Thursday, August 8, 2013

Romanian Pronouns

This page is for my own reference, since I haven't taught any of these concepts yet.  But you can study it if you want.

Unstressed Forms
Nominative       Accusative   Dative      Acc. Contracted Form   Dat. Contracted form:
eu                    mă              îmi           m                               mi
tu                    te                îți             te                               ți
el                     îl                 îi              l                                 i
ea                    o                 îi              o                                i

noi                   ne               ne            ne                               ne
voi                   vă               vă            vă                               vă
ei                     îi                 le            i                                  le
ele                   le                 le            le                                 le

The progression from accusative to dative follows a logical progression:
Singular Dative = Masculine Plural Accusative
Plural Dative = Feminine Plural Accusative

Progression of Datives:
Singular Accusative-> Masc. Plural Accusative -> Feminine Plural Accusative
 îl, o                             Sing. Dative                     Plural Dative
                                           îi                                 le
So the plural (remember, plural is like Italian:  -i, -e) is more "dative"-sounding than the singular, and the feminine (-le) is more "dative" sounding than the masculine.  This can be remembered because women are anatomical "receivers," which is a dative concept.

This the progression goes like this:
Singular
Stressed Forms/Prepositional Forms
eu                   mine           mie        
tu                    tine            tie
el                     el               lui
ea                    ea              ei

noi                   noi            nouă
voi                   voi            vouă
ei                     ei               lor
ele                   ele              lor

Reflexive Unstressed Forms
                       se               își

Reflexive Stressed Forms
                       sine            sieși

Mneumonic Device for Untressed Pronouns:
Subj  AccDat  Dat-Acc  (Dat-Acc is the order of two-pronoun combinations)
Eu măîmi mi-m     "Yeh-w muhym' meem"
Tu teîți    ți-te        "Tu teit's  tseeteh"
El  îlîi      i-l            "Yell uhluhy eel"
Ea  oîi     i-verb-o      "Ya o-uhy verb-oh"

Noi nene ne-ne        
Voi văvă vă-vă
Ei   îile    le-i             "Yay uheele ley"
Ele  lele   le-le

Dative + Accusative "se"
mi se
ţi se
i se
i se

ni se
vi se
li le
li le

Possessives
meu  mea mei mele
tău    ta    tăi   tale
său   sa    săi   sale  | lui
său   sa    săi   sale  | ei

nostru  noastră noștri noastre
vostru  voastră voștri voastre
lor
lor

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Lesson 4- Masculine, Feminine, Mixed

There are 3 genders in Romanian, instead of 2 like Spanish or French.  However, they are (thankfully) not very complicated to learn.

The two main genders are masculine and feminine.  The third gender is called the "neuter" by some linguists and "mixed" by others.  I prefer "mixed" because the mixed gender behaves like the masculine in the singular and the feminine in the plural.  The mixed gender has no articles of it's own, but takes the masculine ending in the singular and the feminine ending in the plural.  We will wait to study the mixed gender until we learn the plural.

Masculine indefinite article:  "a" "an"
un

Feminine indefinite article:  "a" "an"
o

The Feminine indefinite article is o, which is confusing for Spanish and Portuguese speakers and takes some real getting used to. It is pronounced "oh." However, feminine nouns and adjectives do not end in -o, but in the familiar -ă.


o zi.   a day(f)
o zi bună.  a good day
o zi frumoasă.  [frumw-aa-suh] a beautiful day.


un om  a human (m), man(-kind)
un om bun.  a good person
un om frumoș.  a beautiful person.
un om puternic. [pu-ter-nik] a powerful person.


o femeie [oh femey-eh] a woman
o femeie bună.  a good woman
o femeie frumoasă.  [oh femey-eh frumw-aa-suh] a beautiful woman.


o fată  a girl
o fată bună.  a good girl
o fată deșteaptă.  [oh fah-tuh dish-"tapped"-duh]  an intelligent girl
o fată proastă.  [oh fah-tuh prw-ast-uh (proastă rhymes with "So ask a (girl out)....") a stupid girl


un băiat [oon buy-"yacht" (sounds like the sailboat)] a boy
un băiat bun.  a good boy.
un băiat prost.  a dumb boy.
un băiat deștépt.  an intelligent boy

Lesson 3- Starting out with verbs

The first verb we are going to learn in Romanian is the verb "to be."

to be:  a fi  [a fee]


eu sunt   [yeh-w suhnt]  [the "u" in "sunt" rhymes with "put"]  I am
tu  ești    [too yesht(y)]  The "i" here is to mark the palatalization [t] -> [ty] and is not a syllable.  You are.
el, ea  este  [yell, ya yesteh]  he, she is

noi suntem  [noy suntem]  we are
voi sunteți  [voy sun-tets(y)]  The "i" here is to mark the palatalization [ts] - [tsy] and is not a syllable.  You all are.
ei, ele sunt   [yay, yeleh suhnt]  they are


Yes:  "da."

