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Neapolitan Primer

Adjectives in Neapolitan[edit]

As with other Romance languages, adjective endings in Neapolitan change depending upon what the gender and number of the item they modify are.

gender singular plural
masculine o e
feminine a e
neuter o e

For the most part, adjectives follow the object they describe, for example-- 'a scìgna janca, the white monkey, though literally it reads "the monkey white".

Possessive Adjectives[edit]

English Neap. masc. Neap. fem.
mine mio mia
yours tujo toja
his sujo soja
ours nuosto nuosta
yours vuosto vuosta
theirs (l)loro (l)loro

In Neapolitan, as with other Southern Italian vernaculars, there can be a fusion of the possessive adjective with the noun it refers to. For example: mammema for my mother; fratemo for my brother; sòcrema for my mother-in-law; sòreta for your sister (the e within these words are a muted schwa sound). This applies only to words that indicate relationships with a family and probably stems from Greek (agapèmo for my love, for example).


Carlo Iandolo: 'A lengua 'e Pulecenella - Grammatica napoletana, chapter Aggettivi (p. 173 et seq.)