Re: definite/indefinite articles

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Sally Caves <scaves@F...> wrote:

> Matt Pearson's invented language Tokana has a "determiner" which
serves
> double duty as both a kind of pronoun, and a kind of article that
expresses
> the case of a noun.  So te ("it, that") is also used in place of
"the" in te
> katia ("the house").  Every specific noun in Tokana must have a
determining
> particle, even names.  Padraic Brown's Kerno does this as well:  La
Guimier
> (a woman's name).  It's like saying "The Nicole."  :)   I'm thinking
of
> adopting this habit for Teonaht as it seems to be moving more and
more
> towards an obsession with volitionality.
Same thing with Jovian:  In order to keep proper names
recognizable, they are not inflected, but prefixed with
the third person pronoun, which doubles as a sort of
strong definite article.

Is Bernar dige ei Paule ud awa en Muerel, soren ys Paule.
[i 'bErn@r di:g e bawl ud a:v em 'my@r@l 'so:r@n y 'pawl]
Bernhard says to Paul that he loves Muriel, Paul's sister.

Swiss German does that too, by the way:

De Bärni seit em Paul, er liebi d Muriel, em Paul sini
Schwöschter.
[d@ 'bErni sajt @m pawl Er 'li@bi d 'myriel @m pawl sini
Sv2St@r]

In Jovian slang, that construction is often extended to
all noun phrases instead, leaving nouns and adjectives
generally uninflected.


-- Christian Thalmann

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