No:  "nu."

Bună ziua.   [Boon-uh zyew-ah] Good day-the.

The difference between ă and a is important in Romanian, with ă meanin "a" or "an" and a meaning "the."
ă is pronounced like "uh" in "up" or a silly person saying "duhhhh!" to make fun of someone
"a" is an "ahhh" sound like Spanish or French, pronounced between American English "hat" and American English "hot."


Conversation:

John:  Búnă ziúa.  Sunt John Parker.
Alina:  Búnă ziúa.  Eu sunt Alina Eminescu.  ["yeh-w"] ... [yeh-mi-nehskuu]
John:  Este o plăcere.  [Yesteh oh pluh-che-reh]
Alina:  Foarte mulțumită.  [Fwar-teh mool-tsu-meet-uh]

John:  Good day.  I'm John Parker.
Alina:  Good day.  I'm Alina Yeminescu.
John:  It's a pleasure.
Alina:  Very pleased.

Lesson 2- Palatalization/Soft consonants

In order to learn Romanian, it is essential to understand a linguistic concept called "palatalization."  If the learner understands palatalization, the seeming "mystery" of the language will be unlocked from the beginning.

Even though this article is technical, it is important to read it.  You can't speak Romanian unless you understand this.  

Palatalization is a natural process by which consonants change in a word to make them "easier to say" or "more flowing after a "y" or an "ee" sound is added to it.  

English nation:  From Latin "natio" (na-tee-oh) we get English "nayshun."  Do you see how the "t" in "nation" is pronounced like a "sh" sound?  This is because the "t" has been "palatalized."

The original Latin sound [tee] having changed to English [sh] is very common in many English words.
Latin conver-sa-tee-oh I converse --> English "conversayshun"  conversation
Latin pa-tee-oh I suffer -->English "payshens"  patience
Latin in-tro-duk-tee-oh  I insert  --> English "In-chroh-duk-shin" introduction

Spanish and French palatalized this "tee" sound to [s].  This [tee] -> [sy] version of palatalized "tee" is another common form of palatalization in many languages.
Spanish: nación,            French: nation [nasyõ]
Spanish: pasión             French: passion [pasyõ]
Spanish: introducción,  French:  introduction  [introducsyõ]
German palatalized this sound as [tsy].  Nation is pronounced [nah-tsyon] in German.

[ty] -> [tsy] is also a common form of palatalization in Romanian.
ati -> ați [atsi]  "you all have"
stati -> stați [statsi] "you all stand"
mulțumit + i  -> mulțumiț [multsumits]  "grateful" (plural)

Another example of palatalization is the word "vision."  From Latin "visio" [vizee-oh] English made [vizh-un].
This [zy] to [zh] is common in English.
Latin deci-dee-oh -> Romance deci-zee-oh -> French deci-zyo -> English "decizhun." decision
Latin kol-lee-dee-oh  "collide"  ------> English "collizhin." collision

In Spanish and French, the transition did not go as far as in English.
Spanish visión     French vision [vizyõ]
Spanish decisión  French decision [decizyõ]

Another example of palatalization in English is the [tr] sound, which is produced in most places as [chr].
"tree" [chree]
"trip"  [chrip]
"traffic"  [chra-fik]

Compare to Spanish where a distinct [t] and [r] sound are heard.
tres [t-reys]
tren [t-reyn]
traje [t-ra-hey]

In all of these example, a consonant is being changed to a slightly different, but related, sound by adding a "y" sound after it.  This "y" sound is the sound which "palatalizes" the previous consonant, or makes it change from [z] to [zh], [t] to [ts], [d] to [dj] or from [t] to [sh].  The reason it is called "palatalize" is because when your tongue makes a "y" sound, your tongue is pressed against the roof of your mouth, which is called the "palate" in linguistics.  

To see this for yourself, say the sound
"eeeeeeee yeeeeeeeeeee yeeeeeeeeee yeeeeeeeeeee yeeeeeeeeeee" and notice the position of your tongue.  For the sound "eeeeee" your tongue is just underneath the position to make the sound "y" which is called a "palatal" half-consonant( a "semi-vowel" in linguistic terms).  When you say the sound "y" your tongue just barely-almost touches the roof of your mouth to make the "y" sound, and then returns to its slightly lower "eeeee" position.

