TEACH YOURSELF ~ RomanianROMANIAN Romanian is a language which, because of its Latin origin and its direct and indirect loans from other Romance languages, is readily assimilated by an English speaker, especially if he knows French or Italian. The student the authors have in mind is the non-specialist amateur and traveller. To this end, the material does not go far beyond the most elementary and the style varies between ‘conversational’ and ‘near-formal’. Much of the vocabulary will be familiar to the student who knows other Romance languages; the major difficulties lie with the grammar, and this the authors have tried to grade as carefully as possible within the limits of a single volume. The dialect covered in the book is Daco-Romanian, the national language of Romania, spoken by nearly ninety per cent of its inhabitants. TEACH YOURSELF BOOKSROMANIAN Virgiliu Stefanescu-Draganesti Martin Murrell TEACH YOURSELF BOOKS Hodder and StoughtonFirst printed 1970 Seventh impression 1987 Copyright © 1970 Hodder and Stoughton Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN 0 340 26384 9 Printed and bound in Great Britain for Hodder and Stoughton Educational a division of Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., Mill Road, Dunton Green, Sevenoaks, Kent by Richard Clay Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk This volume is available in the U.S.A. from Random House, Inc., . 201 East 50th Street, New York, NY 10022CONTENTS Introduction . Glossary of Grammatical Terms Abbreviations. Lesson 1: 2: Text Text. : Intr-o cofetirie : Conversatie : Conversatie : Conversatie : Familia Roberts : O lectie de gramatica Lesson Lesson Lesson Lesson Lesson Lesson Lesson Lesson Lesson 10: WCOIADARYW Text Patricia si William pleaca in Roméania Lesson 11 (revision): Dialog Lesson 12: Lesson 13: Lesson 14: Lesson 15: Lesson 16: Lesson 17: Lesson 18: Lesson 19: Lesson 20: Lesson 21: Lesson 22: Lesson 23: Lesson 24: Lesson 25: Lesson 26: Lesson 27: Lesson 28: Lesson 29: Lesson 30: Lesson 31: Un dialog intre un englez si un roman Inainte de plecare Planuri pentru Romania . Plecarea din Londra Sosirea la Bucuresti. Dupa cumparaturi . Numeralul Lucruri folositoare si nefolositoare Pe litoralul Marii Negre : Timpul . La restaurant . La spectacole . O lectie practica Prin Bucuresti . O lectie de geografie O legenda istorica . Patricia e putin bolnava . Alte cuvinte si expresii O plimbare la munte Supplementary Dialogue . Ultima lectie . . Supplementary Dialogue . vvi Lesson 32: O scrisoare Supplementary Dialogue . Appendix 1: Alphabet and Pronunciation . Appendix 2: Verb List Key to the Exercises Romanian Word List : English-Romanian Vocabulary . Tourist Restaurant Aid For Further Reading Classified Index CONTENTS Page 319 331 334 364 384 420 423 425INTRODUCTION The Romanian (Rumanian, Roumanian) language developed from the Roman koine of the lower Danube region from about the middle of the first millennium of our era. Of the languages spoken around that part of the Danube before this time we know very little. The Dacians, who occupied a large part of this territory, spoke a Thracian tongue. At the beginning of the second century Dacia was made a Roman province, and the lingua franca used among the colonists, who were drawn from many different parts of the Roman Empire, was a variety of Latin. Latin thus became, and remained, the official language of communication in the region. Despite the influences from neighbouring tongues to which Romanian has been open throughout most of its history, the language has preserved its basic Latin character in much the same way as English has preserved its Germanic character. Slavonic (Bulgarian, Serbian, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian) elements are most apparent in the vocabulary, to a smaller extent in the syntax (sentence grammar) and phonology (the sound-system), and hardly at all in the morphology (word grammar). Romanian has also developed certain features that are found in its non-Slavonic Balkan neighbours, e.g. in Albanian and Greek. In addition, items have been adopted at various times from nearby Turkish, Hun- garian and German, and these last two languages, especially Hungarian, are still spoken by important minorities (‘co-inhabiting nationalities’) living on what is politically Romanian soil. Much of the borrowed vocabulary, however, was replaced during the nineteenth century in a conscious attempt to ‘re-Romanize’ the language, with French and Italian supplying, in part, the models. In more recent times even a handful of English loans have been accepted into the lexicon (e.g. fotbal, meci ‘match’, bridge, whisky). There are four principal dialects of Romanian, the most important being Daco-Romanian, which is the 12 ROMANIAN national language— spoken, with relatively small varia- tions, by nearly ninety per cent of the inhabitants—of the Socialist Republic of Romania, whose total popula- tion now exceeds twenty million. This is the type of Romanian we present and describe in this book.! Other speakers of this dialect, i.e. inhabitants of the neighbour- ing countries, and speakers of the other main dialects are far less numerous. Because of its Latin origin, and its direct and indirect loans from other Romance languages, a large part of the vocabulary of Romanian is readily assimilated by an English speaker, especially if he knows French or Italian. In working through the book you will find many familiar words, especially those conveying more abstract concepts, some identical in spelling with similar words used in English and others differing only slightly. This makes it fairly easy to read Romanian texts of a formal, non- literary nature. In addition, many words from the ‘everyday’ register and a number of grammatical items have a well-known appearance to a student who knows other Romance tongues (e.g. piine ‘bread’, casd ‘house’, da ‘give’, bun ‘good’, tu ‘you’, ce ‘what’, un ‘a’, de ‘of’). The major difficulties lie in the grammar, and this we have tried to grade as carefully as we could within the limits of a single volume. From about the middle of the course, the going is a little ‘tough’, but provided you have assimilated most of the material in the preceding Lessons, you will not have to slow your pace unduly. Each Reading Text can be worked through without referring to the new grammar, as translations are provided in the Vocabulary. After the reading of the Text, the Grammar and Exercises can be tackled piecemeal. The variety of Daco-Romanian described in this book is the so-called present-day Standard—limba roménd standard (usually called, rather confusingly, limba 1 We have made no attempt to keep description (e.g. ‘it occurs...’, ‘it may occur . . .”) and prescription (e.g. ‘you (may) use it . . .”) distinct.INTRODUCTION 3 literard, because it forms the basis of the modern written language). We have not tried to separate the spoken and written mediums, for most learners require a little of both. The student we have in mind is the interested non-specialist amateur and traveller. The material used includes a few colloquialisms and spoken-medium patterns, especially at the level of discourse (i.e. in terms of utterance combinations), but does not go far beyond the most elementary. By ‘elementary’ we mean, of course, ‘frequently occurring—and therefore useful— patterns’. The style of the Romanian in this work varies between ‘conversational’ and ‘near-formal’. And now a little advice on a possible method of using this book. Each Lesson is divided into four or five parts. First comes the new Vocabulary: the new words and phrases, with the necessary grammatical labelling (you are told, for example, what ‘part of speech’ each item is, its gender if applicable, its plural form, and so on), and a separate list of Phrases which we have selected (from the Text) for translation, as they present various difficulties. The Phrases will help you to read the new Text without consulting the new Grammar section. Some of the Phrases are useful collocations, common expressions, which need careful memorizing. But do try to remember the context in which they are used. Ideally, you should learn as many of the Texts as you can by heart. This is far more useful, and even more enjoyable, than learning lists of isolated words. Read through the Vocabulary and Phrases fairly quickly, noting those words which look familiar and spending a little longer on the rest. Then, after working through the Text with one eye on: the Vocabulary, go back to the Vocabulary and study it hard. See if you can guess or remember the genders and plural forms of nouns, the four adjective forms, and so on. Continually test yourself, and before you begin a new Lesson check that you remember4 ROMANIAN at least seventy per cent of the vocabulary in the preceding Lesson. Read the Text again and try to give the gist of it to yourself (in Romanian, of course), recalling at least what you consider to be the more important Romanian Phrases. The next task is to read through the new Grammar, picking out in the Text the points noted, and to work through the Exercises—very carefully. Finally, recite and/or write out as much of the material in the original Text as you can from memory. It will not be necessary to tackle every Lesson in this way, you can and should vary your procedure, but working along lines similar to those suggested here may bring the best results. It is a good idea to keep a notebook for writing down the phrases (phrases, rather than isolated words) which you find the most difficult to memorize and to try out variations on them— substitute some of the lexical items for others, turn state- ments into questions or commands, combine some items with others, change the tense and person, use a different determiner, and so on. The first five Lessons and one other each contain a section on Pronunciation. These sections should be looked at before the Text is attempted. The description of the various sounds should be studied closely and the sounds practised aloud. The vowels and diphthongs are probably harder to get right than the consonants, and they should, moreover, be kept distinct from each other. A summary of the sounds of Romanian, with their technical labels, is given in Appendix 1, which may be useful for sporadic reference. In the Lessons, rules describing formal changes in terms of graphemes (i.e. letters, orthographic symbols) are also to be interpreted in phonemic terms (i.e. in terms of the sound system). Generally, this presents no problem. A rule such as ‘drop -e, add -or’ readily yields the corre- sponding sound-equivalent rule ‘drop /-e/, add /-or/’ (sound representations are placed between slant-lines, as in this example). Where differences arise, we have noted them. Each Grammar section presents its own problems.INTRODUCTION 