Romanian Language Romanian (limba română) is the official language of Romania. The name Romania, and its derivatives, come from the Latin word 'Romanus', a legacy of Roman rulers who took control of ancient Dacia in 106 A.D. Romanian retains a number of features of old Latin and also contains many words taken from the surrounding Slavic languages, as well as from French, Old Church Slavonic, German, Greek and Turkish. Romanian is actually easier for English speakers to understand than it is assumed. If you’ve studied other Romance language, such as Italian, Spanish, French or Portuguese, you may feel at home sooner than you think. Romanian is a phonetic language, so words are pronounced as they are spelled. Romanian alphabet
Aa Ăă Ââ Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii a
ă
â
be
ce
de
e
ef
ge
has
i
Îî î
Jj Kk jî
ca
Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Rr Ss Șș Tt Țț Uu Vv Xx Zz el
em
en
o
pe
er
es
șî
te
țî
u
ve
ics
Q (chiu), W (dublu ve) and Y (i grec) are also used, but mainly in foreign loanwords.
DAYS OF THE WEEK
ZILELE SĂPTĂMÂNII
PRONUNCIATION
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
luni marţi miercuri joi vineri sâmbătă duminică
loon' marts' myer-koor' zho' vi-ner' sîm-buh-tuh doo-mi-ni-kuh
MONTHS OF THE YEAR
LUNILE ANULUI
PRONUNCIATION
January
ianuarie
ya-nwa-rye
February
februarie
fe-brwa-rye
March
martie
mar-tye
April
aprilie
a-pri-lye
May
mai
may
zet