User:AimLook/Macedonian grammar
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This article discusses the grammar of the Macedonian language.
Contents |
[edit] General characteristics
[edit] Syntax
The canonical word order of Macedonian is AVO (Agent-Verb-Object), but word order is quite freely variable. By changing the order, it may also serve to create poetic sentiment (inversion is common in poetry).
[edit] Nominal morphology
The Macedonian nominal system distinguishes two numbers (singular and plural), three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter) that inflect for number, case (only vocative) and definiteness. Definiteness is expressed by three definite articles pertaining to the position of the object (unspecified, proximate and distal) which are postfixed to the noun.
[edit] Definiteness
The article (определен член) is postfixed, as in Bulgarian, Albanian and Romanian. One feature that has no parallel in other standard Balkan languages is the existence of three definite articles pertaining to position of the object, unspecified, proximate (or close) and distal (or distant). Bulgarian only has the basic (unspecified) form, although three definite article forms also exist in certain Bulgarian dialects, notably the vernaculars of Tran and parts of the Rhodopes .
| The definite articles | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |||||
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Unspecified | -от | -та | -то | -те | -те | -та |
| Proximate | -ов | -ва | -во | -ве | -ве | -ва |
| Distal | -он | -на | -но | -не | -не | -на |
[edit] Nouns
Macedonian nouns (именки) are inflected by gender and number. A noun has one of three specific grammatical genders (masculine, feminine and neuter) and two numbers (singular and plural). Definiteness is expressed by three definite articles pertaining to the position of the object (unspecified, proximate and distal) which are postfixed to the noun.
[edit] Adjective
Adjectives (придавки) agree with nouns in gender, number and definiteness with the noun it is appended to and is put usually before it.
[edit] Adpositions
| Preposition | English | Preposition | English | Preposition | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| без | without | близу | near | додека, до | to, until |
| долж | along | под | under | пред | in front of |
| зад | behind | помеѓу | between | над | on top of, above, over |
| вон | outside of, beyond | кон | toward | кај | at |
| покрај | by, beside, near, alongside | накрај | at the end of | низ | through |
| меѓу | among, between | место | instead | на | on, at |
| наместо | instead of, in place of | наспроти | despite, in defiance to, in spite of | низ | downwards |
| за | about | од | from | околу | around, about |
| освен | except | по | per, by | после, по | after |
| преку | above, over, beyond | при | at, over, by | против | against |
| поради | because of, for the sake of | со | with, by | слично | similar, like |
| сред | midst, in the middle | дури | even, while | во | in |
| наспротив | in defiance of | внатре | inside, within | спроти | shortly before, on the eve of |
| за | for, after | заради | because of, due to | зашто | because, since |
[edit] Pronouns
A pronoun (заменка) is a substitute for a noun or a noun phrase, or things previously mentioned or understood from the context. These are words like јас 'I', мене 'me', себе 'himself, herself', ова 'this', кој 'who, which', некој 'somebody', никој 'nobody', сите 'all', секој 'everybody'.
Based on their meaning and the function in the sentence, pronouns are classified in the following categories:
| Types of pronouns | Examples |
|---|---|
| Demonstrative pronouns | ова (this), тоа (that), овде (here), таму (there) |
| Indefinite or impersonal pronouns | некој (somebody), нешто (something) |
| Interrogative pronouns | кој (who), кого/кому (whom), што (what) |
| Personal pronouns | јас (I), ти (you), тој (he), таа (she), она (it), ние (we) |
| Possessive pronouns | мој (my), твој (your), нејзин (her), негов (his), наш (our) |
| Relative pronouns | кој (which), што (that), чиј (whose) |
| Reflexive and reciprocal pronouns | себе (himself, herself), се (self), заемно (one another), меѓусебно (each other) |
| Universal pronouns | сите (all), секој (everybody, each), сешто (everything), секаде (everywhere) |
Just like nouns, Macedonian pronouns also change their forms depending on their position in a sentence, i.e., whether they function as a subject (ex. јас 'I'), a direct object (него 'him'), an object of a preposition (од неа 'from her'). This different positioning of a pronoun in a sentence is called a case (or 'падеж').
