Istro-Romanian grammar

The grammar of the Istro-Romanian language.

Morphology

The evolution of IR from DR shows two distinct features:

1. Noun declination shows a rationalisation of forms: normal noun declination of Romanian has almost totally disappeared in IR;
2. Whereas verbal inflexion is more conservative and its evolution is not so pronounced.

Nouns

The article has two forms: definite and indefinite. The definite article may be nominal or adjectival. The nominal being added to nouns, and the adjectival placed before adjectives.

The nominal forms are: for masculine nouns: -l and -le, for feminine -a in the singular, and for masculine -i and feminine -le in the plural.

However, as in spoken Daco-Romanian the -l of the masculine singular definite article is dropped leaving the linking -u- vowel, e.g. DR lupul > IR lupu (the wolf), DR ursul > IR ursu (the bear), DR mielul > IR mľelu (the lamb).

The -le ending is used for all masculine singular nouns ending in -e, e.g. fråtele (the brother), sorele (the sun), cărele (the dog).

Some examples of Masculine nouns showing case endings, nominative=accusative, genitive=dative. The vocative case is not shown as this normally corresponds with the nominativ.

• fiľ (son), fiľi (pl.)

Case	Istro-Romanian	Aromanian	Megleno-Romanian	Romanian	English
Nom/Acc sg.	fiľu	hiljlu	iľiu	fiul	the son
Gen/Dat sg.	lu fiľu	a hiljlui	lu iľiu	al fiului	of/to the son
Nom/Acc pl.	fiľi	hiljli	iľii	fiii	the sons
Gen/Dat pl.	lu fiľi	a hiljlor	lu iľii	al fiilor	of/to the sons

• socru (father-in-law), socri (pl.)

Case	Istro-Romanian	Aromanian	Megleno-Romanian	Romanian	English
Nom/Acc sg.	socru	socrulu	socru	socrul	the father-in-law
Gen/Dat sg.	lu socru	a socrului	lu socru	al socrului	of/to the father-in-law
Nom/Acc pl.	socri	socri	socri	socrii	the fathers-in-law
Gen/Dat pl.	lu socri	a socrilor	lu socri	al socrilor	of/to the fathers-in-law

• fråte (brother), fråţ (pl.)

Case	Istro-Romanian	Aromanian	Megleno-Romanian	Romanian	English
Nom/Acc sg.	fråtele	frate	frateli	fratele	the brother
Gen/Dat sg.	lu fråtele	a fratelui	lu frateli	al fratelui	of/to the brother
Nom/Acc pl.	fråţ	fratslji	fraţili	fraţii	the brothers
Gen/Dat pl.	lu fråţ	a fratslor	lu fraţilor	al fraţilor	of/to the brothers

Feminine nouns

The -a replaces -ĕ and -e, e.g. cåsĕ > cåsa (the house), nopte > nopta (the night); however a few feminine nouns ending in a stressed -e behave differently, e.g. ste > stevu (the star), ne > nevu (the snow).

• fetĕ (girl), fete (pl.)

Case	Istro-Romanian	Aromanian	Megleno-Romanian	Romanian	English
Nom/Acc sg.	feta	feata	feta	fata	the girl
Gen/Dat sg.	lu feta	a featiljei	lu feta	al fetei	of/to the girl

• muľerĕ (woman), muľere (pl.)

Case	Istro-Romanian	Aromanian	Megleno-Romanian	Romanian	English
Nom/Acc sg.	muľera	muljarea	muľiarea	muierea	the woman
Gen/Dat sg.	lu muľera	a muljariljei	lu muľiarea	al muierei	of/to the woman

• ste (star), stele (pl.)

Case	Istro-Romanian	Aromanian	Megleno-Romanian	Romanian	English
Nom/Acc sg.	stevu	steao	steua	steaua	the star
Gen/Dat sg.	lu stevu	a steaoljei	lu steua	al stelei	of/to the star
Nom/Acc pl.	stelele	steale	stelili	stelele	the stars
Gen/Dat pl.	lu stelele	a stealilor	lu stelilor	al stelelor	of/to the stars

Neuter nouns behave as Masculine nouns in the singular and Feminine in the plural (sometimes known as Mixed nouns)

• bråţ (arm), bråţe (pl.) - bråţu (the arm), bråţele (pl.)
• os (bone), ose (pl.) - osu (the bone), osele (pl.)
• zid (wall), zidur (pl.) - zidu (the wall), zidurle (pl.)
• plug (plough), plugur (pl.) - plugu (the plough), plugurle (pl.)

The forms of the adjectival article are ćela for the masculine and ćå for the feminine singular, and in the plural masculine ćeľ and feminine ćåle, e.g. ćela bur (the good one).

The masculine indefinite article is un and feminine is o. The declination of the indefinite article has disappeared. Examples: un om (a man), un cå (a horse), o misĕ (a table), o båbĕ (an old woman).

