romanian phonology and phonetics
TRANSCRIPT
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I The Romanian Phonemic Inventory
A Vowels
The vowels are speech sounds whose production does not encounter any blockage
across the phonatory system They are produced with the aid of the vibration of thevocal cords Romanian has seven vowels [a e i o u ă icirc
There are many criteria according to which the Romanian vowels can be classified
from an articulatory point of view the vowels can be classified by taking into
account the following criteria
a aperture or opening open vowels [a halfopen vowels [e ă o and closed vowels
[i icirc u
b their localisation in the buccal cavity $with respect to the position of the tongue
front $[prepalatal vowels [e i central vowels [ă icirc back vowels [o u and neuter
vowels [a
c labialisation or participation of the lips rounded vowels [o u and unrounded
vowels [a e i ă icirc
from an acoustic point of view the Romanian vowels can be classified as follows
a compact sounds [a
b compactdiffuse sounds [e ă o
c diffuse sounds [i icirc u
ampf we are to take into account the pitch of the sound we can distinguish among the
following vowel sounds
a highpitched vowels [ei
b lowpitched vowels [o uc neuter vowels [a ă icirc
Vowel Description Examples
a Open central unroundedapă apəˈ water balaur ba laurˈ dragon cacircnta k n taɨ ˈ to sing
e Mid front unroundederou e rowˈ hero necaz ne kazˈ trouble umple umpleˈ to fill
i Close front unroundedinsulă insuləˈ island salcie salt ieˈ ʃ willow topi to piˈ to melt
o Mid back roundedoraș o ra ˈ ʃ city copil ko pilˈ child acolo a koloˈ there
u Close back roundeduda u daˈ to wet aduc a dukˈ I bring simplu simpluˈ simple
ə Mid central unroundedăsta əstaˈ this păros pə rosˈ hairy albă albəˈ white (fem sg)
ɨ Close central unrounded icircnspre nspreˈɨ toward cacircrnat k r natɨ ˈ sausage coboricirc kobo r ˈ ɨ to descend
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While most of these owels are relatiel straihtforward and similar or identical to those in manother lanuaes the close central unrounded owel ɨ is uncommon as a phoneme$amp andespeciall uncommon amonst ndo()uropean lanuaes
LESS FREQUENT VOWELS
Oumln addition to the seen core owels in a number of words of forein oriin predominantl+rench but also erman- the close(mid front rounded owel the open(mid front roundedowel and the mid(central rounded owel ɵ different from the alread e0istinunrounded ə- hae been presered without replacin them with an of the e0istin phonemesat least in careful speech 1he borrowed words hae become part of the 2omanian ocabularand follow the usual infle0ion rules so that the new owels thouh less common could beconsidered as part of the 2omanian phoneme set 2omanian dictionaries use ⟨3⟩ in their
phonetic descriptions to represent all the three owels which suests that the ma be actuallpronounced identicall b 2omanian speakers 4oweer the 5667 edition of the prescriptiework Dic ionarul ortografic ortoepic i morfologic al limbii romacircneț ș ies for the ad(hoc phoneticsmbol ⟨3⟩ two distinct alues8 the mid front rounded owel e0ample8acheuleean 9 cheulean9-
and the +rench e caduc that is the mid(central rounded owel e0ample8 chemin de fer 9thecard ame Chemin de +er 9-$5amp 1he owel occurs in words such as8 bleu bl 9lihtblue9- pasteurizapastri zaˈ 9to pasteurize9- loess ls 9loess9- cozeur ko zrˈ 9pleasanttalker9- s it is not a natie phoneme its pronunciation ma fluctuate or it ma een be replacedb the diphthon oe n older +rench borrowins it has often been replaced b e o or oe asin ofer ș o fer ʃ ˈ 9drier9 from +rench chauffeur - masor ma sorˈ 9masseur9 from masseur -and sufleor su fl orˈ e 9theater prompter9 from souffleur -
Uumlltimilarl borrowins from lanuaes such as +rench and erman sometimes contain the closefront rounded owel 8 ecru e krˈ tul tl fuumlrer frerˈ 1he smbol used for it in phoneticnotations in 2omanian dictionaries is ⟨=⟩ )ducated speakers usuall pronounce it but other
realizations such as gtu also occur Older words that oriinall had this sound hae had it
replaced with gtu u or i +or instance 1urkish kuumll became ghiul gtulɡ 9lare rin9-1urkish tuumltuumln became tutun $tu tunampˈ 9tobacco9- but tiutiun $tgtu tgtunampˈ in the Moldaiansubdialecterman Duumlse ae duz duzəˈ 9nozzle9- and +rench bureau became birou birowˈ 9desk9 9office9-
DITONS ccordin to oana Chi oran 2omanian has twoț diphthons8 ae and ao s a result of theiroriin diphthonization of mid owels under stress- the appear normall in stressedsllables$amp and makemorpholoical alternations with the mid owels e and on addition to these the semiowels gt and w can be combined either before after or both- withmost owels One iew considers that onl ae and ao can follow an obstruent(liuid clustersuch as in broasc 9fro9- anddreag 9to mend9-$Aamp can form real diphthons while the rest are
merel owel(lide seuences$7amp
1he traditional iew tauht in schools- considers all of the aboeas diphthons
Fallin
Dip$t$on Examples
agt rai ragt 9heaen9 aisber agtsber ˈ ɡ 9iceber9
aw sau saw 9or9 auust aw ustˈ ɡ 9uust9
egt lei legt 9lions9 trei tregt 9three9
ew reu rewɡ 9hea9 mereu me rewˈ 9alwas9
igt mii migt 9thousands9 ii igt 9ou come9
iw fiu fiw 9son9 scriu skriw 9 write9
ogt oi ogt 9sheep pl-9 noi nogt 9we9
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ow ou ow 9e9 bou bow 9o09
ugt pui pugt 9ou put9 ălbui əl bugtɡ ˈ 9ellowish9
uw eu continuu kon tinuwˈ 9 continue9 partl replaced b eu continui -$Bamp
əgt răi rəgt 9bad masc pl-9 ăi əgt 9alles9
əw dulău du ləwˈ 9mastiff9 rău rəw 9bad masc s-9
gtɨ cacircine k gtneˈ ɨ 9do9 macircinile m gtnileˈ ɨ 9the hands9
wɨ racircu r wɨ 9rier9 bracircu br wɨ 9irdle9
RisinDip$t$on Examples
ae beată b atəˈ e 9drunk9 f- mea m ae 9m fem s-9
oe heorhe or eˈɡe ɡ 9eore9 ne(o ploua n oplo wae ˈ 9it would rain us9
ue onl in word combinations- pe(un p une 9on a9
gta biată bgtatə 9poor9 f- mi(a zis mgta zisˈ 9he- told me9
gte fier fgter 9iron9 miere mgtereˈ 9hone9
gto iod gtod 9iodine9 chior kgtorˈ 9one(eed9
gtu iubit gtu bitˈ 9loed9 chiuetă kgtu etəˈ 9sink9
ao ăoace ə at eɡ ˈo ʃ 9shell9 foarte f arteˈ o 9er9
we piuez pi wezˈ 9 felt a fabric-9 icircn euezș n e wezɨ ʃ ˈ 9 saddle a horse-9
wa băcăuan bəkə wanˈ 9inhabitant of acău9 ziua ziwaˈ 9the da9
wə două dowəˈ 9two fem-9 plouă plowəˈ 9it rains9
w ɨ plouacircnd plo w ndˈ ɨ 9rainin9 ouacircnd o w ndˈ ɨ 9lain es-9
Trip$t$on Examples
agte ceainic t agtnikˈ ʃe 9tea pot9 socoteai soko t agtˈ e 9ou were reckonin9
awe beau b awe 9 drink9 spuneau spu n awˈ e 9the were sain9
gtagt mi(ai dat mgtagt datˈ 9ou ae me9 ia(i gtagt 9take them9gtaw iau gtaw 9 take9 suiau su gtawˈ 9the were climbin9
gtegt iei gtegt 9ou take9 piei pgtegt 9skins9
gtew maieu ma gtewˈ 9undershirt9 eu gtew 9 mself-9
gtogt i(oi da gtogt daˈ 9 miht ie him9 picioică pi t gtogtkəˈ ʃ 9potato reionalism-9
gtow maiou ma gtowˈ 9undershirt9
agto leoaică le agtkəˈo 9lioness9 rusoaică ru s agtkəˈ o 92ussian woman9
wagt icircn euaiș n e wagtɨ ʃ ˈ 9ou- were saddlin9
waw icircn euauș n e wawɨ ʃ ˈ 9the- were saddlin9
wəgt rouăi rowəgtˈ 9of the dew9
aeo pleoape pl apeˈ eo 9eelids9 leoarcă l arkəˈ eo 9soakin wet-9gt ao creioane kre gt aneˈ o 9pencils9 aripioară ari pgt arəˈ o 9winlet9
s can be seen from the e0amples aboe the diphthons ae and ao contrastwith gta and wa respectiel thouh there are no minimal pairs to contrast ao and wa$Damp mpressionisticall the two pairs sound er similar to natie speakers $Eamp ecause ao doesn9tappear in the final sllable of a prosodic word there are no monosllabic words with ao Fe0ceptions miht include oal 9eil9- and trotuar 9sidewalk9- thouh oana Chi oran aruesț $Gamp thatthese are best treated as containin lide(owel seuences rather than diphthons n somereional pronunciations the diphthon ao tends to be pronounced as a sinle owel ɒ Other triphthons such as gtugt and awo occur sporadicall in intergtections and uncommonwords
DITONS IN ORROWINS
orrowins from )nlish hae enlared the set of ascendin diphthons to alsoinclude gtə we wi and wo or hae e0tended their preiousl limited use enerall these
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borrowins hae retained their oriinal spellins but their pronunciation has been adapted to the2omanian phonolo 1he table below ies some e0amples
Dip$t$on Examples
gtə earlin gtərlin ˈ ɡ 9one(ear(old animal colt-9
we western westernˈ 9Western moie set in the merican West-9wi tweeter twitərˈ 9hih(pitch loudspeaker9
wo walkman wokmenˈ 9pocket(sized tapeCH plaer9
orrowins such as whisky and weekend are listed in some dictionaries as startin with theascendin diphthonwi which corresponds to the oriinal )nlish pronunciation but in othersthe appear with the descendin diphthon ugt $6amp
VOWEL ampLTERNampTIONS2omanian has a broad process of alternatin between a mid owel and a lowowel8 ae alternates with e ao with o and a with ə$amp
Oriinall this was the result of a phonoloical process wherein mid owels alkan Iatin b thistime had mered the lon and short mid owels- lowered to $ ampɛ and $ ampɔ under stressF asubseuent chane diphthonized these owels $5amp 1his has resulted in stress alternations $amp asshown in the e0amples below where stressed owels and diphthons are hihlihted in bold8
Stresse Unstresse
a ( )carte 9book9 cărticică 9book9 diminutie-
casă 9house9 căs ăț 9house9 diminutie-
a ( ee983141beat 9drunk9 beți 9drunkard9
seară 9eenin9 icircnser at 9dusk9
a ( oo983141poartă 9ate9 portar 9atekeeper9
coastă 9rib9 costi ăț 9rib9 diminutie-
1his has since been morpholoized and now shows up in erb congtuations$Aamp
and nominalinflection eoasteo ti ș 9arm99armies9-$7amp
+ONSONampNTSlttandard 2omanian has twent consonants as listed in the table below
2omanian consonants$Bamp
ilaial Laio(
ental Dental -
ost(aleolar
Velar lottal
Nasal
Stop
ampricate
Fricatie Trill
amppproximant
0- ll consonants marked as dental in this table e0cludin l- are apico(dental$Damp l is apico(aleolar$Damp
esides the consonants in this table a few consonants can hae allophones8
bull Jalatalized consonants occur when precedin i$Bamp$Eamp
bull n becomes the elar $Kamp before k ɡ and hF
bull h becomes the elar $0amp in word(final positions duh 9spirit9- and before consonants hrean 9horseradish9-F
it becomes the palatal $Lampbefore $iamp $gtamp like in the word human in )nlish and as a realization for an
underlin hi seuence in word(final positions cehi 9Czech people9 is pronounced $ eLampt ʃ thouh usuall
transcribed $ ehampt ʃ ʲ -
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1he 2omanian consonant set is almost the same as that in talian with a few e0ceptions8 1hetalian palatal consonants ɲ ʎ and affricate dz are missin in standard 2omanian which inturn has the fricatie ʒ and the lottal h4ere are some e0amples with an appro0imate indication of how each consonant is pronouncedintended for )nlish natie speakers
+onsonant rononce as Examples
p p in speak pas pas step spate spateˈ back cap kap head
b in boy ban ban money zbor zbor I fly rob rob slae
t t in stop tare tareˈ hard stai stagt you stay sat sat illage
d in day dacă dakəˈ if inde indeˈ he sells cad kad I fall
k 1 in sky cal kalˈ horse ascund as kundˈ I hide sac sak sack
ɡ in go ol olɡ empty pună pun əˈ ɡ bag dra dra ɡ dear
ts ts in nuts arăț tsarəˈ country a ăț atsəˈ thread soț sots husband
t ʃ c$ in chin cer t er ʃ sky acile at ileˈ ʃ the cows maci mat ʃʲ poppies
d ʒ 2 in ingle er d erʒ frost maic mad ikˈ ʒ magical roi rod ʒʲ you ask
m m in man mic mik small amar a marˈ bitter pom pom tree
n n in name nor nor cloud inel i nelˈ ring motan mo tanˈ tomcat
f in fine foc fok fire afară a farəˈ out pantof pan tofˈ shoe
in oice al al wae coor ko orˈ carpet mo mo maue
s s in sound sare sareˈ salt case kaseˈ houses ales a lesˈ chosen
z 3 in zone zid zid wall mazăre mazəreˈ pea orez o rezˈ rice
ʃ s$ in shy arpeș arpeˈʃ snake a aș a aˈʃ so oraș o ra ˈ ʃ city
ʒ s in measure gtar arʒ embers agtutor a u torʒ ˈ help regt re ʒ stalk
h $ in hope horn horn chimney pahar pa harˈ glass duh duh spirit
l l in like lun lun ɡ long alună a lunəˈ hazelnut fel fel sort
r talian r repede repedeˈ $uickly tren tren train măr mər apple
ampLampTampLI4ED +ONSONampNTSn addition to appearin before i palatalized consonants also appear terminall as themanifestation of certain morpholoical markers namel to indicate8 $Gamp
bull Jluralit in nouns and adgtecties
bull ltecond person sinular in erbs
bull The interpretation commonly taken is that an underlying morpheme i palatali(es the consonant
and is subse)uently deleted owever s ʲ t ʲ and d ʲ become [ ʃʲ [ s tʲ and [( ʲ respectively[+ with very few phonetically ustified e-ceptions included in the table below which shows thatthis palatali(ation can occur for all consonants
Voiceless Voiced
Consonan
t Examples
Consonan
t Examples
p rupi rup ʲ you tear b arabi a rab ˈ ʲ rabs
t pro tiș pro t ʃ ʲ stupid $masc
pld nădedi n0 de d hopesˈ ʒ ʲ
k urechi u rek ˈ ʲ ears ɡ unghi un ɡʲ angle
st ro iț ro s t ʲ wheels 1
t ʃ faci fa t ʃʲ you do d ʒ mergi mer d ʒʲ you go
1 m dormi dorm ʲ you sleep
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1 n bani ban ʲ money $pl
f efiș ef ʃ ʲ bosses v ple uviș ple uv ˈʃ ʲ bald $masc
pl
s bessi bes ʲ 2essi ( bra(i bra( ʲ fir trees
ʃ mo iș mo ʃʲ old men ʒ brei bre ʒʲ brave $masc pl
h lahi lah ʲ 9Wallachians9 l
coliș NkolN 9schools
r sari sar ʲ you umpn certain morpholoical processes ʲ is replaced b the full owel i for e0ample
bull in noun plural enitie formation8 coli colilor ș ș kol ( kolilor ʃ ʲ ˈʃ 9schools ( of the schools9-
bull when appendin the definite article to some plural nouns8 brazi brazii braz ( brazigt ʲ ˈ 9fir trees ( the fir
trees9-
bull in erb pronoun combinations8 da i da i ț ț ne da s ( da sinetʲ ˈ t 9ie ( ie us9-
1his ma e0plain wh ʲ is perceied as a separate sound b natie speakers and written with thesame letter as the owel i1he non(sllabic ʲ can be sometimes found inside compound words like cacirc iaț k s aɨtʲˈ 9a few9-and oriunde or unde ʲˈ 9whereer9- where the first morpheme happened to end in this ʲ wordthat contains this twice iscincizeci in ze t ʃ t ʃʲˈ t ʃʲ 9fift9-n old 2omanian and still in some local pronunciations there is another e0ample of such a non(sllabic non(semiocalic phoneme deried from u which manifests itself as labialization of theprecedin sound 1he usual J notation is ʷ t is found at the end of some words afterconsonants and semiowels as in un urs pronounced un urs ˈ ʷ 9a bear9- or mi spui mɨ ʲspugt ʷ 9ou tell me9- 1he disappearance of this phoneme miht be attributed to the fact thatunlike ʲ it didn9t pla an morpholoical role t is possibl a trace of Iatin endinscontainin u us um- this phoneme is related to owel u used to connect the definite articlel to the stem of a noun or adgtectie as in domn domnul domn ( domnulˈ 9lord ( the lord9cf Iatin dominus-
