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Neapolitan/adjectives

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Neapolitan Primer

Adjectives in Neapolitan

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As with other Romance languages, adjective endings in Neapolitan change depending upon what the gender and number of the item they modify are.

gender singular plural
masculine o e
feminine a e
neuter o e

For the most part, adjectives follow the object they describe, for example-- 'a scìgna janca, the white monkey, though literally it reads "the monkey white".


Possessive Adjectives

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English Neap. masc. Neap. fem.
mine mio mia
yours tujo toja
his/her sujo soja
ours nuosto nuosta
yours vuosto vuosta
theirs (l)loro (l)loro

In Neapolitan, as with other Southern Italian vernaculars, there can be a fusion of the possessive adjective with the noun it refers to. For example: mammema for my mother; fratemo for my brother; sòcrema for my mother-in-law; sòreta for your sister (the e within these words are a muted schwa sound). This applies only to words that indicate relationships with a family and probably stems from Greek (agapèmo for my love, for example).

References

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Carlo Iandolo: 'A lengua 'e Pulecenella - Grammatica napoletana, chapter Aggettivi (p. 173 et seq.)