5 Remember that this is a course, not a grammar book, and so the material is graded. The rules given are at first quite simple, but many are repeated and elaborated as the Lessons progress. This means that it may not always be easy to check up on a particular point at any given stage. However, the Romanian Word List and Classified Index will help you to locate all the more important uses and descriptions in the Lessons. Although in most cases you will be able to understand each Text without referring to the Grammar section, you should read the latter carefully as it frequently introduces several addi- tional examples of a new structure and in so doing indicates the extent of its use—and thus its usefulness. To help you to master the main words and patterns, a set of Exercises is appended to each Lesson. These should be worked through in conjunction with a re- reading of the Vocabulary and Grammar. Most of them can be done first orally, then in writing. The substitution tables are for giving more practice in the important structures; they produce isolated sentences, of course, and an additional exercise would be for you to con- textualize some of the sentences (e.g. fit them into a two- or three-line dialogue of your own composing). Some of the Exercises are provided with specimen answers, which you will find in the Key. These answers may not corre- spond to your own in every case, but this does not mean that your answers are necessarily wrong! The models in the Key can only serve as a guide—to help you keep a check on your own progress. The answers to the translation exercises provide you with further Romanian texts; since the whole object is to learn and practise correct usage, it is a good idea to read the model answer carefully before you tackle the translation itself. If you find you can understand the Romanian translation answer fully and can memorize most of it, there is little need to do the actual translation exercise! The Key is printed after the two Appendices. Appen- dix 1 comprises a summary of the sound-system and the6 ROMANIAN orthography. Appendix 2 consists of a list of all the verbs used in the Lessons plus a few useful additions. At various points during the course you should look up the verbs whose infinitives you have learnt and check their conjugations in this List. The List will also help you when you do the Exercises. Following the Key comes a list of all the Romanian words used in the Lessons, with references. You may like to add translations yourself, though it is usually more profitable to write up in your own notebook the more difficult words, giving each a full context. The following English-Romanian Vocabulary must be used with great care. Most of the translations apply specifically to the contexts in which the words were used, and meanings are not differentiated. It is a good idea to check the meaning of a given Romanian word against its use in one or more Texts. A few words appear in this Vocabu- lary for the first time; most of these—but only these— are provided with a few grammatical details to help you use them. For those used in the Lessons, the relevant grammatical information has to be sought in the Lessons. This Vocabulary is followed by a Tourist Restaurant Aid —a list of restaurant food items.that you might find useful as a tourist, and the Classified Index. One final tip: if you go to Romania knowing some Romanian, don’t hesitate to try out what you have learnt! The Romanians are among the most friendly people on earth and will be delighted at your efforts to speak their language and very willing to help you. Those of you who would like to study the language with a native teacher can do so in Romania itself, where courses for foreigners are held every summer at the mountain resort of Sinaia. There are parallel sets of courses for beginners, for intermediate, and for advanced students, lasting one month and beginning in July (details and application forms from: Universitatea Bucuresti, Directia Cursurilor de vara, str. Pitar Mos 7-13, Romania). Information about travelling to and staying in RomaniaINTRODUCTION 7 can be obtained from a Romanian embassy or consulate, or from a branch of the Romanian National Travel Office (O.N.T.) (e.g. at 98-99 Jermyn Street, London, S.W.1). Acknowledgment The authors are indebted to Mrs Anna- Lisa Murrell and Miss Constance Milcoveano for their invaluable suggestions and their assistance in preparing the. difficult typesheet. They also extend their sincere thanks to Mr E. D. Tappe, of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London, for reading through the manuscript and pointing out a number of errors and infelicities. For any inaccuracies or omissions remaining in the printed text the authors alone are responsible.GLOSSARY OF GRAMMATICAL TERMS Technical terms are labels that make it possible to dispense with repeated elaborate explanations. In this book we have used a minimum of technical terminology, but a glance at the Index will show that the number of terms is still quite large. Some of. these are known to everyone, but others may be novel. A brief, and very rough, description of them, based on traditional grammar, appears below. Even the best known are included, as there are many cross-references, and we thought it better to include too many rather than too few. The items are listed alphabetically. Adjective A word, phrase or clause that modifies a noun (‘a red herring’). In English noun phrases, single-word adjectives usually precede the noun head and follow determiners. Many adjectives may function as com- plements after certain verbs (‘it is red’) and have a com- parative and superlative degree (‘redder’, ‘reddest’). An adjective may be modified by certain adverbs (‘very red’), In Romanian, adjectives agree with their head in gender number and case. Phrases and clauses modifying nouns may be called adjectival (‘the girl you went out with’). Adverb Any modifier that is not an adjective or deter- miner (‘he writes well’, ‘he’s with the manager’, ‘he went straight to the manager’, ‘of course I did’). There are many different classes in both English and Romanian. The members of some classes may be used as answers to the questions ‘why?’, ‘how?’, ‘where?’, ‘when’, etc., and some form small grammatical classes. Article In English the word a(n) is the indefinite article and the the definite article as used as determiners with nouns. A noun modified by no article may be said to be modified by zero article. The Romanian definite article is a non-separable element which we will call a suffix . 8GLOSSARY OF GRAMMATICAL TERMS 9 (unlike English the), the indefinite article a determiner (as in English). Auxiliary This is a separable grammatical verbal item used with the infinitive or a participle of a lexical verb to indicate tense, mood, or some other special feature of the action or state (‘I will sing’, ‘I might sing’, ‘I have sung’). In any language the number of auxiliaries is limited, and they can be exhaustively listed. Case In Romanian, words functioning in noun phrases are subject to changes of form not only according to the nature of the head, with which they are made to ‘agree’ (see Gender and Number), but also according to the function of the noun phrase in a given clause. If we take the pronouns as an example, those used as subjects are said to be in the Nominative Case (eu, el); those used as direct objects in the Accusative (md, il); those used as indirect objects in the Dative (imi, fi). In discussing nouns, determiners and adjectives we shall merely speak of a base-form (= nominative and accusative) and a case-form (= genitive and dative), since (apart from this one contrast) the exact case function of such words is generally shown by word order and/or by special markers, not by changes of form or the addition of suffixes (see further 16.3/2 (a)). A Genitive construction is one that can be replaced by a possessive determiner or pronoun (‘that girl’s boyfriend’ — ‘her boyfriend’). The referent of a noun in the genitive is ‘possessed by’ another noun’s referent; the referent of a noun in the dative is the ‘recipient’ of the direct-object referent (of the subject referent if the verb is in the passive). Clause A Clause comprises a subject and a predicate (‘John + can’t come today’), and one or more clauses forms or form a sentence. A ‘complex’ sentence may comprise a ‘main’ clause—i.e. a clause that may stand on its own as a complete sentence—(‘J’/l cry if you do’)10 ROMANIAN and one or more ‘subordinate’ clauses (‘I'll cry if you do’). Subordinate clauses modify, or enter into the structure of, phrases or other clauses. A ‘compound’ sentence comprises two or more ‘co-ordinate’ (main) clauses (‘he came in and sat down’). Sentences may also be ‘complex-compound’. Conjunction This is a grammatical word or phrase that joins words, phrases and clauses (‘red and white’, ‘I watched her as she went’, ‘I know that that’s right’). Those that may join main clauses are called ‘co-ordinating’ (e.g. and, but, or, so, zero conjunction); others are ‘subordinating’ (as, that, when, if, provided). Determiner This is a non-lexical modifier of nouns that in many noun phrases may replace an article; it is different from an adjective-in that, inter alia, it has no comparative and superlative degree (cf. all, every, this, some). In Romanian, most determiners show gender, number and case to the same extent as adjectives. In this book, the term is sometimes an ellipsis for non-pronominal determiner or determiner pronoun. Determiners can be listed exhaustively. Determiner Pronoun This is a determiner that may stand on its own without a noun head (cf. all, both, this, each, as in ‘both have left’, ‘I like this’). Finite The infinitive and participles of a verb are non- finite forms. Other verb forms—those that change their form to show person and number—are called finite. Gender Gender is like ‘sex’. We say a noun denoting a male being is ‘masculine’, one denoting a female ‘feminine’, while a thing such as a table is of neither sex, and the noun denoting it.is ‘neuter’. The vast majority of nouns in English are neuter, with few exceptions: we call a thing ‘it’, not ‘he’ or ‘she’. In Romanian, evenGLOSSARY OF GRAMMATICAL TERMS 11 inanimate nouns may be masculine or feminine according to convention. For convenience we shall talk of M-nouns, F-nouns and N-nouns. N-nouns operate either as M-nouns or as F-nouns according to their number form. Romanian has thus a two-term system of gender (M and F), made complicated by the existence of a class of nouns (N-nouns) that alternate between the two terms. [t is important to remember the gender of a noun in order to know, for instance, which of the two forms, M or F, a modifying determiner or adjective should take; these ‘agree’ with their head (the noun