Romanian phonology

Vowels

There are eight vowels in Romanian:

Letter	IPA
a	open front unrounded vowel
e	open-mid front unrounded vowel
i	close front unrounded vowel
o	open-mid back rounded vowel
u	close back rounded vowel
ă	schwa
î, â	close central unrounded vowel

The last two letters both represent exactly the same sound, and since they are also not interchangeable in writing this article counts them as a single vowel. Until 1904 there were 4 letters representing this "posterior i": â, ê, î, and û. From 1953 till 1993 only the letter "î" has been used. The current Academy rule states that "î" is used as the first or last letter of words, whereas "â" is used when it occurs in the middle of the word. In practice, either rule is acceptable and some publications still retain the Communist-era style of only using î.

A voiceless terminal "i" that can be found especially on plural forms.

Semivowels

Letters	IPA
i
u
ea
oa

Consonants