OTER +ONSONampNTS s with other lanuaes 2omanian intergtections are remarkable from a phonetic perspectie inthat the often use sounds beond the normal phoneme inentor or disobe the normalphonotactical rules b containin unusual phoneme seuences b allowin words to be madeup of onl consonants or b consistin of repetitions ltuch e0ceptional mechanisms are neededto obtain an increased leel of e0pressiit$56amp Often these intergtections hae multiple spellins oroccasionall none at all which accounts for the difficult of findin the riht appro0imation usine0istin letters$5amp 1he followin is a list of e0amples
bull bilabial affricate $ ampʘ pronounced b roundin the lips and stronl suckin air between them is used
for urin horses to start walkin$56amp
bull Whistlin is another intergtection surpassin the limits of the phoneme inentor t is usuall spelled fiu
fiu$56amp
bull 1he dental click $ ampǀ see also click consonants- is used in an intergtection similar to the )nlish tut
tut or tsktsk - e0pressin concern disappointment disapproal etc and enerall accompanied b frownin or
a comparable facial e0pression Psuall two to four such clicks in a row make up the intergtectionF onl one click is
rare and more than four can be used for oer(emphasis 1he 2omanian spellin is usuall ttt or țțț 1echnicall the
dental click is obtained b creatin a cait between a elar closure and the tonue touchin the aleolar ride in
the same position as for consonant $tamp When the tonue closure is released the air from outside is sucked in and
produces the click
bull 1he same dental click is used in another intergtection the informal euialent of no nu in 2omanian-
Onl one click is emitted usuall as an answer to a es(no uestion lthouh there is rarel an accompanin
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sound the usual spellin is nt or nț in which the additional n has the role of showin either the fact that the click is
pronounced stroner or that the mouth shape before the click is appro0imatel the same as for consonant $namp
bull series of intergtections are pronounced with the mouth shut Hependin on intonation lenth and
rhthm the can hae arious meanins such as8 perple0it doubt displeasure tastiness toothache approal
etc$5amp Jossible spellins include8 hm hacircmamphmmhm h mmm h Jhoneticall similar but semanticall
different is the )nlish intergtection ahem
bull nother intergtection meanin no could be described as the pronunciation of $ a aampˈʔ ʔ with the mouth
shutF both oicins start withlottal stops like the )nlish uhoh Jossible spellins include8 mm and mm
1he stress pattern is opposite to the intergtection for es mentioned before pronounced $a haampˈ with the mouth
shut
bull fu e0presses contempt or dissatisfaction and starts with the oiceless bilabial fricatie ɸ soundin like
but bein different from- the )nlish whew which e0presses relief after an effort or daner
bull acirchampch e0presses disust and ends in the oiceless elar fricatie 0 similar in meanin to )nlish ugh
bull rrr e0presses shierin cold and is made up of a sinle consonant the bilabial trill whose J smbol
is ʙ 1he spellin with seeral letters r is misleadin as the tonue doesn9t pla an actie roleF the actual labial
place of articulation is indicated b letter b
STRESS2omanian has a stress accent like almost all other 2omance lanuaes with the notablee0ception of +rench- enerall stress falls on the rihtmost sllable of a prosodic word that isthe root and deriational material but e0cludin inflections and final inflectional owels-$55amp While ale0icall marked stress pattern with penultimate stress e0ists an morpholoicall deried formswill continue to follow the unmarked pattern$55amp
n the e0amples below the stress is indicated in the phonetic transcription b a small erticalline before the stressed sllable
frate frateˈ 9brother9- copil ko pilˈ 9child9-
strugure stru ureˈ ɡ 9rape9- albastru al bastruˈ 9blue9- cltor kələ torˈ 9oaer9-
lttress is not normall marked in writin e0cept occasionall to distinuish between homoraphsor in dictionaries for the entr words When it is marked the main owel of the stressed sllablereceies an accent usuall acute but sometimes rae- for e0ample sel esl 9gtoial9fem s ( 9tableware9-n erb congtuation noun declension and other word formation processes stress shifts canoccur Qerbs can hae homoraphic forms onl distinuished b stress such as in el sufl whichcan mean he blows or he blew dependin on whether the stress is on the first or the secondsllable respectiel Chanin the rammatical cateor of a word can lead to similar wordpairs such as the erb a albi al biˈ 9to whiten9- compared to the adgtectie albi alb ˈ ʲ 9white9masc pl- lttress in 2omanian erbs can normall be predicted b comparin tenses with similarerbs in ltpanish which does indicate stress in writin
ltecondar stress occurs accordin to a predictable pattern fallin on eer other sllablestartin with the first as lon as it does not fall adgtacent to the primar stress$5amp
ROSOD5R5T6
Ianuaes such as )nlish 2ussian and rabic are called stress(timed meaninthat sllables are pronounced at a lower or hiher rate so as to achiee a rouhl eual timeinteral between stressed sllables nother cateor of lanuaes are sllable(timed whichmeans that each sllable takes about the same amount of time reardless of the position of thestresses in the sentence 2omanian is one of the sllable(timed lanuaes alon with other
2omance lanuaes +rench ltpanish etc- 1eluu Roruba and man others third timinsstem is mora timin e0emplified b Classical Iatin +igtian +innish 4awaiian Sapaneseand Old )nlish-
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1he distinction between these timin cateories ma sometimes seem unclear and definitionsar n addition the time interals between stressessllablesmorae are in realit onlappro0imatel eual with man e0ceptions and lare deiations hain been reported 4oweerwhile the actual time ma be onl appro0imatel eual the differences are perceptuall identicaln the case of 2omanian consonant clusters are often found both in the sllable onset and coda which reuire phsical time to be pronounced 1he sllable timin rule is then oerridden b
slowin down the rhthm 1hus it is seen that stress and sllable timin interact 1he samplesentences below each consistin of si0 sllables are illustratie8
+ama pune masa Mom sets the table
+ul i pu ti blonzi placircng prin cur i ț ș ț Man blond kids cr in the courtards
1he total time lenth taken b each of these sentences is obiousl different and attemptin topronounce one of them with the same rhthm as the other results in unnatural utterances1o a lesser e0tent but still perceiabl the sllables are e0tended in time also on one hand b thepresence of liuid and nasal consonants and on the other b that of semiowels in diphthonsand triphthons such as shown in the e0amples below
Romanian Enlis$
pic ( plic bit ( enelope
cec ( cerc che$ue ( circle
zic ( zinc I say ( zinc
car ( chiar I carry ( een
sare ( soare salt ( sun
sta ( stea to stay ( star
fi ( fii be (inf) ( be (imperatie)
simple wa to ealuate the lenth of a word and compare it to another consists in pronouncinit repeatedl at a natural speech rate
INTONampTION detailed description of the intonation patterns must consider a wide rane of elements such asthe focus of the sentence the theme and the rheme emotional aspects etc n this section onl afew eneral traits of the 2omanian intonation are discussed Most importantl intonation is
essential in uestions especiall because unlike )nlish and other lanuaes 2omanian doesnot distinuish rammaticall declaratie and interroatie sentencesn non(emp$atic 7es8no 9estions the pitch rises at the end of the sentence until the laststressed sllable f unstressed sllables follow the often hae a fallin intonation but this is nota rule
T i stins luminaU $ai stins luminaamp ae you turned off the light--
T Ha es-
n 1ranslanian speech these esno uestions hae a er different intonation pattern usuallwith a pitch peak at the beinnin of the uestion8 $ai stins luminaamp
n selection 9estions the tone rises at the first element of the selection and falls at the second
T Qrei bere sau inU $rei bere sau inamp Do you want beer or wine--
T ere eer-
W$(9estions start with a hih pitch on the first word and then the pitch falls raduall towardthe end of the sentence
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T Cine a lăsat u a deschisăU $ș cine a lăsat u a deschisăamp ș ho left the door open--
T Mama +om did-
Repeat 9estions hae a risin intonation
T sunat 2odica adineauri 0odica ust called-
T Cine a sunatU $cine a sunatamp ho called--
T Colea ta 2odica our classmate 0odica-
Ta 9estions are uttered with a risin intonation
T i(e foame nu(i a aU $ i(e foame nu(i a Ț ș ț aamp ș ou1re hungry aren1t you--
Uninis$e tterances hae a risin intonation similar to that of esno uestions but the pitchrise is smaller
T Hupă ce m(am icircntors $după ce m(am icircntorsamp 2fter I came back-
Qarious other intonation patterns are used to e0press8 reuests commands surprise suestionadice and so on
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While most of these owels are relatiel straihtforward and similar or identical to those in manother lanuaes the close central unrounded owel ɨ is uncommon as a phoneme$amp andespeciall uncommon amonst ndo()uropean lanuaes
LESS FREQUENT VOWELS
Oumln addition to the seen core owels in a number of words of forein oriin predominantl+rench but also erman- the close(mid front rounded owel the open(mid front roundedowel and the mid(central rounded owel ɵ different from the alread e0istinunrounded ə- hae been presered without replacin them with an of the e0istin phonemesat least in careful speech 1he borrowed words hae become part of the 2omanian ocabularand follow the usual infle0ion rules so that the new owels thouh less common could beconsidered as part of the 2omanian phoneme set 2omanian dictionaries use ⟨3⟩ in their
phonetic descriptions to represent all the three owels which suests that the ma be actuallpronounced identicall b 2omanian speakers 4oweer the 5667 edition of the prescriptiework Dic ionarul ortografic ortoepic i morfologic al limbii romacircneț ș ies for the ad(hoc phoneticsmbol ⟨3⟩ two distinct alues8 the mid front rounded owel e0ample8acheuleean 9 cheulean9-
and the +rench e caduc that is the mid(central rounded owel e0ample8 chemin de fer 9thecard ame Chemin de +er 9-$5amp 1he owel occurs in words such as8 bleu bl 9lihtblue9- pasteurizapastri zaˈ 9to pasteurize9- loess ls 9loess9- cozeur ko zrˈ 9pleasanttalker9- s it is not a natie phoneme its pronunciation ma fluctuate or it ma een be replacedb the diphthon oe n older +rench borrowins it has often been replaced b e o or oe asin ofer ș o fer ʃ ˈ 9drier9 from +rench chauffeur - masor ma sorˈ 9masseur9 from masseur -and sufleor su fl orˈ e 9theater prompter9 from souffleur -
Uumlltimilarl borrowins from lanuaes such as +rench and erman sometimes contain the closefront rounded owel 8 ecru e krˈ tul tl fuumlrer frerˈ 1he smbol used for it in phoneticnotations in 2omanian dictionaries is ⟨=⟩ )ducated speakers usuall pronounce it but other
realizations such as gtu also occur Older words that oriinall had this sound hae had it
replaced with gtu u or i +or instance 1urkish kuumll became ghiul gtulɡ 9lare rin9-1urkish tuumltuumln became tutun $tu tunampˈ 9tobacco9- but tiutiun $tgtu tgtunampˈ in the Moldaiansubdialecterman Duumlse ae duz duzəˈ 9nozzle9- and +rench bureau became birou birowˈ 9desk9 9office9-
DITONS ccordin to oana Chi oran 2omanian has twoț diphthons8 ae and ao s a result of theiroriin diphthonization of mid owels under stress- the appear normall in stressedsllables$amp and makemorpholoical alternations with the mid owels e and on addition to these the semiowels gt and w can be combined either before after or both- withmost owels One iew considers that onl ae and ao can follow an obstruent(liuid clustersuch as in broasc 9fro9- anddreag 9to mend9-$Aamp can form real diphthons while the rest are
merel owel(lide seuences$7amp
1he traditional iew tauht in schools- considers all of the aboeas diphthons
Fallin
Dip$t$on Examples
agt rai ragt 9heaen9 aisber agtsber ˈ ɡ 9iceber9
aw sau saw 9or9 auust aw ustˈ ɡ 9uust9
egt lei legt 9lions9 trei tregt 9three9
ew reu rewɡ 9hea9 mereu me rewˈ 9alwas9
igt mii migt 9thousands9 ii igt 9ou come9
iw fiu fiw 9son9 scriu skriw 9 write9
ogt oi ogt 9sheep pl-9 noi nogt 9we9
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ow ou ow 9e9 bou bow 9o09
ugt pui pugt 9ou put9 ălbui əl bugtɡ ˈ 9ellowish9
uw eu continuu kon tinuwˈ 9 continue9 partl replaced b eu continui -$Bamp
əgt răi rəgt 9bad masc pl-9 ăi əgt 9alles9
əw dulău du ləwˈ 9mastiff9 rău rəw 9bad masc s-9
gtɨ cacircine k gtneˈ ɨ 9do9 macircinile m gtnileˈ ɨ 9the hands9
wɨ racircu r wɨ 9rier9 bracircu br wɨ 9irdle9
RisinDip$t$on Examples
ae beată b atəˈ e 9drunk9 f- mea m ae 9m fem s-9
oe heorhe or eˈɡe ɡ 9eore9 ne(o ploua n oplo wae ˈ 9it would rain us9
ue onl in word combinations- pe(un p une 9on a9
gta biată bgtatə 9poor9 f- mi(a zis mgta zisˈ 9he- told me9
gte fier fgter 9iron9 miere mgtereˈ 9hone9
gto iod gtod 9iodine9 chior kgtorˈ 9one(eed9
gtu iubit gtu bitˈ 9loed9 chiuetă kgtu etəˈ 9sink9
ao ăoace ə at eɡ ˈo ʃ 9shell9 foarte f arteˈ o 9er9
we piuez pi wezˈ 9 felt a fabric-9 icircn euezș n e wezɨ ʃ ˈ 9 saddle a horse-9
wa băcăuan bəkə wanˈ 9inhabitant of acău9 ziua ziwaˈ 9the da9
wə două dowəˈ 9two fem-9 plouă plowəˈ 9it rains9
w ɨ plouacircnd plo w ndˈ ɨ 9rainin9 ouacircnd o w ndˈ ɨ 9lain es-9
Trip$t$on Examples
agte ceainic t agtnikˈ ʃe 9tea pot9 socoteai soko t agtˈ e 9ou were reckonin9
awe beau b awe 9 drink9 spuneau spu n awˈ e 9the were sain9
gtagt mi(ai dat mgtagt datˈ 9ou ae me9 ia(i gtagt 9take them9gtaw iau gtaw 9 take9 suiau su gtawˈ 9the were climbin9
gtegt iei gtegt 9ou take9 piei pgtegt 9skins9
gtew maieu ma gtewˈ 9undershirt9 eu gtew 9 mself-9
gtogt i(oi da gtogt daˈ 9 miht ie him9 picioică pi t gtogtkəˈ ʃ 9potato reionalism-9
gtow maiou ma gtowˈ 9undershirt9
agto leoaică le agtkəˈo 9lioness9 rusoaică ru s agtkəˈ o 92ussian woman9
wagt icircn euaiș n e wagtɨ ʃ ˈ 9ou- were saddlin9
