Re: Enclitic Articles
| From: | Eric Christopherson <rakko@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, January 12, 2007, 4:08 |
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On Jan 11, 2007, at 5:11 PM, daniel prohaska wrote:
> Many languages develop their articles from older demonstratives.
> Take Latin
> for example, with a relatively free syntax, allowed for a position
> before or
> after the noun it describes, e.g.: <ille lupus> or <lupus ille>
>
> This variation in syntax is reflected in the modern Romance
> languages, e.g.
> Italian <il lupo> vs. Romanian <lupul>.
And Romanian apparently put its articles at the end because other
languages in the Balkan sprachbund, to which it belongs, have them
after nouns. (But note that Greek, which also belongs to that
sprachbund, puts its articles before nouns.)
Besides Romanian, Aramaic has an enclitic definite article. I'm not
sure where it came from.
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