The Banat dialect (''subdialectul'' / ''graiul bănățean'') is one of the
dialects of the
Romanian language
Romanian (obsolete spelling: Roumanian; , or , ) is the official and main language of Romania and Moldova. Romanian is part of the Eastern Romance languages, Eastern Romance sub-branch of Romance languages, a linguistic group that evolved fr ...
(Daco-Romanian). Its geographic distribution extends over the Romanian
Banat
Banat ( , ; ; ; ) is a geographical and Historical regions of Central Europe, historical region located in the Pannonian Basin that straddles Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. It is divided among three countries: the eastern part lie ...
and parts of the Serbian Banat, but also in parts of the
Timok Valley of Serbia.
The Banat dialect is a member of the northern grouping of Romanian dialects, along with the
Moldavian dialect
The Moldavian dialect is one of several dialects of the Romanian language (Daco-Romanian). It is spoken across the approximate area of the historical region of Moldavia, now split between the Republic of Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine.
The deli ...
and the group of
Transylvanian varieties. Features of the Banat dialect are found in southern dialects of Romanian:
Aromanian,
Megleno-Romanian, and
Istro-Romanian.
The Banat dialect has been long classified separately from the Transylvanian varieties, but in early studies such as those by
Mozes Gaster these were sometimes grouped together as a single variety. The Banat dialect was considered separately by
Heimann Tiktin,
Gustav Weigand,
Sextil Pușcariu (in his latter studies),
Emil Petrovici,
Romulus Todoran,
Ion Coteanu,
Alexandru Philippide,
Iorgu Iordan, and others.
Geographic distribution
The dialect is spoken in southwestern Romania, in the following
counties
A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
:
Caraș-Severin,
Timiș, the southern part of
Arad, and the southern part of
Hunedoara
Hunedoara (; ; ) is a municipiu, city in Hunedoara County, Transylvania, Romania. It is located in southwestern Transylvania near the Poiana Ruscă Mountains, and administers five villages: Boș (''Bós''), Groș (''Grós''), Hășdat (''Hosdát ...
. It is also spoken in the Serbian
Banat
Banat ( , ; ; ; ) is a geographical and Historical regions of Central Europe, historical region located in the Pannonian Basin that straddles Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. It is divided among three countries: the eastern part lie ...
and in the
Timok Valley of Serbia.
Transition areas
A transition area towards the
Wallachian dialect
The Wallachian dialect (''/'/'') is one of the several dialects of the Romanian language (Daco-Romanian). Its geographic distribution covers approximately the historical region of Wallachia, occupying the southern part of Romania, roughly between ...
is found in the northwestern of
Oltenia
Oltenia (), also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions – with the alternative Latin names , , and between 1718 and 1739 – is a historical province and geographical region of Romania in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Da ...
, 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.
Particularities
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
homonym
In linguistics, homonyms are words which are either; '' homographs''—words that mean different things, but have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation), or '' homophones''—words that mean different things, but have the same pronunciat ...
y 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 Wallachian dialect (''/'/'') is one of the several dialects of the Romanian language (Daco-Romanian). Its geographic distribution covers approximately the historical region of Wallachia, occupying the southern part of Romania, roughly between ...
.
*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
Demonstratives (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic, their meaning ...
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
The Banat dialect is further divided into several areas, based on finer distinctions in linguistic facts:
*south-western varieties, with particularities such as:
** becomes : for ''făcut'', ''pământ'';
** becomes : for ''luat'';
**a verbal
aspect appears: ''am dogătat'', ''am zăuitat'', ''s-a pronsurat'' (see morphological features above);
*eastern varieties;
*northern varieties, where becomes more frontal, between and , in words like (in varieties around
Lugoj
Lugoj (; ; ; ; ; ) is a list of cities and towns in Romania, city in Timiș County, Romania. The Timiș, Timiș River divides the city into two halves: the "Romanian Lugoj" that spreads on the right bank, and the "German Lugoj" on the left bank. Th ...
);
*north-eastern varieties, in the
Hațeg Country.
See also
*
Romanian phonology
*
Romanian language in Serbia
Notes
Bibliography
*Vasile Ursan
"Despre configurația dialectală a dacoromânei actuale" ''Transilvania'' (new series), 2008, No. 1, pp. 77–85
*Ilona Bădescu
"Dialectologie" teaching material for the University of Craiova
*Elena Buja, Liliana Coposescu, Gabriela Cusen, Luiza Meseșan Schmitz, Dan Chiribucă, Adriana Neagu, Iulian Pah
''Raport de țară: România'' country report for the Lifelong Learning Programme MERIDIUM
{{Romanian language
Romanian language varieties and styles
Banat
Timok Valley