Walloon/Grammar

Parts of Speech

Noun

Sometimes mark gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural), either in article or certain suffixes.

Examples:

• Masculine (singular): tchvå<n><m><sg> ↔ tchvå ("horse")

• Masculine (plural): tchvå<n><m><pl> ↔ tchvås ("horses")

• Feminine (singular): båshele<n><f><sg> ↔ båshele

Pronoun

Personal pronouns vary by person, number, gender, and function syntactically (subject, reflexive, object, etc.)

Examples:

• 1st person singular subject: dji<prn><p1><sg> ↔ dji ("I")
• 1st person plural subject: nos<prn><p1><pl> ↔ nos ("we")
• 3rd person singular subject: i<prn><p3><sg> ↔ i ("he/she/it")

Adjective

Show gender and number through -e, -s, with certain extra patterns for endings (-î/-ire, -s/-sse, etc.) Examples:

• Masculine singular: grand<adj><m><sg> ↔ grand ("tall, big")
• Feminine singular: grand<adj><f><sg> ↔ grande ("tall, big")
• Feminine plural: grand<adj><f><pl> ↔ grandès ("tall, big")

Determiner

Many articles and determiners (definite, indefinite, partitive, etc.) Examples:

• Indefinite article (masculine singular): on<det><ind><m> ↔ on ("a")
• Indefinite article (feminine singular): ene<det><ind><f> ↔ ene ("a")
• Definite article (plural): les<det><def><pl> ↔ les ("the")

Verb

Conjugated for tense, mood, person, number, etc. Examples:

• 1st person singular (present): tchanter<v><pres><p1> ↔ tchante ("I sing")
• 2nd person singular (present): tchanter<v><pres><p2> ↔ tchantes ("you sing")
• 3rd person plural (present): tchanter<v><pres><p3> ↔ tchantèt ("they sing")

Adjective Gender Marks

Adjectives (often) have separate masculine v.s. feminine forms. The masculine typically ends in a consonant, with the feminine typically adding "-e" or other suffixes.

• grand<adj><m> ↔ grand
• grande<adj><f> ↔ grande
• gris<adj><m> ↔ gris
• grijhe<adj><f> ↔ grijhe
• candjî<adj><f> ↔ candjeye

Present Indicative Tense (Verbs)

Regular present tense is (often) formed by changing the verb ending, depending on person/number.

• 1st person singular: tchanter<v><pres><p1><sg> ↔ dji tchante
• 2nd person singular: tchanter<v><pres><p2><sg> ↔ ti tchantes
• 3rd person singular: tchanter<v><pres><p3><sg> ↔ il tchante
• 1st person plural: tchanter<v><pres><p1><pl> ↔ nos tchantans
• 2nd person plural: tchanter<v><pres><p2><pl> ↔ vos tchantez

Future Tense (Verbs)

Regular future adds "-r" to stem.

• candjî<v><fut><p1><sg> ↔ dji candjrè
• candjî<v><fut><p2><sg> ↔ ti candjrès
• candjî<v><fut><p3><sg> ↔ il candjrè
• candjî<v><fut><p1><pl> ↔ nos candjrans
• candjî<v><fut><p2><pl> ↔ vos candjroz

Regularly Irregular Verbs

Many irregular verbs make situation-specific modifications to avoid consonant clusters. Usually, when a stem ends 2+ consonants, the final double consonant is disallowed.

The first predominant method is to, if the root ends in "rer", "ler", "ner" (cosonant + r/l/n + -er) an epenthetic vowel is inserted:

• mostrer<v><pres><p1><sg> ↔ dji mostere
• mostrer<v><fut><p3><pl> ↔ i mosterront
• sofler<v><pres><p2><sg> ↔ ti sofele

Or, if the stem ends in a consonant before "ter", "ler", "ner", "der", "ker", then the silent final "e"/"eye":

• disfoyter<v><pres><p1><sg> ↔ dji disfoyteye

Noun Number

Plurals are generally formed by adding "-s" (though not always pronounced).

• djote<n><sg> ↔ djote
• djote<n><pl> ↔ djotes
• tchvå<n><sg> ↔ tchvå
• tchvå<n><pl> ↔ tchvås
• dent<n><pl> ↔ dents

Noun Gender

Like adjectives, nouns can take masculine v.s. feminine forms. This usually occurs through suffixes ("-e", "-esse"), and at times form is distinct.

• berdelåd<n><m><sg> ↔ berdelåd
• berdelåde<n><f><sg> ↔ berdelåde
• sot<n><m><sg> ↔ sot
• sote<n><f><sg> ↔ sote
• monnî<n><m><sg> ↔ monnî
• monnresse<n><f><sg> ↔ monnresse

Indefinite and Partitive Articles

Indefinite articles ("on", "ene") indicate gender/number, partitive articles ("do", "del") indicate quantity ambiguously/"some".

• Masculine indefinite (singular): on<det><indf><m><sg> ↔ on
• Feminine indefinite (singular): ene<det><indf><f><sg> ↔ ene
• Plural indefinite: des<det><indf><pl> ↔ des
• Partitive masculine: do<det><part><m> ↔ do
• Partitive feminine: del<det><part><f> ↔ del

Possessive Determiners

Possessive determiner marking is dependent/varies on the possessor (person, number).

• mi<det><poss><p1><sg> ↔ mi
• ti<det><poss><p2><sg> ↔ ti
• si<det><poss><p3><sg> ↔ si
• nos<det><poss><p1><pl> ↔ nos
• leu<det><poss><p3><pl> ↔ leu