to which they are joined) or with the noun to which they refer. Head The centre of a noun phrase is the Head of that noun phrase, while the remaining elements are its Modifiers. The head of ‘the King of England’s son’ is son; that of ‘the King of England’ is King; that of ‘the powerful king’ is king. Infinitive This is the central non-finite form of the verb we give in the Vocabularies (a merge). In both languages it may—or may not—be preceded by a marker (English to, Romanian a). Interjection This is a word or phrase used frequently in exclamations or parenthetically in clauses. It does not function structurally within a phrase or clause (‘oh!’, ‘really!’, ‘really, John!’, ‘why, it’s you!”). Interrogative (see Relative). Marker A marker is a separable element that resembles a preposition, but a unit preceded by a marker does not function as an adverb. It is used to ‘mark’, for example, the passive agent (in Romanian and English), the infini- tive (in English and Romanian), certain types of direct object (in Romanian), and so on.12 ROMANIAN Mood For our purposes ‘in this book, we regard Romanian verbs as having four Mood forms: the Conditional (ar merge ‘he’d go’), which indicates ‘unreal’ conditions; the Imperative (mergi ‘go!’), which is used in giving commands; the Subjunctive (sd meargd)—in most cases simply the indicative preceded by the conjunction s@—which suggests the possibility of an action or state; and the Indicative (merge ‘he goes’), which is ‘neutral’ in Telation to the other moods. Non-determiner Pronoun This is a grammatical item that may replace or be replaced by a noun phrase, but which cannot take noun modifiers such as determiners, or function as a determiner itself (Eng. J, who, me, myself, Rom. cine, unul, fmi). Non-pronominal Determiner This is a determiner that can only be used as a modifier, that is, it cannot stand as a pronoun (English a, the, every, my, Romanian un, niste, meu). Noun (adj.: nominal) A lexical item that, in English, may be modified by a determiner, an article such as the, an adjective, a phrase or a clause (‘that red book over there’), A noun forms the head of a noun phrase. Many nouns in both languages have two number forms, singular (book) and plural (books). Every Romanian noun has a specific gender and may take a definite article suffix. Noun Phrase A noun, with or without modifiers, con- stituting an element in the structure of a phrase or clause. A noun phrase may be replaced by a pronoun. It may function as (part of) the subject or complement of a clause (‘that girl’s pretty’), or as the object of a transitive verb (‘I like that girl’). In both languages a noun phrase becomes a possessive determiner on taking a genitive marker (‘that girl’s mother’).GLOSSARY OF GRAMMATICAL TERMS 13 Number This is a two-term system in both languages. In Romanian, most noun-phrase elements and finite- verb forms have different singular and plural forms. Object The direct object of a clause is a noun phrase or pronoun that completes the sense of a transitive verb. Many verbs require ‘fulfilling’ in this sense (‘he took his hat’, ‘he broke it’); others may be optionally fulfilled (‘he read (the book)’, ‘he painted (it)’), The indirect object indicates the ‘recipient’ or ‘beneficiary’ of the direct object referent (‘he gave it to John’, ‘he painted me a picture’) or of the subject referent (‘it was given to John’). The word complement is sometimes used to indicate the noun phrase or adjectival or adverbal phrase that follows a copulative verb, that is, a verb of state (‘he’s a man’, ‘she looks funny’), and sometimes it covers both this meaning and that of ‘direct object’. In Romanian, a pronoun functioning as direct object is in the Accusative Case and as indirect object in the Dative Case, while the noun complement of a copulative verb is in the Nominative Case. Participle Present and Past Participles are non-finite forms of verbs. In English only, present participles (laughing, breaking) may be used as noun modifiers (‘the laughing girl’), and in both languages as clause modifiers (‘she approached me, /aughing’). Past participles (laughed, broken) are-used in both languages in the formation of Certain tenses (‘he hadn’t broken it) and as noun modifiers (‘a broken marriage’). Particle This is a useful label for those words which formally resemble prepositions and markers but whose status as one or the other or as something else has not been established or it is convenient to leave vague because of their multiple class membership. Phoneme This is not a grammatical but a phonological14 ROMANIAN term (included here for convenience). A Phoneme is the smallest distinctive unit of significant speech sound in a given dialect. For example, we may talk of the p-phoneme of Standard British, writing it /p/, which is an abstraction of all the different p-sounds an English speaker uses, no two or more of which he uses repeatedly in a regular way with other sounds to produce different words. Likewise, there are a number of different, though regularly recur- ring, I-sounds in English (cf. the three different I’s in the phrase ‘a little plum’), but if we interchange them we do not produce a different or nonsensical phrase, even though it sounds rather un-English. Thus, while we have a number of different I-sounds in English, we only have one 1-phoneme. Phrase One or more words that may form a complete unit of clause structure: subjects and objects consist of noun phrases, verbs of verb phrases, adverbs of adverb phrases, etc. It is also used loosely in this book to cover one or more words that it is useful to translate as a unit. Possessive This is a determiner (‘it’s my book’, ‘John’s place’) or pronoun (‘it’s mine’) that specifies the ‘posses- sor’ of a noun. Genitive noun phrases may be replaced by grammatical possessive determiners (‘that girl’s husband’ — ‘her husband’) or by possessive pronouns (‘it’s Jane’s —> ‘it’s hers’). In Romanian, the form of a possessive agrees in gender, number and case with the noun whose referent (whatever the noun denotes) con- stitutes the ‘property’ (whatever it is that is possessed). Predicate The Predicate of a clause is what remains after we have removed the subject. It consists of a verb phrase, with or without objects, complements and/or adverbs (‘I picked up my pen’, ‘the girl over there won't’). Preposition A Preposition (e.g. in, on, for) precedes a noun phrase to form an adverb phrase—a unit whichGLOSSARY OF GRAMMATICAL TERMS 15 may be replaced by a single adverb (‘he sat on the bench’ — ‘he sat there’). Prepositions can be exhaustively listed. Note that, by extension, the term can be applied to certain other, formally similar words such as markers and particles. We have made a distinction only in a few essential cases. Referent The non-linguistic entity in our experience (person, abstract concept, material thing, etc.) which a lexical item refers to or denotes. Reflexive A Reflexive Verb is one that, by means of a special set of pronouns, indicates that the action per- formed is performed by the subject on or for the subject (‘he cut himself’, ‘she gave herself a treat’). In Romanian, the reflexive pronouns are used in more functions than in English; their presence may fulfil the conditions of transitivity or they may indicate that the subject ‘possesses’ the object. Relative and Interrogative Relative and Interrogative words such as who, which, where, what, how, that operate as pronouns (‘which is right?’), determiners (‘which word is right?’), or adverbs (‘where are the answers?’). Most words used in the one function are also used in the other (‘the girl who’s looking at you’, ‘who’s looking at you?’). Some are used in only one of the two functions (Romanian cine: interrogative only, pronoun only; English that: relative only, pronoun only); others are used in other functions besides (Romanian cit); and some introduce exclamations (‘how lovely!’). English has a zero relative pronoun (‘the girl zero you met’), which is always replaceable by that. Relative clauses modify nouns (‘the boy you met’) and are used as nominalizations (‘give it to whoever you like’, ‘I don’t like what you wrote’). Sentence A sentence may be thought of as a minimal utterance comprising one clause, or two or more clauses16 ROMANIAN having a definable relationship to one another. In writing, a distinction’ is traditionally made between ‘complex’, ‘compound’, and ‘complex-compound’ sen- tences (see also Clause). Subject The subject of a clause is a noun phrase whose referent—if the predicate contains an active-voice verb— performs the action or exists in the particular state asserted by the predicate (‘J picked up my pen’, ‘the girl over there won’t’). In Standard British English a singular human-noun subject may be replaced by he or she but not by him or her. In Romanian the subject and predicate are frequently conflated (venim ‘we come’).. Tense Verb forms change to indicate temporal features of the action in question in relation to other actions— for example, the present, the past, the future, simul- taneity, continuity, sequence, etc. This kind of feature of the verb is called Tense (but not necessarily all those features listed: some of these may not occur or may go under other labels, depending on the language under discussion). Transitive The verb in a clause containing a direct object is said to be Transitive. Many verbs may be used either intransitively (‘he grew’, ‘the door opened’) or transitively (the grew it’, ‘he opened it’). There are more restrictions on the occurrence of the former in Romanian than in English, Romanian uses of reflexive verbs often corre- sponding to intransitive uses in English. There is a relationship in both languages between transitivity and voice. Verb This is a word or phrase that may form a minimal predicate, describing an action or state. It varies its forms to indicate (for instance) tense (‘it was red’, ‘it’s been red’, ‘it will be red’) and mood (‘it would be red’, were it red’, ‘be a man’). In Romanian most finite verbGLOSSARY OF GRAMMATICAL TERMS 17 forms vary for person, that is, the choice of form is in part conditioned by the subject of the clause (cf. Eng. ‘I sing’, ‘he sings’, ‘I am’, ‘you are’, Rom. dam ‘we give’, dai ‘you give’). Verb Phrase This consists of a verb (a main verb with or without auxiliaries) and any verb modifiers, especially adverbs of manner (‘he died’, ‘he might die’, ‘he has died’, ‘he died quickly’). It is used by some linguists also in the sense of ‘predicate’. Voice In English when the verb phrase of a clause com- prises a form of the auxiliary verb to be plus the past participle of a main (lexical) verb, we say that the verb is in the Passive Voice (‘the teacher was shot at’, ‘he will be granted leave’), which contrasts with the Active Voice (‘he shot