Re: CHAT: Definite/Indefinite Article Distinction

On 6 Sep 02, at 14:11, Arthaey Angosii wrote:

> Do all languages make a distinction between definite and indefinite
> articles, à la "the" and "a"? Assuming a language uses articles at all,
> that is.
That reminds me... English is the only language I know (though that's
not saying much on a global scale) where the indefinite article "a, an"
is distinct from the numeral "one".

They surely have the same origin, but they look different in
contemporary English. The other languages with which I am familiar
which have an indefinite article have it look like the numeral "one"
(e.g. German "ein Schiff" can be either "a ship" or "one ship" --
though the number "one" in isolation, i.e. when not counting anything
in particular, is "eins").

Are there any other languages which make an obvious distinction between
"one" and "a"?

Cheers,
Philip
--
Philip Newton <Philip.Newton@...>

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