Inflection
Bolognese distinguishes two genders, masculine and feminine, and two numbers, single and plural. In most nouns, the suffix -a is added to the masculine word to indicate femininity: defizänt, defizänta; påndg, påndga.
The formation of Bolognese plurals is complicated. Unlike Italian, inflection usually happens not by adding suffixes but rather by apophony:
- å → ó: biånnd "blond," biónnd "blonds"
- ô → û: żnôc' "knee," żnûc' "knees"
However, when words that end with -èl or -ôl are pluralised, the -èl or -ôl is changed to -î and -û respectively: martèl "hammer," martî "hammers;" fiôl "son," fiû "sons." There are some exceptions to that rule, such as nurmèl "normal," which is unchanged when made plural, and some others, such as sàntel "godfather," which are unchanged when made plural because words are not truncated, that is, with a stress that does not fall on è or ô.
Masculine words that end in a consonant are unchanged when made plural and so the number can be identified only by the preceding article: al râm "the branch," i râm "the branches." In addition, pluralised feminine words that are not constructed from a masculine word do not have an -a',: la rôda "the wheel," äl rôd "the wheels." The plurals of feminine words constructed from masculine words are formed by using an -i instead of an -a: biånnda "blonde," biånndi "blondes;" ziéṅna "aunt," ziéṅni "aunts."