at the teacher’, ‘the officer will grant him leave’). The passive indicates that the action expressed by the verb is performed not by the subject (= active voice) but on or for the subject—by an agent stated or unknown (‘the teacher was shot at (by one of his students)’, ‘she was shocked (by his behaviour)’).ABBREVIATIONS In the Lesson Vocabularies each item is given an abbre- viated label. For fuller details of an item’s uses it is necessary to consult the Grammar sections. acc. accusative case adj. adjective, adjectival ady, adverb, adverbial (phrase) art. article (definite or indefinite) B-form base-form (nominative-accusative) C-form case-form (genitive-dative) conj. conjunction dat. dative case det. determiner, non-pronominal determiner det. pron. determiner pronoun (i.e. a form that may be used either as a det. or as a pron.) , English F-gender (noun), F-form future (tense) imperative mood interjection invariable (form) (i.e. a form that does not change for gender, number and case, or for person and number, etc.) lit. literally, more literally M M-gender (noun), M-form mark, marker N N-gender (noun), N-form num. numeral part. participle past past (tense) pl. plural (form) poss. possessive prep. preposition, preposition-like phrase, particle pres. present (tense) pron. pronoun, non-determiner pronoun Rom. Romanian sing., Sg. singular (form) vb. verb (form) 18Lesson 1 1.1 Vocabulary am vb. I have, I’ve got apa F water cana F jug carte F book casi F house clasa F classroom, class cu prep. with, of de prep. of, made of fata F girl lada F box, chest lama F blade, razor-blade lampa F lamp lapte M milk lemn N wood masa F table 1 Phrases 0 cana cu apa o lama de ras o sala de clasa de lemn 1.2 Text mar N apple 0 det. Fa, an om M man pahar N glass pe prep. on pom M tree pun vb. I put, I am putting ras N shave sala F hall sub prep. under text NV text toc N pen tren N train un det, M/N a, an vad vb. I see a jug of water a razor-blade a classroom made of wood, wooden Note: stressed vowels are italicized. O cana cu apa. O cana cu lapte. Un pahar cu apa. Un pahar cu lapte. O masa de lemn. O lada de lemn. O lama de ras. O carte pe masa. Un toc pe masa. O lada sub masa. Un om sub un pom. Vdd o casa. Vdd o clasa. Vad o sala. Vad o sala de clasd. Vad 0 cana cu lapte pe masa. Vad un pahar cu apa pe masa. Vdd o fata sub un pom. Vdd un mdr sub masa. Vdd un toc. Vdd o carte. Am o casa. Am o carte. Am un toc. Am un pahar cu apa. Am o lampa. Am un mdr. Pun un mdr pe masa. Pun o ladi sub masa. Pun o cana cu lapte pe masd. Pun un toc pe masa. Pun o carte pe masa. 1920o carteLESSON ONE 23 1.3 Pronunciation Romanian uses the same alphabetic letters as English, plus a few additions; many of the letters have a similar range of phonetic value to those in many other modern European languages that use the Latin alphabet. The spelling of Romanian is largely phonemic, that is, with very few exceptions, the same letter represents the same sound-type in all positions and in all words of the same (standard) dialect. For this reason, it is not neces- sary to provide phonetic transcriptions throughout. In this and the next four Lessons the letters and sounds will be explained. Sound symbols are printed between slant- lines and stressed vowels are italicized; hyphens are occasionally used to show syllable-boundaries, thus /lam-pa/ (two syllables). 1.3/1 Vowels a /a/ resembles the Standard British English vowel-sound in words like come, some, cut. The Romanian sound is a little longer but not as long or as far back as in the English words palm, card. Practise: am, pahar, ras Romanian cam ‘about’ is pronounced like English come cad ‘I fall’ is pronounced like English cud cat ‘storey’ is pronounced like English cut lampda ‘lamp’ is pronounced like English Jumper /a/ represents a sound similar to the English vowel- sound in words like hurt, jerk; it is shorter than the vowel in fur, sir. The mark ~~ placed above the letter a is thus not used in Romanian to show a difference in length; d stands for a vowel-sound different in quality from a, the centre of the tongue being raised higher for d than for the more open a. Practise: vad, casa, clasd, masa, cana, lama, lamp, fata A24 ROMANIAN e /e/ is almost the same as the English vowel-sound in words like pen, ten, said. (See also 3.3/1.) Practise: de, lemn, carte, text o /o/ resembles the English vowel-sound in words like bought, caught, pork, but it is a little shorter and closer, i.e. the back of the tongue is raised somewhat higher. Avoid making the Romanian vowel as long as the vowel in the English words cord, lord, or as open as the vowel in cod, John. Practise: pom, toc, o u /u/ is shorter than the long English 00 of boot and longer than the short English 00 of wood. It is a high rounded back vowel of medium length. Practise: un, cu, pun, sub None of these five vowels should be diphthongized, but initial o and u are sometimes preceded by a very short w-sound. 1.3/2 Consonants b /b/, m /m/, f /f/, v /v/, s /s/ are very similar to English b, m, f, v, s, in bat, mat, fat, vat, sat. Pp /p/, t /t/, ¢ /k/ are like English p, t, c in spar, star, scar. Try to avoid aspirating these sounds. (Aspiration generally accompanies the pronunciation of English p, t, c, when they are not preceded by s, as in par, tar, car.) For c, see also 2.3/3. t /t/,d/d/,n /n/,1/l/,r /r/, s /s/ are dentals, that is, they are pronounced with the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth, and not against the teeth-ridge as in English. (Eng. t, for example, is a dental only when followed immediately by a regular dental sound as in eighth (= eight + th).) 1 /I/ is always ‘clear’ in Romanian, as in the English words live, like, along—that is, like English ] beforeLESSON ONE 25 a vowel, (It is never like the ‘dark’ English / in tell, all, almost.) r /r/ is strongly trilled with the tip of the tongue, like Scots r, and pronounced in all positions (also before consonants and at the end of words). h /h/ is pronounced in a similar way to English A in head, behave, but with more audible friction. The sound occurs both before a vowel and after a vowel, and even at the end of words, when it approaches ch in Scottish loch. x in the prefix ex- is pronounced like English x in extreme before consonants (=/ks/), and like English x in exact before vowels (=/gz/). Romanian has the same two words: extrem /ekstrem/, exact /egzakt/. In other occurrences x is usually /ks/ in all positions: text /tekst/, taxi /taksi/. 1.3/3 Stress We mark stress in this book by printing the vowel of the stressed syllable in italics. There is no special mark for it in the Romanian orthography. One syllable of a word of two or more syllables is more strongly accented or stressed than the other syllable(s). The position of the stressed syllable is largely unpredict- able, as in English, and has to be learnt for each new word, The contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables in Romanian is not so marked as in English. On the other hand, unstressed vowels are not generally reduced or elided; they retain their quality whatever the degree of stress associated with them. Notes on syllable changes appear in other Lessons. As in English, grammatical words (determiners, prepositions, markers, conjunctions, auxiliaries, etc.) are frequently unstressed or more weakly stressed than are lexical words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs), though, as you will notice, this is not always the case.26 ROMANIAN 1.3/4 Intonation (Speech Melody) Statements are spoken with a falling intonation or tune, as in English. However, the last accented syllable in a Romanian phrase may not always have as high a fall in pitch as in English. Practise the following phrases (the sign | indicates that the fall in pitch should begin on the stressed syllable of the following word): ocanacu | apa un pahar cu | lapte un om sub un | pom am un | toc vad o | casi vdd un pahar cu apa pe | masa pun o carte pe | masi Now practise reading the Text of the Lesson. Read it aloud several times. 1.4 Grammar 1.4/1 Nouns: Gender There are three genders in Romanian, traditionally called Masculine (M), Feminine (F), and either Neuter or Mixed (N). Male beings are generally M, and female beings are generally F, but objects and abstract concepts are variously M, F, or N. 1.4/2 The Indefinite Article (Eng. a, an) M- and N-nouns take the indefinite article uz and F-nouns o: M un om aman N un mar an apple F o fata a girl F o carte a book Note the omission of the definite article after a preposition: © cana pe masa a jug on the table un mdr sub masa an apple under the tableLESSON ONE 27 In English, of course, the article the is required. On the other hand, the indefinite article is not omitted in such phrases: un mdr sub o masa an apple under a table 1.4/3 Verbs Verbs take different endings for person, and subject pronouns (like J, we, you, etc.) are often omitted: am IT have pun I put 1.5 Exercises Note: Exercises for which a key is provided are asterisked. 1. Copy out the Text of the Lesson and read it aloud once again. Note that every letter has a sound-value. 2. Make a dozen or so different sentences with the help of the following table. Method: Read across from left to right, selecting one word from each column, taking care not to cross any horizontal lines (e.g. if you choose un, you cannot choose cand, and so on). This substitution table yields 42 sentences in all. am un mdr pe masa vad pahar sub pun toc o cana carte lampa lama *3. Translate: I have a glass of milk. I have a jug of water. I see a man under a tree. I see a box under the table. I see a book on the table. I’m putting a wooden box under the table.28 ROMANIAN 4. Having checked your translation of the sentences in Exercise 3, practise reading the Romanian sentences aloud. Note where the stress falls.Lesson 2 2.1 Vocabulary Ana F Ann are vb. (he, she, it) has (got) bere F beer bun M/N, buna F adj. good camera F room camere F pl. rooms case F pl. houses cline M dog clini M pl. dogs clase F pl. classes copii /kopij/ M pl. children copil M child curte F (court)yard dar conj. but din prep. from doi M, doua N/F num. two Elena F Helen gradina F garden in prep. in, into linga prep. by, near mare M/N/F sg. adj. big mari M/N/F pl. adj. big Phrases am un toc in mina vine un tren 2.2. Text mic M/N, mica F adj. sg. small mici adj. pl. small mina F hand Nicu M Nick pahare N pl. glasses Petre M Peter pisica F sg. cat pisici /pisiti/ F pl. cats piine F (loaf of) bread piini F pl. loaves of bread pomi M pl. trees sifon N syphon, soda water sticla F sg. bottle sticle F pl. bottles strada F street texte N pl. texts tocuri N pl. pens Toma M Tom vin N wine vine vb. (he, she, it) comes, is coming T have a pen in my hand (lit. in hand) A train comes, is coming Am un pahar cu bere. Am o sticla cu bere. Vad un pahar cu bere pe masa. Vad pe masa un pahar cu vin. Vad pe masa un. pahar cu sifon. Vdd pe masa o sticla cu vin linga o sticla cu bere. Am o carte in mina. Am un toc in mina. Vdd un om in curte. Vdd doi pomi in gradina. Vdd un cfine in strada. Vad doi cfini in curte. Vad o 29osticla31un copil sub un pom 2% doua case mari 32LESSON TWO 33 piine pe masa. Vdd doua pfini pe masa Ifnga doua sticle cu bere. Vdd douad pahare cu vin. Vdd o fata lingd un copil in gradind. Vdd doi copii in clasi. Nicu are un ciine mic. Toma are un ciine mare. Petre are o pisicd mica. Elena are doua pisici mici. Ana are o casi mica dar are o gradinad mare. Elena are doua case mari. Am doua camere mari. Ana are doi copii. Am doi cfini mari. Nicu are doi cfini mici. Un om vine din strada. O fata vine din casi. Un copil vine din curte. O pisicd vine din gradina. Vine un tren. Pun o pfine pe masa. Pun un sifon sub masa. Pun © carte pe masa, lingd lampa. 