waw icircn euauș n e wawɨ ʃ ˈ 9the- were saddlin9
wəgt rouăi rowəgtˈ 9of the dew9
aeo pleoape pl apeˈ eo 9eelids9 leoarcă l arkəˈ eo 9soakin wet-9gt ao creioane kre gt aneˈ o 9pencils9 aripioară ari pgt arəˈ o 9winlet9
s can be seen from the e0amples aboe the diphthons ae and ao contrastwith gta and wa respectiel thouh there are no minimal pairs to contrast ao and wa$Damp mpressionisticall the two pairs sound er similar to natie speakers $Eamp ecause ao doesn9tappear in the final sllable of a prosodic word there are no monosllabic words with ao Fe0ceptions miht include oal 9eil9- and trotuar 9sidewalk9- thouh oana Chi oran aruesț $Gamp thatthese are best treated as containin lide(owel seuences rather than diphthons n somereional pronunciations the diphthon ao tends to be pronounced as a sinle owel ɒ Other triphthons such as gtugt and awo occur sporadicall in intergtections and uncommonwords
DITONS IN ORROWINS
orrowins from )nlish hae enlared the set of ascendin diphthons to alsoinclude gtə we wi and wo or hae e0tended their preiousl limited use enerall these
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borrowins hae retained their oriinal spellins but their pronunciation has been adapted to the2omanian phonolo 1he table below ies some e0amples
Dip$t$on Examples
gtə earlin gtərlin ˈ ɡ 9one(ear(old animal colt-9
we western westernˈ 9Western moie set in the merican West-9wi tweeter twitərˈ 9hih(pitch loudspeaker9
wo walkman wokmenˈ 9pocket(sized tapeCH plaer9
orrowins such as whisky and weekend are listed in some dictionaries as startin with theascendin diphthonwi which corresponds to the oriinal )nlish pronunciation but in othersthe appear with the descendin diphthon ugt $6amp
VOWEL ampLTERNampTIONS2omanian has a broad process of alternatin between a mid owel and a lowowel8 ae alternates with e ao with o and a with ə$amp
Oriinall this was the result of a phonoloical process wherein mid owels alkan Iatin b thistime had mered the lon and short mid owels- lowered to $ ampɛ and $ ampɔ under stressF asubseuent chane diphthonized these owels $5amp 1his has resulted in stress alternations $amp asshown in the e0amples below where stressed owels and diphthons are hihlihted in bold8
Stresse Unstresse
a ( )carte 9book9 cărticică 9book9 diminutie-
casă 9house9 căs ăț 9house9 diminutie-
a ( ee983141beat 9drunk9 beți 9drunkard9
seară 9eenin9 icircnser at 9dusk9
a ( oo983141poartă 9ate9 portar 9atekeeper9
coastă 9rib9 costi ăț 9rib9 diminutie-
1his has since been morpholoized and now shows up in erb congtuations$Aamp
and nominalinflection eoasteo ti ș 9arm99armies9-$7amp
+ONSONampNTSlttandard 2omanian has twent consonants as listed in the table below
2omanian consonants$Bamp
ilaial Laio(
ental Dental -
ost(aleolar
Velar lottal
Nasal
Stop
ampricate
Fricatie Trill
amppproximant
0- ll consonants marked as dental in this table e0cludin l- are apico(dental$Damp l is apico(aleolar$Damp
esides the consonants in this table a few consonants can hae allophones8
bull Jalatalized consonants occur when precedin i$Bamp$Eamp
bull n becomes the elar $Kamp before k ɡ and hF
bull h becomes the elar $0amp in word(final positions duh 9spirit9- and before consonants hrean 9horseradish9-F
it becomes the palatal $Lampbefore $iamp $gtamp like in the word human in )nlish and as a realization for an
underlin hi seuence in word(final positions cehi 9Czech people9 is pronounced $ eLampt ʃ thouh usuall
transcribed $ ehampt ʃ ʲ -
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1he 2omanian consonant set is almost the same as that in talian with a few e0ceptions8 1hetalian palatal consonants ɲ ʎ and affricate dz are missin in standard 2omanian which inturn has the fricatie ʒ and the lottal h4ere are some e0amples with an appro0imate indication of how each consonant is pronouncedintended for )nlish natie speakers
+onsonant rononce as Examples
p p in speak pas pas step spate spateˈ back cap kap head
b in boy ban ban money zbor zbor I fly rob rob slae
t t in stop tare tareˈ hard stai stagt you stay sat sat illage
d in day dacă dakəˈ if inde indeˈ he sells cad kad I fall
k 1 in sky cal kalˈ horse ascund as kundˈ I hide sac sak sack
ɡ in go ol olɡ empty pună pun əˈ ɡ bag dra dra ɡ dear
ts ts in nuts arăț tsarəˈ country a ăț atsəˈ thread soț sots husband
t ʃ c$ in chin cer t er ʃ sky acile at ileˈ ʃ the cows maci mat ʃʲ poppies
d ʒ 2 in ingle er d erʒ frost maic mad ikˈ ʒ magical roi rod ʒʲ you ask
m m in man mic mik small amar a marˈ bitter pom pom tree
n n in name nor nor cloud inel i nelˈ ring motan mo tanˈ tomcat
f in fine foc fok fire afară a farəˈ out pantof pan tofˈ shoe
in oice al al wae coor ko orˈ carpet mo mo maue
s s in sound sare sareˈ salt case kaseˈ houses ales a lesˈ chosen
z 3 in zone zid zid wall mazăre mazəreˈ pea orez o rezˈ rice
ʃ s$ in shy arpeș arpeˈʃ snake a aș a aˈʃ so oraș o ra ˈ ʃ city
ʒ s in measure gtar arʒ embers agtutor a u torʒ ˈ help regt re ʒ stalk
h $ in hope horn horn chimney pahar pa harˈ glass duh duh spirit
l l in like lun lun ɡ long alună a lunəˈ hazelnut fel fel sort
r talian r repede repedeˈ $uickly tren tren train măr mər apple
ampLampTampLI4ED +ONSONampNTSn addition to appearin before i palatalized consonants also appear terminall as themanifestation of certain morpholoical markers namel to indicate8 $Gamp
bull Jluralit in nouns and adgtecties
bull ltecond person sinular in erbs
bull The interpretation commonly taken is that an underlying morpheme i palatali(es the consonant
and is subse)uently deleted owever s ʲ t ʲ and d ʲ become [ ʃʲ [ s tʲ and [( ʲ respectively[+ with very few phonetically ustified e-ceptions included in the table below which shows thatthis palatali(ation can occur for all consonants
Voiceless Voiced
Consonan
t Examples
Consonan
t Examples
p rupi rup ʲ you tear b arabi a rab ˈ ʲ rabs
t pro tiș pro t ʃ ʲ stupid $masc
pld nădedi n0 de d hopesˈ ʒ ʲ
k urechi u rek ˈ ʲ ears ɡ unghi un ɡʲ angle
st ro iț ro s t ʲ wheels 1
t ʃ faci fa t ʃʲ you do d ʒ mergi mer d ʒʲ you go
1 m dormi dorm ʲ you sleep
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1 n bani ban ʲ money $pl
f efiș ef ʃ ʲ bosses v ple uviș ple uv ˈʃ ʲ bald $masc
pl
s bessi bes ʲ 2essi ( bra(i bra( ʲ fir trees
ʃ mo iș mo ʃʲ old men ʒ brei bre ʒʲ brave $masc pl
h lahi lah ʲ 9Wallachians9 l
coliș NkolN 9schools
r sari sar ʲ you umpn certain morpholoical processes ʲ is replaced b the full owel i for e0ample
bull in noun plural enitie formation8 coli colilor ș ș kol ( kolilor ʃ ʲ ˈʃ 9schools ( of the schools9-
bull when appendin the definite article to some plural nouns8 brazi brazii braz ( brazigt ʲ ˈ 9fir trees ( the fir
trees9-
bull in erb pronoun combinations8 da i da i ț ț ne da s ( da sinetʲ ˈ t 9ie ( ie us9-
1his ma e0plain wh ʲ is perceied as a separate sound b natie speakers and written with thesame letter as the owel i1he non(sllabic ʲ can be sometimes found inside compound words like cacirc iaț k s aɨtʲˈ 9a few9-and oriunde or unde ʲˈ 9whereer9- where the first morpheme happened to end in this ʲ wordthat contains this twice iscincizeci in ze t ʃ t ʃʲˈ t ʃʲ 9fift9-n old 2omanian and still in some local pronunciations there is another e0ample of such a non(sllabic non(semiocalic phoneme deried from u which manifests itself as labialization of theprecedin sound 1he usual J notation is ʷ t is found at the end of some words afterconsonants and semiowels as in un urs pronounced un urs ˈ ʷ 9a bear9- or mi spui mɨ ʲspugt ʷ 9ou tell me9- 1he disappearance of this phoneme miht be attributed to the fact thatunlike ʲ it didn9t pla an morpholoical role t is possibl a trace of Iatin endinscontainin u us um- this phoneme is related to owel u used to connect the definite articlel to the stem of a noun or adgtectie as in domn domnul domn ( domnulˈ 9lord ( the lord9cf Iatin dominus-
OTER +ONSONampNTS s with other lanuaes 2omanian intergtections are remarkable from a phonetic perspectie inthat the often use sounds beond the normal phoneme inentor or disobe the normalphonotactical rules b containin unusual phoneme seuences b allowin words to be madeup of onl consonants or b consistin of repetitions ltuch e0ceptional mechanisms are neededto obtain an increased leel of e0pressiit$56amp Often these intergtections hae multiple spellins oroccasionall none at all which accounts for the difficult of findin the riht appro0imation usine0istin letters$5amp 1he followin is a list of e0amples
bull bilabial affricate $ ampʘ pronounced b roundin the lips and stronl suckin air between them is used
for urin horses to start walkin$56amp
bull Whistlin is another intergtection surpassin the limits of the phoneme inentor t is usuall spelled fiu
fiu$56amp
bull 1he dental click $ ampǀ see also click consonants- is used in an intergtection similar to the )nlish tut
tut or tsktsk - e0pressin concern disappointment disapproal etc and enerall accompanied b frownin or
a comparable facial e0pression Psuall two to four such clicks in a row make up the intergtectionF onl one click is
rare and more than four can be used for oer(emphasis 1he 2omanian spellin is usuall ttt or țțț 1echnicall the
dental click is obtained b creatin a cait between a elar closure and the tonue touchin the aleolar ride in
the same position as for consonant $tamp When the tonue closure is released the air from outside is sucked in and
produces the click
bull 1he same dental click is used in another intergtection the informal euialent of no nu in 2omanian-
Onl one click is emitted usuall as an answer to a es(no uestion lthouh there is rarel an accompanin
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sound the usual spellin is nt or nț in which the additional n has the role of showin either the fact that the click is
pronounced stroner or that the mouth shape before the click is appro0imatel the same as for consonant $namp
bull series of intergtections are pronounced with the mouth shut Hependin on intonation lenth and
rhthm the can hae arious meanins such as8 perple0it doubt displeasure tastiness toothache approal
etc$5amp Jossible spellins include8 hm hacircmamphmmhm h mmm h Jhoneticall similar but semanticall
different is the )nlish intergtection ahem
bull nother intergtection meanin no could be described as the pronunciation of $ a aampˈʔ ʔ with the mouth
shutF both oicins start withlottal stops like the )nlish uhoh Jossible spellins include8 mm and mm
1he stress pattern is opposite to the intergtection for es mentioned before pronounced $a haampˈ with the mouth
shut
bull fu e0presses contempt or dissatisfaction and starts with the oiceless bilabial fricatie ɸ soundin like
but bein different from- the )nlish whew which e0presses relief after an effort or daner
bull acirchampch e0presses disust and ends in the oiceless elar fricatie 0 similar in meanin to )nlish ugh
bull rrr e0presses shierin cold and is made up of a sinle consonant the bilabial trill whose J smbol
is ʙ 1he spellin with seeral letters r is misleadin as the tonue doesn9t pla an actie roleF the actual labial
place of articulation is indicated b letter b
STRESS2omanian has a stress accent like almost all other 2omance lanuaes with the notablee0ception of +rench- enerall stress falls on the rihtmost sllable of a prosodic word that isthe root and deriational material but e0cludin inflections and final inflectional owels-$55amp While ale0icall marked stress pattern with penultimate stress e0ists an morpholoicall deried formswill continue to follow the unmarked pattern$55amp
n the e0amples below the stress is indicated in the phonetic transcription b a small erticalline before the stressed sllable
frate frateˈ 9brother9- copil ko pilˈ 9child9-
strugure stru ureˈ ɡ 9rape9- albastru al bastruˈ 9blue9- cltor kələ torˈ 9oaer9-
lttress is not normall marked in writin e0cept occasionall to distinuish between homoraphsor in dictionaries for the entr words When it is marked the main owel of the stressed sllablereceies an accent usuall acute but sometimes rae- for e0ample sel esl 9gtoial9fem s ( 9tableware9-n erb congtuation noun declension and other word formation processes stress shifts canoccur Qerbs can hae homoraphic forms onl distinuished b stress such as in el sufl whichcan mean he blows or he blew dependin on whether the stress is on the first or the secondsllable respectiel Chanin the rammatical cateor of a word can lead to similar wordpairs such as the erb a albi al biˈ 9to whiten9- compared to the adgtectie albi alb ˈ ʲ 9white9masc pl- lttress in 2omanian erbs can normall be predicted b comparin tenses with similarerbs in ltpanish which does indicate stress in writin
ltecondar stress occurs accordin to a predictable pattern fallin on eer other sllablestartin with the first as lon as it does not fall adgtacent to the primar stress$5amp
ROSOD5R5T6
Ianuaes such as )nlish 2ussian and rabic are called stress(timed meaninthat sllables are pronounced at a lower or hiher rate so as to achiee a rouhl eual timeinteral between stressed sllables nother cateor of lanuaes are sllable(timed whichmeans that each sllable takes about the same amount of time reardless of the position of thestresses in the sentence 2omanian is one of the sllable(timed lanuaes alon with other
2omance lanuaes +rench ltpanish etc- 1eluu Roruba and man others third timinsstem is mora timin e0emplified b Classical Iatin +igtian +innish 4awaiian Sapaneseand Old )nlish-
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1he distinction between these timin cateories ma sometimes seem unclear and definitionsar n addition the time interals between stressessllablesmorae are in realit onlappro0imatel eual with man e0ceptions and lare deiations hain been reported 4oweerwhile the actual time ma be onl appro0imatel eual the differences are perceptuall identicaln the case of 2omanian consonant clusters are often found both in the sllable onset and coda which reuire phsical time to be pronounced 1he sllable timin rule is then oerridden b
slowin down the rhthm 1hus it is seen that stress and sllable timin interact 1he samplesentences below each consistin of si0 sllables are illustratie8
+ama pune masa Mom sets the table
+ul i pu ti blonzi placircng prin cur i ț ș ț Man blond kids cr in the courtards
1he total time lenth taken b each of these sentences is obiousl different and attemptin topronounce one of them with the same rhthm as the other results in unnatural utterances1o a lesser e0tent but still perceiabl the sllables are e0tended in time also on one hand b thepresence of liuid and nasal consonants and on the other b that of semiowels in diphthonsand triphthons such as shown in the e0amples below
