An extract from the excellent Triposo guide
Phrasebook for Romanian
Background
Pronunciation
Romanian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Romania and Moldova, as well as in some parts of Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria and Ukraine. It is useful to know the language if travelling in Romania, especially in rural areas.
Romanian may or may not be difficult for speakers of other languages. It is very similar to Italian, and, to a similiar extent, other Romance languages, so speakers of these languages are more at an advantage.
Note that in Romanian, there is a formal and informal form when addressing people. The informal is tu (you, singular) or voi (you, plural) and the formal is dumneavoastra.
There is also a formal way of speaking about other people, not just when addressing them. When referring to she use dumneaei; for he use dumnealui; and for them use dumnealor. Note that the formal form should be used with the plural form of the verb, at the appropriate person. This is similar to the construction in most other Romance languages, and, to an extent, German, although Germans usually make less use of the informal forms. Use tu when addressing friends or people you know well. When addressing strangers or speaking about strangers, use the formal forms.
Background
Romanian should not be confused with Romani or Romany, which is the language of the European Gypsies, or Roma. The similarity is coincidental; the English word for the European Gypsy stems from an Indian/Sanskrit root. The name Romania or Rumania and its derivatives come from the Latin word ‘Romanus’, and are etymologically related to Rome, the capital city of the Roman empire and now the capital city of Italy.
In the past, Romania had a sizable German minority population, although nowadays the number of native German speakers is dwindling. However, the German language is still widely studied in Romania as a foreign language, and, due to the residual German cultural influence, it is used as a second (or third) official language in many parts of Transylvania.
Romanian tends to be easy for speakers of Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan to learn, since all these languages share a common root and influences and are all written as they are pronounced. Romanian is sometimes challenging because of the influx of loanwords, mostly Slavic words as well as a few Hungarian, German and Turkish ones, even though most of these have fallen out of use for a very long time. Neologisms have been imported en masse from French, Italian, German, and recently English.
The slang has either French, German or Gypsy origin. The language uses the Latin alphabet, and the Latinate roots can help tourists to understand some signs, such as Alimentara (a place where you can buy aliments, food) Farmacie (Pharmacy, Drugstore), and Poliţie (Police). Some signs, however, are false cognates or ‘false friends’ – for example Librărie means a bookstore rather than a lending library (as it does in French); Teatru means a stage theatre rather than a cinema; and so on, although if you have a decent conversation guide you can avoid such funny confusions. Coincidentally, these “false friends” also apply in all its sister languages.
Hungarian is used in Eastern Transylvania and in some cities like Miercurea-Ciuc, Targu-Mures, Oradea, Cluj-Napoca, Satu-Mare; if you know it, then you are at an advantage. Hungarian is widely used as a first language in counties such as Mures, Covasna and Harghita.
The Romanian language is generally seen as a language with somewhat complicated grammar, but far simpler for speakers of Germanic languages than any of its Slavic neighbours or even Hungarian. Romanian is a phonetic language so a person can look at a word and know how it is pronounced. Romanian is abundant in vowels, and it can have series of diphthongs and even triphthongs, that gives the language a melodious sound and makes it very musical.
A foreigner trying to learn or speak Romanian can expect mostly positive reactions from native speakers. Most Romanian people will certainly love you for it and will strongly appreciate the fact that you are making an effort to speak their language. Others, however, may sneer at you for not properly being able to speak what they see as a very easy phonetic language. The Romanian alphabet is nearly exactly the same as the English alphabet, except for five additional accented letters, or ‘diacriticals’: ă (like the ‘a’ in English word ‘musical’), ş (pronounced as ‘sh’), ţ (pronounced ‘ts’), â, î (have the same reading, like a short ă).
English has effectively become a requirement for getting a somewhat better job, and it is usually the second most popular non-Romance language spoken (on par with German). Consequently, it is usually good to ask before starting to speak English, but more often than not it will be safe to go ahead. Other Romance languages (especially French, Spanish and Italian) are also learnt by most people in schools and are therefore spoken with a pretty good level of fluency by many people, but make sure you ask before you start speaking to people in foreign tongues. In general, Romanians prefer speaking other Romance languages than the others. Globalization and the fact that Romania joined the Latin Union (Uniunea Latină), a linguistic association created in 1954, has made these closely-related languages more attractive.
