is realised as /k/; written before front vowels is realised as /ʃ/. Written <ă>, in final position, is palatalized. * Maramureşian accent (Graiul maramureşean), spoken mainly in Maramureş. * Transylvanian accent (Graiul ardealean), spoken mainly in Ardeal. * Banatian accent (Graiul bănăţean), spoken mainly in Banat. Written before front vowels is realised as /ʧ/. * Oltenian accent (Graiul oltenesc), spoken mainly in Oltenia and by the Romanian minority in Timok region of Serbia. Notable feature of this dialect is the usage of the Simple perfect tense rather than the Complex perfect which is used in other dialects. Over the last century, however, regional accents have been weakened due to mass communications and greater mobility.

= Moldovan language
= {{main|Moldovan language}} The Moldovan language is the official language of the Republic of Moldova, as defined by its constitution. However, as stated by Vasile Stati (a linguist and hard-line supporter of the Moldovan identity), the literary forms of Moldovan and Romanian are identical. The official form of the Moldovan is identical to Romanian, in its form from before the 1991 reform (minor changes in the form of one letter and in spelling). There is no documented linguistic division at the Prut River that divides the two countries. More significant differences compared to Romania occur in the colloquial speech of highly-russified areas of the Republic of Moldova, such as ChiÅŸinau and Transnistria. The spoken language of these areas features Russian loanwords and expressions, not present in Romania-born speakers (who tend to use English and French loanwords). Speakers who use such loanwords are aware of doing so and can easily express themselves without using them. {{fact}} Of all Moldovans claiming either "Romanian" or "Moldovan" as their mother tongue, 45.2% declared their native language to be "Moldovan", while 54.8% declared their native language to be "Romanian".

Grammar
{{main|Romanian grammar}} Romanian nouns are inflected by gender (feminine, masculine and neuter), number (singular and plural) and case (nominative/accusative, dative/genitive and vocative). The articles, as well as most adjectives and pronouns, agreement (linguistics) agree in gender with the noun they reference. Romanian is the only Romance language where Article (grammar) definite articles are ''enclitic'': that is, attached to the end of the noun (as in North Germanic languages), instead of in front (''proclitic''). They were formed, as in other Romance languages, from the Latin demonstrative pronouns. Romanian has four verbal Grammatical conjugation conjugations which further split into ten conjugation patterns. Verbs can be put in five mood (linguistics) moods that are inflected according to the person (indicative mood indicative, conditional/optative mood optative, imperative mood imperative, subjunctive mood subjunctive, and presumptive mood presumptive) and four impersonal moods (infinitive, gerund, supine, and participle).

Sounds
{{main|Romanian phonology}} Romanian has seven vowels: {{IPA|/a/}}, {{IPA|/e/}}, {{IPA|/i/}}, {{IPA|/o/}}, {{IPA|/u/}}, {{IPA|/ə/}}, and {{IPA|/ɨ/}}. Additionally, vowel {{IPA|/ø/}} may appear in some words. In final positions after consonants (rarely inside words) a short non-syllabic {{IPA|/i/}} can occur, which is marked in IPA by {{IPA|/ʲ/}} and is produced as a palatalization of the preceding consonant. A similar sound, the voiceless ending ''u'', existed in old Romanian but has disappeared from the standard language. There are also four semivowels and twenty consonants.

Diphthongs
Descending diphthongs: ai, au, ei, eu, ii, iu, oi, ou, ui, ăi, ău, îi, îu. Ascending diphthongs: ea, eo, ia, ie, io, iu, oa, ua, uă.

Triphthongs
Pattern S-V-S (main vowel between two semivowels): eai, eau, iai, iau, iei, ieu, ioi, iou, oai. Pattern S-S-V (two-semivowel glide before the main vowel): eoa, ioa.

