The Banat dialect (subdialectul / graiul bănățean) is one of the dialects of the Romanian language (Daco-Romanian). Its geographic distribution extends over the Romanian Banat and parts of the Serbian Banat, but also in parts of the Timok Valley of Serbia.
The Banat dialect is a member of the northern grouping of Romanian dialects, along with the Moldavian dialect and the group of Transylvanian varieties. Features of the Banat dialect are found in southern dialects of Romanian: Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian, and Istro-Romanian.
The Banat dialect has been long classified separately from the Transylvanian varieties, but in early studies such as those by Mozes Gaster these were sometimes grouped together as a single variety. The Banat dialect was considered separately by Heimann Tiktin, Gustav Weigand, Sextil Pușcariu (in his latter studies), Emil Petrovici, Romulus Todoran, Ion Coteanu, Alexandru Philippide, Iorgu Iordan, and others.
Geographic distribution
The dialect is spoken in southwestern Romania, in the following counties: Caraș-Severin, Timiș, the southern part of Arad, and the southern part of Hunedoara. It is also spoken in the Serbian Banat and in the Timok Valley of Serbia.
Transition areas
A transition area towards the Wallachian dialect is found in the northwestern of Oltenia, in the counties of Gorj and Mehedinți. Mixtures with the southern and central Transylvanian varieties are found in northeastern parts of Banat, where such a transition area is in the Hațeg Country and another one extends towards southern Crișana.
Particularities
Phonetic features
The Banat dialect differs from the others by the following phonetic particularities:
The unstressed mid vowels close to , respectively, and open to : for standard papùc, plecàt, îngropàt. Dentals become , respectively, and consonants are palatalized when followed by : for diminéță, frùnte, bade, vìne, lèmne, màre. Affricates become the palatalized fricatives , respectively: for ceàs, cínă, cíncĭ, fùge, gínere, sânge. In some varieties, the diphthong is realized as : for soare, moarte. In other varieties becomes the monophthong : for cójă, ólă. The stressed vowel becomes when followed by another in the next syllable: for muĭère, fètè, povèste, vèrde, pește. After labials, reduces to : for fiere, mèrcurĭ, pèlè, pèpt. After the fricatives , affricates , and the sequence , becomes , becomes , and reduces to : for sàră, sĕmn, sîngur, ḑer, ḑid, pășim, șĕd, jîr, șî, cojéscă, înțépă, simțesc, prĕjéscă, povestĕsc, stég. Labials remain unchanged when followed by : for pèpt, bìvol, obélă, fèr, vèrme, miercuri. Etymological is preserved and palatalized, such as in Latin-origin words where it is followed by or in hiatus, words with inflection endings in , Slavic borrowings with the sequence , as well as Hungarian borrowings with : for cuĭ, călcăĭ, căpătâĭ, tu rĕmâĭ (from Latin , calcaneum, capitaneum, tu remanēs), claie (from Slavic *klanja, cf. Serbian and Bulgarian kladnja), sicriu (from Hungarian ). This phenomenon is distinct from the simple palatalization of when followed by a front vowel, which is newer, even though the two phenomena can now appear in very similar contexts: contains an etymological , whereas contains a more recently palatalized . The voiced affricate is preserved in words believed to be of substrate origin: for brânḑă, buḑă, grumaḑ, mânḑ. It is also preserved in Latin-origin words that contain a followed by a long or , by an inflectional or by or in hiatus: for ḑece, áuḑi, frunḑă (Latin: decem, audīs, frondea). The monophthong : is old. In standard Romanian, the palatalization is anticipated, and a metathesis occurs : câne, mâne, pâne are best explained as > (anticipation of palatalization).