2.3 Pronunciation 2.3/1 Vowels f /i/ has no near-equivalent in Standard English.? It lies between the vowel sounds of the English words reed and rude, and is pronounced with spread lips. Practise it by putting the lips in position for Rom. i /i/ (like Eng. ee in reed), and, keeping them spread, raise the centre (not the front or back!) of the fongue as high as you can and try to say /i/. The resulting sound should be similar to Rom. f, as in the word rid ‘I laugh’. For i you raise the front of the tongue, for ¢ the centre of the tongue, for u the back of the tongue (and round the lips). Now practise all the three central vowels, a, d, { (centre of tongue low, centre half-raised, centre high), as in var, var, vir and par, pdr, pirr. The sound /i/ also used to be represented by the letter 4, but this symbol is used today only in the name of the country, Romdnia, and all words con- taining the root romdn-, such as roman, romdnesc, romdncd, etc. Do not confuse this 4 (= f) with a. 1 It does occur as the first part of a diphthong in the local dialects of Birmingham and Liverpool in the pronunciation of reed [rijd] (cf. Rom. /ij/).34 ROMANIAN The letter i stands for three sounds: i /i/ resembles the Standard British English ee or i sound in words like feet, sleep, machine. The Romanian sound, however, is somewhat shorter and ‘purer’, that is, there is no tendency to diphthongization as with the similar English sound. Practise: din, vin, vine, mic, copil, sifon, Nicu i /i/ is sometimes called a pseudo-vowel. It has no syllabic value, but its presence or absence following a consonant is clearly audible. It is like an extremely short, voiceless /i/-sound, like a brief, whispered /i/, which accompanies or completes the release of a final consonant. In the Lesson Vocabularies and through- out the earlier Lessons it will be printed / instead of i. Practise using it in the following words: pomi, mari, tocuri ‘pens’, Bucuresti /bukureshti/ ‘Bucharest’ i /i/ is a semi-vowel very similar to Eng. y in yard. It occurs only in combination with other vowels, i.e. in diphthongs and triphthongs. In certain cases this sound is conditioned by other sounds and may have no separate orthographic symbol. Thus, in Romanian texts, the letter i represents /i/ or /1/ or /i/. These sounds in turn must be distin- guished from /i/ (i, 4). 2.3/2. Diphthongs Diphthongs and triphthongs are vocalic ‘glides, i.e. the tongue moves from one special position to another or to others within one and the same syllable (as oi in Eng. noise). Diphthongs may be falling, that is, the first element is accented, or rising, in which case the second element is accented. (In English rest-cure the diphthong (in the second syllable) is falling; in rescuer it is rising.) The unstressed elements in vowel glides are shown in the phonemic script by means of the sign .. \LESSON TWO 35 ii /ij/ (falling), which occurs in the plural form copii /ko-pij/, is rather like a lengthened /i/. Try to make a clear distinction between /i/, /ij/ (both single syllables) and /ii/ (=/i-i/, two syllables). ti /ij/ (falling) comprises a glide from the position of the vowel /i/ to that of the vowel /i/. Practise: piine, cfine /kij-ne/ oi /oj/ (falling) is very much like the English diphthong oi in noise, voice. It occurs in the word doi ‘two’. ud /ua/ (rising) is similar to the diphthong in the English word influence. It consists of a glide from a very short /u/ (like Eng. w) to an /4/. It occurs in doud /do-ya/. 2.3/3 Consonants c /é/: It was stated in 1.3/2 that Rom. c was pronounced as in Eng. scar. However, it has a different sound when followed by the letter i or e, viz. like Eng. ch in cheese, much. Practise: mici /miéi/ (one syllable), pisici /pi-siti/ (two syllables), ciocolataé /éocolata/ ‘chocolate’, ceai /éaj/ ‘tea’ g /g/: Except when followed by -e or -i, g is pronounced as Eng. g in game. Examples: lingd /lin-ga/, gradina, gard ‘station’ ch /k/, gh /g/: The diagraphs ch, gh are used before -e and -i only. The sounds are similar to the /k, g/ represented by simple c or k and g, though the contact between the tongue and the roof of the mouth is a little more forward. Practise: chifla /kifla/ ‘roll’, chelner /kelner/ ‘waiter’, inghetata /in-ge-tsa-ta/ ‘ice-cream’, ghid ‘guide’ 2.4 Grammar 2.4/1 Nouns: Plural Nouns take various ends to mark the plural. Generally speaking, M-nouns take the ending -i; F-nouns take the ending -e or -i; N-nouns either -e or -uri.36 ROMANIAN Examples: Singular Plural M pom ‘tree’ pomi ‘trees’ M cfine ciini F casi case F camera camere F pfine piini F pisica pisicl N pahar pahare N toc tocurl An irregular plural: M copil ‘child’ copii /kopij/ ‘children’ 2.4/2. Adjectives Unlike English usage, Romanian adjectives frequently follow the nouns they qualify. At the same time they are made to ‘agree’ with their head-nouns in gender, number and case. With nouns in the singular, adjectives can have one form for M/N-nouns and one form for F-nouns. With nouns in the plural, adjectives may have an M-form and an F/N-form. Examples: Msg. un cfine bun Mpi. doi ctini bunt Fsg. 0 cas4 bund Fpl. doua case bune Nsg. un toc bun Npl. doua tocuri bune Most Romanian adjectives therefore have four forms, e.g. bun, bund, bunt, bune:LESSON TWO 37 Some adjectives have only three forms, e.g. mic, micd, mict: pl. mici Examples: M: un pom mare doi pomi mari F: o casd mare doua case mari N: un pahar mare doua pahare mari So that there is no confusion, every adjective in the Lesson Vocabularies is given four forms, even if two or more of these are identical. 2.4/3 Numerals The numeral doi ‘two’ is used with M-nouns. The form doud is used with F- and N-nouns. A useful way of memorizing the gender of Romanian nouns is to learn them together with the indefinite article in the singular and the numeral doi, doud in the plural, e.g. M: un copil doi copii F: o masa doud mese N: un text doud texte38 ROMANIAN It will by now be clear why N-nouns are called ‘mixed’: they take M-forms in the singular and F-forms in the plural. . 2.4/4 Verbs The verbal form are /a-re/ means ‘he has’, ‘she has’ or ‘it has’, depending on the context. Similarly, vine /vi-ne/ means ‘he, she, it comes’; it is the third person singular of the present tense of the verb a veni /a ve-ni/ ‘to come’. 2.5 Exercises 1. Copy out the Text of this lesson and then read it aloud. 2. Read off and write out at least a dozen sentences from each of the following tables: (@ cfine Nicu un pahar mare Ana mar mic Petre toc Elena are |__| Toma curte carte ° masa mare camera casa mica cana gradina ) doi mici Nicu Elena . Ana are doua camere mari Toma pisici Petre pahare sticleLESSON TWO 39 © casa curte camera gradina strada *3. Translate into Romanian: I have a book. I’ve got a pen. I’ve got a cat. I have a dog. I have a bottle of wine. I see a man in the street. I see a girl in the yard. I see two trees in the yard. I see a jug of water on the table. I see two cats under the table. I see two children in the garden. . Nick has a glass of milk. Helen has two loaves of bread. Peter’s got a big apple. Ann has a little lamp on the table. I’m putting a book on the table. I put a bottle of wine and two bottles of beer under the table. I put two loaves of bread by a jug of water on the table. 4. Having checked your translation of the sentences in Exercise 3, practise reading the Romanian sentences aloud. Notice where the stress falls.Lesson 3 3.1 Vocabulary From this Lesson on, both the singular form and the plural form of nouns are given. In the case of adjectives, the four forms given are: M/N sg., F sg., M pl., N/F pl. aceasta /atasta/ det. pron. F this, that acesta /atesta/ det. pron. M/N this, that Anglia /an-gli-ja/ England Bucuresti Bucharest ce /&e/ det. pron. what cine /tine/ pron. who de unde adv. from where, where... . from dictionar — dictionare N dictionary doctor — doctori M doctor (male) doctorita — doctorite F doctor (female) doamna (abbreviated d-na or dna.) title Mrs doamna — doamne F lady domnisoara (d-soara) title Miss domnul (d1.) title Mr dumneaei /dum-nga-jej/ pron. she (polite) dumnealor /dum-nga-lor/ (d-lor) pron. they (polite) dumnealui /dum-nga-luj/ pron. he (polite) dumneavoastra /dum-nga-vga-stra/ (dvs.) pron. you (polite) e /ie/, este /jeste/ vb. (he, she, it, there) is ea /ja/ pron. F she ei /jei/ pron. M they el /jel/ pron. M he ele /jele/ pron. F they eu /jey/ pron. 1 englez, engleza, englezi, engleze adj. English englez — englezi M Englishman a fi vb. to be Londra London Maria /marija/ Mary profesoara — profesoare F teacher (female) profesor — profesori M teacher (male) 40LESSON THREE 41 ‘romdn, romdna, romdni, romdne adj. Romanian romdén — romdéni M Romanian (male) romdnca /rominka/ — romance /rominée/ F Romanian (female) Romania /rominija/ Romania sau /say/ conj. or sint vb. (I) am, (they) are sinteti vb. (you) are student — studenti M student (male) studenté — studente F student (female) si conj. also, and, too unde adv. where Phrases eu sint student Tam a student dvs.} sinteti profesor you are a teacher cine e /éine je/ . cine-i /tinei/ who is cee /ée je/ . ceni /&ei/ what is dar eu ce sint? but what am /? (i.e. what is my nationality, pro- fession, etc.) doamna the lady doamna Soare d-na Soare } Mrs Soare_ 3.2 Text Cine sinteti dvs.? Eu sint Toma Soare. Ce sintefi dvs.? Eu sint profesor. Cine e doamna? Doamna e d-na Bratu. Ce e d-na Bratu? Si dumneaei e profesoara. Ce sint eu? Si dvs. sinteti profesor. Cine-i in gradina? D-soara Maria Soare. Ce e d-soara Soare? Dumneaei e studenta. 1 Such abbreviated forms may be used in writing. To show that the -voa-syllable is stressed we italicize the -vs. (and similarly the d- of d-na, etc.).42 Cine sint in gradina? Ce-i Radu Soare? Ce sint Maria si Radu? De unde sintefi dvs.? Ce sinteti dvs.? Ce este d-na Soare? Ce sint dl. si d-na Soare? Dar eu ce sint? De unde sinteti? De unde e dl. Brown? Ce este dl. Brown? Cu cine e dl. Brown? Si ce e d-na Brown? Ce sint ei? Ce e acesta? Ce e aceasta? Ce-i acesta? Ce-i aceasta? Unde sint Maria si Toma? Unde sint d-na si dl. Soare? Unde sint Maria si Elena? 