This master's thesis examines the linguistic structure of the Istro-Romanian language, tracing its development from Vulgar Latin through Proto-Romanian to the influence of modern Slavic loanwords. In the 2nd century AD, the Romans annexed the territory of present-day Romania into the Roman Empire, initiating a process of Romanization. The legacy of this period includes written records by Latin authors, Latin inscriptions (which already show features of Vulgar Latin visible in modern Romanian dialects, including Istro-Romanian), and numerous archaeological findings. Based on contemporary Romanian dialects, it is possible to reconstruct Proto-Romanian, which is rooted in Vulgar Latin and incorporates a layer of loanwords from South Slavic. Both the region where Danubian Latin was spoken and the Istrian Peninsula functioned as contact zones of diverse cultures, languages, and political entities, which led to both direct and indirect borrowing of Romance, Germanic, and Slavic lexemes. Istro-Romanian thus contains an older layer of Slavic loanwords inherited from Proto-Romanian (prior to the dialectal split) and a more recent layer acquired during the community’s gradual migration from present-day Romania toward Istria. The earliest written records of any Romanian dialect appear only after the 16th century, which means there is relatively little material available for lexical analysis, and much of it already reflects linguistic developments that occurred after the split. Moreover, unlike Daco-Romanian, no other Romanian dialect has established a standard literary norm, making them more susceptible to external influences. The phonetic form of Romance lexemes reveals whether a word was inherited directly from Vulgar Latin or borrowed from another Romance language (e.g., French, Italian). Likewise, the phonetic characteristics of Slavic lexemes indicate whether they were borrowed during the Proto-Romanian phase (exhibiting South Slavic reflexes) or after the dialectal split (showing traits of modern South Slavic languages). Due to the close relationship between the influencing languages, phonetic evidence alone is not always sufficient to determine whether a borrowing is old or recent. For this reason, the thesis also presents an analysis of the Istro-Romanian verbal system in comparison with Latin and Daco-Romanian conjugation patterns, as the classification of a verb root within a particular conjugation type may also help distinguish older loanwords from more recent ones.
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