Re: Dalmatian grammar, an outline

On Mon, 26 Mar 2001, Christophe Grandsire wrote:

> En réponse à Frank George Valoczy <valoczy@...>:
>
> >
> > THE ADJECTIVE
> >
> > Adjectives must agree in gender and number with the nouns they
> > modify. Adjectives are placed after the noun in the singular and
> > before
> > the noun in the plural.
> >
>
> Is there any reason for that? And is the reverse order possible, even if it's
> marked (like in French)?
I'm assuming the reverse order would be possible, though I haven't yet
seen it. Perhaps it's a case of Latinite tradition battling againt Slavic
influence...

<snip>

>
> >         Comparison of Adjectives
> >
> > positive (m ~ f):       grandu ~ granda
> > comparative:            plu grandu ~ plu granda
> > superlative:            naygrandu ~ naygranda
> >
>
> Where does the superlative prefix come from?
>
It comes from Slavic naj-, like, (using the same, "big")

veliki - veliks^i - najveliks^i

> >
> >         POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
> >
> > Possessive pronouns in Dalmatian are archaic and not in use, though
> > occasionally they may occur in liturgical use.
> >
> > Possession is shown by the construction da + pers.prn, e.g. baca da go
> > (my
> > cow), matru da tu (your mother).
> >
>
> Well, my Reman doesn't feel lonely anymore :) . Until now, I think it was the
> only Romance language to have no possessive adjectives (it uses a construction
> noun + dy /dy/ + indirect personal pronoun, quite like yours). It still has
> possessive pronouns though. How do you translate "mine", "yours", etc...?
I'd be interested in seeing Reman.

At the moment I'd say, you'd have to say "poanul ye il da go" (the bread
is mine) etc., but that seems a bit convoluted. Could loanwords from
Slavic or Illyric win out?

>
> > NUMERALS
> >
> >         CARDINAL NUMERALS
> > 11 to 19 formed: unit + spra + dziace: 11 = unspradziace
> >
>
> Looks definitely Eastern Romance to me :) . Doesn't Romanian do the same? By the
> way, where does the "spra" come from? "supra"? (giving 11: one "above" ten, one
> "over" ten?)
Yes, Romanian has the same structure. I was toying with that construction
and the Slavic `one "on" ten` construction (jedan-NA-deset, which
developed into today's jedanaest in Serbian and Croatian and into
odinnadsat' in Russian), but ended up going with the Romanian way.

spra indeed comes from supra.


-------ferko
Ferenc Gy. Valoczy

Suurt chugunikka peene ahjo suhe et toukka.

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