Re: Articles [was: Re: Deriving adjectives from nouns]

>Joe Mondello wrote:
>
>> Does anyone else have such a system of "articles"?  Is the term "article"
>> even appropriate in this situation?
>
>Nova has the following;
>     in= a, an, some, any; nonspecific article
>     un= each, all, every; inclusive article
>     on= nothing, none, none at all, no; exclusive article
>     ang= that, which, who; relative article
>     an= the, this, that; specific article
>     en= which, who, what; interrogative article

Demuan has too many articles. My current run-down:

a    a ; [indefinite singular]
xe   some ; [indefinite plural]
ja   the ; [definite singular]
yi   the ; [definite plural]
jaja the ... itself ; [emphatic singular]
yiyi the ... themselves [emphatic plural]

bama    every ; all ; both
nani    a few ; either
nene    no ; neither
lama    the concept of/associated-with things known as ...

lama is apparently a real oddball in the pronoun system. At lest, it is teh
only one taht has received too many queries.

ki/ker    this/these
li/ler    that/those
wi/wer    yon

possessive pronouns are counted as articles (their sentencial role is
identical), which makes another 16 (counting reflexive and reciprocals).
Whee! 32 articles in all! Anyone able to top that? the eskimo words for snow
myth springs to mind here. I suppose the list will rise when I add
interrogatives to the list.

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