Banat Romanian dialect

A transition area towards the Wallachian dialect is found in the northwestern of Oltenia, in the counties of Gorj and Mehedinți. Mixtures with the southern and central Transylvanian varieties are found in northeastern parts of Banat, where such a transition area is in the Hațeg Country and another one extends towards southern Crișana.

The Banat dialect differs from the others by the following phonetic particularities:

• The unstressed mid vowels /e, ə, o/ close to [i, ɨ, u], respectively, and open /a/ to [ə]: [pəˈpuk, pliˈkat, ɨŋɡruˈpat] for standard papùc, plecàt, îngropàt.
• Dentals /t, d/ become [t͡ʃʲ, d͡ʒʲ], respectively, and consonants /n, l, r/ are palatalized when followed by [e, i, e̯a]: [d͡ʒʲimiˈnʲat͡sə, ˈfrunt͡ʃʲe, ˈbad͡ʒʲe, ˈvinʲe, ˈlʲemnʲe, ˈmarʲe] for diminéță, frùnte, bade, vìne, lèmne, màre.
• Affricates /t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ/ become the palatalized fricatives [ʃʲ, ʒʲ], respectively: [ʃʲas, ˈʃʲinə, ʃʲinʃʲ, ˈfuʒʲe, ˈʒʲinere, ˈsɨnʒʲe] for ceàs, cínă, cíncĭ, fùge, gínere, sânge.
• In some varieties, the diphthong /o̯a/ is realized as [wa]: [ˈswarje, ˈmwart͡ʃʲe] for soare, moarte. In other varieties /o̯a/ becomes the monophthong [ɔ]: [ˈkɔʒə, ˈɔlə] for cójă, ólă.
• The stressed vowel /e/ becomes [jɛ] when followed by another [e] in the next syllable: [muˈjɛrʲe, ˈfjɛt͡ʃʲe, poˈvjɛstə, ˈvjɛrd͡ʒʲe, ˈpjɛʃt͡ʃʲe] for muĭère, fètè, povèste, vèrde, pește.
• After labials, /je/ reduces to [e]: [ˈferʲe, ˈmerkurʲ, ˈpelʲe, pept] for fiere, mèrcurĭ, pèlè, pèpt.
• After the fricatives [s, z, ʃ, ʒ], affricates [t͡s, d͡z], and the sequence [st], /e/ becomes [ə], /i/ becomes [ɨ], and /e̯a/ reduces to [a]: [ˈsarə, səmn, ˈsɨŋɡur, d͡zər, d͡zɨd, pəˈʃɨm, ʃəd, ʒɨr, ʃɨ, koˈʒaskə, ɨnˈt͡sapə, sɨmˈt͡səsk, prəˈʒaskə, povjesˈtəsk, staɡ] for sàră, sĕmn, sîngur, ḑer, ḑid, pășim, șĕd, jîr, șî, cojéscă, înțépă, simțesc, prĕjéscă, povestĕsc, stég.
• Labials remain unchanged when followed by [e, i, e̯a]: [pept, ˈbivol, oˈbe̯alə, fer, ˈvermʲe, ˈmerkurʲ] for pèpt, bìvol, obélă, fèr, vèrme, miercuri.
• Etymological /n/ is preserved and palatalized, such as in Latin-origin words where it is followed by [e] or [i] in hiatus, words with inflection endings in [i], Slavic borrowings with the sequence [nj], as well as Hungarian borrowings with [nʲ]: [kunʲ, kəlˈkɨnʲ, kəpəˈtɨnʲ, tu rəˈmɨnʲ, ˈklanʲe, səˈkrinʲ] for cuĭ, călcăĭ, căpătâĭ, tu rĕmâĭ (from Latin cuneus, calcaneum, capitaneum, tu remanēs), claie (from Slavic *klanja, cf. Serbian and Bulgarian kladnja), sicriu (from Hungarian szekrény). This phenomenon is distinct from the simple palatalization of /n/ when followed by a front vowel, which is newer, even though the two phenomena can now appear in very similar contexts: [tu ˈspunʲ] contains an etymological [nʲ], whereas [jel ˈspunʲe] contains a more recently palatalized [n].[2]
• The voiced affricate [d͡z] is preserved in words believed to be of substrate origin: [ˈbrɨnd͡zə, ˈbud͡zə, ɡruˈmad͡zə, mɨnd͡z] for brânḑă, buḑă, grumaḑ, mânḑ. It is also preserved in Latin-origin words that contain a /d/ followed by a long [e] or [i], by an inflectional [i] or by [e] or [i] in hiatus: [ˈd͡zəʃʲe, aˈud͡z, ˈfrund͡zə] for ḑece, áuḑi, frunḑă (Latin: decem, audīs, frondea).
• The monophthong [ɨ]: [ˈkɨnʲe, ˈmɨnʲe, ˈpɨnʲe] is old. In standard Romanian, the palatalization is anticipated, and a metathesis occurs : câne, mâne, pâne are best explained as /ˈkɨnʲe/ > [ˈkɨʲne] (anticipation of palatalization).

