Romanian affixes in Kalderash Romani

Summary

Affix function number of borrowed affixes

Description

Information and examples are from Boretzky (1994) and Boretzky and Igla (1991). Kalderash Romani has also borrowed morphemes from Greek and from various Slavic languages, but in each case fewer than from Romanian.

 

1 adjectivizer

‑icios, e.g. kalits̆oso ‘blackish’

 

1 diminutive

‑uljeco (and many phonologically related allomorphs), e.g. foruljeco ‘little town’ (example from Kalderash spoken in Serbia)

 

6 agent nouns/professions, including feminine

‑aš(i) (could be from Slavic languages), e.g. tsir‑aš ‘circus man’

‑tori, e.g. diiliba‑tori ‘singer’

‑anka, e.g. amerikánka ‘American woman’ (example from Kalderash of France)

‑àsa, e.g. amperacása ‘empress’ (example from Kalderash of France, amperac‑ could also be Romanian)

‑ojka (no examples of hybrids)

‑twára, e.g. farmec̆twára ‘witch’ (example from Kalderash of France)

 

1 ordinal number formation

‑leä, e.g. dúito‑leä ‘for the second time’ (example from Kalderash of Sweden)

 

1 indefinite pronoun formation prefix

vare‑, e.g. vareko ‘anybody’ (example from Kalderash spoken in Serbia)

 

1 privative verbal derivational prefix

des‑, e.g. dezmekljol ‘melt’ (example from Kalderash spoken in Serbia)