Re: Enclitic Articles

Quoting Eric Christopherson <rakko@...>:

> 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.
The Scandinavian languages have enclitic definite articles like -inn, -en, -et,
-na, also derived from demonstratives. They coöccur in somewhat complex
patterns with prepostioned definite articles à la English or French.

                                                Andreas