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Lets see...a new month - another language 3nodding and this month we'll have Romanian.

I'll start posting the lessons tomorrow, after I manage to get my act together (school messed up my plans, but this short - as in just 7 days - hollyday will surely help).

Bun venit la lecţia de română!

I’ll start with the word in Romanian and then give you a similar word in English. I couldn’t find correspondents to all the sounds though…I think I’ll edit the list later and see if I can find matches in France or another popular language here…

Any questions…don’t hesitate to ask, I’ll do my best to answer.

1. Vowels

A sac ... suck
E set ... set
I in ... in
O bot ... bought
U şut ... shoot
Ă rană ... runner
Î/Â rând
în

Î/Â are the same sound. Î is used at the begining and the end of a word, â is used in the word (except for composed and derived words)

2. Diphtongs and Triphtongs

Ai mai ... my
Au sau ... sow
Ea beat ... bat
Ei mei ... may
Eo deodata ... ****
Eu meu ... ****
Ia iad ... yard
Ie ies ... yes
Io Ion ... yawn
Iu iute ... you
Oa foarte ... ****
Oi toi ... toy
Ou nou ... no
Ăi săi ... ****
Ău său ... sew
Îi cîine .... ****
Îu râu ... ****
Ua ziua ... ****
Uă două ... work
Ui pui ... we
Eau vreau ... ****
Eoa pleoapă ... ****
Iai tăiai ... ****
Iau miau ... miaow

3. Consonants

B bar ... bar
C car ... car
D dig ... dig
F fin ... fin
G gard ... guard
H hazard ... hazard
J ruj ... rouge
K kilogram ... kilogram
L lup ... loop
M mai ... my
N nod ... nod
P pod ... pod
R rai ... rey
S start ... start
Ş şi ... she
T tot ... taught
Ţ puţ ... (he) puts
V van ... van
X exemplu... example
fix ... fix
Z zero ... zero


4. Special Groups of Letters

Ce cec ... check
Ci cip ... cheap
Che schelet ...skeleton
Chi schi ... ski
Ge general... general
Gi gimnastică... gymnastics
Ghe ghetou ... ghetto
Ghi ghilotină ...ghillotine


There’s still the hiatus, but I’ll get into that tomorrow (I don’t think I’m up to it this evening).


Vocabulary

sac =bag
set = set,
in = flax
bot = muzzle
şut = kick
rană = wound
rând = row
în = in
mai = May
sau = or
beat = drunk
mei = mine (pl)
deodata = suddenly
meu = mine (sg)
Iad = Hell
ies = I’m going aut
iute = spicy / fast
foarte = very
toi = in the middle of something
nou = new
săi = his (pl)
său = his (sg)
câine = dog
râu = river
ziua = the day
două = two
pui = chicken
vreau = I want
pleoapă = eyelid
tăiai = you were cuting
miau = miaow
bar = bar
car = wagon
dig = dam
fin = fin
gard = fence
hazard = hazard
ruj = lipstick
kilogram = kilograme
lup = wolf
nod = knot
pod = bridge
şi = and
tot = all
puţ = well
van = vane
cip (cirip) = chirp
schelet = sckeleton
gimnastică = gymnasticks
ghetou = ghetto
ghilotină = ghillotine

So, what's the difference in pronounciation between A and the A with a loop at the top which I can't find in my accents guide?

For me, when I'm typing the IPA I just go to the character's page on Wikipedia and actually copy and paste the letters. It takes a while, but it works. ;)

Me too. It's driving me nuts! crying And now my browser is showing everything in Japanese. cry

As I've seen, syllable stress usually falls on the second-to-last syllable in a word, much like in normal Romance languages such as Spanish and Italian.

EX:
peşte (fish)
pisică (cat)
albină (bee)

There are some exceptions in which syllable stress is at the first or last syllable:

elefant (elephant)
fluture (butterfly)

I'm pretty sure that one rule is that the letter ă is never stressed, so găndac (cockroach) places stress on the second syllable.

But that's about all I know about Romanian other than pronunciation and some vocab. Maybe Linda Quest can explain it better.

I wore it out

I like some of their solo songs (the band split up)

Hehe... whenever that song plays smiling rainbows with cute little puffy clouds at the ends sing harmoniously XD. I've had this song stuck in my head since I saw a Norwegian ( not too sure. I just know it was somewhere in Scandinavia) completely butcher the song.