[edit] Personal pronouns
| Personal pronouns | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Person | Subject
Nominative |
Direct Complement
Accusative |
Indirect Complement | ||||
| no preposition
Dative |
preposition | |||||||
| full | short | full | short
possessive |
|||||
| Singular | First | јас | мене | ме | мене | ми | мене | |
| Second | ти | тебе | те | тебе | ти | тебе | ||
| Third | Masculine | тој | него | го | нему | му | него | |
| Feminine | таа | неа | ја | нејзе | ѝ | неа | ||
| Neuter | тоа | него | го | нему | му | него | ||
| Plural | First | ние | нас | нè | нам | ни | нас | |
| Second | вие | вас | ве | вам | ви | вас | ||
| Third | тие | нив | ги | ним | им | нив | ||
[edit] Possessive pronouns
| Possessive pronouns | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number | Person | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | Short form | |||||
| indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | ||||
| Singular | First | мој | мојот | моја | мојата | мое | моето | мои | моите | ми | |
| Second | твој | твојот | твоја | твојата | твое | твоето | твои | твоите | ти | ||
| Third | Masculine | негов | неговиот | негова | неговата | негово | неговото | негови | неговите | му | |
| Feminine | нејзин | нејзниот | нејзина | нејзината | нејзино | нејзното | нејзини | нејзините | ѝ | ||
| Neuter | негов | неговиот | негова | неговата | негово | неговото | негови | неговите | му | ||
| Plural | First | наш | нашиот | наша | нашата | наше | нашето | наши | нашите | ни | |
| Second | ваш | вашиот | ваша | вашата | ваше | вашето | ваши | вашите | ви | ||
| Third | нивен | нивниот | нивна | нивната | нивно | нивното | нивни | нивните | им | ||
[edit] Interrogative pronouns
Interrogative pronouns (прашални заменки) refer to an unknown person, object, quality or quantity and agree with the noun they denote in gender and number. Personal interrogative pronouns have two cases nominative and genitive (кој, when it refers to a person and is used without a noun, also has accusative and dative forms — кого and кому respectively). They are also used with nonhuman beings (animals and objects). Quality interrogative pronouns are used for asking one to specify the word in question. They are translated in English as what/what kind of/what sort of.
| Interrogative pronouns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gender/
Number |
Personal | For quality | |
| Nominative | Genitive | ||
| Masculine | кој (who) | чиј (whose) | каков |
| Feminine | која | чија | каква |
| Neuter | кое | чие | какво |
| Plural | кои | чии | какви |
There is only one interrogative pronoun for quantity — колку and it doesn't have any gender or number forms. It is used before plural nouns to ask about their quantity (then it is translated as how much/how many), and before an adjective or adverb to ask about the extent, degree, age, etc., of something or somebody (translated as how).
[edit] Comparison
Adjectives have three degrees of comparison (споредбни степени) — positive, comparative and superlative. The positive form is identical to all the aforementioned forms. The other two are formed regularly, by prepending the particle по and the word нај directly before the positive to form the comparative and superlative, respectively, regardless of its comprising of one or two words.
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|
| тежок (heavy) | потежок (heavier) | најтежок (heaviest) |
Macedonian only has one adjective that has an irregular comparative — повеќе.
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|
| многу (a lot) | повеќе (more) | најмногу (the most) |
[edit] Punctuation
Punctuation marks are one or two part graphical marks used in writing, denoting tonal progress, pauses, sentence type (syntactic use), abbreviations, et cetera.
Marks used in Macedonian include full stops (.), question marks (?), exclamation marks (!), commas (,), semicolons (;), colons (:), dashes (–), hyphens (-), ellipses (...), different types of inverted commas and quotation marks ("", '', ‚‘, „“, »«), brackets ((), [], {}) (which are in syntactical use), as well as apostrophes (',’), solidi (/), equal signs (=), and so forth.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Стойков, С. (2002) Българска диалектология, 4-то издание. стр. 127. Also available online.
