Grammaire · Le nom et le groupe nominal · B2 · 14 min

Cases

lupul, lupului, lupule: one sister kept Latin's case endings; the others moved them into prepositions and pronouns.

Les explications sont pour l’instant en anglais ; les exemples sont dans toutes les langues.

Latin marked a noun's role with endings: LUPUS saw, LUPUM was seen, LUPĪ 'of the wolf', LUPŌ 'to the wolf', LUPE 'O wolf!'. As the endings wore away, five sisters reduced each noun to one form per number and handed the old cases to prepositions: de for 'of', a (à) for 'to'. Romanian went its own way. It kept a separate form for genitive and dative together, carried mostly by the article at the end of the noun, and a vocative for calling out.

	Spanish	French	Italian	Portuguese	Romanian	Catalan
the wolf (subject or object)	el lobo	le loup	il lupo	o lobo	lupul	el llop
of / to the wolf	del lobo / al lobo	du loup / au loup	del lupo / al lupo	do lobo / ao lobo	lupului	del llop / al llop
the house	la casa	la maison	la casa	a casa	casa	la casa
of / to the house	de la casa / a la casa	de la maison / à la maison	della casa / alla casa	da casa / à casa	casei	de la casa / a la casa
of / to the houses	de las casas / a las casas	des maisons / aux maisons	delle case / alle case	das casas / às casas	caselor	de les cases / a les cases
of / to a friend	de un amigo / a un amigo	d'un ami / à un ami	di un amico / a un amico	de um amigo / a um amigo	unui prieten	d'un amic / a un amic
calling out: Wolf!	¡Lobo!	Loup !	Lupo!	Lobo!	Lupule!	Llop!

Where the others use a preposition, Romanian changes the ending

The Romanian genitive-dative

One form serves both 'of' and 'to': -ului for masculine and neuter singulars (lupului, omului), -ei for feminine singulars, often with a change in the stem (casă → casei, fată → fetei, carte → cărții), and -lor for every plural (caselor, copiilor). The indefinite article declines too: unui, unei, unor. Masculine names take lui in front (lui Ion, lui Marco); feminine names in -a take the ending (Mariei). When the possessor doesn't sit right after a definite noun, a possessive article links them, agreeing with the thing owned: o carte a profesorului 'a book of the teacher's', un prieten al meu 'a friend of mine'.

Ho dato il libro a mio fratello.
Le di el libro a mi hermano.
J'ai donné le livre à mon frère.
Dei o livro para o meu irmão.
I-am dat cartea fratelui meu.
Li vaig donar el llibre al meu germà.
I gave the book to my brother.
Romanian fratelui is a dative with no preposition, announced by the pronoun i-; Spanish and Catalan announce theirs too (le … a mi hermano, li … al meu germà). Brazil says para where Portugal says ao.
Questa è la macchina della mia amica.
Este es el coche de mi amiga.
C'est la voiture de mon amie.
Este é o carro da minha amiga.
Aceasta e mașina prietenei mele.
Aquest és el cotxe de la meva amiga.
This is my friend's car.
prietenă → prietenei: the possessive agrees in case as well (mele, not mea).
La camera dei bambini è di sopra.
La habitación de los niños está arriba.
La chambre des enfants est en haut.
O quarto das crianças fica lá em cima.
Camera copiilor e sus.
L'habitació dels nens és a dalt.
The children's room is upstairs.
-lor is the plural genitive-dative for every gender.
È la casa di un amico.
Es la casa de un amigo.
C'est la maison d'un ami.
É a casa de um amigo.
E casa unui prieten.
És la casa d'un amic.
It's a friend's house.
A chi hai dato le chiavi?
¿A quién le diste las llaves?
À qui tu as donné les clés ?
Para quem você deu as chaves?
Cui i-ai dat cheile?
A qui vas donar les claus?
Who did you give the keys to?
Romanian cui is Latin CUĪ, the dative of 'who', still doing a dative's job. Italian kept the same word as a relative (a cui, di cui).
Signore, le è caduto il portafoglio.
Señor, se le ha caído la cartera.
Monsieur, vous avez fait tomber votre portefeuille.
Senhor, a sua carteira caiu.
Domnule, v-a căzut portofelul.
Senyor, li ha caigut la cartera.
Excuse me, sir, you've dropped your wallet.
Romanian domnule is a vocative: domn + the article -ul + -e, the ending of Latin LUPE. Feminines in familiar speech take -o: Mario!
Vieni con me.
Ven conmigo.
Viens avec moi.
Vem comigo.
Vino cu mine.
Vine amb mi.
Come with me.
After a preposition, the pronoun takes its own form in every sister: mí, moi, me, mim, mine, mi. Spanish conmigo and Portuguese comigo are Latin MĒCUM 'with me' with a second con in front.

Where the other sisters still have cases

The western sisters lost case in nouns but kept it in pronouns, much as English keeps I / me / my while saying 'the wolf' in every role. Romanian keeps the most distinctions even here: it alone separates 'me' from 'to me' (mă vede 'sees me', îmi dă 'gives me').

	Spanish	French	Italian	Portuguese	Romanian	Catalan
I (subject)	yo	je	io	eu	eu	jo
me (object)	me	me	mi	me	mă	em
to me	me	me	mi	me	îmi	em
me (after a preposition)	mí (conmigo)	moi	me	mim (comigo)	mine	mi
him / to him	lo / le	le / lui	lo / gli	o / lhe	îl / îi	el / li
who / to whom	quién / a quién	qui / à qui	chi / a chi	quem / a quem	cine / cui	qui / a qui

Cases hiding in the pronouns

Les sœurs

From six cases to one, two or three

Spoken Latin first shrank its six cases to two in the west: a subject case and an oblique one for everything else. Old French kept that two-case system until about the 14th century: li murs 'the wall' as subject, le mur as object. Its remains are doublets in modern French: on (from the subject HOMO) beside homme (HOMINEM), sire beside seigneur, pâtre beside pasteur, copain beside compagnon. Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan built nearly all their nouns on the oblique (accusative) form, and Italian did too, though its plurals in -i come from the nominative. Romanian, cut off from the west, kept a genitive-dative, merged into a single form much as in its Balkan neighbours Albanian and Greek, and a vocative: Doamne! 'Lord!' is Latin DOMINE, while the feminine -o (Mario!, soro! 'sister!') probably comes from its Slavic neighbours.