Neapolitan/adjectives
Neapolitan Primer |
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Adjectives in Neapolitan
[edit | edit source]As with other Romance languages, adjective endings in Neapolitan change depending upon what the gender and number of the item they modify are.
gender | singular | plural |
masculine | o | e |
feminine | a | e |
neuter | o | e |
For the most part, adjectives follow the object they describe, for example-- 'a scìgna janca, the white monkey, though literally it reads "the monkey white".
Possessive Adjectives
[edit | edit source]English | Neap. masc. | Neap. fem. |
mine | mio | mia |
yours | tujo | toja |
his | sujo | soja |
ours | nuosto | nuosta |
yours | vuosto | vuosta |
theirs | (l)loro | (l)loro |
In Neapolitan, as with other Southern Italian vernaculars, there can be a fusion of the possessive adjective with the noun it refers to. For example: mammema for my mother; fratemo for my brother; sòcrema for my mother-in-law; sòreta for your sister (the e within these words are a muted schwa sound). This applies only to words that indicate relationships with a family and probably stems from Greek (agapèmo for my love, for example).
References
[edit | edit source]Carlo Iandolo: 'A lengua 'e Pulecenella - Grammatica napoletana, chapter Aggettivi (p. 173 et seq.)