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 origin of stems comes from Pușcariu (1905:168, passim), Weinreich (1953: 32), and Gardani (2008: 67). These suffixes are added to forms already inflected for those categories by native suffixes ­-u and -i, i.e. one might say that -um, -ǎm replaced native -u and -iş replaced native -i. Gardani (2008: 67), citing Sandfeld (1938: 59), Capidan (1940: 91) and Puşcariu (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 take them, as the examples below suggest.

-m ‘first person singular indicative present’, e.g. aflum ‘I find’, antrum ‘I enter’, amnum ‘I go’

‘second person singular indicative present’, e.g. afliş ‘you (sg.) find’, antriş ‘you (sg.) enter’

 

10 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 meanings of these prefixes are hard to describe, 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-)

ni- ‘privative particle’ (seems to be Slavic, although no source form is given, only the equivalent in Cyrillic script, it is uncertain whether this form is “paradigmatically related” to the other prefixes listed here)

pri- ‘aktionsart’ (from Bulgarian prĕ- (also related to Latin per-?)

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)

 

23 derivational suffixes are borrowed from Bulgarian. Below, forms are listed that are marked by Capidan (1925: 186–195) as pan-Slavic, but excluded are those marked only as Serbian (Capidan 1925:186-195). Note that some forms are probably complex and some 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 quite a lot borrowed from Greek and some from Turkish. No examples of hybrid formations are provided by Capidan (1925: 195–202).

 

12 diminutives

-atš ‘diminutive’, e.g. ghiumasmall brass pitcher’

- ‘diminutive’ (from Slavic in general), e.g. cupilas ‘little baby’

- ‘feminine diminutive’ (from Slavic in general), e.g. izvor- ‘little spring’, described as “very productive”

-eaşcǎ ‘diminutive’ (from Bulgarian), e.g. dumineşcǎ ‘little Sunday’

-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’

- ‘diminutive’, e.g. cǎldǎrǎş ‘littel bucket’

-tšoc (-tše-oc) ‘diminutive’, e.g. cǎp-tšoc ‘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 helmet’

-eṭ (meaning unclear) (from Slavic in general), e.g. vărdăre ‘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. erbutininǎ ‘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’