Eastern Lombard Grammar - Negation

Negation

In Eastern Lombard, negation is generally expressed with the form mìa (or locally mìga) after the verb.

el tò s·cèt el stüdia mìa l'Inglés (Your son is not studying English).

In the case of a compound tense, the negation occurs after the auxiliary.

mìa nàt a scöla (I did not go to school).

Differently from Italian where the negative sentence pattern contemplates and requires the use of redundant negative particles, Eastern Lombard doesn't. Thus, when an indefinite pronoun with negative value is already present in the sentence, the particle mìa is usually dropped (even though in certain conditions it is tolerated).

ghéra niènt de fa (there was nothing to do).
Compare with the Italian:
non c'era niente da fare.

mé gó ést nüsü (I didn't see anybody).
In Italian would be rendered with:
io non ho visto nessuno .

el ga mài lauràt (he has never worked).
Italian:
non ha mai lavorato.

The forms:
ghéra mìa niènt de fa and mé gó mìa ést nüsü are tolerated while the form el ga mìa mài lauràt is not.


A less common way to express negation is the use of the particle before the verb or before the proclitic subject pronoun. Actually, this form has almost everywhere been replaced by the use of mìa. It seems to have crystallized uniquely in few expressions like:

crède! (I don't think so!)

gne 'l va, gne 'l vé. (neither it goes, nor comes it).

Read more about this topic:  Eastern Lombard Grammar

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