Morphology
Judaeo-Spanish is distinguished from other Spanish dialects by the presence of the following features:
- With regard to pronouns, Judeo-Spanish maintains the second-person pronouns as tú (informal singular), vos (formal singular), and vosotros (plural); usted and ustedes do not exist
- In verbs, the preterite indicates that an action taken once in the past was also completed at some point in the past. This is as opposed to the imperfect, which refers to any continuous, habitual, unfinished or repetitive past action. Thus, "I ate falafel yesterday" would use the first-person preterite form of eat, komí, whereas "When I lived in Izmir, I ran five miles every evening" would use the first-person imperfect form, koría. Though some of the morphology has changed, usage is just as in normative Castilian.
Regular conjugation in the present:
| -er verbs (komer: "to eat") |
-ir verbs (bivir: "to live") |
-ar verbs (favlar: "to speak") |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -o : komo, bivo, favlo | ||
| tu | -es : komes, bives | -as : favlas | |
| el, eya | -e : kome, bive | -as : favla | |
| mozotros | -emos : komemos | -imos : bivimos | -amos : favlamos |
| vos, vozotros | -ésh : komésh | -ísh : bivísh | -ásh : favlásh |
| eyos, eyas | -en : komen, biven | -as : favlan | |
Regular conjugation in the preterite:
| -er verbs (komer) |
-ir verbs (bivir) |
-ar verbs (favlar) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | -í : komí, biví, favlí | ||
| tu | -ites : komites, bivites | -ates : favlates | |
| el, eya | -yó : komyó, bivyó | -ó : favló | |
| mozotros | -imos : komimos, bivimos, favlimos | ||
| vos, vozotros | -itesh : komitesh, bivitesh | -atesh : favlatesh | |
| eyos, eyas | -yeron : komyeron, bivyeron | -aron : favlaron | |
Read more about this topic: Ladino Language
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