Adjectives

Like the nouns this has three genders, the masculine and feminine forms from the Latin, while the neuter form is of Slavic origin, under the syntactic influence of the use of neuters in Slavic. E.g. bur, burĕ, buro (good). The comparative adjective is måi bur (better) and the superlative is ćel måi bur (the best).

The adjective may precede the noun: bura zi ((the)good day), which in itself can be made definite by the change of -ĕ to -a; or follows the noun: feta muşåtĕ (the beautiful girl)

Pronouns

Definite pronouns can be personal, possessive, demonstrative, relative and interrogative.

Personal pronouns

Case	I	II	III	III	I	II	III
Nom.	io	tu	ie	iå	noi	voi	ieľ/iåle
	I	you	he	she	we	you	they
Acc.	mire	tire	ăl	ăl	ne	ve	lor
Acc.	me/m'	te/t'	ăl/l'	o	ne/n'	ve/v'	lor
	me	you	him	her	us	you	them
Dat.	mi/âm/m'	ţi/âţ/ţ'	âľ/ľ/lui	âľ/ľ/ľei	ni/ne/n'	vi/ve/v'	le/ľ
	to me	you	him	her	us	you	them

e.g. m-åm ărs (I laughed), l-åi vezut (you saw him)

Possessive pronouns:

Sg. Masc.	Fem.	Pl. Masc.	Fem.	English
meu/mev	me	meľ	mele	my
teu/tev	te	teľ	tele	your
seu/lui	se/ľei	seľ	sele	his/her/its
noştru	noştrĕ	noştri	noştre	our
voştru	voştrĕ	voştri	voştre	your
lor	lor	lor	lor	their

e.g. mev ćåće (my father), lui căre (his dog), ľei måie (her mother), noştri cåľ (our horses)

Demonstrative pronouns

• this: ćest, ćåsta
• these: ćeşť, ćåste

May also begin with ţ- or ť- e.g. ţest om (this man)

• that: ćel, ćå
• those: ćeľ, ćåle

Likewise may begin with ţ- e.g. ţåle lingure (those spoons)

• this one: ćesta-istu, ćåsta-ista
• that one: ćela-istu, ćåista
• that other one: ćela-åt, ćå-åtĕ
• those other ones: ćeľ-åľţi, ćåle-åte

Relative pronouns

• that/who: cåre / cårle, pl. cårli

Interrogative pronouns

• who: ćire / će
• which: cåre / cårle, pl. cårli
• which one: căt

Indefinite pronouns

(M - F)

one: un - o

some: vrun - vro

one/a: ur - o

not a: ničur - ničurĕ

nothing: nimic

something: ćeva

other: åt - åta - åto

each: saki - saca - saco

whichever: cătcoder

Numerals

Cardinal

The majority of cardinal numbers are from Latin stock, with several borrowings from the local Slavic

1. un/ur (M), o (F)
2. doi (M), do (F)
3. trei
4. påtru
5. ćinć / ţinţ
6. şåse
7. şåpte
8. opt / osăn
9. devet
10. zåće / zeće / deset
11. urprezåće / iednaist
12. doiprezåće / dvanaist
13. treiprezåće / trenaist

19. devetprezåće

20. dovotezåće / dvadeset / dvaiset

21. dovotezåće şi ur

30. treivotezåće

40. cvårnaru

50. ćinćvotezåće

...

100. sto

101. sto şi ur

200. dovotesto

1000. miľår / tisuť / tåvžânt

Notes:

11 is composed of '1 on 10' ur-pre-zåće

20 is composed of '2 times 10' do-vote-zåće, likewise, 200 is '2 times 100' do-vote-sto

1000 miľår comes from Venetian dialect, tisuť from Slavic, and tåvžânt from German.

Ordinal

(M - F)

1st. prvi - prva

2nd. doile - dova

3rd. treile - treia

4th. påtrile - påtra

5th. ćinćile - ćinća

6th. şåsele - şåsa

7th. şåptele - şåpta

8th. osmule - osma

9th. devetile - deveta

10th. desetile - deseta

last zådni / zădăńu - zådńa

References

• A. Kovačec: Notes sur les formes de cas en istroroumain. Studia Romanica 13-14: 75-84, Zagreb 1962
• A. Kovačec: Certaines modifications grammaticales des 'quantitatifs' et 'qualitatifs' istroroumains dues a l' influence croate. Studia Romanica 23: 195-210, Zagreb 1967
• A. Kovačec: Le calque lexical d' apres le croate comme cause de certains changements grammaticaux istroroumains. Actele de XII Congres International de Lingvistica si Filologie Romanica, vol. 2: 1127-1131, Bucuresti 1971
• A. Kovačec: Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik s gramatikom i tekstovima (Glosar Istroroman-Croat cu gramatica si texte). Verba moritura vol. I, 1 - 378 p. Mediteran, Pula 1998

See also

• Istria
• Istro-Romanians
• Istro-Romanian language

External links

• The IstroRomanians
• UNESCO Red Book on Endangered Languages - entry for Istro-Romanian