Re: articles
| From: | Stephen Mulraney <ataltanie@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, January 30, 2005, 18:40 |
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J. 'Mach' Wust wrote:
> On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 12:07:07 -0500, # 1 <salut_vous_autre@...> wrote:
>
>
>>I'd like to know if there are only some places in the worlds where
>>languages possess articles and also if the majority does or doesn't use
>>articles
>>
>>I searched and all languages I found wich have one or two articles are IE
>>or are situated near of some IE languages
> The older IE languages didn't use articles either (Latin, old Germanic). And
> I think Slavic languages don't have them either, but I don't know for sure.
You're right, they don't. I've heard it said that the Czech demonstative adjective,
"ten, ta, to" (meaning "this", more or less) is being increasingly used as
something like a definite article. Certainly I've seen almost article-like uses
of this (identical) word in Polish.
In any case, I don't think there's any special connection between IE langs and
articles. As you said, some non-IE langs have them, lots of IE langs don't have
them, and some IE langs (e.g. the Celtic langs) have only definite articles (just
like the Semitic langs... see recent thread).
s.
--
Stephen Mulraney ataltane@ataltane.net http://ataltane.net
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