This book offers the first comprehensive account of the development of the Romanian morphological system. Romanian is one of the most morphologically complex Romance languages, but has remained relatively understudied compared with better-known languages such as French and Spanish. Following an introduction that provides an outline of the history of Romanian, its writing system and major typological characteristics, and the major patterns of allomorphy, chapters in this volume explore a range of fascinatingly complex aspects of Romanian grammar whose structure and history have to date been largely inaccessible to the English-speaking world. Among the most distinctive morphological characteristics of Romanian discussed by the authors are its inflexional case system; the highly unpredictable formation of the plural; the existence of a non-finite verb form that appears to be the continuation of the Latin supine; the near-absence of distinctive subjunctive morphology; and the complex patterns of allomorphy brought about by successive sound change. The frequently controversial origins of many of these developments have important implications for broader historical Romance linguistics and indeed for morphological theory more generally.

About the Author:
Martin Maiden, Professor of the Romance Languages, University of Oxford, Adina Dragomirescu, Researcher, Iorgu Iordan - Alexandru Rosetti Institute of Linguistics, Gabriela Pană Dindelegan, Senior Researcher and Head of the Grammar Department, Iorgu Iordan - Alexandru Rosetti Institute of Linguistics, Oana Uţă, Lector in Romanian, University of Oxford, Rodica Zafiu, Professor of Linguistics, University of Bucharest

Martin Maiden is Statutory Professor of the Romance Languages at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. His particular research interests are Romanian and Italian linguistics and dialectology, historical linguistics, and morphology. He is Director of the Oxford Research Centre for Romance Linguistics, a Fellow of the British Academy, and a Member of Academia Europaea. In 2014 he was appointed Commander in the 'National Order for Faithful Service' of the Republic of Romania for services to knowledge of the Romanian language in Britain.

Adina Dragomirescu is a Researcher at the Iorgu Iordan - Alexandru Rosetti Institute of Linguistics in Bucharest and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics, University of Bucharest. She specializes in the syntax of Romanian and Romance more broadly. Her main research interests are the grammaticalization of motion verbs, the syntax of Istro-Romanian and old Romanian, and Slavic influence on the syntax of old Romanian.

Gabriela Pană Dindelegan is a Corresponding Fellow of the Romanian Academy, a Senior Researcher and the Head of the Grammar Department at the Iorgu Iordan - Alexandru Rosetti Institute of Linguistics in Bucharest, and an Emeritus Professor at the University of Bucharest. Her work focuses mainly on the syntax and morphology of old and modern Romanian from a comparative Romance perspective.

Oana Uţă is Lector in Romanian Language at the University of Oxford (supported by the Institute of the Romanian Language) and Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Bucharest. Her primary research interests are in historical linguistics, particularly morphosyntax, in the history and structure of the Romance languages, and in dialectology, with a special focus on trans-Danubian dialects.

Rodica Zafiu is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Bucharest and a Senior Researcher at the Iorgu Iordan - Alexandru Rosetti Institute of Linguistics in Bucharest. Her main research interests are in grammaticalization and pragmaticalization, the grammar-pragmatics interface, modality and evidentiality, discourse markers, and written vs. oral communication.