Definite articles The Neapolitan classical
definite articles (corresponding to the English word "the") are (feminine singular), (masculine singular) and (plural for both). They are traditionally spelled with the apostrophe to signify the elided sound . Before a word beginning with a consonant: "C:" = the initial consonant of the following word is
geminated if followed by a vowel. These definite articles are always pronounced distinctly. Before a word beginning with a vowel, or are used for both masculine and feminine, singular and plural. Although both forms can be found, the form is by far the most common. In Neapolitan, the
gender of a noun is not easily determined by the article, so other means must be used. In the case of , which can be either masculine singular or neuter singular (there is no neuter plural in Neapolitan), the initial consonant of the noun is doubled when it is neuter. For example, the name of a language in Neapolitan is always neuter, so if we see we know it refers to the Neapolitan language, whereas would refer to a Neapolitan man. Likewise, since can be either masculine or feminine plural, when it is feminine plural, the initial consonant of the noun is doubled. For example, consider , which in Neapolitan is feminine singular, meaning "the list". In the plural, it becomes . There can also be problems with nouns whose singular form ends in . Since plural nouns usually end in whether masculine or feminine, the masculine plural is often signaled orthographically, that is, by altering the spelling. As an example, consider the word , which means "boy" or (in the feminine form) "girl": More will be said about these orthographically changing nouns in the section on Neapolitan nouns. A couple of notes about consonant doubling: • Doubling is a function of the article (and certain other words), and these same words may be seen in other contexts without the consonant doubled. More will be said about this in the section on consonant doubling. • Doubling only occurs when a vowel follows the consonant. No doubling occurs if it is followed by another consonant, such as in the word
spagnuolo (Spanish).
Indefinite articles The Neapolitan indefinite articles, corresponding to the English
a or
an, are presented in the following table:
Verbal conjugation In Neapolitan there are four finite moods:
indicative,
subjunctive,
conditional and
imperative, and three non-finite modes:
infinitive,
gerund and
participle. Each mood has an
active and a
passive form. The only auxiliary verbs used in the active form is (Eng. "to have", It. ), which contrasts with Italian, in which the intransitive and reflexive verbs take for their auxiliary. For example, we have: ;Neapolitan {{interlinear|lang1=nap| ;Italian
Doubled initial consonants In Neapolitan, many times the initial consonant of a word is doubled. This is called
syntactic gemination (
raddoppiamento sintattico in Italian). This linguistic phenomenon occurs also in Italian and in Finnish. • All feminine plural nouns, preceded by the feminine plural definite article, , or any feminine plural adjective, have their initial consonant doubled. • All neuter singular nouns, when preceded by the neuter singular definite article, , or by a neuter singular adjective, have their initial consonant doubled. • In addition, other words also trigger this doubling. Below is a list of words that trigger the doubling of the initial consonant of the following word. However, when there is a pause after the "trigger" word, the phonological doubling does not occur (e.g. , "You are a boy", where is a "trigger" word causing doubling of the initial consonant in , but in the phrase "Where are you from, boy?", no doubling occurs. Neither does doubling occur when the initial consonant is followed by another consonant (other than or ), e.g. "the Italian language", but "the Spanish language", where is the neuter definite article). This doubling phenomenon happens phonologically (in pronunciation), and the doubling is not always represented in spelling. However, many Neapolitan-language editions do represent syntactic gemination in writing, resulting in many words spelled with initial double consonants. So, ("I am crazy") may also be spelled (regardless of the spelling, it is pronounced with syntactic gemination). In Italian and Finnish, syntactic gemination is not reflected in writing.
Words that trigger doubling in pronunciation wearing a T-shirt with Neapolitan ("I am crazy.") • The conjunctions '
and but not ' (e.g. ; ; but ) • The prepositions '
, , ' (e.g. ; ; ) • The negation '''''', short for (e.g. ) • The indefinites '
, ' (e.g. ; ) • Interrogative '
and relative but not ' (e.g. ) • '''''' (e.g. ) • From the verb "", '
; ; but not ' (e.g. ; ; ; but ) • '''''' (e.g. ) • The number '''''' (e.g. ) • The neuter definite article '''''' (e.g. , but ) • The neuter pronoun '''''' (e.g. ) • Demonstrative adjectives '
and ' which refer to neuter nouns in indefinite quantities (e.g. ; ) but not in definite quantities (e.g. ; ) • The feminine plural definite article '''''' (e.g. ; ) • The plural feminine pronoun '''''', e.g., • The plural masculine pronoun '
preceding a verb, but not when ' is an article; in , the first is an article, so it does not trigger doubling; the second does trigger doubling because it is a masculine plural pronoun. • The locative '''''' (e.g. ) • From the verb : '''''' (e.g. ) • From the verb : '
; ' (e.g. ) • Special case '''''' == See also ==