The Case Morpho-syntax in Aromanian (Southern Albania): Descriptive and Theoretical Aspects

The Aromanian varieties spoken in southern Albania show a restricted system of case morphology including a specialized oblique inflection in the plural of definite nouns and, partially, in the feminine singular. The oblique forms occur in genitive, dative, and complex locative prepositions where they are introduced by the Possessive Introducer (PI). Pronouns have the same distribution, with some restrictions in relation to the person, whereby a limited DOM appears, which differentiates first/second person elements and third person elements. We adopt the idea that morphology is based on Merge within the syntactic computation and that sub-word elements are provided with interpretable content. This approach, inspired by Chomsky’s recent work, will guide us in the analysis of the distribution of inflections, syncretism and the occurrence of oblique and prepositions.