3.3 Pronunciation 3.3/1 Vowel Glides ROMANIAN Maria si Radu Soare. Radu Soare e student. Ei sint studenti. Eu sint din Romania, din Bucuresti. Sint roman. $i dumneaei e romdnca. Ei sint roméni. Dvs. sinteti englez. Sint din Londra. D\. Brown e din Anglia. $i dumnealui e englez. Dumnealui e doctor. D\. Browne cu d-na Brown. $i dumneaei e doctorita. Ei sint doctori. Ei sint englezi. Acesta e un dictionar. Aceasta e 0 carte. Acesta e un pahar. Aceasta e o masa. Ea e in casa si el e in gradina. Dumnealor sint in casi sau in gradina. Ele sint in curte. au /ay/ (falling) is very much like the English diphthong in out, now. Avoid any tendency to monophthongize the sound: the /y/ should not be completely absorbed by the /a/. (The Romanian word sau ‘or’ is not pronounced ‘sah’, as modern Standard British sow (‘pig’) tends to be.) ui /uj/ (falling) resembles the English glide in the first syllable of the word ruinous. The /j/-element in theLESSON THREE 43 Romanian diphthong, however, keeps its Romanian-/i/ quality. Example: ° dumnealui /dumngaluj/. ei /ej/ (falling) resembles the English diphthong in words like day, beige. Examples: ce-i /Eei/, lei ‘lei’ (pl. of Jeu, monetary unit), ‘lions’. ei, iei /jej/ resembles archaic English yea. After a vowel, and in one pronoun, it is spelt simply ei: ei, dumneaei /dumngajej/. ia /ia/ (tising) sounds rather like you- in English young. The sequence /ija/ is also written ia: Anglia /an-gli-ja/, Romania /ro-mi-ni-ja/, Maria /ma-ri-ja/. The pronoun ea ‘she’ is also pronounced /ja/. oa /ga/ (rising) resembles the wo- in English wonder. The Romanian semivowel /Q/ is a little more open than English w. Examples: Soare /sgare/, doamna, profesoara. ea /¢a/ (rising) is similar to the diphthong /ja/ described above, but the semivowel /¢/ is more open than /j/. Examples: dumneavoastra. /dum-nga-vga-stra/, dumnealui, dumnealor. ie /ie/ (rising) sounds very much like the English glide ye- in yes. The sequence /ije/ is also written ie: prieten /pri-je-ten/ ‘friend’. Initially in older words /je/ may appear also simply as e: el /iel/, e /ie/, este /jeste/. io /jo/ (rising) resembles the English glide yo- in York. Example: dictionar /dic-tsjo-nar/ ‘dictionary’. 3.3/2 Consonants s /sh/, z /z/ are very similar to the initial consonants in English shed and zed respectively. Romanian si sounds very much like the English pronoun she. Romanian /z/44 ROMANIAN (like /t, d, ts, s, n, 1, r/) is a dental sound. Practise: englez, zero ‘zero’, ‘nil’, zece /zete/ ‘ten’. } /ts/ is similar to the ts at the end of English hats, but the Romanian sound is a dental, not an alveolar. Romanian ¢ can stand at the beginning of .a word as well as in the middle and at the end. Practise: sintefi /sin-tetsi/, studenti, doctorita, tara ‘country’. 3.3/3 Intonation Questions beginning with an interrogative word are generally said with a falling intonation, as in English. Practise the following, allowing the main accent to fall on the stressed syllable of the first stressed word in each: {Cine sinte¢i dumneavoastra? {Ce e doamna Bratu? De {unde e domnul Brown? { Unde sint domnul si doamna Soare? 3.4 Grammar 3.4/1 Nouns F-nouns denoting occupation or nationality are derived by various means from the corresponding M-nouns, e.g. un romén/o roménca, un profesor/o profesoara, un doctor/o doctorifa, un student/o studenté. With nouns denoting occupation or nationality, the indefinite article is generally omitted after the verb a fi: eu sint student I am a student 3.4/2 Nouns: Plural M-nouns ending in a consonant form their plural by adding -i to the form of the singular: englez ‘Englishman’, englezi ‘Englishmen’ romén ‘Romanian’, roméni ‘Romanians’ When forming the plural many nouns undergo various changes in their phonological structure. These are con- ditioned by the addition of the suffix. Thus M-nounsLESSON THREE 45 ending in -t change this ¢ into ¢ when the ending -I is added: _ student ‘student’, studenti ‘students’. Nouns like englez optionally change the final -z into —j (=/zh/; see 4.3/3): englez — englezi or engleji M-nouns ending in a vowel substitute -i for their final vowel. This -i may be /i/, /j/ or /i/. After two con- sonants, the second of which is / or r, -i is pronounced hif: metru ‘metre’, metri /me-tri/ ‘metres’ After a vowel, it is pronounced /j/: leu /ley/ ‘lion’, lei /lej/ ‘lions’ Otherwise it is pronounced /i/: frate ‘brother’, frafi ‘brothers’ perete ‘wall’, pereti ‘walls’. 3.4/3 Pronouns The demonstrative determiner pronoun denoting prox- imity (‘this one’) has the forms: M/N acesta, F aceasta. Some subject personal pronouns: eu /iey/ ‘T M el /iel/ ‘he’ F ea /ja/ ‘she’ M ei /jei/ ‘they’ F ele /jele/ ‘they’. As a rule, the subject personal pronouns are not used to refer to animals and things; either the noun is not replaced but simply repeated or the subject entirely omitted (unlike Eng. it, they). There are several pronouns for the second and third persons in Romanian. Dumneavoastrd (dys.) is the polite form of address for the second person (Eng. you, both sg. and pl.). For the third person we may use:46 ROMANIAN M dumnealui he F dumneaei she M/F pl. dumnealor they The interrogative pronoun cine ‘who’ generally refers to human beings, while ce ‘what’ refers to non-humans: cine e in gradina? who is (that) in the garden? ce e pe masa? what is (there) on the table? Note: ce e dl. Soare? what is Mr Soare’s occupation? 3.4/4 Verbs Infinitives are frequently preceded by the marker a, like Eng. to, e.g. a fi ‘to be’. The verb a fi has various forms for the different persons. Sint means both ‘I am’ and ‘they are’. Sintefi means ‘you are’ (one person or several). The third person singular has two alternative forms, e and este ‘(he, she, it) is’. E is more common in speech and may be reduced to /i/ if there is a preceding grammatical word that ends in a vowel. Thus we may say ce este, ce e, or ce-i /cei/ for ‘what is’ (similarly, cine-i for ‘who is’). 3.5 Exercises 1, Copy out the Text of the Lesson and then read it aloud several times. 2. Make sentences with the help of the following tables: (@) casi? clasi? curte? gradina? strada?LESSON THREE 47 © | deunde | e el? unde este ea? ce dumneaei? cine dumnealui? domnisoara? dl. Soare? sint ei? ele? dl. si dna. Soare? Maria si Toma? dumnealor? (domnisoara ‘the young lady’) © ce |e acesta? acesta e un | cfine este este pom mér dictionar sifon pahar toc aceasta? aceasta ° casa masa carte pisica lampa cand sticla *3. Translate into Romanian: Mr Smith is English. He comes from England. He is a teacher. Mrs Smith is a teacher too. You are teachers. Mary and Helen are doctors. Tom and Mary are students (M plural). You are students too. Mr Soare is Romanian. He (polite form) comes from Romania. He (polite form) is a teacher. Mrs Soare is Romanian. She (polite form) comes from’Romania. She (polite form) is a teacher too.48 ROMANIAN 4. Having checked your translation of the sentences in Exercise 3, practise reading the Romanian sentences aloud. Pay careful attention to the placing of the stress. *5. Answer the following questions: (1) Ce e dl. Soare? (6) De unde e dumnealui? (2) Unde e dumnealui? (7) Ce sinteti dvs.? (3) Ce e dna. Soare? (8) De unde sinteti dvs.? (4) De unde e dumneaei? (9) Cine sint in clasa? (5) De unde vine dl. Smith? (10) Cu cine e dl. Soare? 6. Do Exercise 5 in reverse, that is, reconstruct the questions on a basis of the specimen answers in the Key.Lesson 4 4.1 Vocabulary cafea /kafga/ — cafele F coffee ceai /Eaj/ — ceaiuri /Eajuri/ N tea ceva inv. pron. something, anything chiar /kjar/ adv. even, indeed chifla /kifla/ — chifle F roll cine /%ingi/ num. five ciocolata — ciocolate F chocolate cit /kit/ adv. how much cofetarie /kofetadrije/— cofetarii /kotetdrij/ F confec- tioner’s, café costa vb. (it) costs da yes de ajuns adv. enough deci conj. so, therefore dumneata (d-ta) pron. you George /gor-3e/ George ia /ja/ vb. (he, she, it) takes, has iau /jay/ vb. (I, they) take, have iei /jei/ vb. (you) take, have inghetata — inghetate F ice-cream intr- prep. in, into la prep. at, to leu /ley/ — lei /lej/ M lion, leu (monetary unit) a lua /luya/ vb. to take, to have luati vb. (you) take, have mai adv. more, else multumese vb. (I, they) thank (you) nimic inv. pron. nothing =~ nu no, not numai ady. only prajitura — prajituri F cake tog vb. (I) ask stau /stay/ vb. (I, they) sit, stand, stop sta vb. (he, she, it) sits, stands, stops trei num. three tu pron. you 4950 ROMANIAN una num. F one unu num. M/N one va acc. pron, you . vocabular — vocabulare N vocabulary zece num. ten Phrases cit costa? how much does it cost, do they cost? da, o chifla iau yes, a roll I will have dl. Soare ce ia? what will you have, Mr Soare? (lit. what will Mr Soare have?) ia patru take four mai (...) ceva something else, anything else (nu) mai (...) nimic nothing else multumesc thank you si eu I also, me too va rog please (lit. I ask you) 4.2 intr-o cofetarie D-na si dl. Stinescu si d-na, dl. si d-soara Soare stau la © masa fntr-o cofetarie. D-soara Soare std ling d-na Soare. D-na St. Dvs. ce luati, doamna Soare? D-na S. Eu iau o inghetata. Dvs. ce luati? D-na St. Eu iau un ceai cu o chifla. Dl. Soare ce ia? Di. S. Eu iau o cafea. D-na St. Dar d-soara Maria ce ia? D-na S. Maria nu ia nimic. D-na St. Luati, v4 rog, o prajitura, d-na Soare. D-na S. Multumesc. D-na St. Luati, va rog si dvs. o prajitura, d-soara Maria. Maria. Nu, multumesc. Nu iau. D-na St. Mai luati ceva, dl. Soare? DI. S. Nu, mulftumesc. Nu mai iau nimic. D-na S. Cit costa doua prajituri?LESSON FOUR 51 D-na St. O prajitura mare de ciocolata costa cinct lei. Deci doua prajituri costa zece lei. D-na S. Cit costa doua chifle? D-na St. Doua chifle costa un leu. La cofetadrie vine si George Stanescu. D-na St. Tu, George, ce iei? G. Eu iau 0 ciocolata cu lapte. D-na St. Piine iei? G. Ny, pfine nu iau. D-na St. Chifle iei? G. Da, o chifla iau; dar numai una. D-na St. lei una sau doua prajituri? G. Iau chiar trei prajituri. D-na St. la patru. G. Nu, mulfumesce. Trei sint de ajuns! 4.3 Pronunciation 4.3/1 Vowel Glides ai /aj/ (falling) resembles English ai in Cairo, Shanghai. Practise: mai, ceai /Eaj/ eu /ey/ (falling) is a glide from Rom. /e/ towards /u/, as in Jeu /ley/. . ua /ya/ (rising), as in Iuafi, pronounced /lu-yats{/ or /lyatsi/, resembles wo- in Eng. won. The two diphthongs, /ga/ (see 3.3/1) and /ya/, are similar, if not identical. iau /jay/ (triphthong), as in iau ‘I take’, is similar to the -iaow in Eng. miaow. 