Istro-Romanian grammar

The grammar of the Istro-Romanian language shares similar grammar with other Eastern Romance languages.

Morphology

The theorized evolution of Istro-Romanian from Daco-Romanian, a language that may have evolved independently, shows two distinct features:

1. Noun declination shows a rationalisation of forms: normal noun declination of Romanian has almost totally disappeared in Istro-Romanian;
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 nominative.

• fiľ (son), fiľi (pl.)

• socru (father-in-law), socri (pl.)

• fråte (brother), fråţ (pl.)

Feminine nouns

The -a replaces -ĕ...
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