The noun phrase

The two most outstanding features of the Romani noun phrase from an Indo-Aryan viewpoint are the prepositioning of adpositions, and the presence of a definite article. The few exceptions are late and selective developments: some dialects have some postpositions, and some dialects have lost definite and indefinite articles. The first slot within the noun phrase is reserved for prepositions (table 7.1). Prepositions are not always kept distinct morphologically from location adverbs (cf. Sepeči opral ‘up, over, above’; but Lovari preposition opral ‘above, over’ and adverb opre ‘up’), but their position leaves no room for ambiguity between the two (opral o phuv ‘above the ground’ but gelom opral ‘I went up’). A series of prepositions incorporate the definite article: ande jekh them ‘in a country’, and-o them ‘in the country’. There is, as a result, some potential for referential ambiguity: ande thema ‘in countries’, and and-e thema ‘in the countries’.

The next slot in the noun phrase layout is reserved for determiners, which constitute a more complicated class. The more straightforward determiners assign definiteness and are incompatible with one another: demonstratives, interrogatives, possessive adjectives, and usually also definite articles. In Greek Vlax, however, it is possible for demonstratives to precede and combine with a definite article, under Greek influence: kadava o rom ‘this man’ (cf. Igla 1996).