Sticking to some of the easier parts of Romanian grammar, there is a curious construction involving personal pronouns.
Although the forms used are standard Romanian, this particular bit of syntax comes straight from Slavic languages.
What am I talking about?
A venit la mine
In the above sentence, “la mine” (literally at my or perhaps at me) actually means “my house” or “my apartment” or “my dwelling” or perhaps more informally “my place”.
Therefore a venit la mine means “it* came to my place”.
That which is “mine” is not specified but it always understood to mean where you live.
A venit la mine – It came to my place
A venit la tine – It came to your (informal, sing) place
A venit la noi – It came to our place
A venit la dumnevoastra – It came to your (sing or plural, formal) place
A venit la voi – It came to y’all’s place
Likewise:
A venit la el – It came to his place
A venit la ea – It came to her place
A venit la ei – It came to their place
A venit la ele – It came to their (all female) place
Again what I’m translating as “place” just means wherever you live, whether it’s a house or an apartment or a palace.
Couldn’t be simpler! :)
All Things Romania 
FWIW, its the English which has an unusual meaning for “a veni”.
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Sam,
Slavic it ain’t! French does have ”chez moi” with thesame meaning: la mine
Italian has a similar construction: “da me”: E venuto a cena da me/he came to dinner to my (place).
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Doesn’t English do this to an extent? “He came to mine” , “They went to Josh’s” ? Is this a “clearly” Slavic influence ? I know everyone likes to say how incredibly overwhlemingly Romanian emulates Slavic, but then, by this line of thought, wouldn’t you agree that English has been influenced by Slavic in the same way? Wouldn’t it be easier to suppose that it’s just a very natural construction that arises in so many languages of the world ? I really tried to search for the slavic equivalences and had no success thus far. I would recommend referencing your putative statements. I’m not being aggressive. I would really like to see some studies, some papers referenced, rather than “if it ain’t romance, it’s slavic” type of reasoning. Nevertheless, your blog is of high standards and for that “jos pălăria şi plecăciuni”.
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I don’t have any papers to cite, certainly :P But I do know in Russian it’s identical, hence my assumption (Приходи ко мне).
It’s just an assumption on my part, however as I don’t have any concrete proof that it’s Slavic.
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– “la mine” is a personal pronoun with preposition (in Accusative) so literally has to be translated “at me” (it’s a complement NOT an attribute!); the English “at my” would be translated “la a mea/ la al meu” (possessive); but we also know that translating prepositions is not the best thing to do when you learn a language (Engl. I am on the bus – Rom. Sunt pe autobuz… quite funny…) so it’s better to say “la mine” = “to me”;
– it doesn’t involve only the place where you live, but any place that you identify with, like in “A venit la mine, la birou” (He / she came to my office); the comma IS necessary!
– you are right, there is a vague idea of possession, but it is not translated into the syntax so basically there are two different structures that indicate a PLACE (“complement de loc”). The second structure (“la birou”) is just an explanatory equivalent of the first structure (“la mine”). “Vino” (Come) – Unde? (Where? – complement) – ” La mine” (To me) – Unde? (Where? be more specific! – complement) – La birou (At the office);
– therefore, you can say: “Vino la mine, acasa” (Come to my home), “Vino la mine, la birou” (Come to my office), “Vino la mine, la bunici” (Come to my grandparents), “Vino la mine, la scoala” (Come to my school), etc. Since “Vino la mine, acasa” is more frequent, people just say “Vino la mine.” Because “home” gives people the idea of property, there is a vague implication of possession in “la mine”, which, I repeat, does NOT exist in the syntax.
– it would be interesting to give us the Slavic equivalent of the Romanian expression (my Slavic is really poor). thanks!
p.s. If you say “Vino la biroul meu,” translating the English “Come to my office,” I would imply that you are the owner or, at least, the manager of that office. If you are just a clerk and you work in a office and you want me to visit you, than it’s better to say “Vino la mine, la birou” (Come to me, to my office).
If you are talking about your desk (Rom. “birou”), than you can say “Vino la biroul meu” (Come to my desk). You would not say “Vino la mine, la birou” which would imply the idea of “office” not “desk.” :))
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I just remembered that there is a perfect French equivalent of the Romanian expression: “Viens chez moi” (Come to me / to my place).
– “chez moi” (to me) = preposition + personal pronoun
– a possessive would be “mon / ma”: mon appartement (my appartment – apartamentul meu), ma maison (my house – casa mea)
Lisa Margo – “Viens chez moi”
Enjoy the explicit content! :))
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