Lombard/Negation
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The reference orthography for this page of Lombard course is New Lombard orthography |
In modern Lombard the negation is always post-verbal (the only exceptions are the Bregaglia valley, some areas of Trentino and, in the recent past, some valleys of Canton Ticino and Ossola). This means that the negative particle must be placed always after the verb.
- es.: mì parli minga = I don’t speak.
Negative forms
[edit | edit source]Negative sentences are those constructed with the negating adverb minga- or its dialectal variants or "nò". The construction of these sentences has been described in the module about the construction of the sentence while on the page Lombard/Adverbs#Negating adverbs are found the dialectal variants of the negating adverbs
Negative sentences are also those constructed with indefinite pronouns nagot or nothing - or its dialectal variants thereof - (nothing) and nissun - or dialect variants thereof - (no one, nobody).
| Negating adverb/pronoun in lombard |
Negating adverb/pronoun in English |
Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| minga / nò | not | Mì el vedi minga | I don’t see him |
| mai | never | Mì l'hoo mai vist | I have never seen him |
| nanca | not even | Mì l'hoo nanca vist | i didn’t even seen him |
| nananmò | not…yet | Mì l'hoo nananmò vist | I havn’t seen him yet |
| pù | never…again | Mì l'hoo pu vist | I never seen him again |
| nagot / nient | nothing, not anything | Mì vedi nagot | I see nothing I don’t see anything |
| nissun | nobody/noone, not…anybody/anyone | Mì hoo vist nissun | I didn’t see anyone |
For variants of negating adverbs of negation and of negating indefinite pronouns, go to see the Wiktionary in Lombard.
Use of the negative form
[edit | edit source]- As will be described in the module about sentence construction, except for rare exceptions, negative particles (“minga” and “nò”) always occur after the verb. In compound tenses, they are placed between the auxiliary and the past participle (except for the negating pronouns i.e. nissun and negott, which are placed ''after the past participle).
- hoo minga podud, not hoo podud minga (in English I could not).
- l'hoo mai sentud, not l'hoo sentud mai (in English I have never seen it).
Preverbal negative form
[edit | edit source]Cases of pre-verbal negation can be found in ancient literature and in some Alpine dialects.
- mi no l'hoo mai vist
Adjectives in negative form
[edit | edit source]The particle minga can also be used, if placed before the adjective, to make it negative.
- bell → minga bell (in English: beautiful → not beautiful)