Re: definite/indefinite articles

On Mon, Mar 31, 2003 at 12:50:05AM -0500, Sally Caves wrote:
[snip]
> Welsh and a number of other languages have the definite article but not the
> indefinite one.
Classical Greek is another one in that category. And then the Chinese
languages have no articles, only demonstratives.

[snip]
> 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."  :)
[snip]

Sounds like an Ebisedian habit. :-) In Ebisedian, *every* name is prefixed
with a proper name prefix. This prefix is fully inflected for number and
gender, which means that no matter how strange a particular name may be,
you always know what is its gender and number. This prefix could be
thought of as a "title" of sorts, a "Mr." or "Ms." attached to every name.

Furthermore, Ebisedian has a habit of using nullar nouns instead of
negating a sentence when a negation is desired. The nullar prefix actually
comes *between* the regular part of the prefix and the name itself. E.g.:
        ekaa'si (e- masc. singular prefix + -kaa'si the name)
        --> emy'kasi (e- masc. prefix + -my'- nullar infix + -kasi the
        shortened name)

That's like saying "Mr.-No-Kasi".

Here's an example of how this is used:
        tww'ma eb0'   t3,       a'ne `ysal3'    uro  juli'r?    t3m3.
        speak  I(org) thus(cvy) ?    Sally(cvy) this house(loc) -
        "I asked, is Sally in this house?"

        taw'ma jhit0'   t3,       my'sal3           uu'ri.    t3m3.
        answer she(org) thus(cvy) No-Sally(nul,cvy) here(loc) -
        "She answered, No-Sally is here." I.e., "no she's not here", or
        "there's no Sally here."

Literally, _my'sal3_ is something along the lines of "none-of-Sally". So
you might translate the reply as "none of Sally is here". :-)


T

--
When solving a problem, take care that you do not become part of the problem.

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