The "Î din A" rules

The Romanian letters Â, â, Î, î, represent the same sound which has no exact equivalent in English. It resembles the 'o' in lesson, kingdom.

Î, î are used
- at the beginning or the end of the word
  -- înger, Întâi Mai, Podu Înalt, amărî, coborî, târî
- when a prefix is added to a word starting with î
  -- neînsemnat, preaînălţat, reînnoit
Â, â are used everywhere else¹ when the letter is in the middle of the word
- -- vârf, Gutâi, râu, vând, România

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¹Except for "eu,ei,ele sînt / noi sîntem / voi sînteţi" which are now "eu,ei,ele sunt / noi suntem / voi sunteţi" and some proper names (Cîmpeanu, Pîrciog) where the person chose to use î in the middle of his/her name

Linguistic politics

The above mentioned orthographic rules were approved in 1932 by the Romanian Academy. Later, after the Communists took over in Romania they adopted an orthographic reform (01-Apr-1954) which retained the use of 'â' only in words refering to Romania and its derivatives (România, român, românesc) and some proper names (Brâncuşi, Pârvan, Vâlcovici). This generalization of the use of 'î ' was inspired by the reform of the Russian orthography, imposed by the Bolshevik linguists of the time. It aimed to undermine the Latinic character of the Romanian language and to emphasize a parallelism between the Russian and the Romanian phonetic, as perceived by the Communists. Consequently, all the books printed between 1954-1992 used the letter 'î '. After the December 1989 revolution, the Romanian Academy ruled out the Stalinist 'î ' (1992) and reinstated the orthographic rules established by the 1932 reform so that "vîrful Gutîi" is now officially "vârful Gutâi" and "rîul Săsar" is now "râul Săsar".

My pages use the correct "â" spellings, yet always bear in mind that old spellings such as Săpînţa instead of Săpânţa and Gîlgău instead of Gâlgău are still found on many maps and sources available in Romania.

Related links:

Regulile ortografice actuale adoptate de Academia Română (by M. Iacomi)
Comentarii asupra originii notatiei pentru sunetul reprezentat prin î sau â (by M. Iacomi)
Exceptii in cazul numelor proprii de persoane (by M. Iacomi)
'A' circumflex (by 'g')
"Sînt" şi "sunt" (by 'g')

Sources used:

Beginner's Romanian * Romanian Phrase Book & Dictionary * Colloquial Romanian: A Complete Language Course * Hiking Guide to Romania * Romanian-English, English-Romanian Standard Dictionary * Romanian: A Complete Course For Beginners * Romania & Moldova * Romania: The Rough Guide * Romanian Phrase Book

Stephen L. Dancs, Hon. B.Sc.
Toronto, Canada, Voicemail: +1 (416) 760-5885
Comments to author: bf154-AT-torfree.net