Learn about the Romanian alphabet
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| Michael: Is the Romanian alphabet the same as the English alphabet? |
| Anna: And what are the differences? |
| Michael: At RomanianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Beatrice Balan, a kindergarten student, is studying the alphabet with her teacher, Corina Craciun. She sees an unfamiliar letter and asks, |
| "What letter is that?" |
| Beatrice Bălan: Ce literă este aceasta? |
| Dialogue |
| Beatrice Bălan: Ce literă este aceasta? |
| Corina Crăciun: Este litera ș. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Beatrice Bălan: Ce literă este aceasta? |
| Michael: "What letter is that?" |
| Corina Crăciun: Este litera ș. |
| Michael: "It's the letter ș." |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: In this lesson, we will talk about the Romanian alphabet, or |
| Anna: Alfabetul limbii Române. |
| Michael: Just like English, the Romanian language uses the Latin alphabet, which is 26 letters, but it also includes five additional special letters. These are letters that have been modified from the original Latin version to meet the phonetic requirements of Romanian. |
| You are probably familiar with the use of diacritics, as they are common in many languages. Diacritics are marks placed above or below a letter to indicate how the letter should be pronounced. Sometimes, they change the accent, sometimes the tone, and sometimes the stress. Diacritics can also change the meaning of a word. Think of the English word "resume," meaning to carry on, versus the word "resumé," meaning a written record of work history. The latter has a stress mark on the final 'E,' resulting in an entirely different meaning. |
| Unlike in English, though, 'diacritics' to Romanian native speakers are basic Romanian letters in their own right, as opposed to letters with special markings. |
| Let's look at what these five letters are! |
| In the dialogue we just listened to, the special Romanian letter you heard was |
| Anna: ș |
| Michael: This letter is called an S-comma and is a modified pronunciation of 'S.' It has a mark underneath it that looks like a comma… thus the name 'S-comma.' It's pronounced like the 'sh' sound in 'show.' Listen to this pronunciation |
| Anna: [NORMAL] știri [SLOWLY] știri |
| [PAUSE 3 SEC] |
| Michael: which means "news." Next, we have the letter |
| Anna: ă |
| Michael: This letter is an 'A' with a breve above it—this mark is shaped like the bottom half of a circle. It indicates the 'schwa' sound, which is known in linguistics as an unstressed sound. In a word, it sounds like this |
| Anna: [NORMAL] poamă [SLOWLY] poamă |
| [PAUSE 3 SEC] |
| Michael: meaning "fruit." There is another special letter formed with an 'A,' and that is |
| Anna: â. |
| Michael: This is an 'A' with a circumflex above it—that's the mark that looks like an upside-down V and it's the third letter of the Romanian alphabet. Pronouncing this letter just takes a little practice, because there is no equivalent English sound. In Romanian, it sounds like this |
| Anna: [NORMAL] român [SLOWLY] român |
| [PAUSE 3 SEC] |
| Michael: or "Romanian." |
| Now, the following letter looks like an 'I' with a circumflex above it, but it has exactly the same pronunciation as the 'A' with a circumflex! This is the letter |
| Anna: î |
| Michael: An example of how to use it is this word |
| Anna: [NORMAL] înțelegere [SLOWLY] înțelegere |
| [PAUSE 3 SEC] |
| Michael: which means "understanding." The only difference between these two circumflexed letters is that the 'I' is only found at the beginning or end of a word, whereas the 'A' is always found in the middle of a word. The best way to practice the pronunciation is just to listen repeatedly and try to imitate it. You can listen for the sound in the following sentence, and see if you can identify the word: |
| Anna: [NORMAL] Cerul este înnorat. [SLOWLY] Cerul este înnorat. |
| [PAUSE 4 SEC] |
| Michael: Did you get that? The native speaker said, "The sky is cloudy." |
| Okay, our next special letter is |
| Anna: ț. |
| Michael: This is the T-comma, or a 'T' with a comma underneath it. It's the 25th letter and you can say it like the 'zz' in 'pizza.' Like in this word |
| Anna: [NORMAL] țară [SLOWLY] țară |
