# Romanian phonology - Some questions



## Dix Ponga 9

Hi! I'm trying to study Romanian, but I have a few phonological questions.

1) Is there any way to know where the stress is in a word?

2) Are letters <â> and <î> exactly the same?

3) These two letters sound is really difficult for me, can anybody give me any tips?

4) Is <g> sound before <e> or <i> nearly the same as English <j>? I mean /dʒ/.

5) Is <c> sound before <e> or <i> nearly the same as English <ch>? I mean /t͡ʃ/.

6) I think when <i> is the final letter and is next to a consonant, there is a palatalization phenomenon. Is it true? How does it exactly work?


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## Reef Archer

Hello! Nice choice 

I fear your questions come in contradiction with the forum's rules (one question at a time, stuff like that).
Here's my answer, nevertheless:

1. Listen to the native speakers. Best way. The other one is by browsing orthoepic dictionaries; they indicate the stress, but your learning will be mechanical instead of natural.

2. Yes. They are being pronounced exactly the same. We write *î* at the beginning and the end of the word. Attention, sometimes two words are being pronounced and written as one, so this rule still stands (ex.: bine*î*nțeles =bine + *î*nțeles)

3. See tip 1.

4. Yes.

5. Yes.

6. Not always. Long story short, see these references.


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## Dix Ponga 9

Thank you very much!


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## farscape

Dix Ponga 9 said:


> 3) These two letters sound is really difficult for me, can anybody give me any tips?



Phonetic instructions: "[ɨ]; vowel, central, close, unrounded; it is pronounced somewhat like the sound [ ə ], but
farther back and higher, like a sound between *i* and *u*". Note: I'm no linguist so use it with care 

Here is a link to another (better) piece of info in Romanian this timep:
http://ro.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocală_închisă_centrală_nerotunjită


Best,


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## Dix Ponga 9

For my Spanish ear, /ɨ/ sound in that audio file is like a dipthong. It's like /uj/. I think I have to hear conversations and songs to understand it exactly.


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## Outsider

I agree with you. It doesn't seem like a good recording. You'll be able to hear a better recording of this vowel here.


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## farscape

Outsider said:


> ... It doesn't seem like a good recording. You'll be able to hear a better recording of this vowel here.



What a great tool, thanks for sharing! To my ear, the second sound to the right - the "inverted m" - sounds like the right one for î and â in Romanian. However, the symbol for them given by the Romanian linguists is [ɨ] (a crossed i).

Best,


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## zbuck

OOO... 





> I agree with you. It doesn't seem like a good recording. You'll be able to hear a better recording of this vowel here.


Nice tool!


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