Bulgarian affixes in Megleno-Romanian

Summary

Affix function number of borrowed affixes

Description

Information and examples are from Capidan (1925) and other sources as noted below.

2 person markers on verbs. Examples of these are from Capidan (1925:94, 159), translations and evidence for Romance origins of the stems comes from Pușcariu (1905:168, passim), Weinreich (1953:32), and Gardani (2008:67). These suffixes are added to forms that are already inflected for the respective category by native suffixes -u and -i, hence, e.g. -um, -ǎm replaced native -u, and -iş replaced native -i. Gardani (2008:67), citing Sandfeld (1938:59), Capidan (1940:91), and Pușcariu (1943:274), states that “the morphemes have been added to the corresponding Romanian morphemes -u and -i, but are not productive since they apply only to certain verbs”, implying that at least some verbs select them, as the examples below suggest. Friedman (2012:327) points out that an alternative internal explanation of the phenomenon – in terms of a Megleno-Romanian conjugational restructuring – is also plausible.

  • -m ‘first person singular indicative present’, e.g. aflum ‘I find’, antrum ‘I enter’, amnum ‘I go’.
  • -ş ‘second person singular indicative present’, e.g. afliş ‘you (sg.) find’, antriş ‘you (sg.) enter’.

1 privative particle

  • ni- ‘privative particle’, e.g. ni-bun (privative-good) ‘_evil’, ni-ḁn-grup-at_ (privative-aspect-bury-participle) ‘unburied’ (Capidan 1925:197). The second example shows that this prefix is not in the same morphological slot as the aspectual/aktionsart prefixes. The source form in Old Bulgarian is a clitic that attaches to stems separately from aktionsart prefixes (e.g., ne-pri-čestuvanje ［privative-aspect_-communion］ not receiving communion’) and does not convey any aspectual meaning. In Megleno-Romanian, _ni- is not attested in finite verbs, only in participles and a few nouns and adjectives.

9 derivational prefixes (out of 13 in Megleno-Romanian). The ones listed here include pan-Slavic prefixes, but not prefixes that are exclusive to one Slavic language other than Bulgarian (e.g. only Serbian). Information and examples are from Capidan (1925:195–202). No examples of hybrid formations are provided by Capidan (1925:195–202), but some are explicitly described as “very productive”. The functions of these prefixes are hard to outline precisely, also in the Slavic source languages, they usually encode aspectual or aktionsart meanings and sometimes form pairs.

  • du- ‘aktionsart’ (from Bulgarian do-), described as “very productive”
  • iz- ‘aktionsart’ (from Bulgarian iz-)
  • nӑ- ‘aktionsart’ (from Bulgarian na-)
  • pri- ‘aktionsart’ (from Bulgarian prĕ-)
  • pru- ‘aktionsart’ (from Bulgarian pro-), described as “highly productive”
  • pu- ‘aktionsart’ (from Bulgarian po-)
  • pud- ~ put- ‘aktionsart’ (from Bulgarian pod-)
  • răz- ‘aktionsart’ (from Bulgarian răs-)
  • ză- ‘aktionsart’ (from Bulgarian za-)

Similar sets of Slavic aktionsart prefixes have been borrowed into other Daco-Romance languages: 8 aktionsart prefixes are borrowed from Croatian to Istro-Romanian. The prefix do- ‘attainment of the final point of motion or activity’ is found in Romanian varieties spoken in Serbian (Vlach Romanian), e.g. do-facu preverb-do:past.3.singular) ‘s/he finished doing something’. Note that in Vlach Romanian, unlike Serbian (the source language) and Istro-Romanian (Kovačec 1971:125), the prefix does not have a perfectivizing role. Its meaning is derivational, and the category of Slavic aspect was not introduced with the borrowing (Gardani, Arkadiev, and Amiridze 2015:7). The borrowing of aspectual/aktionsart preverbs is common in languages that have been in contact with Slavic (see Russian affixes in Lithuanian Romani, and Russian and Belarusian affixes in Lithuanian).

23 derivational suffixes are borrowed from Bulgarian. Below, forms are listed that Capidan (1925:186–195) marks as pan-Slavic, while those marked only as Serbian are excluded. Note that some forms are probably complex and others may be allomorphs. There are a total of about 50 derivational suffixes in Megleno-Romanian, many of the non-Slavic ones have etymologies in Latin (i.e. count as native), but there are also several borrowings from Greek and some from Turkish. No examples of hybrid formations are provided by Capidan (1925:195–202).

11 diminutives

  • -atš ‘diminutive’, e.g. ghiumatš ‘small brass pitcher’.
  • -aş ‘diminutive’ (from Slavic in general), e.g. cupilaş ‘little baby’.
  • -cǎ ‘feminine diminutive’ (from Slavic in general), e.g. izvorcǎ ‘little spring’, described as “very productive”.
  • -ic ‘diminutive’ (from Slavic in general), e.g. aric ‘yard (lit. little area)’.
  • -icǎ ‘diminutive’ (from Slavic in general), e.g. balitiicǎ ‘little lake’.
  • -itşcǎ ‘diminutive’ (from Bulgarian), e.g. cǎsitşcǎ ‘little house’.
  • -iṭǎ ‘diminutive’/’feminine from masculine nouns’ (from Slavic in general), e.g. gǎuriṭǎ ‘little hole’.
  • -oşcǎ ‘diminutive’, e.g. baroşcǎ ‘little puddle’.
  • -utş ‘diminutive’, e.g. fratutş ‘little brother’.
  • -uş ‘diminutive’, e.g. cǎldǎrǎş (sic!) ‘little bucket’.
  • -tšoc (-tše-oc) ‘diminutive’, e.g. cǎptšoc ‘small head’.

9 nominalizers and nominal derivation

  • -an ‘quality nouns’ (from Slavic in general and Bulgarian), e.g. mijlucan ‘the middle one (middle brother)’.
  • -ealǎ ‘abstract nouns from adjectives’, e.g. nigrealǎ ‘blackness’.
  • -ean ‘inhabitant of’ (from Slavic in general), e.g. cǎtunean ‘someone who lives in a hamlet’.
  • -eṭ (meaning unclear) (from Slavic in general), e.g. vărdăreṭ ‘wind (from Vardar?)’.
  • -i̯ǎ ‘nouns from adjectives’ (from Slavic in general), e.g. vuṭi̯ǎ ‘wealth’.
  • -ineṭ ‘inhabitant noun’ (from Bulgarian), e.g. Cupineṭ ‘someone from Cupa’.
  • -işti ‘place where x is/happens’, e.g. bǎnişti ‘bathing place’.
  • -niṭǎ ‘place name derivation’, e.g. valturniṭǎ ‘place where eagles nest’.
  • -utinǎ ‘collective nouns’, e.g. erbutinǎ ‘grassland’.

2 adjectivizers

  • -lif ‘adjectives from nouns’ (from Bulgarian), e.g. bǎnlif ‘wounded’.
  • -nic ‘adjective from nouns’ (from Bulgarian -nik) three attestations, counting one with -arnic, e.g. cǎvai̯nic ‘poor’.