Phonetic changes
Due to its isolation from the other Romance languages, the phonetic evolution of Romanian was quite different, but does share a few changes with Italian, such as [kl] > [kj] (Lat. '''cl'''arus > Rom. '''chi'''ar, Ital. '''chi'''aro) and also a few with Dalmatian language Dalmatian, such as [gn] > [mn] (Lat. co'''gn'''atus > Rom. cu'''mn'''at, Dalm. co'''mn'''ut). Among the notable phonetic changes are: * diphthongization of e, i, o *: Lat. c'''e'''ra > Rom. c'''ea'''ră (wax) *: Lat. s'''o'''le > Rom. s'''oa'''re (sun) * iotacism [e] → [i] *: Lat. h'''e'''rba > Rom. '''i'''arbă (grass, herb) * velar [k], [g] → labial [p], [b], [m] *: Lat. o'''ct'''o > Rom. o'''pt''' (eight) *: Lat. '''qu'''attuor > Rom. '''p'''atru (four) *: Lat. li'''ng'''ua > Rom. li'''mb'''ă (tongue, language) *: Lat. si'''gn'''um > Rom. se'''mn''' (sign) *: Lat. co'''x'''a > Rom. coa'''ps'''ă (thigh) * rotacism [l] → [r] *: Lat. cae'''l'''um > Rom. ce'''r''' (sky) * Alveolars [d] and [t] palatalized to [dz]/[z] and [ts] when before [e] or [i] *: Lat. '''d'''eus > Rom. '''z'''eu (god) *: Lat. '''t'''enem > Rom. '''ţ'''ine (hold) Romanian is the only widely-spoken contemporary Romance language that retains the original phoneme {{IPA|/h/}}. (The Norman language also retains phoneme {{IPA|/h/}}. In many dialects of Spanish, particularly in the Americas, is pronounced as {{IPA|[h]}}, but this appears not to be a matter of "retention": the original Castilian phoneme is {{IPA|/x/}}. In some dialects of Portuguese, depending on the surrounding phonemes, is pronounced as {{IPA|[h]}}, but likewise, the original phoneme appears to have been . In these dialects, arguably corresponds to two phonemes, one for [r], and one for [h].) On the other hand, it (along with French) has ''lost'' the /kw/ ('''qu''') sound from original Latin, turning it either into '''p''' (''patru'', "four"; cf. It. ''quattro'') or a hard or soft '''c''' (''când'', "when"; ''calitate'', "quality").

Writing system
Image:Scrisoarea lui Neacsu.jpg thumb|200px|Neacşu's letter is the oldest surviving document written in Romanian Image:Romanian-kirilitza-tatal-nostru.jpg Romanian Cyrillic alphabet.html" title="Meaning of thumb thumb|300px|A sample of the Romanian, written in the [[Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, which was still in use in the early 19th century.html" title="Meaning of 300px|A sample of the Romanian, written in the [[Romanian Cyrillic alphabet">thumb|300px|A sample of the Romanian, written in the [[Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, which was still in use in the early 19th century">300px|A sample of the Romanian, written in the [[Romanian Cyrillic alphabet">thumb|300px|A sample of the Romanian, written in the [[Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, which was still in use in the early 19th century The first written record of a Romanic language spoken in the Middle Ages in the Balkans was written by the Byzantine chronicler Theophanes Confessor in the 6th century about a military expedition against the Eurasian Avars Avars from 587, when a Vlach muleteer accompanying the Byzantine army noticed that the load was falling from one of the animals and shouted to a companion "Torna, torna fratre" (meaning "Return, return brother!"). The oldest written text in Romanian is a letter from 1521, in which Neacşu of Campulung Câmpulung wrote to the mayor of Brasov Braşov about an imminent attack of the Turks. It was written using the Cyrillic alphabet, like most early Romanian writings. The earliest writing in Latin script was a late 16th century Transylvanian text which was written with the Hungarian alphabet conventions. In the late 1700s, Transylvanian scholars noted the Latin origin of Romanian and adapted the Latin alphabet to the Romanian language, using some rules from Italian language Italian, recognized as Romanian's closest relative. The Cyrillic alphabet remained in (gradually decreasing) use until 1860, when Romanian writing was first officially regulated. In the Moldavian SSR Soviet Republic of Moldova, a special version of the Cyrillic alphabet derived from the Russian version was used, until 1989, when it returned to the Romanian Latin alphabet.