Romanian Enlis$
pic ( plic bit ( enelope
cec ( cerc che$ue ( circle
zic ( zinc I say ( zinc
car ( chiar I carry ( een
sare ( soare salt ( sun
sta ( stea to stay ( star
fi ( fii be (inf) ( be (imperatie)
simple wa to ealuate the lenth of a word and compare it to another consists in pronouncinit repeatedl at a natural speech rate
INTONampTION detailed description of the intonation patterns must consider a wide rane of elements such asthe focus of the sentence the theme and the rheme emotional aspects etc n this section onl afew eneral traits of the 2omanian intonation are discussed Most importantl intonation is
essential in uestions especiall because unlike )nlish and other lanuaes 2omanian doesnot distinuish rammaticall declaratie and interroatie sentencesn non(emp$atic 7es8no 9estions the pitch rises at the end of the sentence until the laststressed sllable f unstressed sllables follow the often hae a fallin intonation but this is nota rule
T i stins luminaU $ai stins luminaamp ae you turned off the light--
T Ha es-
n 1ranslanian speech these esno uestions hae a er different intonation pattern usuallwith a pitch peak at the beinnin of the uestion8 $ai stins luminaamp
n selection 9estions the tone rises at the first element of the selection and falls at the second
T Qrei bere sau inU $rei bere sau inamp Do you want beer or wine--
T ere eer-
W$(9estions start with a hih pitch on the first word and then the pitch falls raduall towardthe end of the sentence
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T Cine a lăsat u a deschisăU $ș cine a lăsat u a deschisăamp ș ho left the door open--
T Mama +om did-
Repeat 9estions hae a risin intonation
T sunat 2odica adineauri 0odica ust called-
T Cine a sunatU $cine a sunatamp ho called--
T Colea ta 2odica our classmate 0odica-
Ta 9estions are uttered with a risin intonation
T i(e foame nu(i a aU $ i(e foame nu(i a Ț ș ț aamp ș ou1re hungry aren1t you--
Uninis$e tterances hae a risin intonation similar to that of esno uestions but the pitchrise is smaller
T Hupă ce m(am icircntors $după ce m(am icircntorsamp 2fter I came back-
Qarious other intonation patterns are used to e0press8 reuests commands surprise suestionadice and so on
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ow ou ow 9e9 bou bow 9o09
ugt pui pugt 9ou put9 ălbui əl bugtɡ ˈ 9ellowish9
uw eu continuu kon tinuwˈ 9 continue9 partl replaced b eu continui -$Bamp
əgt răi rəgt 9bad masc pl-9 ăi əgt 9alles9
əw dulău du ləwˈ 9mastiff9 rău rəw 9bad masc s-9
gtɨ cacircine k gtneˈ ɨ 9do9 macircinile m gtnileˈ ɨ 9the hands9
wɨ racircu r wɨ 9rier9 bracircu br wɨ 9irdle9
RisinDip$t$on Examples
ae beată b atəˈ e 9drunk9 f- mea m ae 9m fem s-9
oe heorhe or eˈɡe ɡ 9eore9 ne(o ploua n oplo wae ˈ 9it would rain us9
ue onl in word combinations- pe(un p une 9on a9
gta biată bgtatə 9poor9 f- mi(a zis mgta zisˈ 9he- told me9
gte fier fgter 9iron9 miere mgtereˈ 9hone9
gto iod gtod 9iodine9 chior kgtorˈ 9one(eed9
gtu iubit gtu bitˈ 9loed9 chiuetă kgtu etəˈ 9sink9
ao ăoace ə at eɡ ˈo ʃ 9shell9 foarte f arteˈ o 9er9
we piuez pi wezˈ 9 felt a fabric-9 icircn euezș n e wezɨ ʃ ˈ 9 saddle a horse-9
wa băcăuan bəkə wanˈ 9inhabitant of acău9 ziua ziwaˈ 9the da9
wə două dowəˈ 9two fem-9 plouă plowəˈ 9it rains9
w ɨ plouacircnd plo w ndˈ ɨ 9rainin9 ouacircnd o w ndˈ ɨ 9lain es-9
Trip$t$on Examples
agte ceainic t agtnikˈ ʃe 9tea pot9 socoteai soko t agtˈ e 9ou were reckonin9
awe beau b awe 9 drink9 spuneau spu n awˈ e 9the were sain9
gtagt mi(ai dat mgtagt datˈ 9ou ae me9 ia(i gtagt 9take them9gtaw iau gtaw 9 take9 suiau su gtawˈ 9the were climbin9
gtegt iei gtegt 9ou take9 piei pgtegt 9skins9
gtew maieu ma gtewˈ 9undershirt9 eu gtew 9 mself-9
gtogt i(oi da gtogt daˈ 9 miht ie him9 picioică pi t gtogtkəˈ ʃ 9potato reionalism-9
gtow maiou ma gtowˈ 9undershirt9
agto leoaică le agtkəˈo 9lioness9 rusoaică ru s agtkəˈ o 92ussian woman9
wagt icircn euaiș n e wagtɨ ʃ ˈ 9ou- were saddlin9
waw icircn euauș n e wawɨ ʃ ˈ 9the- were saddlin9
wəgt rouăi rowəgtˈ 9of the dew9
aeo pleoape pl apeˈ eo 9eelids9 leoarcă l arkəˈ eo 9soakin wet-9gt ao creioane kre gt aneˈ o 9pencils9 aripioară ari pgt arəˈ o 9winlet9
s can be seen from the e0amples aboe the diphthons ae and ao contrastwith gta and wa respectiel thouh there are no minimal pairs to contrast ao and wa$Damp mpressionisticall the two pairs sound er similar to natie speakers $Eamp ecause ao doesn9tappear in the final sllable of a prosodic word there are no monosllabic words with ao Fe0ceptions miht include oal 9eil9- and trotuar 9sidewalk9- thouh oana Chi oran aruesț $Gamp thatthese are best treated as containin lide(owel seuences rather than diphthons n somereional pronunciations the diphthon ao tends to be pronounced as a sinle owel ɒ Other triphthons such as gtugt and awo occur sporadicall in intergtections and uncommonwords
DITONS IN ORROWINS
orrowins from )nlish hae enlared the set of ascendin diphthons to alsoinclude gtə we wi and wo or hae e0tended their preiousl limited use enerall these
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borrowins hae retained their oriinal spellins but their pronunciation has been adapted to the2omanian phonolo 1he table below ies some e0amples
Dip$t$on Examples
gtə earlin gtərlin ˈ ɡ 9one(ear(old animal colt-9
we western westernˈ 9Western moie set in the merican West-9wi tweeter twitərˈ 9hih(pitch loudspeaker9
wo walkman wokmenˈ 9pocket(sized tapeCH plaer9
orrowins such as whisky and weekend are listed in some dictionaries as startin with theascendin diphthonwi which corresponds to the oriinal )nlish pronunciation but in othersthe appear with the descendin diphthon ugt $6amp
VOWEL ampLTERNampTIONS2omanian has a broad process of alternatin between a mid owel and a lowowel8 ae alternates with e ao with o and a with ə$amp
Oriinall this was the result of a phonoloical process wherein mid owels alkan Iatin b thistime had mered the lon and short mid owels- lowered to $ ampɛ and $ ampɔ under stressF asubseuent chane diphthonized these owels $5amp 1his has resulted in stress alternations $amp asshown in the e0amples below where stressed owels and diphthons are hihlihted in bold8
Stresse Unstresse
a ( )carte 9book9 cărticică 9book9 diminutie-
casă 9house9 căs ăț 9house9 diminutie-
a ( ee983141beat 9drunk9 beți 9drunkard9
seară 9eenin9 icircnser at 9dusk9
a ( oo983141poartă 9ate9 portar 9atekeeper9
coastă 9rib9 costi ăț 9rib9 diminutie-
1his has since been morpholoized and now shows up in erb congtuations$Aamp
and nominalinflection eoasteo ti ș 9arm99armies9-$7amp
+ONSONampNTSlttandard 2omanian has twent consonants as listed in the table below
2omanian consonants$Bamp
ilaial Laio(
ental Dental -
ost(aleolar
Velar lottal
Nasal
Stop
ampricate
Fricatie Trill
amppproximant
0- ll consonants marked as dental in this table e0cludin l- are apico(dental$Damp l is apico(aleolar$Damp
esides the consonants in this table a few consonants can hae allophones8
bull Jalatalized consonants occur when precedin i$Bamp$Eamp
bull n becomes the elar $Kamp before k ɡ and hF
bull h becomes the elar $0amp in word(final positions duh 9spirit9- and before consonants hrean 9horseradish9-F
it becomes the palatal $Lampbefore $iamp $gtamp like in the word human in )nlish and as a realization for an
underlin hi seuence in word(final positions cehi 9Czech people9 is pronounced $ eLampt ʃ thouh usuall
transcribed $ ehampt ʃ ʲ -
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1he 2omanian consonant set is almost the same as that in talian with a few e0ceptions8 1hetalian palatal consonants ɲ ʎ and affricate dz are missin in standard 2omanian which inturn has the fricatie ʒ and the lottal h4ere are some e0amples with an appro0imate indication of how each consonant is pronouncedintended for )nlish natie speakers
+onsonant rononce as Examples
p p in speak pas pas step spate spateˈ back cap kap head
b in boy ban ban money zbor zbor I fly rob rob slae
t t in stop tare tareˈ hard stai stagt you stay sat sat illage
d in day dacă dakəˈ if inde indeˈ he sells cad kad I fall
k 1 in sky cal kalˈ horse ascund as kundˈ I hide sac sak sack
ɡ in go ol olɡ empty pună pun əˈ ɡ bag dra dra ɡ dear
ts ts in nuts arăț tsarəˈ country a ăț atsəˈ thread soț sots husband
t ʃ c$ in chin cer t er ʃ sky acile at ileˈ ʃ the cows maci mat ʃʲ poppies
d ʒ 2 in ingle er d erʒ frost maic mad ikˈ ʒ magical roi rod ʒʲ you ask
m m in man mic mik small amar a marˈ bitter pom pom tree
n n in name nor nor cloud inel i nelˈ ring motan mo tanˈ tomcat
f in fine foc fok fire afară a farəˈ out pantof pan tofˈ shoe
in oice al al wae coor ko orˈ carpet mo mo maue
s s in sound sare sareˈ salt case kaseˈ houses ales a lesˈ chosen
z 3 in zone zid zid wall mazăre mazəreˈ pea orez o rezˈ rice
ʃ s$ in shy arpeș arpeˈʃ snake a aș a aˈʃ so oraș o ra ˈ ʃ city
ʒ s in measure gtar arʒ embers agtutor a u torʒ ˈ help regt re ʒ stalk
h $ in hope horn horn chimney pahar pa harˈ glass duh duh spirit
l l in like lun lun ɡ long alună a lunəˈ hazelnut fel fel sort
r talian r repede repedeˈ $uickly tren tren train măr mər apple
ampLampTampLI4ED +ONSONampNTSn addition to appearin before i palatalized consonants also appear terminall as themanifestation of certain morpholoical markers namel to indicate8 $Gamp
bull Jluralit in nouns and adgtecties
bull ltecond person sinular in erbs
bull The interpretation commonly taken is that an underlying morpheme i palatali(es the consonant
and is subse)uently deleted owever s ʲ t ʲ and d ʲ become [ ʃʲ [ s tʲ and [( ʲ respectively[+ with very few phonetically ustified e-ceptions included in the table below which shows thatthis palatali(ation can occur for all consonants
Voiceless Voiced
Consonan
t Examples
Consonan
t Examples
p rupi rup ʲ you tear b arabi a rab ˈ ʲ rabs
t pro tiș pro t ʃ ʲ stupid $masc
pld nădedi n0 de d hopesˈ ʒ ʲ
k urechi u rek ˈ ʲ ears ɡ unghi un ɡʲ angle
st ro iț ro s t ʲ wheels 1
t ʃ faci fa t ʃʲ you do d ʒ mergi mer d ʒʲ you go
1 m dormi dorm ʲ you sleep
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1 n bani ban ʲ money $pl
f efiș ef ʃ ʲ bosses v ple uviș ple uv ˈʃ ʲ bald $masc
pl
s bessi bes ʲ 2essi ( bra(i bra( ʲ fir trees
ʃ mo iș mo ʃʲ old men ʒ brei bre ʒʲ brave $masc pl
h lahi lah ʲ 9Wallachians9 l
coliș NkolN 9schools
r sari sar ʲ you umpn certain morpholoical processes ʲ is replaced b the full owel i for e0ample
bull in noun plural enitie formation8 coli colilor ș ș kol ( kolilor ʃ ʲ ˈʃ 9schools ( of the schools9-
bull when appendin the definite article to some plural nouns8 brazi brazii braz ( brazigt ʲ ˈ 9fir trees ( the fir
trees9-
bull in erb pronoun combinations8 da i da i ț ț ne da s ( da sinetʲ ˈ t 9ie ( ie us9-
1his ma e0plain wh ʲ is perceied as a separate sound b natie speakers and written with thesame letter as the owel i1he non(sllabic ʲ can be sometimes found inside compound words like cacirc iaț k s aɨtʲˈ 9a few9-and oriunde or unde ʲˈ 9whereer9- where the first morpheme happened to end in this ʲ wordthat contains this twice iscincizeci in ze t ʃ t ʃʲˈ t ʃʲ 9fift9-n old 2omanian and still in some local pronunciations there is another e0ample of such a non(sllabic non(semiocalic phoneme deried from u which manifests itself as labialization of theprecedin sound 1he usual J notation is ʷ t is found at the end of some words afterconsonants and semiowels as in un urs pronounced un urs ˈ ʷ 9a bear9- or mi spui mɨ ʲspugt ʷ 9ou tell me9- 1he disappearance of this phoneme miht be attributed to the fact thatunlike ʲ it didn9t pla an morpholoical role t is possibl a trace of Iatin endinscontainin u us um- this phoneme is related to owel u used to connect the definite articlel to the stem of a noun or adgtectie as in domn domnul domn ( domnulˈ 9lord ( the lord9cf Iatin dominus-
OTER +ONSONampNTS s with other lanuaes 2omanian intergtections are remarkable from a phonetic perspectie inthat the often use sounds beond the normal phoneme inentor or disobe the normalphonotactical rules b containin unusual phoneme seuences b allowin words to be madeup of onl consonants or b consistin of repetitions ltuch e0ceptional mechanisms are neededto obtain an increased leel of e0pressiit$56amp Often these intergtections hae multiple spellins oroccasionall none at all which accounts for the difficult of findin the riht appro0imation usine0istin letters$5amp 1he followin is a list of e0amples
bull bilabial affricate $ ampʘ pronounced b roundin the lips and stronl suckin air between them is used
for urin horses to start walkin$56amp
bull Whistlin is another intergtection surpassin the limits of the phoneme inentor t is usuall spelled fiu
fiu$56amp
bull 1he dental click $ ampǀ see also click consonants- is used in an intergtection similar to the )nlish tut
tut or tsktsk - e0pressin concern disappointment disapproal etc and enerall accompanied b frownin or
a comparable facial e0pression Psuall two to four such clicks in a row make up the intergtectionF onl one click is
rare and more than four can be used for oer(emphasis 1he 2omanian spellin is usuall ttt or țțț 1echnicall the
dental click is obtained b creatin a cait between a elar closure and the tonue touchin the aleolar ride in
the same position as for consonant $tamp When the tonue closure is released the air from outside is sucked in and
produces the click
bull 1he same dental click is used in another intergtection the informal euialent of no nu in 2omanian-
Onl one click is emitted usuall as an answer to a es(no uestion lthouh there is rarel an accompanin
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sound the usual spellin is nt or nț in which the additional n has the role of showin either the fact that the click is
pronounced stroner or that the mouth shape before the click is appro0imatel the same as for consonant $namp
bull series of intergtections are pronounced with the mouth shut Hependin on intonation lenth and
rhthm the can hae arious meanins such as8 perple0it doubt displeasure tastiness toothache approal
etc$5amp Jossible spellins include8 hm hacircmamphmmhm h mmm h Jhoneticall similar but semanticall
different is the )nlish intergtection ahem
bull nother intergtection meanin no could be described as the pronunciation of $ a aampˈʔ ʔ with the mouth
shutF both oicins start withlottal stops like the )nlish uhoh Jossible spellins include8 mm and mm
