Making Imperatives: Evidence from Central Rhaetoromance

In this paper, we hope to contribute to a better understanding of the syntax of imperatives by analyzing the properties they exhibit in a Rhaetoromance variety spoken in north eastern Italy, in the Dolomites area, in a valley called Val Badia. This language, to which we will refer as Badiotto, exhibits properties typical of verb second languages, as discussed in Beninca (1985/6) and Poletto (1998). For a positive imperative to be grammatical in this variety, one of the four particles ma, mo, pa, po must be present, as exemplified in (1): (1) a. Li-l read-it ma/ prt mo/ po/ pa! (Badiotto)