Editing Venetian language (section)

==Grammar==
{{Main|Venetian grammar}}
[[File:Calle berlendis, Venice.jpg|thumb|A street sign ({{lang|vec|nizioléto}}) in Venice using Venetian {{lang|vec|calle}}, as opposed to the Italian {{lang|it|via}}]]
[[File:Inschrift Venezianerhaus.JPG|thumb|{{lang|vec|Lasa pur dir}} (Let them speak), an inscription on the [[Venetian Gothic architecture|Venetian House]] in [[Piran]], southwestern Slovenia]]
Like most Romance languages, Venetian has mostly abandoned the Latin [[declension|case system]], in favor of [[preposition]]s and a more rigid [[subject–verb–object]] sentence structure. It has thus become more [[analytic language|analytic]], if not quite as much as English. Venetian also has the Romance [[article (grammar)|articles]], both definite (derived from the Latin demonstrative {{lang|la|ille}}) and indefinite (derived from the numeral {{lang|la|unus}}).

Venetian also retained the Latin concepts of [[grammatical gender|gender]] (masculine and feminine) and [[grammatical number|number]] (singular and plural). Unlike the Gallo-Iberian languages, which form plurals by adding ''-s'', Venetian forms plurals in a manner similar to standard Italian. Nouns and adjectives can be modified by suffixes that indicate several qualities such as size, endearment, deprecation, etc. Adjectives (usually postfixed) and articles are inflected to agree with the noun in gender and number, but it is important to mention that the suffix might be deleted because the article is the part that suggests the number. However, Italian is influencing Venetian language:

{|class=wikitable
!Venetian!!Veneto&nbsp;dialects!!Italian!!English
|-
|{{lang|vec|el gato graso}}||{{lang|vec|el gato graso}}||{{lang|it|il gatto grasso}}||the fat (male) cat
|-
|{{lang|vec|la gata grasa}}||{{lang|vec|ła gata grasa}}||{{lang|it|la gatta grassa}}||the fat (female) cat
|-
|{{lang|vec|i gati grasi}}||{{lang|vec|i gati grasi}}||{{lang|it|i gatti grassi}}||the fat (male) cats
|-
|{{lang|vec|le gate grase}}||{{lang|vec|łe gate grase}}||{{lang|it|le gatte grasse}}||the fat (female) cats
|}

In recent studies on Venetian variants in Veneto, there has been a tendency to write the so-called "evanescent L" as {{angle bracket|ł}}. While it may help novice speakers, Venetian was never written with this letter. In this article, this symbol is used only in Veneto dialects of Venetian language. It will suffice to know that in Venetian language the letter L in word-initial and intervocalic positions usually becomes a "palatal allomorph", and is barely pronounced.<ref>{{Citation |last=Tomasin |first=Lorenzo|title=La cosiddetta "elle evanescente" del veneziano: fra dialettologia e storia linguistica |url=https://iris.unive.it/retrieve/handle/10278/24158/22434/la%20cosiddetta%20elle.pdf |year=2010 |place=Palermo |publisher=Centro di studi filologici e linguistici siciliani}}</ref>

Very few [[Venetic language|Venetic]] words seem to have survived in present Venetian, but there may be more traces left in the morphology, such as the [[morpheme]] -''esto''/''asto''/''isto'' for the past participle, which can be found in Venetic inscriptions from about 500 BC:

* Venetian: {{lang|vec|Mi A go fazesto}} ("I have done")
* Venetian Italian: {{lang|it|Mi A go fato}}
* Standard Italian: {{lang|it|Io ho fatto}}

===Redundant subject pronouns===
A peculiarity of Venetian grammar is a "semi-analytical" verbal flexion, with a compulsory [[clitic]] subject pronoun before the verb in many sentences, echoing the subject as an ending or a weak pronoun. Independent/emphatic pronouns (e.g. {{lang|vec|ti}}), on the contrary, are optional. The clitic subject pronoun ({{lang|vec|te, el/ła, i/łe}}) is used with the 2nd and 3rd person singular, and with the 3rd person plural. This feature may have arisen as a compensation for the fact that the 2nd- and 3rd-person inflections for most verbs, which are still distinct in Italian and many other Romance languages, are identical in Venetian.