1he stress pattern is opposite to the intergtection for es mentioned before pronounced $a haampˈ with the mouth
shut
bull fu e0presses contempt or dissatisfaction and starts with the oiceless bilabial fricatie ɸ soundin like
but bein different from- the )nlish whew which e0presses relief after an effort or daner
bull acirchampch e0presses disust and ends in the oiceless elar fricatie 0 similar in meanin to )nlish ugh
bull rrr e0presses shierin cold and is made up of a sinle consonant the bilabial trill whose J smbol
is ʙ 1he spellin with seeral letters r is misleadin as the tonue doesn9t pla an actie roleF the actual labial
place of articulation is indicated b letter b
STRESS2omanian has a stress accent like almost all other 2omance lanuaes with the notablee0ception of +rench- enerall stress falls on the rihtmost sllable of a prosodic word that isthe root and deriational material but e0cludin inflections and final inflectional owels-$55amp While ale0icall marked stress pattern with penultimate stress e0ists an morpholoicall deried formswill continue to follow the unmarked pattern$55amp
n the e0amples below the stress is indicated in the phonetic transcription b a small erticalline before the stressed sllable
frate frateˈ 9brother9- copil ko pilˈ 9child9-
strugure stru ureˈ ɡ 9rape9- albastru al bastruˈ 9blue9- cltor kələ torˈ 9oaer9-
lttress is not normall marked in writin e0cept occasionall to distinuish between homoraphsor in dictionaries for the entr words When it is marked the main owel of the stressed sllablereceies an accent usuall acute but sometimes rae- for e0ample sel esl 9gtoial9fem s ( 9tableware9-n erb congtuation noun declension and other word formation processes stress shifts canoccur Qerbs can hae homoraphic forms onl distinuished b stress such as in el sufl whichcan mean he blows or he blew dependin on whether the stress is on the first or the secondsllable respectiel Chanin the rammatical cateor of a word can lead to similar wordpairs such as the erb a albi al biˈ 9to whiten9- compared to the adgtectie albi alb ˈ ʲ 9white9masc pl- lttress in 2omanian erbs can normall be predicted b comparin tenses with similarerbs in ltpanish which does indicate stress in writin
ltecondar stress occurs accordin to a predictable pattern fallin on eer other sllablestartin with the first as lon as it does not fall adgtacent to the primar stress$5amp
ROSOD5R5T6
Ianuaes such as )nlish 2ussian and rabic are called stress(timed meaninthat sllables are pronounced at a lower or hiher rate so as to achiee a rouhl eual timeinteral between stressed sllables nother cateor of lanuaes are sllable(timed whichmeans that each sllable takes about the same amount of time reardless of the position of thestresses in the sentence 2omanian is one of the sllable(timed lanuaes alon with other
2omance lanuaes +rench ltpanish etc- 1eluu Roruba and man others third timinsstem is mora timin e0emplified b Classical Iatin +igtian +innish 4awaiian Sapaneseand Old )nlish-
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1he distinction between these timin cateories ma sometimes seem unclear and definitionsar n addition the time interals between stressessllablesmorae are in realit onlappro0imatel eual with man e0ceptions and lare deiations hain been reported 4oweerwhile the actual time ma be onl appro0imatel eual the differences are perceptuall identicaln the case of 2omanian consonant clusters are often found both in the sllable onset and coda which reuire phsical time to be pronounced 1he sllable timin rule is then oerridden b
slowin down the rhthm 1hus it is seen that stress and sllable timin interact 1he samplesentences below each consistin of si0 sllables are illustratie8
+ama pune masa Mom sets the table
+ul i pu ti blonzi placircng prin cur i ț ș ț Man blond kids cr in the courtards
1he total time lenth taken b each of these sentences is obiousl different and attemptin topronounce one of them with the same rhthm as the other results in unnatural utterances1o a lesser e0tent but still perceiabl the sllables are e0tended in time also on one hand b thepresence of liuid and nasal consonants and on the other b that of semiowels in diphthonsand triphthons such as shown in the e0amples below
Romanian Enlis$
pic ( plic bit ( enelope
cec ( cerc che$ue ( circle
zic ( zinc I say ( zinc
car ( chiar I carry ( een
sare ( soare salt ( sun
sta ( stea to stay ( star
fi ( fii be (inf) ( be (imperatie)
simple wa to ealuate the lenth of a word and compare it to another consists in pronouncinit repeatedl at a natural speech rate
INTONampTION detailed description of the intonation patterns must consider a wide rane of elements such asthe focus of the sentence the theme and the rheme emotional aspects etc n this section onl afew eneral traits of the 2omanian intonation are discussed Most importantl intonation is
essential in uestions especiall because unlike )nlish and other lanuaes 2omanian doesnot distinuish rammaticall declaratie and interroatie sentencesn non(emp$atic 7es8no 9estions the pitch rises at the end of the sentence until the laststressed sllable f unstressed sllables follow the often hae a fallin intonation but this is nota rule
T i stins luminaU $ai stins luminaamp ae you turned off the light--
T Ha es-
n 1ranslanian speech these esno uestions hae a er different intonation pattern usuallwith a pitch peak at the beinnin of the uestion8 $ai stins luminaamp
n selection 9estions the tone rises at the first element of the selection and falls at the second
T Qrei bere sau inU $rei bere sau inamp Do you want beer or wine--
T ere eer-
W$(9estions start with a hih pitch on the first word and then the pitch falls raduall towardthe end of the sentence
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T Cine a lăsat u a deschisăU $ș cine a lăsat u a deschisăamp ș ho left the door open--
T Mama +om did-
Repeat 9estions hae a risin intonation
T sunat 2odica adineauri 0odica ust called-
T Cine a sunatU $cine a sunatamp ho called--
T Colea ta 2odica our classmate 0odica-
Ta 9estions are uttered with a risin intonation
T i(e foame nu(i a aU $ i(e foame nu(i a Ț ș ț aamp ș ou1re hungry aren1t you--
Uninis$e tterances hae a risin intonation similar to that of esno uestions but the pitchrise is smaller
T Hupă ce m(am icircntors $după ce m(am icircntorsamp 2fter I came back-
Qarious other intonation patterns are used to e0press8 reuests commands surprise suestionadice and so on
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borrowins hae retained their oriinal spellins but their pronunciation has been adapted to the2omanian phonolo 1he table below ies some e0amples
Dip$t$on Examples
gtə earlin gtərlin ˈ ɡ 9one(ear(old animal colt-9
we western westernˈ 9Western moie set in the merican West-9wi tweeter twitərˈ 9hih(pitch loudspeaker9
wo walkman wokmenˈ 9pocket(sized tapeCH plaer9
orrowins such as whisky and weekend are listed in some dictionaries as startin with theascendin diphthonwi which corresponds to the oriinal )nlish pronunciation but in othersthe appear with the descendin diphthon ugt $6amp
VOWEL ampLTERNampTIONS2omanian has a broad process of alternatin between a mid owel and a lowowel8 ae alternates with e ao with o and a with ə$amp
Oriinall this was the result of a phonoloical process wherein mid owels alkan Iatin b thistime had mered the lon and short mid owels- lowered to $ ampɛ and $ ampɔ under stressF asubseuent chane diphthonized these owels $5amp 1his has resulted in stress alternations $amp asshown in the e0amples below where stressed owels and diphthons are hihlihted in bold8
Stresse Unstresse
a ( )carte 9book9 cărticică 9book9 diminutie-
casă 9house9 căs ăț 9house9 diminutie-
a ( ee983141beat 9drunk9 beți 9drunkard9
seară 9eenin9 icircnser at 9dusk9
a ( oo983141poartă 9ate9 portar 9atekeeper9
coastă 9rib9 costi ăț 9rib9 diminutie-
1his has since been morpholoized and now shows up in erb congtuations$Aamp
and nominalinflection eoasteo ti ș 9arm99armies9-$7amp
+ONSONampNTSlttandard 2omanian has twent consonants as listed in the table below
2omanian consonants$Bamp
ilaial Laio(
ental Dental -
ost(aleolar
Velar lottal
Nasal
Stop
ampricate
Fricatie Trill
amppproximant
0- ll consonants marked as dental in this table e0cludin l- are apico(dental$Damp l is apico(aleolar$Damp
esides the consonants in this table a few consonants can hae allophones8
bull Jalatalized consonants occur when precedin i$Bamp$Eamp
bull n becomes the elar $Kamp before k ɡ and hF
bull h becomes the elar $0amp in word(final positions duh 9spirit9- and before consonants hrean 9horseradish9-F
it becomes the palatal $Lampbefore $iamp $gtamp like in the word human in )nlish and as a realization for an
underlin hi seuence in word(final positions cehi 9Czech people9 is pronounced $ eLampt ʃ thouh usuall
transcribed $ ehampt ʃ ʲ -
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1he 2omanian consonant set is almost the same as that in talian with a few e0ceptions8 1hetalian palatal consonants ɲ ʎ and affricate dz are missin in standard 2omanian which inturn has the fricatie ʒ and the lottal h4ere are some e0amples with an appro0imate indication of how each consonant is pronouncedintended for )nlish natie speakers
+onsonant rononce as Examples
p p in speak pas pas step spate spateˈ back cap kap head
b in boy ban ban money zbor zbor I fly rob rob slae
t t in stop tare tareˈ hard stai stagt you stay sat sat illage
d in day dacă dakəˈ if inde indeˈ he sells cad kad I fall
k 1 in sky cal kalˈ horse ascund as kundˈ I hide sac sak sack
ɡ in go ol olɡ empty pună pun əˈ ɡ bag dra dra ɡ dear
ts ts in nuts arăț tsarəˈ country a ăț atsəˈ thread soț sots husband
t ʃ c$ in chin cer t er ʃ sky acile at ileˈ ʃ the cows maci mat ʃʲ poppies
d ʒ 2 in ingle er d erʒ frost maic mad ikˈ ʒ magical roi rod ʒʲ you ask
m m in man mic mik small amar a marˈ bitter pom pom tree
n n in name nor nor cloud inel i nelˈ ring motan mo tanˈ tomcat
f in fine foc fok fire afară a farəˈ out pantof pan tofˈ shoe
in oice al al wae coor ko orˈ carpet mo mo maue
s s in sound sare sareˈ salt case kaseˈ houses ales a lesˈ chosen
z 3 in zone zid zid wall mazăre mazəreˈ pea orez o rezˈ rice
ʃ s$ in shy arpeș arpeˈʃ snake a aș a aˈʃ so oraș o ra ˈ ʃ city
ʒ s in measure gtar arʒ embers agtutor a u torʒ ˈ help regt re ʒ stalk
h $ in hope horn horn chimney pahar pa harˈ glass duh duh spirit
l l in like lun lun ɡ long alună a lunəˈ hazelnut fel fel sort
r talian r repede repedeˈ $uickly tren tren train măr mər apple
ampLampTampLI4ED +ONSONampNTSn addition to appearin before i palatalized consonants also appear terminall as themanifestation of certain morpholoical markers namel to indicate8 $Gamp
bull Jluralit in nouns and adgtecties
bull ltecond person sinular in erbs
bull The interpretation commonly taken is that an underlying morpheme i palatali(es the consonant
and is subse)uently deleted owever s ʲ t ʲ and d ʲ become [ ʃʲ [ s tʲ and [( ʲ respectively[+ with very few phonetically ustified e-ceptions included in the table below which shows thatthis palatali(ation can occur for all consonants
Voiceless Voiced
Consonan
t Examples
Consonan
t Examples
p rupi rup ʲ you tear b arabi a rab ˈ ʲ rabs
t pro tiș pro t ʃ ʲ stupid $masc
pld nădedi n0 de d hopesˈ ʒ ʲ
k urechi u rek ˈ ʲ ears ɡ unghi un ɡʲ angle
st ro iț ro s t ʲ wheels 1
t ʃ faci fa t ʃʲ you do d ʒ mergi mer d ʒʲ you go
1 m dormi dorm ʲ you sleep
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1 n bani ban ʲ money $pl
f efiș ef ʃ ʲ bosses v ple uviș ple uv ˈʃ ʲ bald $masc
pl
s bessi bes ʲ 2essi ( bra(i bra( ʲ fir trees
ʃ mo iș mo ʃʲ old men ʒ brei bre ʒʲ brave $masc pl
h lahi lah ʲ 9Wallachians9 l
coliș NkolN 9schools
r sari sar ʲ you umpn certain morpholoical processes ʲ is replaced b the full owel i for e0ample
bull in noun plural enitie formation8 coli colilor ș ș kol ( kolilor ʃ ʲ ˈʃ 9schools ( of the schools9-
bull when appendin the definite article to some plural nouns8 brazi brazii braz ( brazigt ʲ ˈ 9fir trees ( the fir
trees9-
bull in erb pronoun combinations8 da i da i ț ț ne da s ( da sinetʲ ˈ t 9ie ( ie us9-
1his ma e0plain wh ʲ is perceied as a separate sound b natie speakers and written with thesame letter as the owel i1he non(sllabic ʲ can be sometimes found inside compound words like cacirc iaț k s aɨtʲˈ 9a few9-and oriunde or unde ʲˈ 9whereer9- where the first morpheme happened to end in this ʲ wordthat contains this twice iscincizeci in ze t ʃ t ʃʲˈ t ʃʲ 9fift9-n old 2omanian and still in some local pronunciations there is another e0ample of such a non(sllabic non(semiocalic phoneme deried from u which manifests itself as labialization of theprecedin sound 1he usual J notation is ʷ t is found at the end of some words afterconsonants and semiowels as in un urs pronounced un urs ˈ ʷ 9a bear9- or mi spui mɨ ʲspugt ʷ 9ou tell me9- 1he disappearance of this phoneme miht be attributed to the fact thatunlike ʲ it didn9t pla an morpholoical role t is possibl a trace of Iatin endinscontainin u us um- this phoneme is related to owel u used to connect the definite articlel to the stem of a noun or adgtectie as in domn domnul domn ( domnulˈ 9lord ( the lord9cf Iatin dominus-
OTER +ONSONampNTS s with other lanuaes 2omanian intergtections are remarkable from a phonetic perspectie inthat the often use sounds beond the normal phoneme inentor or disobe the normalphonotactical rules b containin unusual phoneme seuences b allowin words to be madeup of onl consonants or b consistin of repetitions ltuch e0ceptional mechanisms are neededto obtain an increased leel of e0pressiit$56amp Often these intergtections hae multiple spellins oroccasionall none at all which accounts for the difficult of findin the riht appro0imation usine0istin letters$5amp 1he followin is a list of e0amples
bull bilabial affricate $ ampʘ pronounced b roundin the lips and stronl suckin air between them is used
for urin horses to start walkin$56amp
bull Whistlin is another intergtection surpassin the limits of the phoneme inentor t is usuall spelled fiu
fiu$56amp
bull 1he dental click $ ampǀ see also click consonants- is used in an intergtection similar to the )nlish tut
tut or tsktsk - e0pressin concern disappointment disapproal etc and enerall accompanied b frownin or
a comparable facial e0pression Psuall two to four such clicks in a row make up the intergtectionF onl one click is
rare and more than four can be used for oer(emphasis 1he 2omanian spellin is usuall ttt or țțț 1echnicall the
