Re: demuan 101: articles

>>         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.

hint: nouns don't inflect at all. The distinction is necessary in the
article because of this. Without an article to mark plural, there would be
no difference between 'I want a cat' and 'I want some cats'.

>> my      kinde   kender
>> thy     linde   lender
>> his     winde   wender
>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?

Not yet. Blame it on some undiscovered vowel harmonisation principle. ['s]
is normally indicated by the preposition [le], sometimes [ta]. I think its a
dialect thing.

>> 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.

It was inspired by japanese. the initial consonant in this series is
K-L-W-Z.

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

The distinction between bama and lama is subtle, but bama is always a more
sweeping statement than lama. Often, either word can be used. lama might be
used in a translation of 'the antelope is hunted by the tiger'. bama would
be wrong here, as not *every* antelope gets to be hunted by a lion.


>> 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?

Nope, there is no regular inflected genitive (no inflections generally).
Articles are woefully irregular in the grand scheme of things. Z is a root
for question words in general.

---
Fabian
Rule One: Question the unquestionable,
ask the unaskable, eff the ineffable,
think the unthinkable, and screw the inscrutable.