Romanian for Beginners

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Romanian Noun Endings

Romanian has three genders:
Masculine
Feminine
Mixed (also called "Neuter")

The "Neuter" or Mixed gender uses the Masculine form in the singular, and the Feminine form in the plural.

Indefinite Form Endings:
             Masculine:    Feminine:
      1              many                  1               many
Regular       :      -                 -i "s"                     -ǎ    -e(!) "s"
Recipient:            -                 -i "s' "                  -e              -e     "s'    "

The definite article:
The definite article is attached to end the indefinite form.
             Masculine:                                   Feminine:
      1                         many                         1                    many
Regular       :      -(u)l "the"            -i "the __s"     ǎ-a "the"       -le "the __s"
Recipient:            - (u)lui "the____'s"     -lor "the ___s' " -i "the ___'s"      -lor "the __s' "

The Feminine indefinite ǎ (like "a" in "about") is opened to a full 'a' as in 'Father' for the definite article. Thus the ending on a definite feminine noun is not ǎa, but simply "-a."

examples:
                            Masculine:    Feminine:
      1              many                          1                                many
Regular       :      bǎiat--ul the boy    bǎieț-i-i the boys    mam-a the mom mam-e-lethe moms
Recipient:            bǎiat-ului the boy's băieț-i-lorthe boys' mam-e-i the mom'smam-e-lorthe moms'

In contrast to the Pronouns we covered earlier, (see below), the Masculine Plural is not used as the dative of the singular In the indefinite form, the dative is left unmarked.. When the definite article "the" is added, the masculine singular dative/genitive (marked "Recipient case" above) form of the Definite Article is the distinctive "lui." For plurals, the combined masculine/feminine/mixed gender PLURAL DATIVE or GENITIVE marker "lor" dots any text or sentence, and signals to the beginner that he is truly reading a Romanian text.

The Masculine Plural Marker -i is used as the Feminine Singular Recipient Definite Article, replacing "-a" in the singular.

The Masculine Plural Definite Article "The _____s" is "-i", which is added to the previous Indefinite Plural Marker "-i" producing "-ii." Since the first -i only palatalizes the previous consonant, hearing a vowel sound "i" marks the plural definite article- while merely hearing a palatalized consonant marks the masculine plural.

The Feminine Plural is "-e," as in Italian, and the Feminine Definite Article is "le," also as in Italian. However, there are many exceptions to this pattern. Very many Romanian Feminine nouns have their Plural marker in "i," which must be learned individually. Eg. Femeie "woman" Femei "women" Femeile "the women."

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.