dental click is obtained b creatin a cait between a elar closure and the tonue touchin the aleolar ride in
the same position as for consonant $tamp When the tonue closure is released the air from outside is sucked in and
produces the click
bull 1he same dental click is used in another intergtection the informal euialent of no nu in 2omanian-
Onl one click is emitted usuall as an answer to a es(no uestion lthouh there is rarel an accompanin
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sound the usual spellin is nt or nț in which the additional n has the role of showin either the fact that the click is
pronounced stroner or that the mouth shape before the click is appro0imatel the same as for consonant $namp
bull series of intergtections are pronounced with the mouth shut Hependin on intonation lenth and
rhthm the can hae arious meanins such as8 perple0it doubt displeasure tastiness toothache approal
etc$5amp Jossible spellins include8 hm hacircmamphmmhm h mmm h Jhoneticall similar but semanticall
different is the )nlish intergtection ahem
bull nother intergtection meanin no could be described as the pronunciation of $ a aampˈʔ ʔ with the mouth
shutF both oicins start withlottal stops like the )nlish uhoh Jossible spellins include8 mm and mm
1he stress pattern is opposite to the intergtection for es mentioned before pronounced $a haampˈ with the mouth
shut
bull fu e0presses contempt or dissatisfaction and starts with the oiceless bilabial fricatie ɸ soundin like
but bein different from- the )nlish whew which e0presses relief after an effort or daner
bull acirchampch e0presses disust and ends in the oiceless elar fricatie 0 similar in meanin to )nlish ugh
bull rrr e0presses shierin cold and is made up of a sinle consonant the bilabial trill whose J smbol
is ʙ 1he spellin with seeral letters r is misleadin as the tonue doesn9t pla an actie roleF the actual labial
place of articulation is indicated b letter b
STRESS2omanian has a stress accent like almost all other 2omance lanuaes with the notablee0ception of +rench- enerall stress falls on the rihtmost sllable of a prosodic word that isthe root and deriational material but e0cludin inflections and final inflectional owels-$55amp While ale0icall marked stress pattern with penultimate stress e0ists an morpholoicall deried formswill continue to follow the unmarked pattern$55amp
n the e0amples below the stress is indicated in the phonetic transcription b a small erticalline before the stressed sllable
frate frateˈ 9brother9- copil ko pilˈ 9child9-
strugure stru ureˈ ɡ 9rape9- albastru al bastruˈ 9blue9- cltor kələ torˈ 9oaer9-
lttress is not normall marked in writin e0cept occasionall to distinuish between homoraphsor in dictionaries for the entr words When it is marked the main owel of the stressed sllablereceies an accent usuall acute but sometimes rae- for e0ample sel esl 9gtoial9fem s ( 9tableware9-n erb congtuation noun declension and other word formation processes stress shifts canoccur Qerbs can hae homoraphic forms onl distinuished b stress such as in el sufl whichcan mean he blows or he blew dependin on whether the stress is on the first or the secondsllable respectiel Chanin the rammatical cateor of a word can lead to similar wordpairs such as the erb a albi al biˈ 9to whiten9- compared to the adgtectie albi alb ˈ ʲ 9white9masc pl- lttress in 2omanian erbs can normall be predicted b comparin tenses with similarerbs in ltpanish which does indicate stress in writin
ltecondar stress occurs accordin to a predictable pattern fallin on eer other sllablestartin with the first as lon as it does not fall adgtacent to the primar stress$5amp
ROSOD5R5T6
Ianuaes such as )nlish 2ussian and rabic are called stress(timed meaninthat sllables are pronounced at a lower or hiher rate so as to achiee a rouhl eual timeinteral between stressed sllables nother cateor of lanuaes are sllable(timed whichmeans that each sllable takes about the same amount of time reardless of the position of thestresses in the sentence 2omanian is one of the sllable(timed lanuaes alon with other
2omance lanuaes +rench ltpanish etc- 1eluu Roruba and man others third timinsstem is mora timin e0emplified b Classical Iatin +igtian +innish 4awaiian Sapaneseand Old )nlish-
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1he distinction between these timin cateories ma sometimes seem unclear and definitionsar n addition the time interals between stressessllablesmorae are in realit onlappro0imatel eual with man e0ceptions and lare deiations hain been reported 4oweerwhile the actual time ma be onl appro0imatel eual the differences are perceptuall identicaln the case of 2omanian consonant clusters are often found both in the sllable onset and coda which reuire phsical time to be pronounced 1he sllable timin rule is then oerridden b
slowin down the rhthm 1hus it is seen that stress and sllable timin interact 1he samplesentences below each consistin of si0 sllables are illustratie8
+ama pune masa Mom sets the table
+ul i pu ti blonzi placircng prin cur i ț ș ț Man blond kids cr in the courtards
1he total time lenth taken b each of these sentences is obiousl different and attemptin topronounce one of them with the same rhthm as the other results in unnatural utterances1o a lesser e0tent but still perceiabl the sllables are e0tended in time also on one hand b thepresence of liuid and nasal consonants and on the other b that of semiowels in diphthonsand triphthons such as shown in the e0amples below
Romanian Enlis$
pic ( plic bit ( enelope
cec ( cerc che$ue ( circle
zic ( zinc I say ( zinc
car ( chiar I carry ( een
sare ( soare salt ( sun
sta ( stea to stay ( star
fi ( fii be (inf) ( be (imperatie)
simple wa to ealuate the lenth of a word and compare it to another consists in pronouncinit repeatedl at a natural speech rate
INTONampTION detailed description of the intonation patterns must consider a wide rane of elements such asthe focus of the sentence the theme and the rheme emotional aspects etc n this section onl afew eneral traits of the 2omanian intonation are discussed Most importantl intonation is
essential in uestions especiall because unlike )nlish and other lanuaes 2omanian doesnot distinuish rammaticall declaratie and interroatie sentencesn non(emp$atic 7es8no 9estions the pitch rises at the end of the sentence until the laststressed sllable f unstressed sllables follow the often hae a fallin intonation but this is nota rule
T i stins luminaU $ai stins luminaamp ae you turned off the light--
T Ha es-
n 1ranslanian speech these esno uestions hae a er different intonation pattern usuallwith a pitch peak at the beinnin of the uestion8 $ai stins luminaamp
n selection 9estions the tone rises at the first element of the selection and falls at the second
T Qrei bere sau inU $rei bere sau inamp Do you want beer or wine--
T ere eer-
W$(9estions start with a hih pitch on the first word and then the pitch falls raduall towardthe end of the sentence
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T Cine a lăsat u a deschisăU $ș cine a lăsat u a deschisăamp ș ho left the door open--
T Mama +om did-
Repeat 9estions hae a risin intonation
T sunat 2odica adineauri 0odica ust called-
T Cine a sunatU $cine a sunatamp ho called--
T Colea ta 2odica our classmate 0odica-
Ta 9estions are uttered with a risin intonation
T i(e foame nu(i a aU $ i(e foame nu(i a Ț ș ț aamp ș ou1re hungry aren1t you--
Uninis$e tterances hae a risin intonation similar to that of esno uestions but the pitchrise is smaller
T Hupă ce m(am icircntors $după ce m(am icircntorsamp 2fter I came back-
Qarious other intonation patterns are used to e0press8 reuests commands surprise suestionadice and so on
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1he 2omanian consonant set is almost the same as that in talian with a few e0ceptions8 1hetalian palatal consonants ɲ ʎ and affricate dz are missin in standard 2omanian which inturn has the fricatie ʒ and the lottal h4ere are some e0amples with an appro0imate indication of how each consonant is pronouncedintended for )nlish natie speakers
+onsonant rononce as Examples
p p in speak pas pas step spate spateˈ back cap kap head
b in boy ban ban money zbor zbor I fly rob rob slae
t t in stop tare tareˈ hard stai stagt you stay sat sat illage
d in day dacă dakəˈ if inde indeˈ he sells cad kad I fall
k 1 in sky cal kalˈ horse ascund as kundˈ I hide sac sak sack
ɡ in go ol olɡ empty pună pun əˈ ɡ bag dra dra ɡ dear
ts ts in nuts arăț tsarəˈ country a ăț atsəˈ thread soț sots husband
t ʃ c$ in chin cer t er ʃ sky acile at ileˈ ʃ the cows maci mat ʃʲ poppies
d ʒ 2 in ingle er d erʒ frost maic mad ikˈ ʒ magical roi rod ʒʲ you ask
m m in man mic mik small amar a marˈ bitter pom pom tree
n n in name nor nor cloud inel i nelˈ ring motan mo tanˈ tomcat
f in fine foc fok fire afară a farəˈ out pantof pan tofˈ shoe
in oice al al wae coor ko orˈ carpet mo mo maue
s s in sound sare sareˈ salt case kaseˈ houses ales a lesˈ chosen
z 3 in zone zid zid wall mazăre mazəreˈ pea orez o rezˈ rice
ʃ s$ in shy arpeș arpeˈʃ snake a aș a aˈʃ so oraș o ra ˈ ʃ city
ʒ s in measure gtar arʒ embers agtutor a u torʒ ˈ help regt re ʒ stalk
h $ in hope horn horn chimney pahar pa harˈ glass duh duh spirit
l l in like lun lun ɡ long alună a lunəˈ hazelnut fel fel sort
r talian r repede repedeˈ $uickly tren tren train măr mər apple
ampLampTampLI4ED +ONSONampNTSn addition to appearin before i palatalized consonants also appear terminall as themanifestation of certain morpholoical markers namel to indicate8 $Gamp
bull Jluralit in nouns and adgtecties
bull ltecond person sinular in erbs
bull The interpretation commonly taken is that an underlying morpheme i palatali(es the consonant
and is subse)uently deleted owever s ʲ t ʲ and d ʲ become [ ʃʲ [ s tʲ and [( ʲ respectively[+ with very few phonetically ustified e-ceptions included in the table below which shows thatthis palatali(ation can occur for all consonants
Voiceless Voiced
Consonan
t Examples
Consonan
t Examples
p rupi rup ʲ you tear b arabi a rab ˈ ʲ rabs
t pro tiș pro t ʃ ʲ stupid $masc
pld nădedi n0 de d hopesˈ ʒ ʲ
k urechi u rek ˈ ʲ ears ɡ unghi un ɡʲ angle
st ro iț ro s t ʲ wheels 1
t ʃ faci fa t ʃʲ you do d ʒ mergi mer d ʒʲ you go
1 m dormi dorm ʲ you sleep
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1 n bani ban ʲ money $pl
f efiș ef ʃ ʲ bosses v ple uviș ple uv ˈʃ ʲ bald $masc
pl
s bessi bes ʲ 2essi ( bra(i bra( ʲ fir trees
ʃ mo iș mo ʃʲ old men ʒ brei bre ʒʲ brave $masc pl
h lahi lah ʲ 9Wallachians9 l
coliș NkolN 9schools
r sari sar ʲ you umpn certain morpholoical processes ʲ is replaced b the full owel i for e0ample
bull in noun plural enitie formation8 coli colilor ș ș kol ( kolilor ʃ ʲ ˈʃ 9schools ( of the schools9-
bull when appendin the definite article to some plural nouns8 brazi brazii braz ( brazigt ʲ ˈ 9fir trees ( the fir
trees9-
bull in erb pronoun combinations8 da i da i ț ț ne da s ( da sinetʲ ˈ t 9ie ( ie us9-
1his ma e0plain wh ʲ is perceied as a separate sound b natie speakers and written with thesame letter as the owel i1he non(sllabic ʲ can be sometimes found inside compound words like cacirc iaț k s aɨtʲˈ 9a few9-and oriunde or unde ʲˈ 9whereer9- where the first morpheme happened to end in this ʲ wordthat contains this twice iscincizeci in ze t ʃ t ʃʲˈ t ʃʲ 9fift9-n old 2omanian and still in some local pronunciations there is another e0ample of such a non(sllabic non(semiocalic phoneme deried from u which manifests itself as labialization of theprecedin sound 1he usual J notation is ʷ t is found at the end of some words afterconsonants and semiowels as in un urs pronounced un urs ˈ ʷ 9a bear9- or mi spui mɨ ʲspugt ʷ 9ou tell me9- 1he disappearance of this phoneme miht be attributed to the fact thatunlike ʲ it didn9t pla an morpholoical role t is possibl a trace of Iatin endinscontainin u us um- this phoneme is related to owel u used to connect the definite articlel to the stem of a noun or adgtectie as in domn domnul domn ( domnulˈ 9lord ( the lord9cf Iatin dominus-
OTER +ONSONampNTS s with other lanuaes 2omanian intergtections are remarkable from a phonetic perspectie inthat the often use sounds beond the normal phoneme inentor or disobe the normalphonotactical rules b containin unusual phoneme seuences b allowin words to be madeup of onl consonants or b consistin of repetitions ltuch e0ceptional mechanisms are neededto obtain an increased leel of e0pressiit$56amp Often these intergtections hae multiple spellins oroccasionall none at all which accounts for the difficult of findin the riht appro0imation usine0istin letters$5amp 1he followin is a list of e0amples
bull bilabial affricate $ ampʘ pronounced b roundin the lips and stronl suckin air between them is used
for urin horses to start walkin$56amp
bull Whistlin is another intergtection surpassin the limits of the phoneme inentor t is usuall spelled fiu
fiu$56amp
bull 1he dental click $ ampǀ see also click consonants- is used in an intergtection similar to the )nlish tut
tut or tsktsk - e0pressin concern disappointment disapproal etc and enerall accompanied b frownin or
a comparable facial e0pression Psuall two to four such clicks in a row make up the intergtectionF onl one click is
rare and more than four can be used for oer(emphasis 1he 2omanian spellin is usuall ttt or țțț 1echnicall the
dental click is obtained b creatin a cait between a elar closure and the tonue touchin the aleolar ride in
the same position as for consonant $tamp When the tonue closure is released the air from outside is sucked in and
produces the click
bull 1he same dental click is used in another intergtection the informal euialent of no nu in 2omanian-
Onl one click is emitted usuall as an answer to a es(no uestion lthouh there is rarel an accompanin
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sound the usual spellin is nt or nț in which the additional n has the role of showin either the fact that the click is
pronounced stroner or that the mouth shape before the click is appro0imatel the same as for consonant $namp
bull series of intergtections are pronounced with the mouth shut Hependin on intonation lenth and
rhthm the can hae arious meanins such as8 perple0it doubt displeasure tastiness toothache approal
etc$5amp Jossible spellins include8 hm hacircmamphmmhm h mmm h Jhoneticall similar but semanticall
different is the )nlish intergtection ahem