4.3/2 Consonants g /&/: When followed by e or i, g is pronounced like the English g’s in George. The name ‘George’ also occurs in Romanian, but in Romanian it has two syllables: /bor-8e/.52 ROMANIAN j /zh/, as in de ajuns, is almost the same as the English consonant sound represented by the letter s in pleasure, vision (cf. French j in jardin). The relation between the letters c, g and the various sounds associated with them may be summarized in five (simplified) rules: 1. c, g +e, i+ vowel (in the same word) = /é, §/ (+ /e, i/) + vowel. 2. c, g+e, i+ consonant (in the same word) =/€e, ge, Gi, gi/+ consonant. 3. c, g + final e, i =/te, ge, Ui, Bi/. 4. ch, gh + e, i =/k, g/+ e, i. Otherwise: 5. ¢, @ =/k, B/. Note that (1) j is always pronounced /zh/, never /3/; (2) c, g+f=/ki, gi/ (in accordance with Rule 5); (3) i represents /i/, /i/, /i/ or zero, and e represents /e/, /¢/ or zero. Examples: ceas /éas/ ‘clock’ geam /gam/ ‘window-pane Turcia /tur-ti-ja/ ‘Turkey’ Belgia /bel-gi-ja/ ‘Belgium’ cer /Ser/ ‘sky’ ger /ger/ frost f Rule 2 aduce /adute/ ‘he brings’ merge /merge/ ‘he goes’ aduci /aduti/ ‘you bring’ mergi /mergi/ ‘you go’ chem /kem/ ‘I call’ ghem /gem/ ‘ball’ }Rule 4 unchi /unki/ ‘uncle’ unghi /ungi/ ‘angle’ caz /kaz/ ‘case’ az /gaz/ ‘gas’ }Rule 5 »}Rule 1 }Rule 1 }Rule 3 }Rute 3 }Rule 4LESSON FOUR 53 cit /kit/ ‘how much’ git /git/ ‘neck” Rule 5 arunc /arunk/ ‘I throw’ merg /merg/ ‘I go’ }Rule 5 4.4 Grammar 4.4/1 Nouns: Plural (@) N-nouns ending in a consonant form their plural by adding the vowel -e to the form of the singular: vocabular — vocabulare pahar — pahare text — texte Or by adding the ending -url: tren — trenuri vin — vinurl also: ceai — ceaiuri (b) F-nouns in -d replace this -d by -e: chifla — chifle inghefata — inghetate apa — ape clasi — clase lama — lame Or by -i: pisicad — pisici gradina — gradini Those in -e take -i and those in -urd take -url: bere — beri carte — carfi prajitura — prajituri bautura /ba-u-tu-ra/ — bauturi ‘drink’ Those in -ie take -ii: cofetarie — cofetarii From the point of view of pronunciation, we can say that the final /-e/ is dropped, /-ije/ becoming /-ii/.34 ROMANIAN Those in -ea /ga/ take -ele /ele/: cafea — cafele Other, less common, endings are possible, for nouns of all genders; so note carefully the plural forms of new nouns as they appear in the Vocabularies. 4.4/2 Numerals The first five cardinal numbers are: unu, doi, trei, patru, cinci The first two vary according to gender: unu M/N, una F doi M, doua N/F o chifla iau, dar numai una ft costa doua chifle? The forms unu, una are used only when the noun does not immediately follow. Otherwise, use un, 0: iei una sau doua prajituri? —_ will you have one cake or two? But: © prajitura costa patru lei _a/one cake costs four lei doua chifle costa un leu two rolls cost a/one leu Un and o in the sense of ‘one’ may be stressed: iau numai o prajitura T’ll just have a cake iau numai o prajitura . Tl only have one cake 4.4/3 Translation of the Subject Pronoun ‘You’ Romanian has a number of different second person pronouns, while modern English has only one — you. Which one we use depends on the number of people we are addressing and on our relationship to them. The uses of these pronouns are best exemplified in a table:LESSON FOUR 55 Relationship Name between No. of used | speaker and | Attitude of Verb addressees | Pronoun | (if any) | addressee(s) | — speaker form one tu Christian | Close family | (any) 2nd pers. sg. |————-| name(s) relation(s) —————_ more than} — voi or friend(s) 2nd pers. pl. one one tu (mone in | stranger insulting 2nd pers. sg. pa Particular) |__| morethan| voi 2nd pers. pl. one one d-ta | Christian | colleague, | commanding, | 2nd pers. sg. name or | subordinate, | friendly, surname | servant semi-polite one or dvs. | titleand | superior respectful, | 2nd pers. pl. more than sumame |or(more | polite one remote) equal Note that a sg. ‘you’ takes a sg. verb form, a pl. ‘you’ a pl. verb form, except dvs., which always takes the second person pl. verb form, whether the number of addressees is only one or more than one. One may also use the third person form of the verb, together with a person’s title and name: dl. Soare ce ia? what will you have, Mr Soare? The attitude is not necessarily facetious, condescending or patronizing, as it may be when we say in English to John, ‘And what will John have then?’. The ‘safest’ form of address to use is dvs. with the verb in the second person pl. 4.4/4 The Conjugation of Verbs (a) Verbs take different endings for person, number, tense, etc. The irregular verb a lua ‘to take’ is conjugated as follows: iau /jay/ I take iei /jei/ you take ia /ja/ he, she, it takes ludm /I(u)yém/ we take luafi /I(u)yatsi/ you take iau /jay/ . they take56 ROMANIAN (6) The Imperative The imperative is used for commands and requests. It has two forms, one for the second person sg. and one for the second person pl. The form used for the pl. is the same as that of the present tense. But the form for the sg. is often identical with that of the third person sg. of the present indicative: sg. ia! pl. Tuayt take! (c) The notion of intention is conveyed in English by the use of certain auxiliaries, e.g. ‘I shall/will/am going to...’, etc., and there are various forms for this purpose in Romanian. On the other hand, imminent intentions and decisions can be expressed by the present tense: dvs. ce luati? what will you have? tu ce iei? what are you going to have? eu iau o inghefata T’ll have, am going to have an ice-cream (d) Tense and Aspect There is no progressive or continuous form for verbs in Romanian. This means that (eu) iau, besides meaning ‘I take’, ‘I’ll take’, ‘I’m going to take’, may also mean ‘I’m taking’, ‘I'll be taking’. 4.4/5 The Negative To express the negative the particle nu is placed before the verb: Affirmative Negative eu iau eu nw iau ‘I’m not taking’, ‘I won’t have’, etc. Similarly: ea ia ea nu ia el este el nu este ei sint ei nu sint ‘Nothing’ is translated by nimic. When nimic is usedLESSON FOUR 37 as the subject or object of a verb, however, the negative particle nu is also required: Maria nu ia nimic Mary won’t have anything nu mai iau nimic I won’t have anything else nue nimic pe masa there is nothing on the table Nu is also used as the opposite of da: — iei 0 cafea? will you have a coffee? —nu, multumesc, nu iau _no, thank you (, I won’t) 4.4/6 Prepositions (a) The preposition in ‘in’ is replaced by fntr- when followed by an indefinite article: intr-o cofetarie in(to) a café fntr-un tren in(to) a train But: in casa in(to) the house (b) The preposition /a translates both ‘at’ and ‘to’: ei stau la o masa they are standing, sitting at a table el vine la cofetarie he is coming to the café 4. 4/7 Clause Word-Order In Romanian the direct object need not necessarily follow the verb: o chifla iau Tl have a roll, a roll I will have The order of elements may be the complete opposite of the order in English: la cofetarie vine si George G.S. also comes to the café Stanescu When the subject is accented it may follow the verb: iau gi eu unu T’ll have one too (lit. take also I one)58 ROMANIAN But it may also precede all other elements: dvs. ce luati, dna. Soare? what will you have, Mrs Soare? Note the position of mai in the following: mai luati ceva? will you have anything, something else? Note the distinction between a declarative clause (a statement) and an interrogative clause (a question) does not depend on the order of elements but on accentuation and context. 4.4/8 Noun-Phrase Word-Order In the following examples the adjective modifies the head noun (here, the first noun), the phrase following: © prajitura mare de a big chocolate cake ciocolata ° © masa mica, de lemn a small wooden table Compare: 0 cana mare cu lapte a large jug of milk 4.5 Exercises. 1. Copy out the Text of the Lesson, translate it, and read it aloud several times. 2. Make sentences with the help of the following tables: (@) (eu, ei) iau un ceai (el, ea) ia mdr pahar cu apa pahar cu vin ° cafea inghetata chifla cana cu lapte sticlé cu bereLESSON FOUR @) © (a) 59 eu nu jiau nimic ceai mdr pahar cu vin cafea inghejata prajiturd dvs. luati nimic ceai mdr pahar cu vin cafea inghetata prajitura cit costa doua trei patru cinci prajituri? chifle? pfini? inghetate? pahare? sticle cu bere? mai luati (dvs.) iei (tu) ia (el, ea) ceva? — nu mai iau_ | nimic ia 3. Add to each of the following nouns the numeral un or o, as the case may be, and then write the noun in its plural form. Examples: casi — 0 casi —doud case, pom —un pom — doi pomi, pahar — un pahar — doua pahare.60 ROMANIAN Check your genders and pl. forms against those given in the Vocabularies. camera, casd, chifld, ciine, clasa, cofetdrie, dicfionar, doctor, inghetata, pahar, pisicd, piine, pom, prdjiturd, profesor, romn, sticla, text. *4, Translate into Romanian. Who comes to the café? George Stanescu comes to the café. Where are Mr and Mrs Soare sitting? They are sitting at a table in a café. What are they going to have? They are going to have tea. What is Miss Soare having? She isn’t having anything. What will you have? I’ll have a coffee. What will George have? He’ll have a chocolate with milk. How much do two cakes cost? Two cakes cost ten lei. And how much are five big rolls? Five big rolls are three lei. How much. is a cup of coffee? A cup of coffee is four lei. Where are Mr and Mrs Stanescu sitting? They are sitting at a table in a café..Lesson 5 5.1 Vocabulary acolo ady. (over) there acum(a) adv. now ai /aj/ vb. (you) have aici /a-iti/ adv. here a avea /avea/ vb. to have, to get avem vb. (we) have, (we)’ve got aveti vb. (you) have au /ay/ vb. (they) have azi adv, today baiat /ba-jat/ — baiefi /ba-jetsi/ M boy, son birou /biroy/ — birouri /bi-ro-uri/ N study, office, desk caiet /kajet/ — caiete N exercise-book carte — carti F book cit M/N, cita F det. pron. sg. how much citi M, cite N/F det. pron. pl, how many, both, all, each creion — creioane /kre-jga-ne/ N pencil conversatie /konversatsije/ — conversatii /konversatsij/ F conversation de prep. of, from esti /jeshti/ vb. (you) are fata — fete F girl fotoliu /fotoliu/ — fotolii /fotolij/ N armchair gram — grame N gramme gramatica — gramatici F grammar greu /greu/, grea /grea/, grei /grej/, grele adj. heavy, difficult lectie /lektsije/ — lectii /lektsii/ F lesson masa — mese F table mar — mere N apple mina — miini /mijni/ F hand "noi pron. we om — oameni /ga-meni/ M man scaun — scaune N chair sintem vb. (we) are stilou /stiloy/ — stilouri /sti-lo-uri/ N fountain-pen suta — sute num. F hundred 6162 si... $i conj. both... and voi pron. you Phrases ce lectie aveti azi? este /jeste/ sint " sintem patru 5.2 Conversatie’ Ce am aici? Ce aveti dvs. in mina? Cite mfini are un om? Cite méini au doi oameni? Cite mere are Nicu? Cite carfi avefi pe masa? Ce lectie aveti azi? Au d-na si dl. Soare copii? Citi copii are dl. Smith? Aveti un dictionar? Avefi un caiet? Are Petre un stilou? Are Elena un creion? Aveti un profesor sau o profesoara de roména?? Ce este acolo? ROMANIAN what lesson do you have today? there is there are there are four of us (lit. we are four) Avefti un caiet. Am un stilou. Un om are doua miini. Doi oameni au patru mfini. Nicu are trei mere. Am patru cdrti. Azi avem o lectie grea, avem 0 lectie de grama- ticd. Da, au doi copii: o fata si un baiat. Dumnealui are doi baieti si doua fete. Da, am. Nu, nu am (n-am). Da, are. Nu, nu are (n-are); dar are un stilou. Avem o profesoara. Acolo este un birou. 