Re: demuan 101: articles

Fabian wrote:

> Emphasis is created by prefixing ja (sing) or yi (plur) to the article,
> except the indefinate article, which cannot be emphasised. It may seem
> strange to call possessive adjectives and demonstrative pronouns as
> articles, but they are functionally just that as used in English.
>
>         sing    plur
> a       -       xe
> the     ja      yi
Question:  why not use a singular for the indefinite article also?  It
makes just as much sense as a plural article, at least.

> my      kinde   kender
> thy     linde   lender
> his     winde   wender
> our     skinde  skender
> your    slinde  slender
> their   xwinde  xwender
Interesting... ablaut changes with <i> and <e>.   Do you have any diachronic
explanations for this?  That is, is there any historical explanation why
there should be an i/e alternation?

> this    ki      ker
> that    li      ler
> yon     wi      wer
>
> wi/wer carries a connotation of being so distant that neither speaker nor
> listener is likely to possess/ever go to said object/place.
Why just three levels of deixis here?  Why not four or five? Just
curious.

> bama - every, all, both
> nani - a few, either
> nene - no, neither
>
> lama - the general concept of [noun]
So... how is this used?

> related question words
> ======================
> whose   zinde    zender
> which   zi       zer
So, is <z-> the root morpheme, with various affixes to alter that
basic meaning?  Plus, is <-{i/e}nd> the regular genitive suffix?

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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
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