Now try palatalizing some consonants.  Say long "eeeeeeee" sounds and quickly insert the consonant while moving your tongue as little as possible.

s:   eeeeeeeeee seeeeeeeeeeee seeeeeeeeeee seeeeeeeeeeeeee
Did you hear the strange sounding "sh" sound when you said the letter "s" this way?  This is called a "palatalized" or "soft" s in Slavic linguistics.

t:  eeeeeeeeee  teeeeeeeeeeeeee teeeeeeeeeeeee teeeeeeeeeeeee
Did you hear the strange sounding "ts"/ "ch" sound when you said the letter "t" this way?  This is called a "palatalized" or "soft" t in Slavic linguistics and is used at the end of many Romanian plural words.  The "normal" t is used for the singular.  

z:  eeeeeeeeeee zeeeeeeeee  zeeeeeeeeeeee zeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Did you hear the weird "zh" sound being made when you said the letter "z" this way?  This is called a "palatalized" or "soft" z in Slavic linguistics and is used in many important Romanian 2nd person verbs.  The "normal" z is used as the first person.  

d:  eeeeeeeee  deeeeeeeeee  deeeeeeeeeeee deeeeeeeeeeeee
Depending on your accent, you may have gotten a "j" sound from this or a "dz" sound from this.  Both of these are palatalized forms of "d" in Slavic languages.  In Romanian, palatalized "d" goes a step further than this to the palatalized "z" sound above.  

Many times the "palatalized" consonant is not shown in writing with a different letter, but instead is written in Romanian by a silent letter "i" at the end of the word.  The rule in Romanian is that the first i on the end of the word has no sound of its own but only means that the consonant before it is palatalized.  To cheat on this before you speak Romanian fluently, think of this letter "i" as a letter "y."  However, your pronunciation will sound stilted, as real Romanian speech doesn't have a "y" sound but only the different, palatalized consonant. 

bani= "bany"  (pronounced like Spanish bañ money
vezi = "vezy" you see (not "vezeee" but "vez-yah" without the "ah" vowel.  This word is only one syllable).  
ori  = "ory"  times/hours  (not "or-eeee" but one syllable like "or-yah" with the "-ah" deleted.)

Sometimes, palatalization will mean that a different letter is used.  Here are some common spelling changes due to palatalization:

d + i -> zi
s + i  -> și  "shy" (This is the Romanian letter sheh like in "shepherd")
t + i   -> ți  "tsy" (This is the Romanian letter tseh like in princess)
c + i   -> chi  "ky"  (Romanian spelling is like Italian.  ci = English "chee." chi= English "kee")  This palatalization of the Romanian "k" sound is found in nouns.
c ["k"] + i   ->  ști  "shty"  Found in verb conjugations.  When the "k" sound of a first person verb needs to be palatalized, it often changes to a "shty" sound.  We will learn all this later.  

Palatalization is very important in Romanian, and is used in 3 areas:
1.  For forming plurals
2.  For making the 2nd person singular of verbs
3.  For simplifying groups of vowels into one syllable.  


Good job on getting through this lesson!  Don't worry, the language will come much, much easier to you now since you did this work!

Lesson 1- Pronouns

Romanian is related to Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian.  However, it also has many Russian words.

Plurals in Romanian work like Italian- instead of using the letter "s," the letter "i" is used for masculine nouns and the letter "e" is used for feminine nouns.

eu  "yehw"  I
tu   you (like Spanish)
el    "yell"  he
ea   "ya"   she

noi  (rhymes with "noise")  we
voi you all (like vosotros in Spanish or vous in French)
ei   "yay!"  they (masculine)
ele  "yeleh"  they (feminine)

Now let's learn the pronouns.  The most confusing one is eu  which sounds somewhat like English "you."  However, Spanish speakers will recognize it as a distorted from of yo.

 eu  "yehw"
 eu  "yehw"
eu am who eu am.  ("yeh-w am who yeh-w am.")


 tu are the one I want to hire!
I wanna dance with tu!

Hey, why is el yelling at el?  ("Why is "yell" yelling at "yell"?)
El is a soldier.  ("yell is a soldier.") He is a solder

Ea has messy hair.  ("yah has messy hair.") She has messy hair.
Ea has dark hair.  ("yah has dark hair.")  She has dark hair.
Let's talk about noi...Let's talk about us

Noi stick together.  We stick together.  

 Hey guys- what are voi reading?
Hey ladies- what are voi laughing about?

 He is pointing at ei. Yay!  ("He is pointing at "yay.")  He is pointing at them.
Ei are having a discussion.  They are having a discussion.
("Yay are having a discussion.")
 Ele are friends.  ("Yeleh are friends."  They are friends)
Yea ladies!  Ele are working out at the gym.  ("Yeleh")