1 Note that.the vowel of the stressed syllable of the more prominent words is italicized. The words selected in this connection are naturally not the only possibilities. 2‘Is your Romanian teacher (= person who teaches you Romanian) a man or a woman?’LESSON FIVE Ce e linga birou? Si linga fotoliu? Cite scaune sint aici? Si cfte fotolii? Cite caiete si cite creioane sint pe masa? Unde sintem acum? Citi sintem aici? Sint si Toma si Maria aici? Sintem in curte acum? Ce sintefi voi? Esti acolo, Toma? E gi Nicu acolo? 5.3 Pronunciation 5.3/1 Vowel Glides 63 Ling& birou e un fotoliu, un fotoliu greu. Linga fotoliu e un scaun. Aici sint cinci scaune. $i doua fotolii. Pe mas sint zece caiete gi trei creioane. Sintem in clasa. Sintem patru. Nu, ei nu sint aici, ei sint in gradina. Nu, sintem in casa. Noi sintem studenti. Da, da. Sint aici. Nu, nue. iu /iy/ (falling), as in fotoliu, is a glide from Rom. /i/ to Rom. /u/. ou /ou/ (falling) is a glide from /o/ towards /u/. Avoid any tendency to centralize the first element towards /a/ (as in Eng. low, bureau); the first element is a fully rounded back vowel. Practise: stilou, birou, ou ‘egg’, oud ‘eggs’. ioa /iga/, as in creioane, is a triphthong: diphthong sal preceded by the semi-vowel /j/. 5.3/2 Intonation As already suggested, in 4.4/4, questions requiring the answer da ‘yes’ or nu‘no’ are said with a rising intonation, as often is the case in English. Practise: aveti un |dictionar aveti un fdictionar? esti t acolo, t Toma? you have a dictionary- have you got a dictionary? are you there, Tom?64 ROMANIAN In the case of alternative questions, the first part of the question is spoken with a rising tone and the second with a fall, as in English: avefi un profesor sau o | profesoara? 5.4 Grammar 5.4/1 Nouns: Plural (a) On taking a final plural suffix many nouns simul- taneously undergo changes in the form of their root. Examples: Singular Plural baiat baieti cana cani carte carti creion creioane curte curti fata fete ladi lazi masa mese mar mere mina miini om oameni roménca /-ka/ roménce /-&e/ student studenti lampa lampi sala sali sifon sifoane strada strazi (5) Neuter nouns ending in -ou add -ri to form the plural: stilou — stilouri birou — birouri Those in -iu /-iu/ take -ii /-ij/: fotoliu — fotoliiLESSON FIVE 65 5.4/2. Determiner Pronouns: cit The determiner pronoun cit agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies or replaces. Its forms are as follows: Examples: citd cafea? how much coffee? cffi sintem? how many of us are there? cite carti? how many books? Cit remains invariable in a phrase like cft costa? ‘how much is it?’, 5.4/3 Pronouns: noi, voi The plural of eu is noi ‘we’; the plural of tu is voi ‘you’ (for the use of voi see 4.4/3). 5.4/4 Verbs (a) The Present Tense of the verb a avea ‘to have’ is: (eu) am T have (tu, d-ta) - ai you have (el, ea, dumnealui, dumneaei) are he, she, it has (noi) avem we have (voi, dvs.) aveti you have (ei, ele, dumnealor) au they have In the negative: nu am T have not nu ai you have not nu are he, she, it has not66 ROMANIAN nu avem we have not nu aveti you have not nu au they have not It will be seen that the pl. of dumnealui (M) and dumneaei (F) is dumnealor (M/F) (see 3.4/3). Instead of using these pronouns one often repeats the person’s name; thus we may say either: dl. Soare e romén; dumnealui e profesor or: dl. Soare e romdn; dl. Soare e profesor In conversational style the following contracted forms of the negative of a avea are used: n-am, N-ai, n-are, n-avem, n-aveti, n-au In writing a hyphen is preferred to an apostrophe to mark the omission. 5.4/5 Word-Order Clauses in which the verb precedes the subject are often interrogative (i.e. they require an answer): are Petre un stilou? has Peter a pen? sint si Toma si Maria aici? are both Tom and Mary here? Compare: are un ‘| stilou he has a pen with: are un + stilou? has he a pen? 5.5 Exercises 1. Copy out the Text of the Lesson, translate it orally, read it aloud several times, and learn by heart as many of the questions and answers as you can. When reading the Text out aloud, try to give those questions which elicit the response da or nu a rising tone.LESSON FIVE - 67 2. Make sentences with the help of the following tables: (a) (eu) am casa camera curte (noi) avem ° gradina masa profesoara lectie pisicd ® el profesor ea dictionar dumnealui are un cfine dumneaei birou Petre Ana ei au ele dumnealor Ana si Petre © d-ta | ai pisic& tu casa |---| ° gradina dvs, aveti profesoara voi (@) n-am nimic n-dre dictionare n-aveti carti n-au creioane68 ROMANIAN © el birou ea cast dumnealui: este clas& dumneaei e in curte Ana camera —oe| gradina eu strada ei cofetarie ele Anglia dumnealor sfnt Romania Maria si Toma "n noi sintem studentl studente profesori profesoare doctori dvs. sinteti doctorite voi englezi romani *3, Translate: Have you got an exercise-book? No, I haven’t. Have you got a pen? No, I haven’t, but I do have a pencil. Is their teacher a man or a woman? She’s a woman. What have you got in (your) hand? I’ve got a dictionary. How many books has he got on (his) desk? He has five books. How many boys and girls are there in the garden? There are ten. What lesson do you have today? Today we have a grammar lesson. What’s your occupation (trans. what are you), Mr Soare? I am a teacher. Where are you now? I am in the classroom. How many students are there in the classroom? There are five. Is Ann here? No, she isn’t; she is over there. How much does this book cost? It costs ten lei. 4. Supplementary Text. Read and try to learn by heart the following text:LESSON FIVE 69 Sfnt student. Sint in clasa. Clasa (‘the class’) nu e mare. In clas sintem numai zece studenti. Avem cdrti, caiete, stilouri si creioane. Avem un profesor, nu o profesoara. Avem un profesor din Romania, din Bucuresti. Stdm (‘wé sit’) la o masa. Stdm pe scaune. Tom std linga Peter. Tom si Peter sint englezi. Ei sint din Londra. Ei au doua dictionare mari.Lesson 6 6.1 Vocabulary Note: From this Lesson on, the sound /i/ will generally only appear as i in the Vocabularies. Elsewhere, i will be used, in accordance with the orthography. alt, alta, alfi, alte det. another, other bine ady. well, good, fine, all right ca prep., conj. than, as ca conj. that decft prep., conj. than englezeste adv. (in) English a face vb. to do, to make face vb. (he, she, it) does, makes facem vb. (we) do, make foarte ady. very frantuzeste adv. (in) French invata vb. (he, she, it) learns, (they) learn invadt vb. (I) learn a invafa vb. to learn invafati vb. (you) learn invatdm vb. (we) learn limba — limbi F language, tongue mai adv. also, more, else nemfeste adv. (in) German niste inv. det. pl. some prieten /pri-je-ten/ — prieteni M friend putin adv. (a) little putin, pufina, putini, putine der. little, few romaneste adv. (in) Romanian Tuseste adv. (in) Russian timp — timpuri N time usor, usoara, usori, usoare adj. easy, light vorbesc vb. (I, they) speak vorbeste vb. (he, she, it) speaks a vorbi vb. to speak vorbim vb. (we) speak vorbifi vb. (you). speak 70LESSON SIX Phrases de mult de putin timp din Anglia din Londra limba romdna mai... si nemteste invatati de mult? 6.2 Conversatie Unde sinteti? Si ce facefi? Dys. invafati de mult romaneste? . E grea limba roména? E mai usoara ca alte limbi? Vdd ca sintefi cu niste prieteni? Unde sint ei acum? Dvs. vorbiti romaneste? Dar dl. si d-na Smith? Cu cine vorbiti dvs. romaneste? Ann si Jane vorbesc bine romaneste? Ce alté limba mai invata ele? Ce limba vorbesc ele mai bine? Dl. Smith vorbeste frantuzeste? nm for a long time (now) for a short time, not very long from England from London Romanian, the Romanian language also... German have you been learning for a long time? Sintem intr-o clasa. Invatdm romAneste. Nu, invdt romanegte numai de putin timp. Este si nu este. Da si nu. Da, invata si ei romaneste.* Sint in clasa, cu noi. Da, vorbesc putin. Da, si ei vorbesc.? Cu dl. Soare. Da, ele vorbesc bine romaneste. Ele mai invata $i nemteste. Ele vorbesc mai bine romaneste. Nu, dumnealui nu vorbeste frantuzeste, dar vorbeste nemfeste si ruseste. 1*Yes, they’re also learning Romanian.” 2*Yes, they do too.”72 Dys. sinteti roman? De unde sinteti? Mai sint gi alti englezi aici? Ce invata Elena? E grea limba engleza? Ce face Elena acum? $i ce facem noi? Ce limba vorbiti dvs. acum? Foarte bine, vorbifi numai romaneste, va rog. 6.3 Grammar 6.3/1 The Definite Article ROMANIAN Ny, sint englez, dar vorbesc bine romaneste. Sint din Anglia, din Londra. Nu, nu sint. Ea invata englezeste. Nu, nu e grea. Nu e mai grea decit limba romdna. Ea vorbeste. Si noi vorbim. Acum vorbim romaneste. The definite article in Romanian is a suffix. Its form varies according to the gender and number of the noun with which it is used. (a) The definite article for F-nouns in the singular is -a, which is either added to the end of the noun or is used in place of the last vowel: limba limba limba romana language the language the Romanian language (Note that the -d ending of the adjective does not change.) (6) The definite article for M-nouns in the plural is -i; more accurately, the plural suffix -i /-i, -i/ is replaced by -ii /-i/: prieteni /pri-j teni/ ‘friends’ prietenii /pri-je-te-ni/ ‘the friends’ lei /lej/ ‘lei’, ‘lions’ leii /le-i/ ‘the lei’, ‘the lions’ Note that in this case -ii is pronounced /i/ (and not /ii/).LESSON SIX 3 Note the following: un copil ‘a child’, copilul ‘the child’ copii /ko-pij/ ‘children’, copiii /ko-pi-(j)i/ ‘the children’. 6.3/2 Adjective-Endings We saw in 2.4/2 that most Romanian adjectives have four forms: M/N singular, F singular, M plural, N/F plural. In other words, used with N-nouns adjectives take the M-form in the singular and the F-form in the plural. This is also the case with many determiners. Thus the determiner alt ‘other’ has the following forms: sg. pl. Singular Plural M un alt om ‘another man’ alti oameni ‘other men’ F o alta limba ‘another alte limbi ‘other languages’ language’ N unalt stilou ‘another pen’ alte stilouri ‘other pens’ Note how a final -t becomes -f with the addition of -i. With other modifiers, the changes may be more drastic, as with greu: greu /grey/, grea /grea/, grei, grele Cf. also: usor, ugoara, usori, usoare Some adjectives have only three different forms: mic, mica, mici, mici Others again have only two: mare, mare, mari, mari