Romanian alphabet
{{main|Romanian alphabet}} The Romanian alphabet is as follows: A, a (a); Ă, ă (ă); Â, â (â din a); B, b (be), C, c (ce); D, d (de), E, e (e); F, f (fe / ef); G, g (ghe / ge); H, h (ha / haş); I, i (i); Î, î (î din i); J, j (je), K, k (ka de la kilogram), L, l (le / el); M, m (me / em); N, n (ne / en); O, o (o); P, p (pe); R, r, (re / er); S, s (se / es); {{polytonic|Ș}} {{polytonic|ș}} ({{polytonic|ș}}e); T, t (te); {{polytonic|Ț}} {{polytonic|ț}} ({{polytonic|ț}}e); U, u (u); V, v (ve); X, x (ics); Z, z (ze / zet). The Romanian alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, and has five additional letters (these are not diacriticals, but letters in their own right). Initially, there were as many as 12 additional letters, but some of them disappeared in subsequent reforms. Also, until the early 20th century, a short vowel marker was used. Today, the Romanian alphabet is largely phonetic. However, the "â" (used inside the words) and "î" (used at the beginning or the end) both represent the same close central unrounded vowel {{IPA|/ɨ/}}, which is a slack sound somewhere between "i" in English "bit" and "oo" in English "food". Until 1904 there were four letters representing the {{IPA|/ɨ/}} sound: ''â'', ''ê'', ''î'' and ''û''. By the middle of the century, through successive simplifications, only ''â'' and ''î'' remained in use. A further simplification was mandated in 1953 whereby ''î'' would be used exclusively, including in such words as ''România'' (new spelling: ''Romînia'') or ''limba română'' (now spelt ''romînă'') For this reason, the spelling reform was perceived as an attempt of the new pro-Soviet government to delete the Romanians' national identity. In 1965, exceptions were made for ''România'' and the other related words; these would continue to be spelled with ''â''. In 1993 the Romanian Academy decided to fully revert to the pre-1953 spelling rules, on the grounds that the 1953 reform was forcibly imposed by the Communists. According to the current usage accepted by the Romanian Academy, {{IPA|/ɨ/}} is transcribed as either ''î'' when used as the first or last letter of words, or ''â'' when it occurs in the middle of the word. However this move was met with resistance, especially in the linguist community. The Academy rules are mandatory in government organisations and in state schools. In practice, either usage is acceptable, and indeed there are publishing houses and printed magazines who use either of the two rules. Another exception from a completely phonetic writing system is the fact that vowels and their respective semivowels are not distinguished in writing. In dictionaries the distinction is marked by separating the entry word into syllables for the words containing a Hiatus (linguistics) hiatus that might be mispronounced as a diphthong or a triphthong. Stressed vowels also are not marked in writing, except very rarely in cases where by misplacing the stress a word might change its meaning. For example "trei copíi" means ''three children'' while "trei cópii" means ''three copies''. Q, W and Y are not part of the core Romanian alphabet; they are used mainly to write imported words, such as '''quasar''', '''watt''', and '''yoga'''. Writing the letters Ș ({{IPA|/ʃ/}}) and Ț ({{IPA|/ʦ/}}) with a cedilla instead of a comma (i.e., Ş, Ţ) is rather widespread, especially in computer environments. The Romanian Academy has declared it incorrect.

Reading rules
Reading Romanian involves learning a few rules, quite similar to reading Italian language Italian. *''h'' represents {{IPA|/h/}} *''j'' represents {{IPA|/ʒ/}} *There are two letters with a comma below, {{polytonic|Ș}} and {{polytonic|Ț}}, which represent the sounds {{IPA|/ʃ/}} and {{IPA|/ʦ/}}. However, the allographs with a cedilla instead of a comma, ''Ş'' and ''Ţ'', became widespread when pre-Unicode and early Unicode character sets did not include the standard form. *A final orthographical ''i'' after a consonant often represents the palatalization of the consonant (e. g. ''lup'' {{IPA|/lup/}} "wolf" vs. ''lupi'' {{IPA|/lupʲ/}} "wolves"). *''ă'' represents the schwa, {{IPA|/ə/}}. *The letter ''e'' is generally pronounced as the diphthong ''ie'' {{IPA|/je/}} when it is in the beginning of a form of the verb ''a fi'' "to be", e. g. ''este'' {{IPA|/jeste/}} "is". This rule also applies to personal pronouns beginning with ''e'', e. g. ''el'' {{IPA|/jel/}} "he". *Similarly to the reading rules in Italian language Italian, the letters ''c'' and ''g'' represent the affricates {{IPA|/ʧ/}} and {{IPA|/ʤ/}} before ''i'' and ''e'', and {{IPA|/k/}} and {{IPA|/g/}} elsewhere. When {{IPA|/k/}} and {{IPA|/g/}} are followed by vowels {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/i/}} (or their corresponding semivowels or the final {{IPA|/ʲ/}}) the digraphs ''ch'' and ''gh'' are used instead of ''c'' and ''g'', as shown in the table below. {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" !Group !Phoneme !Pronunciation !Examples |- |ce, ci ||{{IPA|/tʃ/}} | ''ch'' in '''chest''', '''cheek''' | ''cerc'' (circle), ''cine'' (who) |- |che, chi ||{{IPA|/k/}} | ''k'' in '''kettle''', '''kiss''' | ''chem'' (I call), ''chimie'' (chemistry) |- |ge, gi ||{{IPA|/dʒ/}} | ''j'' in '''jelly''', '''jigsaw''' | ''ger'' (frost), ''gimnast'' (gymnast) |- |ghe, ghi ||{{IPA|/g/}} | ''g'' in '''get''', '''give''' | ''gheţar'' (glacier), ''ghid'' (guide) |}