{|class=wikitable
!Venetian!!Italian!!English
|-
|{{lang|vec|Mi go}}||{{lang|it|Io ho}}||I have
|-
|{{lang|vec|Ti ti ga}}||{{lang|it|Tu hai}}||You have
|}

{|class=wikitable
!Venetian!!Italian!!English
|-
|{{lang|vec|Mi so}}||{{lang|it|Io sono}}||I am
|-
|{{lang|vec|Ti ti xe}}||{{lang|it|Tu sei}}||You are
|}

The [[Piedmontese language]] also has clitic subject pronouns, but the rules are somewhat different. The function of clitics is particularly visible in long sentences, which do not always have clear intonational breaks to easily tell apart vocative and imperative in sharp commands from exclamations with "shouted indicative". For instance, in Venetian the clitic {{lang|vec|el}} marks the indicative verb and its masculine singular subject, otherwise there is an imperative preceded by a vocative. Although some grammars regard these clitics as "redundant", they actually provide specific additional information as they mark number and gender, thus providing number-/gender- agreement between the subject(s) and the verb, which does not necessarily show this information on its endings.

===Interrogative inflection===
Venetian also has a special ''interrogative'' verbal flexion used for direct questions, which also incorporates a redundant pronoun:

{|class=wikitable
!Venetian!!Veneto&nbsp;dialects!!Italian!!English
|-
|{{lang|vec|Ti geristu sporco?}}||{{lang|vec|(Ti) jèristu onto?}}<br />or {{lang|vec|(Ti) xèrito spazo?}}||{{lang|it|(Tu) eri sporco?}}||Were you dirty?
|-
|{{lang|vec|El can, gerilo sporco?}}||{{lang|vec|El can jèreło onto?}}<br />or {{lang|vec|Jèreło onto el can ?}}||{{lang|it|Il cane era sporco?}}||Was the dog dirty?
|-
|{{lang|vec|Ti te gastu domandà?}}||{{lang|vec|(Ti) te sito domandà?}}||{{lang|it|(Tu) ti sei domandato?}}||Did you ask yourself?
|}

===Auxiliary verbs===
Reflexive tenses use the auxiliary verb {{lang|vec|avér}} ("to have"), as in English, the [[North Germanic languages]], Catalan, Spanish, Romanian and Neapolitan; instead of {{lang|it|èssar}} ("to be"), which would be normal in Italian. The past participle is invariable, unlike Italian:

{|class=wikitable
!Venetian!!Veneto&nbsp;dialects!!Italian!!English
|-
|{{lang|vec|Ti ti te ga lavà}}||{{lang|vec|(Ti) te te à/gà/ghè lavà}}||{{lang|it|(Tu) ti sei lavato}}||You washed yourself
|-
|{{lang|vec|(Lori) i se ga desmissià}}||{{lang|vec|(Lori) i se gà/à svejà}}||{{lang|it|(Loro) si sono svegliati}}||They woke up
|}

===Continuing action===
Another peculiarity of the language is the use of the phrase {{lang|vec|eser drìo}} (literally, "to be behind") to indicate continuing action:

{|class=wikitable
!Venetian!!Veneto&nbsp;dialects!!Italian!!English
|-
|{{lang|vec|Me pare, el ze drìo parlàr}}||{{lang|vec|Mé pare 'l ze drìo(invià) parlàr}}||{{lang|it|Mio padre sta parlando}}||My father is speaking
|}

Another progressive form in some Venetian dialects uses the construction {{lang|vec|èsar łà che}} ({{lit|to be there that}}):

* Venetian dialect: {{lang|vec|Me pare l'è là che'l parla}} ({{lit|My father he is there that he speaks}}).

The use of progressive tenses is more pervasive than in Italian; e.g.

* English: "He wouldn't have been speaking to you".
* Venetian: {{lang|vec|No'l sarìa miga sta drio parlarte a ti}}.

That construction does not occur in Italian: ''*Non sarebbe mica stato parlandoti'' is not syntactically valid.

===Subordinate clauses===
Subordinate clauses have double introduction ("whom that", "when that", "which that", "how that"), as in [[Old English language|Old English]]:

{|class=wikitable
!Venetian!!Veneto&nbsp;dialects!!Italian!!English
|-
|{{lang|vec|Mi so de chi che ti parli}}||{{lang|vec|So de chi che te parli}}||{{lang|it|So di chi parli}}||I know who you are talking about
|}

As in other Romance languages, the [[subjunctive mood]] is widely used in [[subordinate clause]]s.

{|class=wikitable
!Venetian!!Veneto&nbsp;dialects!!Italian!!English
|-
|{{lang|vec|Mi credeva che'l fuse&nbsp;...}}||{{lang|vec|Credéa/évo che'l fuse&nbsp;...}}||{{lang|it|Credevo che fosse&nbsp;...}}||I thought he was&nbsp;...
|}