bull nother intergtection meanin no could be described as the pronunciation of $ a aampˈʔ ʔ with the mouth
shutF both oicins start withlottal stops like the )nlish uhoh Jossible spellins include8 mm and mm
1he stress pattern is opposite to the intergtection for es mentioned before pronounced $a haampˈ with the mouth
shut
bull fu e0presses contempt or dissatisfaction and starts with the oiceless bilabial fricatie ɸ soundin like
but bein different from- the )nlish whew which e0presses relief after an effort or daner
bull acirchampch e0presses disust and ends in the oiceless elar fricatie 0 similar in meanin to )nlish ugh
bull rrr e0presses shierin cold and is made up of a sinle consonant the bilabial trill whose J smbol
is ʙ 1he spellin with seeral letters r is misleadin as the tonue doesn9t pla an actie roleF the actual labial
place of articulation is indicated b letter b
STRESS2omanian has a stress accent like almost all other 2omance lanuaes with the notablee0ception of +rench- enerall stress falls on the rihtmost sllable of a prosodic word that isthe root and deriational material but e0cludin inflections and final inflectional owels-$55amp While ale0icall marked stress pattern with penultimate stress e0ists an morpholoicall deried formswill continue to follow the unmarked pattern$55amp
n the e0amples below the stress is indicated in the phonetic transcription b a small erticalline before the stressed sllable
frate frateˈ 9brother9- copil ko pilˈ 9child9-
strugure stru ureˈ ɡ 9rape9- albastru al bastruˈ 9blue9- cltor kələ torˈ 9oaer9-
lttress is not normall marked in writin e0cept occasionall to distinuish between homoraphsor in dictionaries for the entr words When it is marked the main owel of the stressed sllablereceies an accent usuall acute but sometimes rae- for e0ample sel esl 9gtoial9fem s ( 9tableware9-n erb congtuation noun declension and other word formation processes stress shifts canoccur Qerbs can hae homoraphic forms onl distinuished b stress such as in el sufl whichcan mean he blows or he blew dependin on whether the stress is on the first or the secondsllable respectiel Chanin the rammatical cateor of a word can lead to similar wordpairs such as the erb a albi al biˈ 9to whiten9- compared to the adgtectie albi alb ˈ ʲ 9white9masc pl- lttress in 2omanian erbs can normall be predicted b comparin tenses with similarerbs in ltpanish which does indicate stress in writin
ltecondar stress occurs accordin to a predictable pattern fallin on eer other sllablestartin with the first as lon as it does not fall adgtacent to the primar stress$5amp
ROSOD5R5T6
Ianuaes such as )nlish 2ussian and rabic are called stress(timed meaninthat sllables are pronounced at a lower or hiher rate so as to achiee a rouhl eual timeinteral between stressed sllables nother cateor of lanuaes are sllable(timed whichmeans that each sllable takes about the same amount of time reardless of the position of thestresses in the sentence 2omanian is one of the sllable(timed lanuaes alon with other
2omance lanuaes +rench ltpanish etc- 1eluu Roruba and man others third timinsstem is mora timin e0emplified b Classical Iatin +igtian +innish 4awaiian Sapaneseand Old )nlish-
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1he distinction between these timin cateories ma sometimes seem unclear and definitionsar n addition the time interals between stressessllablesmorae are in realit onlappro0imatel eual with man e0ceptions and lare deiations hain been reported 4oweerwhile the actual time ma be onl appro0imatel eual the differences are perceptuall identicaln the case of 2omanian consonant clusters are often found both in the sllable onset and coda which reuire phsical time to be pronounced 1he sllable timin rule is then oerridden b
slowin down the rhthm 1hus it is seen that stress and sllable timin interact 1he samplesentences below each consistin of si0 sllables are illustratie8
+ama pune masa Mom sets the table
+ul i pu ti blonzi placircng prin cur i ț ș ț Man blond kids cr in the courtards
1he total time lenth taken b each of these sentences is obiousl different and attemptin topronounce one of them with the same rhthm as the other results in unnatural utterances1o a lesser e0tent but still perceiabl the sllables are e0tended in time also on one hand b thepresence of liuid and nasal consonants and on the other b that of semiowels in diphthonsand triphthons such as shown in the e0amples below
Romanian Enlis$
pic ( plic bit ( enelope
cec ( cerc che$ue ( circle
zic ( zinc I say ( zinc
car ( chiar I carry ( een
sare ( soare salt ( sun
sta ( stea to stay ( star
fi ( fii be (inf) ( be (imperatie)
simple wa to ealuate the lenth of a word and compare it to another consists in pronouncinit repeatedl at a natural speech rate
INTONampTION detailed description of the intonation patterns must consider a wide rane of elements such asthe focus of the sentence the theme and the rheme emotional aspects etc n this section onl afew eneral traits of the 2omanian intonation are discussed Most importantl intonation is
essential in uestions especiall because unlike )nlish and other lanuaes 2omanian doesnot distinuish rammaticall declaratie and interroatie sentencesn non(emp$atic 7es8no 9estions the pitch rises at the end of the sentence until the laststressed sllable f unstressed sllables follow the often hae a fallin intonation but this is nota rule
T i stins luminaU $ai stins luminaamp ae you turned off the light--
T Ha es-
n 1ranslanian speech these esno uestions hae a er different intonation pattern usuallwith a pitch peak at the beinnin of the uestion8 $ai stins luminaamp
n selection 9estions the tone rises at the first element of the selection and falls at the second
T Qrei bere sau inU $rei bere sau inamp Do you want beer or wine--
T ere eer-
W$(9estions start with a hih pitch on the first word and then the pitch falls raduall towardthe end of the sentence
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T Cine a lăsat u a deschisăU $ș cine a lăsat u a deschisăamp ș ho left the door open--
T Mama +om did-
Repeat 9estions hae a risin intonation
T sunat 2odica adineauri 0odica ust called-
T Cine a sunatU $cine a sunatamp ho called--
T Colea ta 2odica our classmate 0odica-
Ta 9estions are uttered with a risin intonation
T i(e foame nu(i a aU $ i(e foame nu(i a Ț ș ț aamp ș ou1re hungry aren1t you--
Uninis$e tterances hae a risin intonation similar to that of esno uestions but the pitchrise is smaller
T Hupă ce m(am icircntors $după ce m(am icircntorsamp 2fter I came back-
Qarious other intonation patterns are used to e0press8 reuests commands surprise suestionadice and so on
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1 n bani ban ʲ money $pl
f efiș ef ʃ ʲ bosses v ple uviș ple uv ˈʃ ʲ bald $masc
pl
s bessi bes ʲ 2essi ( bra(i bra( ʲ fir trees
ʃ mo iș mo ʃʲ old men ʒ brei bre ʒʲ brave $masc pl
h lahi lah ʲ 9Wallachians9 l
coliș NkolN 9schools
r sari sar ʲ you umpn certain morpholoical processes ʲ is replaced b the full owel i for e0ample
bull in noun plural enitie formation8 coli colilor ș ș kol ( kolilor ʃ ʲ ˈʃ 9schools ( of the schools9-
bull when appendin the definite article to some plural nouns8 brazi brazii braz ( brazigt ʲ ˈ 9fir trees ( the fir
trees9-
bull in erb pronoun combinations8 da i da i ț ț ne da s ( da sinetʲ ˈ t 9ie ( ie us9-
1his ma e0plain wh ʲ is perceied as a separate sound b natie speakers and written with thesame letter as the owel i1he non(sllabic ʲ can be sometimes found inside compound words like cacirc iaț k s aɨtʲˈ 9a few9-and oriunde or unde ʲˈ 9whereer9- where the first morpheme happened to end in this ʲ wordthat contains this twice iscincizeci in ze t ʃ t ʃʲˈ t ʃʲ 9fift9-n old 2omanian and still in some local pronunciations there is another e0ample of such a non(sllabic non(semiocalic phoneme deried from u which manifests itself as labialization of theprecedin sound 1he usual J notation is ʷ t is found at the end of some words afterconsonants and semiowels as in un urs pronounced un urs ˈ ʷ 9a bear9- or mi spui mɨ ʲspugt ʷ 9ou tell me9- 1he disappearance of this phoneme miht be attributed to the fact thatunlike ʲ it didn9t pla an morpholoical role t is possibl a trace of Iatin endinscontainin u us um- this phoneme is related to owel u used to connect the definite articlel to the stem of a noun or adgtectie as in domn domnul domn ( domnulˈ 9lord ( the lord9cf Iatin dominus-
OTER +ONSONampNTS s with other lanuaes 2omanian intergtections are remarkable from a phonetic perspectie inthat the often use sounds beond the normal phoneme inentor or disobe the normalphonotactical rules b containin unusual phoneme seuences b allowin words to be madeup of onl consonants or b consistin of repetitions ltuch e0ceptional mechanisms are neededto obtain an increased leel of e0pressiit$56amp Often these intergtections hae multiple spellins oroccasionall none at all which accounts for the difficult of findin the riht appro0imation usine0istin letters$5amp 1he followin is a list of e0amples
bull bilabial affricate $ ampʘ pronounced b roundin the lips and stronl suckin air between them is used
for urin horses to start walkin$56amp
bull Whistlin is another intergtection surpassin the limits of the phoneme inentor t is usuall spelled fiu
fiu$56amp
bull 1he dental click $ ampǀ see also click consonants- is used in an intergtection similar to the )nlish tut
tut or tsktsk - e0pressin concern disappointment disapproal etc and enerall accompanied b frownin or
a comparable facial e0pression Psuall two to four such clicks in a row make up the intergtectionF onl one click is
rare and more than four can be used for oer(emphasis 1he 2omanian spellin is usuall ttt or țțț 1echnicall the
dental click is obtained b creatin a cait between a elar closure and the tonue touchin the aleolar ride in
the same position as for consonant $tamp When the tonue closure is released the air from outside is sucked in and
produces the click
bull 1he same dental click is used in another intergtection the informal euialent of no nu in 2omanian-
Onl one click is emitted usuall as an answer to a es(no uestion lthouh there is rarel an accompanin
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sound the usual spellin is nt or nț in which the additional n has the role of showin either the fact that the click is
pronounced stroner or that the mouth shape before the click is appro0imatel the same as for consonant $namp
bull series of intergtections are pronounced with the mouth shut Hependin on intonation lenth and
rhthm the can hae arious meanins such as8 perple0it doubt displeasure tastiness toothache approal
etc$5amp Jossible spellins include8 hm hacircmamphmmhm h mmm h Jhoneticall similar but semanticall
different is the )nlish intergtection ahem
bull nother intergtection meanin no could be described as the pronunciation of $ a aampˈʔ ʔ with the mouth
shutF both oicins start withlottal stops like the )nlish uhoh Jossible spellins include8 mm and mm
1he stress pattern is opposite to the intergtection for es mentioned before pronounced $a haampˈ with the mouth
shut
bull fu e0presses contempt or dissatisfaction and starts with the oiceless bilabial fricatie ɸ soundin like
but bein different from- the )nlish whew which e0presses relief after an effort or daner
bull acirchampch e0presses disust and ends in the oiceless elar fricatie 0 similar in meanin to )nlish ugh
bull rrr e0presses shierin cold and is made up of a sinle consonant the bilabial trill whose J smbol
is ʙ 1he spellin with seeral letters r is misleadin as the tonue doesn9t pla an actie roleF the actual labial
place of articulation is indicated b letter b
STRESS2omanian has a stress accent like almost all other 2omance lanuaes with the notablee0ception of +rench- enerall stress falls on the rihtmost sllable of a prosodic word that isthe root and deriational material but e0cludin inflections and final inflectional owels-$55amp While ale0icall marked stress pattern with penultimate stress e0ists an morpholoicall deried formswill continue to follow the unmarked pattern$55amp
n the e0amples below the stress is indicated in the phonetic transcription b a small erticalline before the stressed sllable
frate frateˈ 9brother9- copil ko pilˈ 9child9-
strugure stru ureˈ ɡ 9rape9- albastru al bastruˈ 9blue9- cltor kələ torˈ 9oaer9-
lttress is not normall marked in writin e0cept occasionall to distinuish between homoraphsor in dictionaries for the entr words When it is marked the main owel of the stressed sllablereceies an accent usuall acute but sometimes rae- for e0ample sel esl 9gtoial9fem s ( 9tableware9-n erb congtuation noun declension and other word formation processes stress shifts canoccur Qerbs can hae homoraphic forms onl distinuished b stress such as in el sufl whichcan mean he blows or he blew dependin on whether the stress is on the first or the secondsllable respectiel Chanin the rammatical cateor of a word can lead to similar wordpairs such as the erb a albi al biˈ 9to whiten9- compared to the adgtectie albi alb ˈ ʲ 9white9masc pl- lttress in 2omanian erbs can normall be predicted b comparin tenses with similarerbs in ltpanish which does indicate stress in writin
ltecondar stress occurs accordin to a predictable pattern fallin on eer other sllablestartin with the first as lon as it does not fall adgtacent to the primar stress$5amp
ROSOD5R5T6
Ianuaes such as )nlish 2ussian and rabic are called stress(timed meaninthat sllables are pronounced at a lower or hiher rate so as to achiee a rouhl eual timeinteral between stressed sllables nother cateor of lanuaes are sllable(timed whichmeans that each sllable takes about the same amount of time reardless of the position of thestresses in the sentence 2omanian is one of the sllable(timed lanuaes alon with other
2omance lanuaes +rench ltpanish etc- 1eluu Roruba and man others third timinsstem is mora timin e0emplified b Classical Iatin +igtian +innish 4awaiian Sapaneseand Old )nlish-
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1he distinction between these timin cateories ma sometimes seem unclear and definitionsar n addition the time interals between stressessllablesmorae are in realit onlappro0imatel eual with man e0ceptions and lare deiations hain been reported 4oweerwhile the actual time ma be onl appro0imatel eual the differences are perceptuall identicaln the case of 2omanian consonant clusters are often found both in the sllable onset and coda which reuire phsical time to be pronounced 1he sllable timin rule is then oerridden b