Punctuation and Capitalization
The only particularities Romanian has relative to other languages using the Latin alphabet are: * The quotation marks use the Quotation mark#Quotation marks in Germany and Austria German format; * Dialogues are identified with Quotation mark#Quotation dash quotation dashes; * Proper quotations which span multiple paragraphs don't start each paragraph with the quotation marks; one single pair of quotation marks is always used, regardless of how many paragraphs are quoted; * The Oxford comma before "and" is considered incorrect ("red, yellow and blue" is the proper format); * Punctuation signs which follow a text in parentheses always follow the final bracket; * In titles, only the first letter of the first word is capitalized, the rest of the title using sentence capitalization (with all its rules: proper names are capitalized as usual, etc.).

=Exceptions and trends
= Dialogues are identified with quotation dashes in everyday use, although the specific character is typically replaced with an ordinary dash ("-") in informal electronic communication. Usage of German quotation marks has decreased considerably in favor of the much more convenient English-language format, at least in informal messages. Even in writing, because of the awkwardness of properly drawing German dashes (reversing the direction of writing upwards for the final quotation symbol), the proper format is rarely used, typically using the Quotation mark#Quotation marks in Polish Polish format instead, if any attempt at proper formatting is done. In practice, only the most formal documents, such as literary works or very formal letters, use what are formally considered the proper form of quotation marks.

Language sample
English text: : All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. ::''(Universal Declaration of Human Rights)'' Contemporary Romanian - highlighted words are French or Italian loanwords: : Toate fiinţele '''umane''' se nasc '''libere''' şi '''egale''' în '''demnitate''' şi în drepturi. Ele sunt înzestrate cu '''raţiune''' şi '''conştiinţă''' şi trebuie să se '''comporte''' unele faţă de altele în '''spiritul''' '''fraternităţii'''. Romanian, excluding French or Italian loanwords - highlighted words are Slavic loanwords: : Toate fiinţele omeneşti se nasc '''slobode''' şi '''deopotrivă''' în '''destoinicie''' şi în drepturi. Ele sunt înzestrate cu cuget şi înţelegere şi '''trebuie''' să se poarte unele faţă de altele după firea frăţiei. Romanian, excluding loanwords: : Toate fiinţele omeneşti se nasc nesupuse şi asemenea în preţuire şi în drepturi. Ele sunt înzestrate cu cuget şi înţelegere şi se cuvine să se poarte unele faţă de altele după firea frăţiei. ''See also: Lord's Prayer#Romanian Lord's Prayer in Romanian''

Common words and phrases

English	Romanian	Phonetical transcription
Romanian (person)	'''Român'''	{{IPA|/ro'mɨn/}}
Hello!	'''Salut!'''	{{IPA|/sa'lut/}}
What's your name?	'''Cum te cheamă?'''	{{IPA|/'kum.te.kěa.mə↘/}}
How are you?	'''Ce mai faci?'''	{{IPA|/'ʧe.maÇ?.faʧʲ↘/}}
Goodbye!	'''La revedere!'''	{{IPA|/la.re.ve'de.re/}}
Bye!	'''Pa!'''	{{IPA|/pa/}}
Please.	'''Vă rog.'''	{{IPA|/və'rog/}}
Sorry.	'''Îmi pare rău.'''	{{IPA|/ɨmʲ.pa.re'rəǔ↘/}}
Thank you.	'''Mulţumesc.'''	{{IPA|/mul.ʦu'mesk/}}
Yes.	'''Da.'''	{{IPA|/da/}}
No.	'''Nu.'''	{{IPA|/nu/}}
I don't understand.	'''Nu înţeleg.'''	{{IPA|/'nu.ɨn.ʦe.leg↘/}}
Where's the bathroom?	'''Unde e toaleta?'''	{{IPA|/'un.de.Ç?e.to.a.le.ta↘/}}
Do you speak English?	'''Vorbiţi engleza?'''	{{IPA|/vor'biʦʲ.eŋ'gle.za↗/}}

