The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Romanian language pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see Template:IPA and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

See Romanian phonology and Romanian alphabet for a more thorough look at the sounds of Romanian.

Consonants
IPA Examples in Romanian English approximation
b ban about
d dop today
[1] ger gender
f foc face
ɡ gol, unghie again
h horn hat
k cal, chip, kilogram, quasar skip
l lună love
m mic moon
n nor name
ŋ[2] lung long
p pas span
r rac, mare curd (Scottish English)
s sare sun
ʃ șarpe shape
t tare stop
ts[1] țară cats
[1] cer choose
v val, watt voice
z zid zone
ʒ jar measure
Non-native consonants
ɲ Saligny roughly like canyon
Vowels
IPA Examples in Romanian English approximation
a a roughly like father
e erou roughly like bet
ə română about
i inel, mie beet
ɨ înspre, cârnat roses (for some English dialects)
o oraș law (British English)
u uda, dual fool
Non-native vowels
ɑ̃ Henri rendez-vous, roughly like on
ɛ̃ chemin de fer coq au vin, roughly like man
ø bleu, loess, chemin de fer roughly like sir
y ecru, fürer roughly like few
 
Semivowels[3]
IPA Examples in Romanian English approximation
j iarnă, creioane, rai, yoga you or boy
w băcăuan, dulău, Twitter wine or cow
Diphthongs[3]
e̯a bea, Andreea short [e] followed by full [a]; similar to yard
e̯o vreo short [e] followed by full [o]; similar to yawn
o̯a foarte, oace short [o] followed by full [a]; similar to wagon
 
Other symbols
IPA Examples Explanation
ˈ dulău [duˈləw] primary stress (placed before the stressed syllable)
ˌ extraordinar [ˌekstra.ordiˈnar] secondary stress
. mie [ˈmi.e] syllable marker, generally used between vowels in hiatus
ʲ[4] rupi [ˈrupʲ] palatalization (placed after the palatalized consonant)

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b c The affricates may be written more precisely with tie-bars: [t͡s], [t͡ʃ], [d͡ʒ], but they are omitted in transcriptions as they do not display correctly in all browsers. However, the affricates contrast with the plosive–fricative sequences: [ts], [tʃ] and [dʒ]. Usually, the spelling of the Romanian word indicates the pronunciation, with the affricates spelled ț, c, g, with one letter, and the sequences spelled ts, tș, dj, with two. However, personal names are the most common exceptions.
  2. ^ Not a separate phoneme but an allophone of /n/ before velars.
  3. ^ a b The approximants /j/ and /w/ can appear before and after vowels, including the diphthongs /e̯a/ and /o̯a/, in almost any combination.
  4. ^ Palatalization occurs only with a single final i.

References edit

  • Chițoran, Ioana (2001), The Phonology of Romanian: A Constraint-based Approach, Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter, ISBN 3110167662

See also edit