Pronunciation
Most sounds of Vlaški and Žejanski (Vlashki and Zheyanski, also, Istro-Romanian) are very similar to those used in Croatian dialects spoken in the same region of Istria and can easily be represented using Croatian letters: a, b, c, č, ć, d, đ, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, lj, m, n, nj, o, p, r, s, š, t, u, v, z, ž. Most of these sounds, except for ć, lj, and nj, also exist in standard Romanian.
Vlaški and Žejanski has three vowels sounds that are specific to it. In the spelling system adopted here, as well as in others discussed the Writing section, these three special vowels are represented as å, â, and ę. They do not exist in Croatian dialects. The vowel â also exists in standard Romanian; it is similar to the English vowel sound pronounced between t and r in turf. The sound represented by the letter ę is very similar to the sound of a in English cat.The vowel sound å does not have a close equivalent in English; it is a low rounded back vowel, similar to au in caught.
The sounds of Vlaški and Žejanski
The table below lists the most commonly occurring sounds in Vlaški and Žejanski and provides examples for each. The Modified Croatian Orthography is used to write the sound and examples down.
Click on letters and words to hear them pronounced by a native speaker. Click here to print out the table for your reference.
More sounds of Vlaški/Žejanski
Other sounds, not listed in the above table, occur in the language less frequently: In words borrowed from Croatian and Italian, a sound similar to the consonants in English judge is used, represented as đ in our spelling, e.g., Đermanije (Germany). In very rare examples of words borrowed from Italian, a sound similar to the sound of ds in English buds is used; it is represented as dz in our spelling, e.g., dzero (zero).
As in other languages, the pronunciation of Vlaški/Žejanski varies slightly depending on where it is spoken. For example, many speakers from Šušnjevicę/Šušnjevica pronounce c and č, s and š, and z and ž in the same way. They use one or the other sound of each pair or a sound that's in between those two. Similarly, most speakers from Žejân/Žejane pronounce the sound g as a hoarser sound, /γ/ in a linguist's phonetic notation, used in many other languages, such as Castillian Spanish, Greek, Arabic or Dutch.