Notes
*{{note|Moldovan|1}} The constitution of the Republic of Moldova refers to the country's language as ''Moldovan'' rather than ''Romanian'', though in practice it is often called "Romanian". The introduction of the law concerning the functioning of the languages (September 1989), still effective in Moldova according to the Constitution [http://www.parlament.md/law/constitution/t7/], asserts the linguistic identity between the Romanian language and the Moldovan language. [http://www.iatp.md/ladom/downloads/M3.doc] For more information, see History of the Moldovan language. *{{note|Emigration}} [http://web.archive.org/web/20041025024030/http://www.expres.ro/topstory/?news_id=154270http://web.archive.org/web/20041025024030/http://www.expres.ro/topstory/?news_id=154270 "Milioane de români pe drumul emigrarii"] ("Millions of Romanians on the road of emigration"). ''Evenimentul Zilei'', May 10, 2004. Page is on Internet Archive, retrieved Oct 25, 2004. *{{note|Mexico}} With the support of the Departament for Promotion and Teaching of the languages of the Latin Union, Romanian became one of the 15 foreign languages studied at the ''Centro de Enseñanza de Lenguas Extranjeras'' of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. [http://www.cele.unam.mx/] [http://dpel.unilat.org/DPEL/Actualites/detail.ro.asp?l=Ro&id=214&ld=es&archive=true]

References
*Rosetti, Alexandru, ''Istoria limbii române'', 2 vols., Bucharest, 1965-1969. *Uwe, Hinrichs, ''Handbuch der Südosteuropa-Linguistik''

See also
*Romanian vocabulary *Romanian proverbs *Romanian Swadesh list Swadesh list of Romanian words

External links
{{InterWiki|code=ro}} {{Wikibookspar||Romanian}}

Learning Romanian

- Romanian Lessons
- Verbix - Romanian verbs conjugation
- Romanian grammar
- Romanian Reference Grammar, by Dana Cojocaru, University of Bucharest (183 pages) - 4.6 MB - pdf

Phrasebooks

- Romanian phrasebook on Wikitravel
- Romanian Basic Words

Dictionaries

- Wiktionary in Romanian
- Online Romanian-English dictionary
- DEX Online - Romanian explicative dictionary
- Free downloadable dictionary

Miscellaneous

- SAMPA for Romanian
- The Letter of Neacşu from Câmpulung - The oldest written document in Romanian (English translation)
- Ethnologue report for Romanian {{Eastern Romance languages}} Category:Romanian language Category:Languages of Austria Category:Languages of Kazakhstan Category:Languages of Romania Category:Languages of Russia Category:Languages of Moldova Category:Languages of Ukraine Category:Languages of Vojvodina Category:Languages of Hungary {{Link FA|es}} {{Link FA|ro}} af:Roemeens ang:RÅ?mÄ?nisc sprÇ£c ast:Rumanu bg:РумънÑ?ки език zh-min-nan:România-gí ca:Romanès cs:RumunÅ¡tina da:Rumænsk (sprog) de:Rumänische Sprache et:Rumeenia keel el:Ρουμανική γλώσσα es:Idioma rumano eo:Rumana lingvo eu:Errumaniera fr:Roumain ga:Rómáinis gl:Lingua romanesa ko:루마니아어 hr:Rumunjski jezik id:Bahasa Rumania ia:Romaniano it:Lingua rumena he:רומנית ka:რუმინული ენáƒ? kw:Roumanek la:Lingua Dacoromanica lv:RumÄ?ņu valoda lt:Rumunų kalba li:Roemeens hu:Román nyelv mk:РоманÑ?ки јазик nl:Roemeens nds:Rumäänsche Spraak ja:ルーマニア語 no:Rumensk sprÃ¥k nn:Rumensk sprÃ¥k pl:JÄ™zyk rumuÅ„ski pt:Língua romena ro:Limba română rm:Lingua rumena ru:РумынÑ?кий Ñ?зык sc:Limba romuna simple:Romanian language fi:Romanian kieli sv:Rumänska th:ภาษาโรมาเนีย tr:Rumence uk:РумунÑ?ька мова wa:Roumin zh:羅馬尼亞語 Category:Romance languages Category:Languages of Romania ru:Category:РумынÑ?кий Ñ?зык zh:category:羅馬尼亞語
{| class="toccolours" style="margin: 1em auto; width:40em;" ! style="background:#ccccff; text-align:center;"|'''Romanian language''' |- | align="center" style="font-size: 90%;" colspan="2" |'''Dialects:''' | Istro-Romanian language .html">Moldovan language Proto-Romanian language
'''Regulating boards: Romanian Academy | Academy of Sciences of Moldova |} see Romanian language