Abstract:
This paper discusses the development of the analytic future in Russian Romani. In
this Romani dialect, an analytic future tense can be expressed by means of the two
auxiliary verbs avéla ‘to come’ and léla ‘to take.’ This article argues that the
development of this analytic future was induced by contact with Eastern Slavic
languages. In Romani, the verb avéla also functions as the future form of the copula,
thus its use as an auxiliary to derive future tense is a calque from the Slavic
construction with the verb budu ‘I will.’ In the article it is argued that the use of the
verb léla as an auxiliary is a “fossilized” calque from Old Russian, in which the verb
jati ‘to take’ was, up to the 16th century, one of the main ways to derive the future
tense. It is also shown that there is no clear semantic distinction between the two
constructions, and that preference is given to one or the other depending on the
areal variety or even idiolect. Finally, Soviet Romani literature offers interesting
cases that demonstrate when the verb léla begins to function as a future tense
copula.