Some people feel that Romanian is an extremely easy language to learn if you already speak a Latin-based language such as Spanish, French, Portuguese, Catalan or Italian. This is especially so in contrast to Romania’s Slavic and Hungarian neighbors.
Pronunciation Guide
Romanian pronunciation is very phonetic. The accent and sounds are almost identical to Italian and other Romance languages (with very few, if any, Slavic influences), so remember to sound every letter clearly. Also, sounds very rarely differ between words (i.e. the letter i is always pronounced the same, every time, unlike in English or even French).
Like English, Romanian has secondary stresses in words. We have not attempted to represent those here. Stress usually falls on the second-last syllable if it ends in a vowel, and last if it ends in a consonant. If you know another Romance language, you shouldn’t worry as the stress partterns are usually the same in similar-sounding words.
Questions in Romanian that end with a verb often use a rising tone on the last syllable or two.
Vowels
a - in between the ‘a’ in “father” and the ‘a’ in “trap”
e - in between ‘e’ of “dress” and ‘a’ of “face”. However, it is not a diphthong like the vowel in “face” is in most accents of English. When the word begins with an ‘e’ and it is a form of “a fi” (to be) or a pronoun it is like ‘ye’ in “yell”
i - like ‘ee’ in “beep” when in the middle or start of a word. When at the end, it is barely sounded – for example, in the word Bucureti, it is pronounced Boo-KOO-resht with a very short and slight i – never pronounce it as Boo-KOO-reshtee. The terminal “i” causes a slight “softening” of the preceding consonant. (If this is too hard, don’t pronounce the i at all.) The few Romanian words with a very strong terminal “i” sound are spelled with a double “i” (“ii”).
o - like ‘o’ in “chlorine”, rounded, fairly short sound
â, î - no precise English equivalent – it’s best to hear it being spoken. â and î are the same sound in Romanian. î is used at the beginning and at the end of words, â in all other cases. The closest American English sound is the “”oo”” in “book”, but it’s a bit shifted toward a “soft ‘i’”, as in “it”. Similar to French ‘u’ in word ‘rue’.
Consonants
b - like ‘b’ in “bed”
c - like ‘ch’ in “cheese” (like Italian ‘c’) when followed by ‘e’ or ‘i’, otherwise like ‘k’
d - like ‘d’ in “dog”
f - like ‘f’ in “federation”
g - like ‘g’ in “gym” when followed by ‘e’ or ‘i’, otherwise like ‘g’ in “gear”
h - like ‘h’ in “help” (never silent in Romanian)
j - like the French ‘j’ in “Bonjour” – English equivalent is the “s” in “pleasure”
k - like ‘c’ in “scan”
l - like ‘l’ in “love”
m - like ‘m’ in “mother”
n - like ‘n’ in “nice”
p - like ‘p’ in “spit”
q - like ‘k’ in “sketch” (this letter is rarely used in Romanian)
r - not like the ‘r’ in “row”; more like ‘r’ of “pretty” in North American English (similar to the Italian r)
s - like ‘s’ in “snake”
s with tail, - like ‘sh’ in “lush”
t with tail, - similar to ‘ts’ in “thats”
t - like ‘t’ in “stand”
v - like ‘v’ in “very”
w - like ‘v’ in “very” or “w” in english loadwords
x - like ‘cks’ in “picks”, sometimes ‘gs’ in “pigs”
y - like ‘i’ in “dip”
z - like ‘z’ in “fizz”
Common diphthongs
oi - like ‘oy’ in “boy”
ea -diphthong beginning with a short Romanian “e” sound and ending with the Romanian “a” sound. These two sounds are pronounced smoothly and quickly together as one syllable. However, this letter pair is not always a diphthong.
oa - diphthong beginning with a short Romanian “o” sound and ending with the Romanian “a sound. These two sounds are pronounced smoothly and quickly together as one syllable.
Common digraphs
ch - like ‘c’ in “collar” (hard sound)
gh - like ‘g’ in “giving”
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