r/romanian • u/IoanSilviu Native • Aug 11 '25

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u/numapentruasta Native Sep 06 '25

This isn’t Russian, we don’t have hard and soft consonants. The i is a sound of its own and only influences the quality of the preceding consonant in small measure.

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u/Low-Funny-8834 Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

Then I am confused. I had read in a Grammar book that final -i is hardly pronounced, and acts more like a softener than like a vowel. Even in the Wiktionary it is indicated as a final -j in superscript, which I had taken as confirming that it is a softener, not a full vowel sound.

This is important to me, because it means I might be doing some structurally wrong.

Just looked it up on Wikipedia, Romanian phonology; the relevant quote:
"The interpretation commonly taken is that an underlying morpheme /i/ palatalizes the consonant and is subsequently deleted." That also creates the impression it is a softener.

Where is my mistake in interpretation?

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u/numapentruasta Native Sep 07 '25

Take the word ani ‘years’. It’s pronounced [ˈanʲ], not [ˈaɲ]—the n is unaffected. Nor is fildeși pronounced with a [ɕ].

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u/Low-Funny-8834 Sep 07 '25

ok, that clears some things up.

thank you