THENESS - A SURVEY
Definite Markers and Articles, Pre and Post, and Related Demonstrative Forms
This section has Afroasiatic languages and also Non A&A African languages
Nilo-Saharan Niger Congo Bantu Khoisan etc
This family along with the Indo-European languages shows a variety of forms and usages, pre and post, that can be traced back to a general K - T . Those languages using -wa or other forms for the masculine may reflect an change from a possible older Nostratic * /kwa/- form with /kwa/ changing to /wa? Or /u/? K to H changes are not unkown in Indo-European and other languages and would explain why Greek has H forms in the Nominative and T- forms elsewhere? Also in the Nordic and Germanic languages older initial hw- and kw forms have changed to w then v.
EGYPTIAN
Ancient Egyptian used a prefix of P' masculine and T' feminine that seems to have had a dual relative and definitive function. This change of P from * K is paralleled by the process that in the IE languages changed Greek relatives from I.E. K forms to a P and lead to the Celtic K – P split. The feminine - T was also used in the final position to mark gender. Some words were marked by a double emphatic pattern of T + word + T such as the name of the goddess Taweret. This may have occurred in other Semitic languages no long extant since the modern Berber dialects also double mark feminine forms of nouns. A male Cat is imishshu but the female cat is Timishshut.
Modern Coptic uses the P and T prefixs as definite markers.
Masculine
P - P.roome THE man
Feminine T - Ti.polis THE town or Te.physis
"Nature"
This usage may have possibly been reinforced by the Greek feminine article given that many Egyptians in the Hellenistic and Roman periods at least in the urban areas may have been bilingual in that period speaking both Late Egyptian and Koine Greek.
N - marks both Neuter and the Plural
>N.roome THE Men and N.halate THE Birds.
The Indefinite is the numeral ONE - "ou" with plural Hen or on.
HEBREW
Hebrew has a HA+ vowel article in both its Classical and Modern forms.
The vowel varies according to the initial consonant.
This HA + ze (masculine) and zot (feminine). That = asher or she. Those ha=ele
ARAMAIC
Aramaic has a postpositional – a
ARABIC
Arabic - " ?al"
The L assimilates to other consonants - hence words beginning As- ad.
This l form may be a change from T
The demonstratives are daa this fem tii masc. and daka and taka with a dual of taanika and tainika
That – ulaa’ika pl ulaa’
Swahili has been heavily influenced by Arabic so I will include it under both Bantu and A-A.
This – hili these haya that hicho yule those ile walo or huyu this yule that ?
ETHIOPIC
This group includes Ge'ez, Tigrinya, Tigre, and Amharic and uses postpositional markers.
Masculine Nominative is marked by + u or +wa
The bus is going AwtobesU yiheadal
Feminine by + wa The girl sings LejetWA tezefenallech
The plural forms are + itu and + itwa.
With objects the pattern is + N + U >> I see the bus AwtobesUN ieyo
Tigre demos tuu and taa
Tigrinya?
CUSHITIC
This language group, which includes Afar, Beja, Felasha, Sidamo and Iraqw, has definite markers in Somali and Oromo.
Somali uses *K for masculine and *T for feminine as postpositional morphs.
Ka is The One Masculine and Ta The One Feminine
Man Nin Woman Naag
THE man nin+ka THE woman naag+ta
This man nin+kan This woman naag+tan
That man nin+kaas That woman naag+taas
Both K and T change to other sounds depending on the following Vowels and Consonants. Suuq-a the market. Guri-ga the house.
Somali also has a K demonstrative. And that = ta tu in both Somali and Oromo?
Oromo marks nominatives with a -n suffix (see notes on KTN pattern) and the Masculine Demonstrative with a /X/ prefix that could be related to the K/T pattern (/k/ > /x/) since it also uses a feminine nominative - thi marker - /t/ > /th/?
Iraqw this = ti
CHADIC
HAUSA marks the Feminine with -r (from -t) and Masculine with -n (like Oromo!)
There are two forms
One Free+PRE Wannan dooki this horse
The other Bound and POST Doki-n nah this horse.
It has an feminine pronoun ita.
Non A&A African
Languages
Khoisan languages Ruhlen 1994 says radical this he that ha
Yoruba – note nominative marker o from ho perhaps.
One text called the form - ni a focus particle that corresponds to personal demonstrative and relative pronouns. More info needed.
VAI a West African language of the Mande group has a demonstrative form of (m)E equivalent of function to this?? And used also as a definite marker if a suffix?
Fula(ni) also called Pulaar or Fulfulde or Peul by French speakers.
Some Bantu examples for contrast
Swahili this hili these haya that hocho yule those ile walo
ZULU
Zulu has no definite markers but has an elaborate demonstrative system. The basic radical is L Vowel (a e or o) Consonant Vowel. The medial consonant varies according to the noun class of the word. Some samples.
This – That Lo Lowo Laba Labo Le Leyo Lezi Lezo etc.
NILOSAHARAN
Kanuri Maasai Dinka Luo Fur Baele Tubu etc
Kanuri – this ada or tudu