Black Sea Romanian

Eromanian (Black Sea Romanian)

The Eromanians inhabit several coastal towns in the southern Crimea and Russia, as well as a few coastal communities in Bulgaria.

Orthography

A a	/a/	Ȩ ȩ	/y/	L l	/l/	T t	/t/
A̧ a̧	/ə/	F f	/f/	M m	/m/	U u	/u/
B b	/b/	G g	/g/	N n	/n/	V v	/v/
C c	/k/	H h	/ɣ/	O o	/o/	X x	/z/
Ç ç	/tɕ/	I i	/i/	P p	/p/	Z z	/ɕ/
D d	/d/	J j	/j/	R r	/r/	Dt dt	/ð/
E e	/e/	K k	/k/*	S s	/s/	Ee ee	/ei/

*K is only used word-final. C is used as /k/ in all circumstances.

1: Nouns and sentence order

Noun types

There are two genders of noun – masculine and feminine. There are remnants of the Latin neuter case, in the form of hard masculine nouns.

There is also another form of most nouns, the diminuitive, marked with “-uk” for masculine and “-ukla” for feminine nouns.

Sentence order

Three sentence forms are possible:

-          SVO: The standard form.

-          VSO: The questioning form.

-          SOV: The habitual form – for verbs that are, were or will be performed repeatedly and frequently.

Basic declension

Each noun has two declensions: basic and complex.

The basic declension is used for nominative or accusative nouns, and expresses whether a noun is definite or indefinite. Here is a chart for feminine, soft and hard nouns:

Soft masc. = Sul – Sun     Hard masc. = Tumpul – Temple       Fem. = Cata – Female cat

	Sing.	Plu.	Sing.	Plu.	Sing.	Pul.
Ind.	Sul	Suli	Tumpul	Tumpulo	Cata	Cate
Def.	Sula̧	Sulai	Tumpula̧	Tumpuli	Catau	Catu

Complex declension – soft masculine and feminine nouns

For soft masculine and feminine nouns, the cases are shown by the definite and indefinite article which precede the noun, but for hard masculine nouns, it is incorporated into the noun itself.

	Definite			Indefinite
	Masc.	Fem.	Plu.	Masc.	Fem.	Plu.
Dative	U	A	Li	Cu	Ca	Ci
Genitive	Lu	La	Len	Eu	Ea	Es
Locative	Lo	Las	Li	Co	Cas	Cei

Complex declension – hard masculine nouns

	Sing.	Plu.
Dat	Cu/U Tumpula	Ci/Li Tumpula
Gen	Cu/U Tumpule	Ci/Li Tumpulo
Loc	Co/Lo Tumupla	Ci/Li Tumpula

Prepositions

To = DAT

Of = GEN

From = “de” + GEN

In = LOC

On = “su” + LOC

About, around = “o” + LOC

With = “ca” + NOM/ACC

By, using = “ca” + GEN

Under = “su” + GEN

2: Adjectives

Adjectives (except nationalities)

	Masc.	Fem.	Plu.
Nom/Acc	-u	-a	-i
Dat	-e	-ea	-ai
Gen	-ȩ	-a̧	-a̧i
Loc	-um	-am	-ami

These endings apply to possessive pronouns/adjectives:

1st sing.	Me-
2nd sing.	Te-
3rd sing.	Le-
1st plu.	Ne-
2nd plu.	Pe-
3rd plu.	Li-

Nationalities

	Masc.	Fem.	Plu.
Nom/Acc	-en	-ena	-ene
Dat	-in	-ina	-ini
Gen	-o	-na	-ni
Loc	-un	-una	-uni

3: Verbs

Class 1: Free verbs

Free verbs are those which do not require a pronoun due to their endings. Their suffix is always “-a̧”, for example, “Sa̧” = “to be”:

	Present	Past	Future	Conditional
1st sing.	Sa	Sau	Se	See
2nd sing.	So	Su	Sos	Seeo
3rd sing.	Sot	Sut	Set	Seet
1st plu.	Soim	Sum	Sem	Seem
2nd plu.	Sai	Sui	Sed	Seedt
3rd plu.	Son	Sun	Sen	Seen

All free verbs follow this ending pattern, except for “-oim”, which often becomes “-im”, and “-eedt”, which often becomes “-eed”

Class 2: “-a̧r” verbs

Example – “Pena̧r” = “to come from”

	Present	Past	Future	Conditional
1st sing.	-a	-u	-e	-ee
2nd sing.	-a	-au	-e	-ee
3rd sing.	-a	-u	-e	-ee
1st plu.	-am	-um	-em	-eem
2nd plu.	-ai	-ui	-et	-eet
3rd plu.	-an	-un	-en	-een

Class 3: “-ur” verbs

Example – “Netur” = “to be born”

Present	Past	Future	Conditional
-a	-u	-e	-ee

4: Pronouns

	Nom	Acc	Dat	Gen	Loc
1st sing.	Jȩ	Me	Ma	Mu	Mon
2nd sing.	Tȩ	Ti	Ta	Tu	Ton
3rd sing. masc.	Lȩ	Li	La	Lu	Lan
3rd sing. fem.	Le	Li	La	Lu	Lan
1st plu.	Nat	Ne	Na	Nui	Nai
2nd plu.	Pat	Pe	Pa	Pui	Pai
3rd plu. masc.	Lee	Lis	Lai	Lui	Lun
3rd plu. fem.	Les	Lis	Lai	Lui	Lun