Phonetic features The Banat dialect differs from the others by the following phonetic particularities: • The unstressed mid vowels close to , respectively, and open to : for standard
papuc,
plecat,
îngropat. • Dentals become , respectively, and consonants are
palatalized when followed by : for
dimineață,
frunte,
bade,
vine,
lemne,
mare. • Affricates become the palatalized fricatives , respectively: for
ceas,
cină,
cinci,
fuge,
ginere,
sânge. • In some varieties, the diphthong is realized as : for
soare,
moarte. In other varieties becomes the monophthong : for
coajă,
oală. • The stressed vowel becomes when followed by another in the next syllable: for
muiere,
fete,
poveste,
verde,
pește. • After
labials, reduces to : for
fiere,
miercuri,
piele,
piept. • After the fricatives , affricates , and the sequence , becomes , becomes , and reduces to : for
seară,
semn,
singur,
zer,
zid,
pășim,
șed,
jir,
și,
cojească,
înțeapă,
simțesc,
prăjească,
povestesc,
steag. • Labials remain unchanged when followed by : for
piept,
bivol,
obială,
fier,
vierme,
miercuri. • Etymological is preserved and palatalized, such as in Latin-origin words where it is followed by or in hiatus, words with inflection endings in , Slavic borrowings with the sequence , as well as Hungarian borrowings with : for
cui,
călcâi,
căpătâi,
tu rămâi (from Latin ,
calcaneum,
capitaneum,
tu remanēs),
claie (from Slavic *
klanja, cf. Serbian and Bulgarian
kladnja),
sicriu (from Hungarian ). This phenomenon is distinct from the simple palatalization of when followed by a front vowel, which is newer, even though the two phenomena can now appear in very similar contexts: contains an etymological , whereas contains a more recently palatalized . • The voiced affricate is preserved in words believed to be of
substrate origin: for
brânză,
buză,
grumaz,
mânz. It is also preserved in Latin-origin words that contain a followed by a long or , by an inflectional or by or in hiatus: for
zece,
auzi,
frunză (Latin:
decem,
audīs,
frondea). • The monophthong : is old. In standard Romanian, the palatalization is anticipated, and a
metathesis occurs :
câine,
mâine,
pâine are best explained as > (anticipation of palatalization).
Morphological features • Feminine
nouns ending in
-ă tend to form the plural in
-i instead of
-e:
casă –
căși ("house(s)", compare with standard
casă –
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 scaun ("the chair's leg", compare with
piciorul scaunului),
dau 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 mea,
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 mărs,
or mărs ("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,
ea înfloare ("he works", "it blooms", compare with standard
el lucrează,
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 cobor,
ei cobor ("I come down", "they come down", compare with standard
eu cobor,
ei coboară). •
Periphrasis is used to express the pluperfect:
am fost avut,
m-am fost dus,
o fost mâncat ("I had had", "I had gone", "he had eaten", compare with standard
avusesem,
mă 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
fi used in the past subjunctive is variable:
eu să fiu mâncat,
tu să fii mâncat,
el să fie mâncat ("that I / you / he ate", compare with standard
eu să fi mâncat,
tu să fi mâncat,
el să fi mâncat). • In some areas, the auxiliary verb used to construct the conditional is
a vrea:
eu vreaș face,
tu vreai face,
el vrea face ("I / you / he would do", compare with standard
eu aș face,
tu ai 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 zăuita ("to forget completely", from
a uita),
a se proînsura ("to marry again", from
a se însura).
Lexical particularities • The
demonstrative articles are:
ăl,
a,
ăi,
ale (standard
cel,
cea,
cei,
cele). • Specific
indefinite pronouns and adjectives are found: ("something", standard
ceva), ("anyone", standard
oricine),
tot natul ("each one",
fiecare). • Other specific words:
șcătulă ("box", standard
cutie),
șnaidăr ("tailor",
croitor),
ai ("garlic",
usturoi),
farbă ("dye",
vopsea),
golumb ("pigeon",
porumbel),
cozeci ("measles",
pojar), etc. • Use of as the first person singular indicative form of the verb - to be.
Sample Banat dialect: Standard Romanian: 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." ==Subdivisions==