• Feminine nouns ending in -ă tend to form the plural in -i instead of -e: casă – cășì ("house(s)", compare with standard càsă – case). This may be explained, in the case of nouns with roots ending in a fricative or an affricate, by the fact that the plural ending -e would be realized as -ă (see the phonetic features above), which would produce a homonymy between singular and plural.
• Genitives and datives in nouns are often built analytically: piciorul de la scaŭn ("the chair's leg", compare with picòrul scaunului), daŭ apă la cal ("I give water to the horse", compare with dau apă calului).
• The possessive article is invariable: a meu, a mea, a mei, a mele ("mine", compare with standard al meu, a méa, ai mei, ale mele) as in most Romanian dialects.
• The simple perfect of verbs is actively used in all persons and numbers, a feature the Banat dialect shares with the western areas of the Wallachian dialect.
• The auxiliary verb used for the compound perfect in the 3rd person has the forms o and or: o mĕrs, or mĕrs ("he went", "they went", compare with standard a mers, au mers).
• The newer extended conjugation does not replace the older forms in the 1st and 4th conjugation groups: el lucră, é înflóre ("he works", "it blooms", compare with standard el lucréză, ea înflorește, with -izo and -isko suffixes borrowed by Late Latin from Greek).
• In indicative forms of verbs of the 4th conjugation group, homonymy is found between the 1st person singular and the 3rd person plural: eu cobòr, ei cobòr ("I come down", "they come down", compare with standard eu cobòr, ei cobóră).
• Periphrasis is used to express the pluperfect: am fost avùt, m-àm fost dùs, o fost mâncàt ("I had had", "I had gone", "he had eaten", compare with standard avusesem, mĕ dusesem, mâncase).
• The negative plural prohibitive (not imperative) continues the Latin imperfect subjunctive: nu fugireț (< lat. ne fugiretis), nu mâncareț ("don't run", don't eat", compare with standard nu fugiți, nu mâncați).
• The auxiliary fì used in the past subjunctive is variable: eu sĭ fíu mâncat, tu sĭ fí mâncat, el sĭ fíe mâncat ("that I / you / he ate", compare with standard eu sĭ fì mâncàt, tu sĭ fi mâncàt, el sĭ fi mâncat).
• In some areas, the auxiliary verb used to construct the conditional is a vré: eu vréș face, tu vréi face, el vré face ("I / you / he would do", compare with standard eu aș face, tu áĭ face, el ar face). Sometimes the v of the auxiliary is dropped: reaș, etc.
• In south-western areas, under the Serbian influence, signs of a verbal aspect are found, relying on the use of prefixes: a dogăta ("to finish completely", from a găta), a ḑĕúità ("to forget completely", from a uita), a se proînsura ("to marry again", from a se însura).

• The demonstrative articles are: ăl, a, ăi, ale [ˈalʲe] (standard cel, cé, cei, cèlè).
• Specific indefinite pronouns and adjectives are found: [ˈaltəʃʲe] ("something", standard cevà), [məˈkar ˈʃʲnʲe] ("anyone", standard oricine), tot natul ("each one", fiecare).
• Other specific words: șcĕtulă ("box", standard cutie), șnaidăr ("tailor", croitor), ai ("garlic", usturoi), farbă ("dye", vopsé), golumb ("pigeon", porumbel), coḑeci ("measles", pojàr), etc.

Banat dialect: [ɨntɨmˈplare̯a o fost aˈʃa ‖ lã luˈvat d͡ʒʲe lant͡s ‖ jel mo pus ˈkapũ spiˈnare ʃo pleˈkat ku ˈminʲe d͡ʒʲm pəˈrjɛt͡ʃʲem pəˈrʲɛt͡ʃʲe ‖ jam pus ˈmɨnantruŋ kʷorn ˈʃajlaltənˈtralt kʷorn ʃɨ mo trɨnˈt͡ʃʲit ʒos]

Standard Romanian: Întêmplaré a fost áşă: Ĭ-am luvàt de lanț. El mi-a pùs capù-n spìnare și-à plecàt cu mìne din pèretè în pèretè. Ĭ-àm pùs mânà într-un qŭòrn și célaltă într-alt qŭòrn și m-a trântit jòs.

English translation: "It happened like this: I took (the bull) by the chain. It pushed its head into my back and drove me from a wall to another. I grabbed its horn with one hand and its other horn with another, and it knocked me down."