Proto-Romanian
Facts
- Language: Proto-Romanian
- Alternate names: Common Romanian, româna comună, Ancient Romanian, străromâna
- Language code: xronp
- Language family: Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Eastern (SIL classification)
- Earlier form of: Romanian
- Number of speakers: Extinct
- Script: Latin script
More information:
Introduction
Proto-Romanian is a hypothetical language considered to have been spoken by the ancestors of today's Romanians and related Balkan Latin peoples (Vlachs), between the 7th and the 9th century.
Proto-Romanian already had a structure very distinct from the other Romance languages, with major differences in grammar, morphology and phonology and already was a member of the Balkan linguistic union. Most of its features can be found in the modern Eastern Romance languages. It already contained around a hundred loans from Slavic languages, including words such as "trup" (body), as well as some Greek language loans via Vulgar Latin (Eastern).
The verb
Sample verb (1st conjugation): cantare
| INDICATIVE | CONDITIONAL | SUBJUNCTIVE | |||||
| Present | Imperfect | Preterite | Pluperfect | Past | |||
| Sg.1 | cantu | cantam | cantai | cantase | aeu cantatu | cantarem | se cantu |
| Sg.2 | canti | cantai | cantasi | cantasi | aei cantatu | cantari | se canti |
| Sg.3 | canta | canta | cantae | cantase | ae cantatu | cantare | se ? |
| Pl.1 | cantamu | cantamu | cantaemu | cantasemu | aemu cantatu | cantaremu | se cantamu |
| Pl.2 | cantati | cantati | cantaeti | cantaseti | aeti cantatu | cantareti | se cantati |
| Pl.3 | cantau | cantau | cantaere | cantase | ae cantatu | cantare | se ? |
Proto-Romanian Verbs
- cantare 'to sing',
- cercetare 'to examine, to search',
- latrare 'to steal',
- lucrare 'to work'.