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a,e,i,o,u. The main vowels, a, e, i, o, u are usually pronounced like in any other romance language, maybe closer to the italian. There are however some peculiarities:
-when in initial position, e is most of the times slightly palatalized: ye, as in eram [ye-rám] "I was". This palatalization does not occur in most of the neologisms, for example in erou [e-rów] "hero", elan [e-lán] "moose".
-at the end of the word, -i plays more often the role of a morphological instrument: 1.mark of masculin plural of nouns; 2. verbal ending of the second person (singular and plural). In both these cases, the –i lost its syllabic character and became almost a palatalization of the preceding consonant: m.sg. tot "all" > m.pl toţi [tótsy-in a single syllable], m.sg. pom "tree">pl.pomi [pómy], m.sg. an "year">pl. ani [any]; aud "I hear" > 2nd person auzi [a-úzy] "you hear" etc. Other ex.: flori"flowers"
-similarly, the final –u, originally a thematic vowel of the second latin declension, also lost its syllabic character, but later (around the XIXth century) it disappeared completely: lat. barbatus > old rom. bărbatu > mod.rom. bărbat. We only meet it today after muta cum liquida : codru [kó-dru] "big forrest", patru "four" a.s.o.
ă. The vowel ă, one of the most frequent in romanian, usually comes, etymologically speaking, from unstressed a or e. It is pronounced like e in final –er in english. For exemple, the word sită "seave" sounds much like the english sitter (except for the final liquid r). This vowel is supposed to have a balkanic origin, since it exists in both bulgarian and albanian too. It never occurs in intial position. Other ex.: mână "hand", apă "water", horă (a folkloric dance = gr. choros), seară "evening".
â(î). This vowel, more difficult to explain and to understand, is almost the same with the russian ы. It is pronounced as a very closed ă, something between ă and guttural u. Though it appears in other contexts also, it represents, most of the times, the ă in nasal position. It is written â, except for the beginning of the word, where romanian ortography uses the letter î (one of the very rare concessions to the etymological writing, because at the initial it always occurs in the group în-(îm-), from the latin prefix/preposition in-). Ex.: mână "hand", între "between".
ea,oa. Romanian has two special diphthongs, written ea and oa. They are pronounced close to yá and wá, but with the semiconsonant more open (eá and oá), and they are always stressed. These diphthongs, when preceded by yot, developped the triphthongs ioa [yoá] and iea [yeá] (the latter reduced to ia[yá]). Being a metaphony of the long open stressed vowels ē´ and ō´ - then when the following syllable contains an open vowel (a, ă or e) -, these diphthongs alternate in flexion with their correspondent vowel (e or o). Thus, fem.sg. floare [flwá-re] "flower" turns into flori [flóry] in the plural, because final syllable contains no more an open consonant. For a non native speaker of romanian, it is rather difficult to know when the sequences ea and oa have to be read as diphthongs or as separate vowels. There are some words (mostly neological) where ea and oa render the hiatuses e-a and o-a, for example in a crea "to create" [kre-á] and coaliţie "coallition" [ko-a-li-tsi-ye].
All combinations of a vowel+semivowel create closed diphthongs. With yot: ai[ay], ăi[ăy], âi[ây], ei[ey], oi[oy], ui[uy] and ii[iy]. With waw: au[aw], ău[ăw], âu[âw], eu[ew], iu[iw] and ou[ow]. As for open ones, the vowels ă, â, i and the semivowel u[w] are excluded from any combination, so open diphthongs are only ia[ya], ie[ye], io[yo], iu[yu], together with eá and oá we spoke above. There is also a unique sequence, always with morphological role, noted –iii and read [-íy-iy]. A word like copil "child", gramatically a masculine, in non articulated plural has the form copii [ko-píy], while with article it becomes copiii [ko-píy-iy]. The latin diphthong au was preserved in romanian, but it became a hiatus: lat.aurum > rom. aur [á-ur]. eu became ău [ăw], like in rău [răw] "bad, evil" from lat. reus "witness". Ex. ău, ăi, âu, âi.
ce(ci),ge(gi). The late latin palatals k' and g' (before e and i) have in romanian the same treatment as in italian: they are pronounced č and ğ whenever they occur before palatal vowels e or i. Therefore ce,ci,ge and gi are always read če,či,ğe and ği, while before any other vowel they remain velar (c = k). In order to note the phonetical sequences of velar k/g + e/i, the romanian writing borrowed from italian the practice of introducing an h between the velar and the following vowel. Thus che(chi) and ghe(ghi) would assume the phonetical values ke(ki) and ge(gi)[= french gue and gui].
Romanian consonantism shows a constant voiced/voiceless simetry.
Occlusives are:
-labial p and b
-dental t and d
-velar c and g (only before non palatal vowels)
Sifflants are s and z. To be noted that in Romanian s is never pronounced as z in intervocalic context (as it happens in italian and french): casă "house" is to be read [kassă].
Dentals, velars and sifflants developped new series in palatal contexts. Thus:
- t' became ţ [ts = the same as the german z]. Its voiced variant -d'- turned into dz (still used dialectally), which was later reduced at z: lat. dies > old. rom.(and dial.) dzi > mod.rom. zi. Ex. ţin "I hold", toţi "(they) all (masc.)".
- k' and g' became č and ğ, as seen above.
- s' and z' resulted in ş [š] (= eng. sh ) and j [ž] (as in eng. pleasure). Ex. joc "game".
The liquids l and r are pronounced exactly as in italian. Romanian does not know the slavic/germanic bilateral ł.
The nasals are n and m. Both of them become, in closed syllables, a nasalization of the preceding vowel: umbră "shadow" and unde "where" are pronounced [ũ-bră] and [ũ-de]. Before velar consonant, n has the same value as the english n in king [= ŋ]. It is interesting to notice that mute –i does never transform n into the palatal ñ. In a word like ani "years"[any] n is still dental. Palatalized n (ñ) existed in romanian in certain contexts (it still exists dialectally) but became y: lat. vinea "vineyard" > old. rom. viñă > mod.rom. vie [ví-ye] (but arom. viñe).
F and v are pronounced as in english.
The same for h, the only romanian consonant without a voiced correspondent. Ex. horă(a folkloric danse = gr. choros)
Romanian alphabet also uses the letters k, q, x, y and w, but only in neologisms or foreign words. X has both voiced and voiceless values, as in english: Examen "exam" is read [eg-zá-men], while experienţă "experience" = [eks-pe-ri-én-tsă].
In the end, the alphabet of the modern literary romanian.
a ă â b c d e f g h i î j k l m n o p q r s ş t ţ u v w x y z
For the values of ă, â and î, see above, under "Vowels"
ş = English /sh/
ţ = /ts/ (never voiced in intervocalic position)
j = /ž/ (as in eng. pleasure).