Re: Questions and Impressions of Basque

Quoting "J. 'Mach' Wust" <j_mach_wust@...>:

> I don't know if there are languages where the definitness is rather
> explained by an affix on words than by a clitic.
Swedish does. Definiteness is normally indicated by a suffix on the noun; if one
or more preceeding adjectives are present, you _additionally_ get a preceeding
article à la in English or German.

(Nominalized adjs just get the preceeding article.)

Pretty conclusive evidence that we're talking an affix rather than a clitic is
offered by the fact that it goes between the noun and any following modifiers;
_toppen av berget_ "the peak of the mountain", lit "peak-DEF of mountain-DEF.

It also fuses with the plural ending in many cases; _ett hus_ "a house", _hus_
"houses", _huset_ "the house", _husen_ "the houses".

The situation is similar in the other Scandinavian languages.

                                                 Andreas