| [PAUSE 3 SEC] |
| Michael: which means "country." In a sentence, it sounds like this |
| Anna: România este o țară frumoasă |
| Michael: "Romania is a beautiful country." |
| Apart from the special letters, Romanian has some other letter pronunciations that differ a little from English. The spelling is very phonetic, but some people battle with a few tricky letters. Try to remember that the sounds are very similar to Italian. If you pronounce the letters clearly, you will be fine! Let's look at a few letter combinations you can practice saying. |
| First, when the letter 'C' comes before an 'E' or an 'I,' it is pronounced similar to the Italian 'C' - like the 'ch' sound in 'cello.' An example is this word meaning 'voice' |
| Anna: [NORMAL] voce [SLOWLY] voce. |
| [PAUSE 3 SEC] |
| Michael: Next, the letter 'J' sounds like the 'Z' in 'azure.' Here is an example: |
| Anna: [NORMAL] Japonez [SLOWLY] Japonez |
| [PAUSE 3 SEC] |
| Michael: meaning "Japanese." Sounds like the French pronunciation of 'J,' right? |
| Another letter you can have fun practicing is 'H.' It's almost exactly like the English 'H,' but try to give it a touch of the Scottish sound in 'loch,' or the German 'ach'—just more softly. Here is an example |
| Anna: [NORMAL] hamsteri [SLOWLY] hamsteri |
| [PAUSE 3 SEC] |
| Michael: If you guessed the meaning as "hamster," you are right! |
| Our next letter to take note of is |
| Anna: r |
| Michael: As you can hear, the Romanian 'R' is rolled—just like in Italian or Spanish. Let us try it in a word |
| Anna: [NORMAL] rachetă [SLOWLY] rachetă |
| [PAUSE 3 SEC] |
| Michael: which means "racket." |
| Now, Romanian has many diphthongs and a few of them are not pronounced in ways we are used to. While these combinations are not separate letters of the alphabet, it helps to know how to say them correctly. With most Romanian diphthongs, you pronounce the letters individually, but in rapid succession. For instance, O-A is pronounced like 'wa-' in 'wash.' Listen to how it sounds |
| Anna: [NORMAL] oaste [SLOWLY] oaste |
| [PAUSE 3 SEC] |
| Michael: which means "army." |
| There are a few diphthongs that break this rule. The C-H sound takes the Italian pronunciation, like the 'Hard C' in 'chaos.' An example is the word for "guitar." It is spelled with a C-H and pronounced like this |
| Anna: [NORMAL] chitară [SLOWLY] chitară. |
| [PAUSE 3 SEC] |
| Michael: Lastly, there are four letters that are only used in foreign loanwords. They are 'Q,' 'W,' 'Y,' and 'K.' The first three |
| Anna: Q, W, Y |
| Michael: were only formally introduced into the Romanian alphabet in 1982, even though they had been used earlier. One example is the word "yacht" |
| Anna: yacht. |
| Michael: The letter 'K' has been around for a lot longer, but it's rarely used. You might see it in proper names, or in the occasional loanword like "kilogram" |
| Anna: kilogram |
| Summary |
| Michael: In this lesson, you have learned that the Romanian alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, but it also has an additional five special letters. You learned how to pronounce them, as well as how they are used. Lastly, you learned a few tips for pronouncing some of the more tricky letters and diphthongs. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: Now that you understand how the Romanian alphabet works, we would like to also mention something interesting about its history. The Latin-based Roman alphabet has been used for a long time to write the Romanian language, but this was not always the case! Before the 1860s, Romanian was written using the Cyrillic alphabet, or |
| Anna: Alfabet chirilic |
| Michael: Romanian Cyrillic was based on the Bulgarian alphabet and is not the same as Moldovan Cyrillic, which is based on the Russian alphabet. |
| Once it was decided to adopt the Latin alphabet in 1830, there was actually a transitional phase for a few decades, during which both Cyrillic and Latin letters were used. During this period, the rules fell away and various combination alphabets were used—often within one text. It must have been interesting times! |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Anna: La revedere. |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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