slowin down the rhthm 1hus it is seen that stress and sllable timin interact 1he samplesentences below each consistin of si0 sllables are illustratie8
+ama pune masa Mom sets the table
+ul i pu ti blonzi placircng prin cur i ț ș ț Man blond kids cr in the courtards
1he total time lenth taken b each of these sentences is obiousl different and attemptin topronounce one of them with the same rhthm as the other results in unnatural utterances1o a lesser e0tent but still perceiabl the sllables are e0tended in time also on one hand b thepresence of liuid and nasal consonants and on the other b that of semiowels in diphthonsand triphthons such as shown in the e0amples below
Romanian Enlis$
pic ( plic bit ( enelope
cec ( cerc che$ue ( circle
zic ( zinc I say ( zinc
car ( chiar I carry ( een
sare ( soare salt ( sun
sta ( stea to stay ( star
fi ( fii be (inf) ( be (imperatie)
simple wa to ealuate the lenth of a word and compare it to another consists in pronouncinit repeatedl at a natural speech rate
INTONampTION detailed description of the intonation patterns must consider a wide rane of elements such asthe focus of the sentence the theme and the rheme emotional aspects etc n this section onl afew eneral traits of the 2omanian intonation are discussed Most importantl intonation is
essential in uestions especiall because unlike )nlish and other lanuaes 2omanian doesnot distinuish rammaticall declaratie and interroatie sentencesn non(emp$atic 7es8no 9estions the pitch rises at the end of the sentence until the laststressed sllable f unstressed sllables follow the often hae a fallin intonation but this is nota rule
T i stins luminaU $ai stins luminaamp ae you turned off the light--
T Ha es-
n 1ranslanian speech these esno uestions hae a er different intonation pattern usuallwith a pitch peak at the beinnin of the uestion8 $ai stins luminaamp
n selection 9estions the tone rises at the first element of the selection and falls at the second
T Qrei bere sau inU $rei bere sau inamp Do you want beer or wine--
T ere eer-
W$(9estions start with a hih pitch on the first word and then the pitch falls raduall towardthe end of the sentence
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T Cine a lăsat u a deschisăU $ș cine a lăsat u a deschisăamp ș ho left the door open--
T Mama +om did-
Repeat 9estions hae a risin intonation
T sunat 2odica adineauri 0odica ust called-
T Cine a sunatU $cine a sunatamp ho called--
T Colea ta 2odica our classmate 0odica-
Ta 9estions are uttered with a risin intonation
T i(e foame nu(i a aU $ i(e foame nu(i a Ț ș ț aamp ș ou1re hungry aren1t you--
Uninis$e tterances hae a risin intonation similar to that of esno uestions but the pitchrise is smaller
T Hupă ce m(am icircntors $după ce m(am icircntorsamp 2fter I came back-
Qarious other intonation patterns are used to e0press8 reuests commands surprise suestionadice and so on
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sound the usual spellin is nt or nț in which the additional n has the role of showin either the fact that the click is
pronounced stroner or that the mouth shape before the click is appro0imatel the same as for consonant $namp
bull series of intergtections are pronounced with the mouth shut Hependin on intonation lenth and
rhthm the can hae arious meanins such as8 perple0it doubt displeasure tastiness toothache approal
etc$5amp Jossible spellins include8 hm hacircmamphmmhm h mmm h Jhoneticall similar but semanticall
different is the )nlish intergtection ahem
bull nother intergtection meanin no could be described as the pronunciation of $ a aampˈʔ ʔ with the mouth
shutF both oicins start withlottal stops like the )nlish uhoh Jossible spellins include8 mm and mm
1he stress pattern is opposite to the intergtection for es mentioned before pronounced $a haampˈ with the mouth
shut
bull fu e0presses contempt or dissatisfaction and starts with the oiceless bilabial fricatie ɸ soundin like
but bein different from- the )nlish whew which e0presses relief after an effort or daner
bull acirchampch e0presses disust and ends in the oiceless elar fricatie 0 similar in meanin to )nlish ugh
bull rrr e0presses shierin cold and is made up of a sinle consonant the bilabial trill whose J smbol
is ʙ 1he spellin with seeral letters r is misleadin as the tonue doesn9t pla an actie roleF the actual labial
place of articulation is indicated b letter b
STRESS2omanian has a stress accent like almost all other 2omance lanuaes with the notablee0ception of +rench- enerall stress falls on the rihtmost sllable of a prosodic word that isthe root and deriational material but e0cludin inflections and final inflectional owels-$55amp While ale0icall marked stress pattern with penultimate stress e0ists an morpholoicall deried formswill continue to follow the unmarked pattern$55amp
n the e0amples below the stress is indicated in the phonetic transcription b a small erticalline before the stressed sllable
frate frateˈ 9brother9- copil ko pilˈ 9child9-
strugure stru ureˈ ɡ 9rape9- albastru al bastruˈ 9blue9- cltor kələ torˈ 9oaer9-
lttress is not normall marked in writin e0cept occasionall to distinuish between homoraphsor in dictionaries for the entr words When it is marked the main owel of the stressed sllablereceies an accent usuall acute but sometimes rae- for e0ample sel esl 9gtoial9fem s ( 9tableware9-n erb congtuation noun declension and other word formation processes stress shifts canoccur Qerbs can hae homoraphic forms onl distinuished b stress such as in el sufl whichcan mean he blows or he blew dependin on whether the stress is on the first or the secondsllable respectiel Chanin the rammatical cateor of a word can lead to similar wordpairs such as the erb a albi al biˈ 9to whiten9- compared to the adgtectie albi alb ˈ ʲ 9white9masc pl- lttress in 2omanian erbs can normall be predicted b comparin tenses with similarerbs in ltpanish which does indicate stress in writin
ltecondar stress occurs accordin to a predictable pattern fallin on eer other sllablestartin with the first as lon as it does not fall adgtacent to the primar stress$5amp
ROSOD5R5T6
Ianuaes such as )nlish 2ussian and rabic are called stress(timed meaninthat sllables are pronounced at a lower or hiher rate so as to achiee a rouhl eual timeinteral between stressed sllables nother cateor of lanuaes are sllable(timed whichmeans that each sllable takes about the same amount of time reardless of the position of thestresses in the sentence 2omanian is one of the sllable(timed lanuaes alon with other
2omance lanuaes +rench ltpanish etc- 1eluu Roruba and man others third timinsstem is mora timin e0emplified b Classical Iatin +igtian +innish 4awaiian Sapaneseand Old )nlish-
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1he distinction between these timin cateories ma sometimes seem unclear and definitionsar n addition the time interals between stressessllablesmorae are in realit onlappro0imatel eual with man e0ceptions and lare deiations hain been reported 4oweerwhile the actual time ma be onl appro0imatel eual the differences are perceptuall identicaln the case of 2omanian consonant clusters are often found both in the sllable onset and coda which reuire phsical time to be pronounced 1he sllable timin rule is then oerridden b
slowin down the rhthm 1hus it is seen that stress and sllable timin interact 1he samplesentences below each consistin of si0 sllables are illustratie8
+ama pune masa Mom sets the table
+ul i pu ti blonzi placircng prin cur i ț ș ț Man blond kids cr in the courtards
1he total time lenth taken b each of these sentences is obiousl different and attemptin topronounce one of them with the same rhthm as the other results in unnatural utterances1o a lesser e0tent but still perceiabl the sllables are e0tended in time also on one hand b thepresence of liuid and nasal consonants and on the other b that of semiowels in diphthonsand triphthons such as shown in the e0amples below
Romanian Enlis$
pic ( plic bit ( enelope
cec ( cerc che$ue ( circle
zic ( zinc I say ( zinc
car ( chiar I carry ( een
sare ( soare salt ( sun
sta ( stea to stay ( star
fi ( fii be (inf) ( be (imperatie)
simple wa to ealuate the lenth of a word and compare it to another consists in pronouncinit repeatedl at a natural speech rate
INTONampTION detailed description of the intonation patterns must consider a wide rane of elements such asthe focus of the sentence the theme and the rheme emotional aspects etc n this section onl afew eneral traits of the 2omanian intonation are discussed Most importantl intonation is
essential in uestions especiall because unlike )nlish and other lanuaes 2omanian doesnot distinuish rammaticall declaratie and interroatie sentencesn non(emp$atic 7es8no 9estions the pitch rises at the end of the sentence until the laststressed sllable f unstressed sllables follow the often hae a fallin intonation but this is nota rule
T i stins luminaU $ai stins luminaamp ae you turned off the light--
T Ha es-
n 1ranslanian speech these esno uestions hae a er different intonation pattern usuallwith a pitch peak at the beinnin of the uestion8 $ai stins luminaamp
n selection 9estions the tone rises at the first element of the selection and falls at the second
T Qrei bere sau inU $rei bere sau inamp Do you want beer or wine--
T ere eer-
W$(9estions start with a hih pitch on the first word and then the pitch falls raduall towardthe end of the sentence
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T Cine a lăsat u a deschisăU $ș cine a lăsat u a deschisăamp ș ho left the door open--
T Mama +om did-
Repeat 9estions hae a risin intonation
T sunat 2odica adineauri 0odica ust called-
T Cine a sunatU $cine a sunatamp ho called--
T Colea ta 2odica our classmate 0odica-
Ta 9estions are uttered with a risin intonation
T i(e foame nu(i a aU $ i(e foame nu(i a Ț ș ț aamp ș ou1re hungry aren1t you--
Uninis$e tterances hae a risin intonation similar to that of esno uestions but the pitchrise is smaller
T Hupă ce m(am icircntors $după ce m(am icircntorsamp 2fter I came back-
Qarious other intonation patterns are used to e0press8 reuests commands surprise suestionadice and so on
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1he distinction between these timin cateories ma sometimes seem unclear and definitionsar n addition the time interals between stressessllablesmorae are in realit onlappro0imatel eual with man e0ceptions and lare deiations hain been reported 4oweerwhile the actual time ma be onl appro0imatel eual the differences are perceptuall identicaln the case of 2omanian consonant clusters are often found both in the sllable onset and coda which reuire phsical time to be pronounced 1he sllable timin rule is then oerridden b
slowin down the rhthm 1hus it is seen that stress and sllable timin interact 1he samplesentences below each consistin of si0 sllables are illustratie8
+ama pune masa Mom sets the table
+ul i pu ti blonzi placircng prin cur i ț ș ț Man blond kids cr in the courtards
1he total time lenth taken b each of these sentences is obiousl different and attemptin topronounce one of them with the same rhthm as the other results in unnatural utterances1o a lesser e0tent but still perceiabl the sllables are e0tended in time also on one hand b thepresence of liuid and nasal consonants and on the other b that of semiowels in diphthonsand triphthons such as shown in the e0amples below
Romanian Enlis$
pic ( plic bit ( enelope
cec ( cerc che$ue ( circle
zic ( zinc I say ( zinc
car ( chiar I carry ( een
sare ( soare salt ( sun
sta ( stea to stay ( star
fi ( fii be (inf) ( be (imperatie)
simple wa to ealuate the lenth of a word and compare it to another consists in pronouncinit repeatedl at a natural speech rate
INTONampTION detailed description of the intonation patterns must consider a wide rane of elements such asthe focus of the sentence the theme and the rheme emotional aspects etc n this section onl afew eneral traits of the 2omanian intonation are discussed Most importantl intonation is
essential in uestions especiall because unlike )nlish and other lanuaes 2omanian doesnot distinuish rammaticall declaratie and interroatie sentencesn non(emp$atic 7es8no 9estions the pitch rises at the end of the sentence until the laststressed sllable f unstressed sllables follow the often hae a fallin intonation but this is nota rule
T i stins luminaU $ai stins luminaamp ae you turned off the light--
T Ha es-
n 1ranslanian speech these esno uestions hae a er different intonation pattern usuallwith a pitch peak at the beinnin of the uestion8 $ai stins luminaamp
n selection 9estions the tone rises at the first element of the selection and falls at the second
T Qrei bere sau inU $rei bere sau inamp Do you want beer or wine--
T ere eer-
W$(9estions start with a hih pitch on the first word and then the pitch falls raduall towardthe end of the sentence
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T Cine a lăsat u a deschisăU $ș cine a lăsat u a deschisăamp ș ho left the door open--
T Mama +om did-
Repeat 9estions hae a risin intonation
T sunat 2odica adineauri 0odica ust called-
T Cine a sunatU $cine a sunatamp ho called--
T Colea ta 2odica our classmate 0odica-
Ta 9estions are uttered with a risin intonation
T i(e foame nu(i a aU $ i(e foame nu(i a Ț ș ț aamp ș ou1re hungry aren1t you--
Uninis$e tterances hae a risin intonation similar to that of esno uestions but the pitchrise is smaller
T Hupă ce m(am icircntors $după ce m(am icircntorsamp 2fter I came back-
Qarious other intonation patterns are used to e0press8 reuests commands surprise suestionadice and so on
7262019 Romanian Phonology and Phonetics
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T Cine a lăsat u a deschisăU $ș cine a lăsat u a deschisăamp ș ho left the door open--
T Mama +om did-
Repeat 9estions hae a risin intonation
T sunat 2odica adineauri 0odica ust called-
T Cine a sunatU $cine a sunatamp ho called--
T Colea ta 2odica our classmate 0odica-
Ta 9estions are uttered with a risin intonation
T i(e foame nu(i a aU $ i(e foame nu(i a Ț ș ț aamp ș ou1re hungry aren1t you--
Uninis$e tterances hae a risin intonation similar to that of esno uestions but the pitchrise is smaller
T Hupă ce m(am icircntors $după ce m(am icircntorsamp 2fter I came back-
Qarious other intonation patterns are used to e0press8 reuests commands surprise suestionadice and so on