'); it becomes the palatal 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 Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
. Romanian, however, lacks the palatal consonants , which merged with by
lenition In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language at a pa ...
, and the affricate changed to by
spirantization In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language at a ...
. 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. 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 didn't 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 Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''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. Academia Română, ''Gramatica limbii române'', Editura Academiei Române, București, 2005, Vol. I "Cuvântul", p. 659 Often, these interjections have multiple spellings or occasionally none at all, which accounts for the difficulty of finding the right approximation using existing letters. Academia Română, ''Gramatica limbii române'', Editura Academiei Române, București, 2006, Vol. I "Cuvântul", p. 660 The following is a list of examples. * A
bilabial click The bilabial clicks are a family of click consonants that sound like a smack of the lips. They are found as phonemes only in the small Tuu language family (currently two languages, one moribund), in the ǂ’Amkoe language of Botswana (also mo ...
, 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 Dental (or more precisely denti-alveolar) clicks are a family of click consonants found, as constituents of words, only in Africa and in the Damin ritual jargon of Australia. In English, the ''tut-tut!'' (British spelling, "tutting") or ''t ...
(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 The voiceless bilabial fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . Features Features of the voiceless bilabial fricative: Occ ...
, 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 The voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It was part of the consonant inventory of Old English and can still be found in some dialects of English, most notably in Scottish English, e.g. in ''loc ...
, similar in meaning to English ''ugh''. * ''Brrr'' expresses shivering cold and is made up of a single consonant, the
bilabial trill The voiced bilabial trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is B\. Features Features of the voiced ...
, whose
IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners ...
symbol is


Stress

Romanian has a stress accent, like almost all other
Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...
(with the notable exception of French). Generally, stress falls on the last syllable of a stem (that is, the root and derivational material but excluding inflections and final inflectional vowels). Although a lexically marked stress pattern with penultimate stress exists, any morphologically derived forms will 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 entry words. When it is marked, the main vowel of the stressed syllable receives an accent (usually
acute Acute may refer to: Science and technology * Acute angle ** Acute triangle ** Acute, a leaf shape in the glossary of leaf morphology * Acute (medicine), a disease that it is of short duration and of recent onset. ** Acute toxicity, the adverse eff ...
, but sometimes
grave A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grav ...
), 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' (''el súflă'') or 'he blew' (''el suflắ'') 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 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 Secondary stress (or obsolete: secondary accent) is the weaker of two degrees of Stress (linguistics), stress in the pronunciation of a word, the stronger degree of stress being called ''primary''. The International Phonetic Alphabet symbol for ...
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

Languages such as
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
,
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, and
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
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 Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
, etc.),
Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...
,
Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...
, and many others. (A third timing system is mora timing, exemplified by
Classical Latin Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later period ...
, Fijian,
Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...
, Hawaiian,
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
, and
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
.) 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, whereas 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 Onset may refer to: *Onset (audio), the beginning of a musical note or sound *Onset, Massachusetts Onset is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Wareham, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,573 at the 2010 census. Geog ...
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, 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
question A question is an utterance which serves as a request for information. Questions are sometimes distinguished from interrogatives, which are the grammatical forms typically used to express them. Rhetorical questions, for instance, are interroga ...
s, 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? i 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: i ↗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? rei ↗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? ine 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? i-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... upă 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.


Example text

Orthographic transcription: Radu se joacă în curte. El aleargă până la gard, și apoi se-ntoarce spre casă. Phonetic transcription:


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * *


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


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) {{DEFAULTSORT:Romanian Phonology
Phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
Italic phonologies