Editing Romanian language (section)

=== Pronunciation ===
[[File:Romanian keyboard letters.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|A close shot of some keys with Romanian characters on the keyboard of a laptop]]

{{See also|Romanian alphabet#Î versus Â}}
* {{lang|ro|h}} is not silent like in other Romance languages such as Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan and French, but represents the phoneme {{IPA|/h/}}, except in the digraphs {{lang|ro|ch}} /k/ and {{lang|ro|gh}} /g/ (see below)
* {{lang|ro|j}} represents {{IPA|/ʒ/}}, as in French, Catalan or Portuguese (the sound spelled with ''s'' in the English words "vision, pleasure, treasure").
* There are two letters with a comma below, [[Ș]] and [[Ț]], which represent the sounds {{IPA|/ʃ/}} and {{IPA|/t͡s/}}. 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.
* {{lang|ro|ă}} represents the [[schwa]], {{IPA|/ə/}}.
* {{lang|ro|î}} and {{lang|ro|â}} both represent the sound {{IPA|/ɨ/}}. In rapid speech (for example in the name of the country) the {{lang|ro|â}} sound may sound similar to a casual listener to the short [[schwa]] sound {{lang|ro|ă}} (in fact, [[Aromanian language|Aromanian]] does merge the two, writing them {{lang|rup|ã}}) but careful speakers will distinguish the sound. The nearest equivalent is the vowel in the last syllable of the word ''roses'' for some English dialects which distinguish it from ''Rosa's'' or the second syllable of the word "rhythm". It is also roughly equivalent to European Portuguese {{IPA|/ɨ/}}, the Polish {{lang|pl|y}} or the Russian {{lang|ru|ы|italic=no}}.
* The letter ''e'' generally represents the [[Mid front|mid front unrounded]] vowel {{IPA|[e]}}, somewhat like in the English word ''s'''e'''t''. However, the letter {{lang|ro|e}} is pronounced as {{IPA|[je]}} ([j] sounds like 'y' in 'you') when it is the first letter of any form of the verb {{lang|ro|a fi}} "to be", or of a personal pronoun, for instance {{lang|ro|este}} {{IPA|/jeste/}} "is" and {{lang|ro|el}} {{IPA|/jel/}} "he".<ref>{{in lang|ro}} Several Romanian dictionaries specify the pronunciation [je] for word-initial letter ''e'' in some personal pronouns: [http://dexonline.ro/search.php?cuv=el ''el'', ''ei'', etc.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071226034155/http://dexonline.ro/search.php?cuv=el |date=26 December 2007 }} and in some forms of the verb ''a fi'' (''to be''): [http://dexonline.ro/search.php?cuv=fi ''este'', ''eram'', etc.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090727075024/http://dexonline.ro/search.php?cuv=fi |date=27 July 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{in lang|ro}} Mioara Avram, [https://www.webcitation.org/5kofUFPHx?url=http://www.geocities.com/georgepruteanu/carti/avram-ortog-pdf.zip ''Ortografie pentru toți''], Editura Litera, Chișinău, 1997, p. 29</ref> This addition of the semivowel {{IPA|/j/}} does not occur in more recent loans and their derivatives, such as {{lang|ro|eră}} "era", {{lang|ro|electric}} "electric" etc. Some words (such as {{lang|ro|iepure}} "hare", formerly spelled {{lang|ro|epure}}) are now written with the initial {{lang|ro|i}} to indicate the semivowel.
* {{lang|ro|x}} represents either the phoneme sequence {{IPA|/ks/}} as in {{lang|ro|expresie}} = expression, or {{IPA|/ɡz/}} as in {{lang|ro|exemplu}} = example, as in English.
* As in Italian, the letters {{lang|ro|c}} and {{lang|ro|g}} represent the affricates {{IPA|/tʃ/}} and {{IPA|/dʒ/}} before {{lang|ro|i}} and {{lang|ro|e}}, and {{IPA|/k/}} and {{IPA|/ɡ/}} elsewhere. When {{IPA|/k/}} and {{IPA|/ɡ/}} are followed by vowels {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/i/}} (or their corresponding [[semivowel]]s or the final {{IPA|/ʲ/}}) the digraphs {{lang|ro|ch}} and {{lang|ro|gh}} are used instead of {{lang|ro|c}} and {{lang|ro|g}}, as shown in the table below. Unlike Italian, however, Romanian uses {{lang|ro|ce-}} and {{lang|ro|ge-}} to write {{IPA|/t͡ʃ/}} and {{IPA|/d͡ʒ/}} before a central vowel instead of {{lang|it|ci-}} and {{lang|it|gi-}}.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
!Group
!Phoneme
!Pronunciation
!Examples
|-
|{{lang|ro|ce}}, {{lang|ro|ci}}
||{{IPA|/tʃ/}}
| ''ch'' in '''chest''', '''cheek'''
| {{lang|ro|cerc}} (circle), {{lang|ro|ceașcă}} (cup), {{lang|ro|cercel}} (earring), {{lang|ro|cină}} (dinner), {{lang|ro|ciocan}} (hammer)
|-
|{{lang|ro|che}}, {{lang|ro|chi}}
||{{IPA|/k/}}
| ''k'' in '''kettle''', '''kiss'''
| {{lang|ro|cheie}} (key), {{lang|ro|chelner}} (waiter), {{lang|ro|chioșc}} (kiosk), {{lang|ro|chitară}} (guitar), {{lang|ro|ureche}} (ear)
|-
|{{lang|ro|ge}}, {{lang|ro|gi}}
||{{IPA|/dʒ/}}
| ''j'' in '''jelly''', '''jigsaw'''
| {{lang|ro|ger}} (frost), {{lang|ro|gimnast}} (gymnast), {{lang|ro|gem}} (jam), {{lang|ro|girafă}} (giraffe), {{lang|ro|geantă}} (bag)
|-
|{{lang|ro|ghe}}, {{lang|ro|ghi}}
||{{IPA|/ɡ/}}
| ''g'' in '''get''', '''give'''
| {{lang|ro|ghețar}} (glacier), {{lang|ro|ghid}} (guide), {{lang|ro|ghindă}} (acorn), {{lang|ro|ghidon}} (handle bar), {{lang|ro|stingher}} (lonely)
|}