Romanian language

Romanian—rarely written Rumanian, Roumanian—(in its own language: româna, limba română [roˈmɨna, ˈlimba roˈmɨnə]) is a Romance language spoken mainly in Romania, in Moldova and in scattered little areas across southeastern Europe (mostly in Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, the Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria and Ukraine).

It is the official state language of Romania and Moldova. In Moldova, it is officially called Moldovan or more rarely Moldavian (in Romanian: limba moldovenească). In spite of this naming discrepancy, both countries have nearly exactly the same standard language (the possible spelling differences are insignificant compared with those of British English and American English).

The main dialects are classified in Daco-Romanian, a core group comprising the vast majority of the dialects and being the basis of Standard Romanian, and three other dialects scattered in remote patches across the Balkans: Aromanian (southern Balkans), Megleno-Romanian (southern Balkans) and Istro-Romanian (Istria, Croatia). In those Balkanic enclaves, Romanian may be called Vlach, especially by surrounding populations (for instance, βλάχικα, vlachika in Greek).

Romanian is the only Romance language of central Europe. Therefore, in some aspects, it is slightly original compared with the rest of the Romance languages since it does not have any territorial contiguity with them. Nevertheless its structures are deeply Romance and very conservative compared with their Latin origins. For example, Romanian resembles more Latin than French does.

Writing system

Romanian is written with an adapted version of the Latin alphabet, including the following modified letters with diacritics: Ă/ă, Â/â, Î/î, Ș/ș and Ț/ț (in an accurate typography, Ș/ș and Ț/ț are best written with a comma below, nevertheless, because of computing input problems, this comma is often replaced by a cedilla, that is Ş/ş and Ţ/ţ). The letters Q, W and Y only occur in foreign words.

Letter Pronunciation (IPA) A a [a] Ă ă [ə] Â â [ɨ] B b [b] C c — [k] — [tʃ] before e, i D d [d] E e — [e], [e̯] — sometimes [je] F f [f]

Letter Pronunciation (IPA) G g — [g] — [dʒ] before e, i H h [h] I i [i], [j] Î î [ɨ] J j [ʒ] K k [k] L l [l] M m [m]

Letter Pronunciation (IPA) N n [n] O o [o], [o̯] P p [p] Q q [k] R r [r] S s [s] Ș ș [ʃ] T t [t]

Letter Pronunciation (IPA) Ț ț [ts] U u [u], [w] V v [v] W w [v], [w] X x [ks] Y y [i], [j] Z z [z]